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

The Nikon 1 J1 is usually crafted from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts which is therefore heavier than you would think based on its size alone, coming in at 234g for your body only. It also feels higher quality as opposed to official product shots maybe have you believe. With an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 is quite much a two-handed affair that will require one to retain the camera’s weight inside left-hand, clutching the lens, and employ your right hand for balance and operating the controls. A great a very important thing since it forces you to look closely at holding your camera properly, which inturn goes a considerable ways towards avoiding shake-induced blur inside your photos.

The camera’s clean, minimalist front plate is covered with the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. As an alternative to to be a scaled-down version from the good old F mount, it is a new design providing you with 100% electronic communication between attached lens along with the camera body, from 12 contacts. Exactly like on the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, there’s a white dot for simple lens alignment, even though it has moved from your 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) to # 1 on the mount. The lenses themselves use a short silver ridge within the lens barrel, which has to be in alignment with said dot to enable you to have the ability to attach the lens to the camera. Even though this may need a bit of adjusting to, it really makes changing lenses quicker and simpler.

With no lens attached, you will notice the sensor sitting right behind the plane with the bayonet mount. Just like the mount itself, the sensor is fresh. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has double the amount surface area of the most popular imagers employed in compact and bridge cameras like the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, only most of the location of the standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip incorporates a 1.36x longer diagonal compared to the Nikon CX imager. Given that Four Thirds carries a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” computes to around 2.72, and thus a 10mm lens has approximately the same angle of view to be a 27.2mm lens while on an FX or 35mm film camera. The Nikon 1 Nikkor 10-30mm standard zoom is thus comparable to a 27.2-81.6mm (or, practically speaking, 28-80mm) FX lens when it comes to its angle-of-view range.

The other Nikon J1’s faceplate is nearly empty, featuring the lens release, a receiver to the optional ML-L3 infrared remote device, two narrow slits with the microphone spare on both in the lens, as well as an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There is no grip in any way about the front on the Nikon 1 J1.

There’s two ways of powering around the Nikon 1 V1. You may make use of the on/off button sitting near the shutter release or, should you have a collapsible-barrel zoom lens attached, just press the unlocking button about the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an act that produces the digital camera to change on automatically. It is really an ingenious solution as you need to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes approximately an extra - nothing to write home about but nonetheless decent and entirely adequate.

It is possible to frame your shots with all the rear screen - there isn’t any electronic viewfinder as about the V1 model, an important difference between the two. The LCD screen is usually 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 aided by the J1 alongside the V1, in both bright sunlit conditions or while using the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding the camera around eye-level helped to stabilise the lens and steer clear of camera shake.

The control layout is pretty peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 features a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks almost all of the shooting modes which might be usually entirely on similar dials - most notably P, A, S and M - though it has enough room to match them. These modes are available around the J1 and you need to dive in to the rather long-winded but not entirely logical menu to seek out them. The J1’s mode dial just has four settings, Photo, Video, Motion Snapshot and Smart Photo Selector. The four-way controller also has 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 number of functions, the truth that there isn’t any ISO button will doubtlessly produce a lots of photographers serious about getting the Nikon J1 being unhappy.

You will find there’s button for the rear labelled “F” but alas, this isn’t a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it lets you quickly make a choice from the continuous shooting modes, when it’s in Video mode it helps you to toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There’s 2 more important controls within the back with the camera, together with a scroll wheel round the four-way pad plus a rocker switch marked that has a loupe icon. The scroll wheel is used to put the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (once you’ve found them in the menu, that is), even though the rocker switch controls the aperture. Precisely why it has a loupe icon next to it’s this control can be used to zoom in with an image to check on for critical concentrate Playback mode. Last but not least, you can find four small buttons round the navigation pad, flush from the rear panel of the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.

Precisely what are shooting modes about the mode dial information on? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked that has a green camera icon, is to will want to be quite often. With all the mode dial set to this position, you are able to pick your desired exposure mode on the menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a brilliant auto mode when the camera analyses the scene in front of its lens and picks what it thinks may be the right mode for that specific scene. It’s also possible to choose one from the conventional PASM modes, which provide you with full menu access and also the capability to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both (Program AE Shift comes in P mode). ISO and white balance can also be manually selected, only in the menu, as mentioned previously.

Certainly there’s AWB and auto ISO as well, with all the latter being released three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) permitting you to specify how high you desire the digital camera to look in the event the light gets low. It’s also possible to choose from three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, where the camera takes control over just what it focusses on (this is not an excellent mode to possess when your default because the camera obviously can’t read your mind and will consentrate on something different than your actual subject); Single Point, in places you can select considered one of 135 AF points first by hitting OK and moving the active AF point throughout the frame using the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, where you pick your subject, press OK and invite the digital camera to trace that subject because it moves around, as long as doesn’t necessarily leave the frame certainly.

The Nikon 1 J1 has a intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that mixes contrast- and phase-difference detection in a similar fashion as the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This enables the Nikon 1 J1 to target extremely quickly in good light, even on a moving subject. The corporation claims the Nikon 1 system cameras would be the fastest-focusing machines on this planet, which matches our experience - as long as there’s enough light. When light levels drop, the digital camera switches to contrast-detect AF which, though faster than you are on most cameras, isn’t nearly as soon as the opposite method. It is the camera that decides which AF method to use - the user does not have any relation to this.

