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The Nikon 1 J1 is really a stylish compact system camera which has a 10-megapixel “CX” format sensor along with 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 as well as a unique Motion Snapshot Mode, the portable Nikon J1 offers more conventional shooting modes like Programmed Auto, Aperture and Shutter Priority, along with Metered Manual. Also agreeable is usually a built-in pop-up flash that has a guide amount of 5, a 3 inch rear display as well as an electronic shutter. Coming in at $649.95 / 549.99 using a 10-30mm the len’s, $699.95 / 599.99 which has a 10mm pancake lens, or $799.95 / 699.99 in a very double-lens kit while using 10-30mm and 30-110mm zoom lenses, the Nikon 1 J1 is scheduled to be sale later this month.

The Nikon 1 J1 is usually constructed from aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts which is therefore heavier than you would think depending on its size alone, weighing in at 234g for the body only. Furthermore, it feels higher quality as opposed to official product shots maybe have you believe. Through an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 is incredibly much a two-handed affair that will need you to hold the camera’s weight inside left hand, clutching the lens, and rehearse your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is really a very important thing since it can make you look closely at holding the camera properly, which goes a considerable ways towards avoiding shake-induced blur within your photos.

The camera’s clean, minimalist front plate is covered with the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. As an alternative to like a scaled-down version from the out of date F mount, it’s really a fresh design that gives 100% electronic communication between the attached lens as well as the camera body, due to 12 contacts. The same as around the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, we have a white dot for convenient lens alignment, even though it has moved in the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) to the top of the mount. The lenses themselves use a short silver ridge within the lens barrel, which has to be in alignment with said dot in order for someone to be capable of attach the lens for the camera. Of course this may necessitate a little acclamating yourself with, it actually makes changing lenses quicker and much easier.

Without the need of lens attached, you will see the sensor sitting directly behind the plane on the bayonet mount. Much like the mount itself, the sensor is brand new. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has twice the expanse of the most popular imagers found in compact and bridge cameras much like the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, only most of the location of an standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip incorporates a 1.36x longer diagonal than the Nikon CX imager. Since Four Thirds incorporates a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” calculates to around 2.72, and thus a 10mm lens has approximately precisely the same angle of view like a 27.2mm lens by using 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 regarding its angle-of-view range.

Other Nikon J1’s faceplate is nearly empty, featuring just the lens release, a receiver with the optional ML-L3 infrared remote control, two narrow slits for your microphone both sides from the lens, plus an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There is no grip at all on the front in the Nikon 1 J1.

There are 2 means of powering around the Nikon1 J1. Either utilize the on/off button sitting near the shutter release or, in case you have a collapsible-barrel contact attached, you can just press the unlocking button within the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an act which causes your camera to switch on automatically. It is an ingenious solution because you require to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes approximately an additional - absolutely nothing to write home about but still decent and entirely adequate.

It is possible to frame your shots while using rear screen - there is absolutely no electronic viewfinder as for the V1 model, a key distinction between the two. The LCD screen is often a three-inch, 460,000-dot display that boasts 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, either in bright sunlit conditions or with the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding the camera nearly eye-level helped to stabilise the lens and steer clear of camera shake.

The control layout is quite peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 carries a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks almost all of the shooting modes that happen to be usually available on similar dials - such as P, A, S and M - although it has enough room to match them. These modes can be purchased for the J1 nevertheless, you ought to dive into the rather long-winded instead of entirely logical menu to find them. The J1’s mode dial merely has four settings, Photo, Video, Motion Snapshot and Smart Photo Selector. The four-way controller even offers four functions mapped onto its Up, Right, Down and Left buttons; including AE/AF-Lock, exposure compensation, flash mode and self-timer, respectively. Although this isn’t a bad selection of functions, the fact that there’s no ISO button will doubtlessly cause a wide range of photographers interested in buying the Nikon J1 for being unhappy.

There exists a button for the rear labelled “F” but alas, this is not a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it allows you to quickly choose from the continuous shooting modes, when it’s in Video mode it lets you toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There’s two more vital controls within the back on the camera, including a scroll wheel around the four-way pad as well as a rocker switch marked having a loupe icon. The scroll wheel is needed to put the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (once you have found them inside the menu, that may be), while the rocker switch controls the aperture. The key reason why it provides a loupe icon close to it’s until this control can be used to focus on an image to confirm for critical focus in Playback mode. Finally, you can find four small buttons around the navigation pad, flush from the rear panel on the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.

Precisely what are the types shooting modes on the mode dial information on? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked using a green camera icon, is where you will want to be usually. With all the mode dial set to this position, you are able to pick your required exposure mode in the menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a great automatic mode the location where the camera analyses the scene in front of its lens and picks what it thinks may be the right mode for any particular one scene. It’s also possible to choose one on the conventional PASM modes, which supply you with full menu access and also the capability 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 mentioned above.

Obviously there’s AWB and auto ISO as well, with the latter being released in three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) enabling you to specify how high you would like the digital camera to search if the light gets low. You may also choose from three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, the location where the camera takes control over exactly what it focusses on (it’s not a fantastic mode to possess because your default because the camera obviously can’t read your head and will target something else entirely than your actual subject); Single Point, that you can make certainly one of 135 AF points frist by hitting OK after which moving the active AF point across the frame while using four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, in which you pick your subject, press OK and enable the digital camera to follow that subject mainly because it moves around, provided that it won’t leave the frame obviously.

