Review: Nikon's newest line - the Nikon 1 series V1 and J1 cameras

[ed9119]

ChngPE01 and myself attended Nikon's hush hush launch event on 21 Sep at Hotel Fort Canning.

Over the buffet lunch, we met up with other members of the press and media ...... everyone was asking everyone what to expect ...... nobody had concrete guesses although the repeated rumours were aired.

What was announced was an entire new line, the Nikon 1 cameras with the V1 and the J1 being the forerunning models

After the announcements and presentations, we had a look at them first hand.

Immediate impressions (strictly personal)
- Very nicely laid out buttons with an easy to understand User Interface (I dont think we're going to be needing a user manual to figure out this baby)
- Kit zoom lens comes with power zoom button
- About the same size as an average M4/3 camera
- V1 is intended as the flagship of the Nikon 1 line
- Magnesium alloy body is NICEeeeee !!
- I looked through the electronic viewfinder half heartedly ...... but woke up real quick at the clarity and quickness of the 1.4m pixel screen ..... VERY easy on the eyes
- The cameras combines BOTH phase detection and contrast detection AF (!!!!)
- 2.7 crop sensor (I'm 50/50 about this new CX sensor size until we see the actual image outputs later)
- A lens adaptor to accept legacy Nikon lenses was on display too ..... I can imagine a 300/2.8 attached to this body
- It has its OWN Speedlight .... currently unable to pair with Nikon's regular existing Flash lineup. Thats a bummer because Nikon flash has always been class-leading
- It has a multi-accessory port where you can plug in accessories like the GPS unit and an external (new) small SB-N5 flash
- Continuous shooting at up to 60fps (!!!) ... otherwise @ 5fps

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29 Sept Thurs - The review sets arrived today and will be put through their paces over the next few days by Ortega . We will need to return them NEXT Tuesday
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Sensor Size 'CX' sensor
13.2 mm x 8.8 mm CMOS sensor
10.1 million effective pixels

Image sizes
• 3872 x 2592
• 2896 x 1944
• 1936 x 1296
• 3840 x 2160

Aspect ratio
3:2, 16:9

Movie clips
• 1920 x 1080 @ 60i/30 fps
• 1280 x 720 @ 30/15 fps
• 640 x 480 @ 30/15 fps
• 320 x 240 @ 30/15 fps

Slow-motion movies
• 640 x 240/400 fps (plays at 30p/29.97 fps)
• 640 x 240/400 fps (plays at 30p/29.97 fps)
• 320 x 120/1,200 fps (plays at 30p/29.97 fps)
• 320 x 120/1,200 fps (plays at 30p/29.97 fps)

Motion Snapshot Motion Snapshot
• 1,920 x 1,080/60p (59.94 fps) (plays at 24p/23.976 fps)
• 1,920 x 1,080/60p (59.94 fps) (plays at 24p/23.976 fps)

File format
• NEF (RAW)
• JPEG

Movie:
• MOV
• H.264/MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding compression
• AAC audio

Lens mount
• Nikon 1 mount (needs an adaptor to accept legacy Nikon lenses)

Focus
• Hybrid autofocus (phase detection/contrast-detect AF); AF-assist illuminator

AF area
• Single-point (135 points)
• Auto-area (41 points)
• Subject tracking

Lens Servo
• Autofocus (AF): Single AF (AF-S); continuous AF (AF-C); auto AF-S/AF-C selection (AF-A); fulltime AF (AF-F)
• Manual focus (MF)

Focus distance
• Standard mode 0.6m (wide) / 1.0m (tele)
• Macro mode 0.2m - (wide) / 0.9m (tele)
• Super Macro mode Closest focusing distance: 1cm

ISO sensitivity
• Auto
• High Auto
• Manual ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, Hi 1 (6400 equiv.)

Exposure compensation
• +/- 3 EV
• 1/3 EV steps metering TTL metering using image sensor
• Matrix
• Center-weighted
• Spot

Shuttter speed
Mechanical Shutter• 1/4000 sec. –30 sec.
• Bulb
Electronic Shutter• 1/16000 sec. –30 sec.
• Bulb

Modes
• Programmed auto with flexible program
• Shutter-priority auto
• Aperture-priority auto
• Manual
• Scene auto selector

Shooting Modes
• Still image (3 : 2)
• Smart Photo Selector (3 : 2)
• Movie (HD 16 : 9, slow motion 8 : 3)
• Motion Snapshot (16 : 9)

White Balance (WB)
• Auto
• Incandescent
• Fluorescent
• Direct sunlight
• Flash
• Cloudy
• Shade
• Preset manual

Picture Control system • Standard
• Neutral
• Vivid
• Monochrome
• Portrait
• Landscape

Electronic Viewfinder eVF
• 1.4m dot color TFT LCD viewfinder
• 100% coverage

LCD monitor
• 3.0" / 7.5 cm LCD
• 921,000 dots

Continous shooting
• Electronic (Hi): Approx. 10, 30, or 60 fps
• Other modes: Up to 5 fps (single AF or manual focus, S Shutter-priority auto or M Manual exposure mode, shutter speed 1/250 s or faster, and other settings at default values)

Connectivity • DC input
• Combined A/V & USB output
• USB 2.0 compatible
• HDMI
• Multi accesory port

Storage
• SD/SDHC/SDXC

Battery
Li-ion Rechargeable Battery (EN-EL15)

Weight without battery
294g

Dimensions
113mm x 76mm x 44mm

[ortega]

Official Images of the Nikon 1 system

Nikon V1

[ortega]

is also comes in white

[ortega]

Nikon J1

[ortega]

the J1 also comes in

[ortega]

a total of 3 lenses were announced

1 NIKKOR 10mm f/2.8

[ortega]

1 NIKKOR VR 10-30MM f/3.5~5.6

[ortega]

1 NIKKOR VR 30-110mm f/3.8~5.6

[ortega]

and the 1 NIKKOR VR 10-100mm f/4.5~5.6 PD-ZOOM

[ortega]

Mount Adapter FT-1 (yes, to mount F mount lenses)

[ortega]

Speedlight SB-N5 (via an accessory port)

[ortega]

There is also a GPS unit GP-N100 (also via the accessory port)

[ortega]

we will be getting a unit to actually see what this camera can do...

stay tuned over the next few days
(btw please save your love/hate messages till after the tests are complete)

[ortega]

the main reason for a mirrorless camera is the size and as you can see it is really much smaller than my D80 with tamron 17-50mm f/2.8


Nikon V1 back to back with a Canon S95


Nikon J1 back to back with a Canon S95


Nikon V1 and J1 back to back

[ortega]

iso noise test for the V1 with the 10mm f/2.8
aperture priority at f/8

this is the full scene, light is from my 3M hi hi puffy amiyumi desk lamp


the images below are 100% crops

[ortega]

this is output from the CX sensor and the expeed 3 processor
all images are jpeg large

next i will do 100% crops from darker areas

[ortega]

[ortega]

[ortega]

and now from the Nikon J1

[YZYgold]

Wowwwww impressive Noise control compared to the GF3 or ep3!