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The Nikon 1 J1 is really a stylish compact system camera with a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor and also the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Boasting continuous shooting speeds all the way to 60 frames per second at full resolution, Full HD video capture, an ultra-fast hybrid auto-focus system, Smart Photo Selector and also a unique Motion Snapshot Mode, the portable Nikon J1 even offers more conventional shooting modes like Programmed Auto, Aperture and Shutter Priority, together with Metered Manual. Also fully briefed is really a built-in pop-up flash with a guide amount of 5, a 3 inch rear display plus an electronic shutter. Pricing $649.95 / 549.99 that has a 10-30mm contact, $699.95 / 599.99 that has a 10mm pancake lens, or $799.95 / 699.99 in a very double-lens kit with all the 10-30mm and 30-110mm zoom lenses, the Nikon 1 J1 is scheduled to be on sale later this month.

The Nikon 1 J1 is generally crafted from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts and is therefore heavier than what you know already dependant on its size alone, coming in at 234g for your body only. In addition, it feels better quality versus the official product shots would have you believe. By having an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 is extremely much a two-handed affair that really needs someone to support the camera’s weight inside left hand, clutching the lens, and make use of your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is really a very important thing as it can make you pay attention to holding the camera properly, which in turn goes a long way towards avoiding shake-induced blur inside your photos.

The camera’s clean, minimalist front plate is dominated by the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. As an alternative to being a scaled-down version from the ancient F mount, it is just a new design that delivers 100% electronic communication relating to the attached lens plus the camera body, from 12 contacts. Much like around the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, there’s a white dot for quick lens alignment, eventhough it has moved on the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) to the peak in the mount. The lenses themselves feature a short silver ridge for the lens barrel, which needs to be in alignment with said dot to ensure that you to have the capacity to attach the lens on the camera. Although this may require some acclamating yourself with, this process makes changing lenses quicker and much easier.

Without the need of lens attached, you can see the sensor sitting directly behind the plane in the bayonet mount. Much like the mount itself, the sensor is brand new. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has quantity surface area of the largest imagers utilised in compact and bridge cameras like the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, only most of the region of your standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip carries a 1.36x longer diagonal compared to the Nikon CX imager. Since Four Thirds includes a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” computes to about 2.72, which means that a 10mm lens has approximately exactly the same angle of view being a 27.2mm lens with an FX or 35mm film camera. The Nikon 1 Nikkor 10-30mm standard zoom is thus the same as a 27.2-81.6mm (or, practically speaking, 28-80mm) FX lens with regard to its angle-of-view range.

The remainder of the Nikon J1’s faceplate is virtually empty, featuring merely the lens release, a receiver with the optional ML-L3 infrared remote device, two narrow slits for that microphone either side with the lens, along with an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There is not any grip by any means about the front of the Nikon 1 J1.

There are two options for powering about the Nikon1 J1. You can either makes use of the on/off button sitting next to the shutter release or, when you have a collapsible-barrel standard zoom lens attached, you can just press the unlocking button on the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an act that creates the camera to modify on automatically. It is an ingenious solution since you need to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes approximately another - nothing to write home about but nevertheless decent and entirely adequate.

It is possible to frame your shots while using the rear screen - there’s no electronic viewfinder as around the V1 model, a key difference between the two. The LCD screen is really a three-inch, 460,000-dot display that features wide viewing angles, great definition and accurate colours but only so-so visibility in strong daylight. We missed the EVF with all the J1 alongside the V1, in a choice of bright sunlit conditions or with the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding you nearly eye-level helped to stabilise the lens and prevent camera shake.

The control layout is rather peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 carries a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks many of the shooting modes which can be usually entirely on similar dials - that include P, A, S and M - though it has enough room to fit them. These modes can be found on the J1 however, you need to dive in to the rather long-winded instead of entirely logical menu to get them. The J1’s mode dial only has four settings, Photo, Video, Motion Snapshot and Smart Photo Selector. The four-way controller also offers four functions mapped onto its Up, Right, Down and Left buttons; including AE/AF-Lock, exposure compensation, flash mode and self-timer, respectively. Even if this is not a bad choice of functions, the reality that there isn’t a ISO button will doubtlessly create a lot of photographers enthusiastic about acquiring the Nikon J1 for being unhappy.

