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The Nikon 1 J1 is 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 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 plus a unique Motion Snapshot Mode, the portable Nikon J1 also offers more conventional shooting modes like Programmed Auto, Aperture and Shutter Priority, in addition to Metered Manual. Also on board can be a built-in pop-up flash using a guide variety of 5, a 3 inch rear display as well as an electronic shutter. Coming in at $649.95 / 549.99 that has a 10-30mm contact, $699.95 / 599.99 using a 10mm pancake lens, or $799.95 / 699.99 in a 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 made out of aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts and it is therefore heavier than you would think depending on its size alone, coming in at 234g with the body only. What’s more, it feels better quality than the official product shots maybe have you believe. With an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J1 is extremely much a two-handed affair that will require one to secure the camera’s weight within the left hand, clutching the lens, and use your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is a good thing because it forces you to take note of holding you properly, which often goes further towards avoiding shake-induced blur with your photos.

The camera’s clean, minimalist front plate is covered with the all-new Nikon 1 lens mount. Instead of as being a scaled-down version on the traditional F mount, it’s really a new design that can offer 100% electronic communication involving the attached lens and the camera body, from endless weeks of frustration contacts. The same as within the manufacturer’s F-mount SLR cameras, there is a white dot for simple lens alignment, even though it has moved through the 2 o’clock position (when viewed front on) to the top level with the mount. The lenses themselves include a short silver ridge around the lens barrel, which has to be in alignment with said dot for you to be capable of attach the lens to the camera. While this might require a bit of becoming accustomed to, it genuinely makes changing lenses quicker and simpler.

Without having lens attached, you can view the sensor sitting directly behind the plane from the bayonet mount. Just like the mount itself, the sensor is fresh. Measuring 13.2×8.8mm this “CX” format imaging chip has twice the floor of the most popular imagers utilised in compact and bridge cameras like the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, only about 50 % of the spot of any standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip carries a 1.36x longer diagonal versus the Nikon CX imager. Provided that Four Thirds includes a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX “crop factor” ends up to about 2.72, and therefore a 10mm lens has approximately a similar 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 comparable to a 27.2-81.6mm (or, practically speaking, 28-80mm) FX lens regarding its angle-of-view range.

The other Nikon J1’s faceplate is nearly empty, featuring just the lens release, a receiver for that optional ML-L3 infrared remote device, two narrow slits with the microphone either sides on the lens, plus an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There is absolutely no grip in any respect around the front from the Nikon 1 J1.

There are 2 options for powering within the Nikon 1 J1. You may either make use of the on/off button sitting near the shutter release or, if you have a collapsible-barrel contact lens attached, just press the unlocking button within the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an action which causes the camera to change on automatically. It becomes an ingenious solution since you need to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes just over a second - nothing to write home about however decent and entirely adequate.

You are able to frame your shots with all the rear screen - there is no electronic viewfinder as for the V1 model, an essential difference between the 2. The LCD screen is often a three-inch, 460,000-dot display that features wide viewing angles, great definition and accurate colours only so-so visibility in strong daylight. We missed the EVF with all the J1 alongside the V1, either in bright sunlit conditions or with the 30-110mm telezoom lens as holding the camera up to eye-level helped to stabilise the lens and steer clear of trembling camera.

The control layout is quite peculiar. The Nikon 1 J1 has a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks most of the shooting modes which might be usually entirely on similar dials - most notably P, A, S and M - eventhough it has enough room to match them. These modes are offered on the J1 but you need to dive into your rather long-winded and never entirely logical menu to get them. The J1’s mode dial has only 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. Of course this is not a bad range of functions, the reality that there isn’t a ISO button will doubtlessly result in a wide range of photographers interested in purchasing the Nikon J1 to get unhappy.

There exists a button within the rear labelled “F” but alas, this isn’t a programmable function button. In Photo mode, it lets you quickly choose from the continuous shooting modes, when it is in Video mode it lets you toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There’s 2 more important controls on the back of the camera, including a scroll wheel around the four-way pad and also a rocker switch marked using a loupe icon. The scroll wheel is employed to set the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (once you have found them inside menu, that’s), as you move the rocker switch controls the aperture. The key reason why it provides a loupe icon near to it is that it control is utilized to focus with an image to confirm for critical focus in Playback mode. Last of all, there are four small buttons round the navigation pad, flush up against the rear panel from the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.

Just what exactly are shooting modes within the mode dial about? The Photo or Still Image mode, marked using a green camera icon, is the place you may wish to be most of the time. Using the mode dial set to the position, you’ll be able to pick your required exposure mode from the menu. The Nikon J1’s Scene Auto Selector is a smart auto mode the place that the camera analyses the scene before its lens and picks exactly what thinks could be the right way of that specific scene. It’s also possible to choose one with the conventional PASM modes, which provide you with full menu access as well as the ability to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both (Program AE Shift can be found in P mode). ISO and white balance will also be manually selected, only on the menu, as stated previously.

Of course there’s AWB and auto ISO as well, while using latter being released in three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) letting you specify how high you would like you to search if the light gets low. You can even select three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, the place that the camera takes control over what it focusses on (this isn’t a terrific mode to get as your default as being the camera obviously can’t read the mind and will give attention to another thing than your actual subject); Single Point, in places you can select one of 135 AF points first by hitting OK after which moving the active AF point round the frame while using four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, in places you pick your subject, press OK and permit you to track that subject mainly because it moves around, provided that doesn’t necessarily leave the frame certainly.