The Nikon 1 J1 comes with an intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that combines contrast- and phase-difference detection in a similar way since the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This permits the Nikon 1 J1 to focus extremely quickly in good light, even on the moving subject. The organization claims the Nikon 1 system cameras will be the fastest-focusing machines on the planet, this also 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 compared to most cameras, isn’t as quickly as another method. It certainly is your camera that decides which AF strategy to use - the consumer doesn’t have a affect on this.

Normally, the J1 will most likely 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 is also possible, however the Nikon 1 lenses will not have focus rings. If you would like focus manually, you initially need to hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK after which make use of the scroll wheel to modify focus. To help you out using this, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central portion of the image and displays a rudimentary focus scale across the right side of the frame - but those will be the only focusing aids you get. There isn’t any peaking function available as on some rival models.

The J1 posseses an electronic shutter (the V1 has an analog shutter). It is absolutely silent (the attention confirmation beep is usually disabled through the menu) and allows the use of shutter speeds you’d like 1/16,000th of the second and, while using Electronic Hi setting selected, allows you to shoot full-resolution stills at 60 frames per second. Note however that although this is the major achievement, it’s restricted by a buffer that can only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, the application of this mode precludes AF tracking - you have to lower the frame rate to 10fps if you would like that -, along with the viewfinder goes blank while the pictures are now being taken. About 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. With this rate, a few 5 bracketed shots could possibly be used a lot less than 0.1 second, rendering small movements that will otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown in the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 won’t offer such a feature - in truth this doesn’t offer autoexposure bracketing whatsoever.

Trying the video mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. First and foremost, your camera could be set to shoot Full HD footage, so you even are able to select 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, according to whether you’d rather assist progressive or interlaced video. Should you not need Full HD, there is also 720p @ 60fps, which is really smooth nevertheless counts as hi-def. Secondly, you obtain full manual treating exposure in video mode. This is an option; you don’t have to shoot in M mode and you can in the event that’s what you require. Thirdly, you obtain fast, continuous AF in video mode, and delay well, particularly in good light. Movies are compressed utilizing the H.264 codec and stored as MOV files. You will find separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and thanks to this - and also 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 too - you’ll be able to capture a show clip regardless of whether the mode dial is with the Still Image position, by just pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve found that in this instance your camera will record it at 720p/60fps.

As well as being capable of shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 can also shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is lower plus the aspect ratio is undoubtedly an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, even so the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and the like. These videos are played back at 30fps, which can be in excess of 13x slower compared to the capture speed of 400fps, enabling you to get creative and show the world numerous interesting phenomena which happen straight away to see or watch in real time. The Nikon J1 goes even further by giving a 1200fps video mode, but the resolution and overall quality is way too poor for the for being genuinely useful.

The next icon about the mode dial symbolizes Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows the camera to capture at least 20 photos in a single press with the shutter release, including some that were taken before fully depressing the button. Your camera analyses anyone pictures in the series and discards 15 ones, keeping merely the five that it thinks are best with regards to sharpness and composition. This feature can be genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.

Finally, you will find there’s so-called Motion Snapshot mode when the camera records a shorter high-definition movie - whose buffering starts in a half-press on the shutter release, so again includes events which in fact had happened prior to the button was fully depressed - and in addition requires a still photograph. The movie as well as the still image are stored in separate files even so the camera can combine them in to a single slow-motion clip with vocals. It’s fun but we can not really envision people making use of this shooting mode on a regular basis. (Should you observe the video with a computer, it will play back at normal speed, without sound, this mode is absolutely only interesting in the event you view the clip in-camera or hook the digital camera approximately an HDTV with an HDMI cable.)

The Nikon J1 stores pics and vids on SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and sports ths fastest UHS-I speed class. You runs using a reduced EN-EL20 battery to the V1 government, which is consequently able to produce considerably less shots on one charge, managing around 230, though it does help to create you body smaller. The camera’s tripod socket is made of metal and it is positioned in line while using lens’ optical axis. This actually also implies that changing batteries or cards is not possible while the J1 is attached to a tripod, since the hinges in the battery/card compartment door are way too near to the tripod mount.

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

Alternatively, the Nikon J1 has its share of frustrating idiosyncrasies starting with the person interface that forces you to dive in the menu to reach functions as common as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons with a finished product, they could at least increase the risk for “F” button customisable by using a firmware update. Also, nevertheless there is a passionate button for exposure compensation - a good thing - I didnrrrt try to activate an active histogram, though it would’ve made exposure compensation considerably more useful and simple to utilize. Again, this could oftimes be fixed in firmware.

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

Yet another thing we wouldn’t like could be that the camera would always show the photo just taken for a couple of seconds onscreen, so we didn’t be capable of turn this instant postview function completely off (while you can at any rate cancel it via a half-press of the shutter release). Finally, whilst the camera is mostly fast and responsive, you takes much too long to get up from sleep mode if it has become idle for some time, producing many missed shots.

With that said, the Nikon 1 J1 is often a smaller than average and compact, high-performance system camera they enjoy its our government are able to use some tweaks to its program to higher suit the requirements of serious amateurs. The intended market you work in of casual users should it due to the sheer speed, built-in flash, compact size as well as the fun features it includes. We will now find out how the Nikon 1 J1 fared inside the image quality department.