There’s a button about the rear labelled “F” but alas, this is not a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it enables you to quickly choose from the continuous shooting modes, during Video mode it lets you toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There’s two more vital controls about the back with the camera, including a scroll wheel about the four-way pad plus a rocker switch marked using a loupe icon. The scroll wheel can be used to put the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (when you’ve found them inside the menu, that is), while the rocker switch controls the aperture. The key reason why it provides a loupe icon next to it really is that control is utilized to zoom in with an image to test for critical focus in Playback mode. As a final point, you will find four small buttons throughout the navigation pad, flush against the rear panel in the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.

What exactly are the ones shooting modes around the mode dial all about? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked with a green camera icon, is the place you will need to be most likely. With all the mode dial set to the present position, you can pick your desired exposure mode on the menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a smart auto mode the place that the camera analyses the scene facing its lens and picks what it thinks may be the right mode for that exact scene. Also you can pick one from the conventional PASM modes, which present you with full menu access plus the ability to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both (Program AE Shift can be purchased in P mode). ISO and white balance can also be manually selected, only through the menu, as stated earlier.

Needless to say there’s AWB and auto ISO too, with all the latter being released three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) letting you specify how high you would like your camera to search in the event the light gets low. You can also select three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, where the camera takes management of what it really focusses on (this is simply not a great mode to own since your default as the camera obviously can’t read your mind and may even focus on something else than your actual subject); Single Point, where you can make one of 135 AF points starting with hitting OK and moving the active AF point round the frame utilizing the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, in which you pick your subject, press OK and permit the camera to monitor that subject mainly because it moves around, provided that this doesn’t happen leave the frame naturally.

The Nikon 1 J1 comes with a intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that combines contrast- and phase-difference detection similarly because Fujifilm F300EXR did. This permits the Nikon 1 J1 to focus extremely quickly in good light, even on the moving subject. The business claims the Nikon 1 system cameras will be the fastest-focusing machines on the globe, and this also matches our experience - so long as there’s enough light. When light levels drop, the digital camera switches to contrast-detect AF which, though faster compared to most cameras, isn’t you’d like one other method. It is usually you that decides which AF technique to use - the consumer does not have any affect on this.

Normally, the J1 in most cases only resort to contrast detection when light levels are low. In good light, we had been capable of taking sharp photos of fast-moving subjects. The Nikon J1 certainly isn’t going to disappoint here. Manual focusing is additionally possible, although Nikon 1 lenses don’t have focus rings. In order to focus manually, you first must hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK then utilize the scroll wheel to regulate focus. To assist you on this, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central portion of the image and displays a rudimentary focus scale across the right side from the frame - but those include the only focusing aids you get. There is absolutely no peaking function available as on some rival models.

The J1 has a electronic shutter (the V1 also has an analog shutter). It’s completely silent (the target confirmation beep is usually disabled from the menu) and allows the application of shutter speeds you’d like 1/16,000th of a second and, while using Electronic Hi setting selected, lets you shoot full-resolution stills at 60 fps. Note however that although that is a major achievement, it’s on a a buffer that will only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, the utilization of this mode precludes AF tracking - you must lower the frame rate to 10fps if you want that -, plus the viewfinder goes blank while the pictures are being taken. The only application we could think of where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really come in handy is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. At this rate, several 5 bracketed shots could possibly be consumed in under 0.1 second, rendering small movements which could otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown within the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 will not offer a real feature - the truth is no offer autoexposure bracketing by any means.

Moving on to the playback quality mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. First and foremost, the camera may be set to shoot Full HD footage, so you even arrive at choose between 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, determined by whether you prefer to work with progressive or interlaced video. If you don’t need Full HD, in addition there are 720p @ 60fps, and that is really smooth but still counts as high definition. Secondly, you will get full manual control of exposure in video mode. It is an option; you don’t have to shoot in M mode however you can if that is things you need. Thirdly, you receive fast, continuous AF in video mode, and delay well, particularly good light. Movies are compressed while using the H.264 codec and stored as MOV files. You will discover separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and due to this - as well as the massive processing power with the Nikon J1 - it is possible to take multiple full-resolution stills even when recording HD video. This works the opposite way round too - you can capture a show clip even when the mode dial is incorporated in the Still Image position, simply by pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve learned that in this case your camera will record film at 720p/60fps.