The Nikon 1 J1 comes with a intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that mixes contrast- and phase-difference detection likewise as the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This enables the Nikon 1 J1 to target extremely quickly in good light, even using a moving subject. This company claims the Nikon 1 system cameras include 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 than on most cameras, isn’t as quickly as one other method. It really is the digital camera that decides which AF strategy to use - the user doesn’t have a affect this.

Normally, the J1 in most cases only resort to contrast detection when light levels are low. In good light, i was able to take sharp photos of fast-moving subjects. The Nikon J1 certainly won’t disappoint here. Manual focusing can also be possible, even though the Nikon 1 lenses do not have focus rings. If you would like focus manually, you firstly have to hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK and utilize the scroll wheel to regulate focus. To work with you using this, the Nikon J1 magnifies the central part of the image and displays a rudimentary focus scale across the right side on the frame - but those are the only focusing aids you get. There isn’t any peaking function available as on some rival models.

The J1 comes with a electronic shutter (the V1 even offers an analog shutter). It’s completely silent (the focus confirmation beep could be disabled from the menu) and allows using shutter speeds as soon as 1/16,000th of any second and, with all the Electronic Hi setting selected, allows you to shoot full-resolution stills at 60 frames per second. Note however that although it is a major achievement, it’s limited by a buffer which could only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, the use of this mode precludes AF tracking - you need to lower the frame rate to 10fps if you wish that -, and also the viewfinder goes blank while the pictures are being taken. One application we can easily think about where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really be convenient is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. Only at that rate, a few 5 bracketed shots might be drawn in below 0.1 second, rendering small movements that can otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown in the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J1 will not offer such a feature - in fact no offer autoexposure bracketing by any means.

Selling it to film mode, the Nikon 1 J1 has some pleasant surprises here. First and foremost, the digital camera might be set to shoot Full HD footage, and also you even arrive at select 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, according to whether you prefer to help progressive or interlaced video. Unless you need Full HD, in addition there are 720p @ 60fps, which can be really smooth nevertheless counts as hi-d. Secondly, you get full manual treating exposure in video mode. It becomes an option; you don’t have to shoot in M mode nevertheless, you can if that’s the thing you need. Thirdly, you will get 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’ll find separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and because of this - along with the massive processing power in the Nikon J1 - it is possible to take multiple full-resolution stills while recording HD video. This works the opposite way round too - you’ll be able to capture your favorite shows clip even when the mode dial is within the Still Image position, just by pressing the red movie shutter release. We’ve discovered that in such cases the digital camera will record film at 720p/60fps.

Not only is it able to shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J1 may shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is leaner and the aspect ratio can be an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, however the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and the like. These videos are replayed at 30fps, and that is more than 13x slower as opposed to capture speed of 400fps, enabling you to get creative and display to the world numerous interesting phenomena that happen too quickly to look at in real time. The Nikon J1 goes a step forward through providing a 1200fps video mode, even so the resolution and overall quality is way too poor for the to get genuinely useful.

Your third icon on the mode dial is short for Smart Photo Selector. This feature allows you to capture no less than 20 photos at the single press from the shutter release, including some that were taken before fully depressing the button. The camera analyses the consumer pictures from the series and discards 15 of which, keeping merely the five who’s thinks might be best regarding sharpness and composition. This feature could be genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments.

Finally, there exists a so-called Motion Snapshot mode when the camera records a brief high-definition movie - whose buffering starts in a half-press in the shutter release, so again includes events which have happened prior to button was fully depressed - and as well uses a still photograph. The movie as well as the still image are saved in separate files though the camera can combine them in a single slow-motion clip with music. It’s fun but we’re not able to really envision people using this shooting mode frequently. (If you look at the video on a computer, it’s going to play back at normal speed, without sound, and this mode is basically only interesting in the event you look at the clip in-camera or hook the digital camera around 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 is run on a smaller EN-EL20 battery to its V1 government, and is also consequently capable of producing even less shots using one charge, managing around 230, although it helps for making your camera body smaller sized. The camera’s tripod socket is manufactured out of metal and is in line together with the lens’ optical axis. And also this shows that changing batteries or cards isn’t feasible while the J1 is mounted on a tripod, as being the hinges in the battery/card compartment door are far too near to the tripod mount.

So, how did we like with all the Nikon 1 J1? Similarly, we liked it a lot. In good light, its auto-focus strategy is indeed faster than just about anything we’ve used thus far, to be able to track and lock target an array of truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding many sharp images in situations where our keeper rates 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 that the modest guide number might suggest, with the clever design minimising red-eye.

Conversely, the Nikon J1 have their share of frustrating idiosyncrasies starting with the person interface that pushes you to dive into your menu to get into functions as common as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons to your finished product, they can no less than have the “F” button customisable using a firmware update. Also, you will find an avid button for exposure compensation - the industry good thing - Some be capable of activate a live histogram, eventhough it would have made exposure compensation far more useful and to make use of. Again, this could more likely fixed in firmware.

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

One more thing we didn’t like could be that the camera would always show the image just taken for a few seconds onscreen, therefore we wouldn’t be capable of turn this instant postview function completely off (even though you can at any rate cancel it with a half-press from the shutter release). Finally, as the camera is normally fast and responsive, the camera takes way too long to wake up from sleep mode when it may be idle for a time, leading to several missed shots.

All things considered, the Nikon 1 J1 is often a small and compact, high-performance system camera that like its government can use a couple of tweaks to the interface to raised suit the requirements serious amateurs. The intended market you work in of casual users will like it for the sheer speed, built-in flash, lightweight and also the fun features it offers. Allow us to now observe the Nikon 1 J1 fared inside the image quality department.