In most cases, the J1 will usually only head for contrast detection when light levels are low. In good light, i was capable of taking sharp photos of fast-moving subjects. The Nikon J1 certainly doesn’t disappoint here. Manual focusing can be possible, even though the Nikon 1 lenses don’t have focus rings. If you wish to focus manually, you first have to hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK and then utilize the scroll wheel to adjust focus. To help you out with this particular, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central section of the image and displays a rudimentary focus scale along the right side with the frame - but those include the only focusing aids you get. There’s no peaking function available as on some rival models.

The J1 comes with a electronic shutter (the V1 boasts an analog shutter). It’s completely silent (the main objective confirmation beep might be disabled from your menu) and allows the use of shutter speeds you wish 1/16,000th of the second and, using the Electronic Hi setting selected, helps you to shoot full-resolution stills at 60 fps. Note however that although this is a major achievement, it’s restricted to a buffer that will only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, the application of this mode precludes AF tracking - you should lower the frame rate to 10fps if you wish that -, and also the viewfinder goes blank whilst the pictures will be taken. Single thing that it application we can easily imagine where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really be useful is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. As of this rate, some 5 bracketed shots could possibly be taken in less than 0.1 second, rendering small movements that can otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown inside wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 doesn’t offer this kind of feature - actually it won’t offer autoexposure bracketing in any way.

Trying out it mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. Most notably, the camera may be set to shoot Full HD footage, therefore you even get to pick from 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, depending on whether you’d like to work together with progressive or interlaced video. Should you not need Full HD, additionally, there are 720p @ 60fps, which is really smooth but still counts as high-definition. Secondly, you obtain full manual treatments for exposure in video mode. This is an option; you don’t need to shoot in M mode however, you can if that’s the thing you need. Thirdly, you get fast, continuous AF in video mode, and delay well, specifically in good light. Movies are compressed while using the H.264 codec and stored as MOV files. You can find separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and because of this - plus the massive processing power on the Nikon J1 - you may take multiple full-resolution stills whilst recording HD video. This works the opposite too - you can capture a film clip even if the mode dial is with the Still Image position, simply by pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve learned that in such cases your camera will invariably record film at 720p/60fps.

Not only is it competent at shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 may also shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is less and the aspect ratio can be an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, nevertheless the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and so on. These videos are played back at 30fps, which can be more than 13x slower versus the capture speed of 400fps, letting you get creative and show the world an array of interesting phenomena that happen too rapidly to see or watch in real time. The Nikon J1 goes even more by giving a 1200fps video mode, nevertheless the resolution and overall quality is way too poor for your to become genuinely useful.

The third icon within the mode dial represents 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 have been taken before fully depressing the button. You analyses the individual pictures from the series and discards 15 of them, keeping merely the five that it thinks are best in terms of sharpness and composition. This feature might be genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.

Finally, we have a so-called Motion Snapshot mode in which the camera records a concise high-definition movie - whose buffering starts for a half-press from the shutter release, so again includes events that had happened ahead of the button was fully depressed - and in addition takes a still photograph. The film as well as the still image are residing in separate files nevertheless the camera can combine them into a single slow-motion clip with background music. It’s fun but we can’t really envision people making use of this shooting mode often. (When you comprehend the video on a computer, it can play back at normal speed, without sound, so this mode is really only interesting when you view the clip in-camera or hook the camera nearly an HDTV through an HDMI cable.)

The Nikon J1 stores photos and videos on SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and props up the fastest UHS-I speed class. The camera runs using a reduced EN-EL20 battery to the V1 government, and it is consequently capable of producing even less shots on a single charge, managing around 230, even though it helps to make your camera body small. The camera’s tripod socket is made of metal and is found in line with the lens’ optical axis. This actually also signifies that changing batteries or cards isn’t likely even though the J1 is attached to a tripod, as being the hinges on the battery/card compartment door are far too near the tripod mount.

So, how did we like while using the Nikon 1 J1? On one side, we liked it a whole lot. In good light, its auto-focus strategy is indeed faster than just about anything we’ve used to date, having the capacity to track and lock target a range of truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding many sharp images in situations where our keeper rates never been very high. Additionally, its high-speed continuous shooting modes have allowed us to capture interesting moments that we’d have surely missed if we had used a slower camera. The built-in pop-up flash proved more useful the reason is modest guide number might suggest, with the clever design minimising red-eye.

Alternatively, the Nikon J1 has its own share of frustrating idiosyncrasies starting with the user interface that pushes you to dive into your menu to reach functions as common as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons to your finished product, they might a minimum of make the “F” button customisable using a firmware update. Also, while there is a devoted button for exposure compensation - which is a a valuable thing - Some try to activate a live histogram, community . would’ve made exposure compensation additional useful and simple to utilize. Again, this could oftimes be fixed in firmware.

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

Something more important we wouldn’t like could be that the camera would always show the photo just taken a couple of seconds onscreen, so we wouldn’t try to turn this instant postview function completely off (although you can at least cancel it by way of a half-press with the shutter release). Finally, as the camera is often fast and responsive, you takes way too long to wake from sleep mode if this is idle for some time, producing a number of missed shots.

In fact, the Nikon 1 J1 can be a smaller than average and compact, high-performance system camera they enjoy its government might use a number of tweaks to the program to improve suit the requirements serious amateurs. The intended target market of casual users will like it due to the sheer speed, built-in flash, lightweight and also the fun features it gives you. Let’s now find out how the Nikon 1 J1 fared in the image quality department.