And also being capable of shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 could also shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is leaner and the aspect ratio is surely an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, even so the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo etc. These videos are replayed at 30fps, and that is more than 13x slower compared to the capture speed of 400fps, permitting you to get creative and show the world a range of interesting phenomena which happen prematurely to observe instantly. The Nikon J1 goes further by providing a 1200fps video mode, though the resolution and overall quality is simply too poor for that to become genuinely useful.

Another icon around the mode dial means Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows your camera to capture at least 20 photos with a single press of the shutter release, including some that had been taken before fully depressing the button. Your camera analyses anyone pictures from the series and discards 15 of those, keeping the five which it thinks would be best regarding sharpness and composition. This feature is usually genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.

Finally, we have a so-called Motion Snapshot mode when the camera records a quick high-definition movie - whose buffering starts at the half-press in the shutter release, so again includes events which had happened before the button was fully depressed - and as well requires a still photograph. The movie as well as the still image are stored in separate files nevertheless the camera can combine them into a single slow-motion clip with vocals. It’s fun but we not able to really envision people by using this shooting mode on a regular basis. (In the event you view the video with a computer, it is going to play back at normal speed, without sound, which means you mode is actually only interesting in the event you observe the clip in-camera or hook the camera up to an HDTV via an HDMI cable.)

The Nikon J1 stores pics and vids on SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and props up the fastest UHS-I speed class. You runs using a compact EN-EL20 battery to the V1 larger, and is consequently capable of producing considerably less shots using one charge, managing around 230, while it helps for making the digital camera body scaled-down. The camera’s tripod socket consists of metal and it is situated in line together with the lens’ optical axis. This too implies that changing batteries or cards isn’t feasible whilst the J1 is installed on a tripod, as being the hinges on the battery/card compartment door are far too towards the tripod mount.

So, how did we like with all the Nikon 1 J1? Similarly, we liked it a good deal. In good light, its auto-focus system is indeed faster than basically anything we’ve used thus far, to be able to track and lock focus on numerous truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding plenty of sharp images in situations where our keeper rates haven’t ever been extremely high. Additionally, its high-speed continuous shooting modes have allowed us to capture interesting moments that we’d have surely missed as we had used a slower camera. The built-in pop-up flash proved more useful that it is modest guide number might suggest, while using clever design minimising red-eye.

On the other hand, the Nikon J1 have their share of frustrating idiosyncrasies you start with the user interface that pushes you to dive to the menu to reach functions as common as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons to some finished product, they are able to at least result in the “F” button customisable by way of a firmware update. Also, while there is a dedicated button for exposure compensation - the good thing - I didnrrrt find a way to activate a live histogram, although it would’ve made exposure compensation considerably more useful as well as simple to utilize. Again, this might probably be fixed in firmware.

We missed the V1’s smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, particularly bright light or with the telephoto lens which does not lend itself well to being held out at arms length. The J1 just has a glass dust shield as it’s defense against unwanted debris, as opposed to the more proactive sensor cleaning unit which the V1 offers, plus the smaller battery shows that you’ll want to buy an additional anyone to get to the day’s heavy shooting. Deficiency of an accessory port signifies that almost not one of the Nikon 1 accessories are works with the J1, like the external flash and GPS unit.

Another thing we would not like was that the camera would always show the image just taken for a couple of seconds onscreen, and now we didn’t are able to turn this instant postview function completely off (while you can at least cancel it by way of a half-press with the shutter release). Finally, whilst the camera is often fast and responsive, your camera takes way too long to arise from sleep mode in the event it has been idle for a time, resulting in several missed shots.

That being said, the Nikon 1 J1 is a small , compact, high-performance system camera they enjoy its your government would use some tweaks to the graphical user interface to better suit the requirements of serious amateurs. The intended target market of casual users should it due to its sheer speed, built-in flash, compact size as well as the fun features it offers. Let us now observe the Nikon 1 J1 fared inside image quality department.