Joshua Waller reviews the new Nikon 1 V1 "Mirrorless" Advanced Camera with Interchangeable Lens (A-CIL) from Nikon.
| Nikon 1 V1 in Mirrorless Cameras
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Features
Handling
Performance
Verdict
Specification
The Nikon 1 introduces two new cameras with a completely new lens mount, completely new sensor design, and new lenses to go with the system. Now that full production cameras have been made available lets see how the V1 performs. With 60fps shooting at full resolution, and claims of the World's fastest focus, the camera certainly offer something unique, find out how it performs in our review.
Nikon 1 V1 Black
The Nikon 1 V1 is the premium level mirrorless camera from Nikon with an electronic viewfinder, front grip, and accessory hot shoe setting it apart from the J1. For more details on the differences between the two new cameras have a look at our Nikon 1 V1 vs Nikon 1 J1 comparison.
Nikon 1 V1 Top
Nikon 1 V1 Back
Ergonomics - There are a good number of buttons, with a mode dial on the back, although the mode dial is quite limited giving the choice of motion snapshot, smart shot selector, normal photo, and video mode. It seems a little surprising that the V1 doesn't include additional more advanced modes on the dial on the back. There is a small raised bar at the front to aid in gripping the camera, and on the rear is a good size rubber thumb grip. The mechanical shutter sound is very quiet, or for complete silence when shooting you can choose the electronic shutter. The collapsible lenses have a clever feature built in, if you press the button and twist the lens to unlock it when the camera is off, the camera will automatically switch on, because presumably the only reason you'd be unlocking the lens is so you can take photos. Clever.
Nikon 1 V1 Black with Speedlight
The lack of a built in flash could be of concern for some, as the optional flash is not as compact as other mirrorless flash systems. Although it does offer more features, by being adjustable (it can point forwards, and tilts 60, 75 or 90 degrees up for bounce flash), it also rotates 360 degrees, and includes an LED illuminator light.
Nikon 1 V1 Speedlight Rear
The back of the flash features an on/off switch, and with the flash switched on the following options become available in the photo menu: flash mode (fill, red-eye reduction, red-eye slow sync, slow sync, rear curtain slow sync), flash control (TTL or Manual), Flash compensation (+1 to -3).
Menus - There are three main sections, playback, photo, and setup. When the photo mode is selected with the dial on the back, you can then change the exposure mode in the menus to choose between: Scene auto selector, Programmed auto, Shutter-priority auto, Aperture-priority auto, and full Manual. The scroll wheel is used to scroll through the menu options, although it's quite sensitive and sometimes it will scroll through a little too quickly. The F (Function) button on the back will let you choose the shutter mode from mechanical, electronic, and electronic (Hi), with the last option being used for high speed continuous shooting. In the video mode it lets you choose between HD and slow motion video.
Nikon 1 V1 Bottom
Battery Life - Battery life is rated at 400 shots according to CIPA standards, we took over 450 shots with 65% battery life showing as remaining. In the setup menu you can view the battery info where it will tell you the charge remaining (eg 81%), and battery age (0-4, with 0 being new).
Speed - With 135 focus areas (Single-point AF) and Auto-area AF with 41 focus areas the focusing system on the Nikon 1 V1 should be very responsive, and gives excellent control over what you are focusing on letting you choose any position from the 135 focus areas.
We took a number of shots to test the camera's responsiveness, from switch on to first photo, shot to shot, focusing speed etc. We take a number of shots and then use the average to ensure accurate and consistent tests, making it easy to compare with other cameras. We have shown the Panasonic Lumix GF3 here as a comparison.
* 10mm, 10-30mm / 30-110mm lens (wide), ** 10-30mm / 30-110mm lens (telephoto) ^ 10mm *** GF3 tested with 14-42mm Olympus Mk II R
Continuous shooting is as fast as advertised, shooting at 10, 30 or 60fps using electronic shutter (Hi speed), and you can take up to 33 shots at 10fps, and 30 shots at 30 or 60fps. Shutter response was excellent, and focusing was very quick matching the Panasonic Lumix GF3 (and PEN Mini), but seemed slightly slower at the telephoto end of the zoom lens. Switch on time was better with the 10mm lens and was reasonably quick. Shot to shot time was a little slower than expected and there doesn't seem to be any way to switch off reviewing the photo after taking it. These high speed shooting options are available whether shooting JPEG, RAW or JPEG+RAW.
The photos show excellent skin tones, lots of detail and very little to no red-eye with the speedlight flash. Colour is very good, with saturated reds and blues, without being overly saturated.
The lenses performed really well in a variety of conditions, with perhaps the 10mm pancake lens standing out as the star lens of the three tested. Vignetting was not noticed, although partial vignetting was spotted on the 30-110mm telephoto lens at full zoom (110mm).
There was some barrel distortion at wide-angle (10mm) on the 10-30mm lens, some on the 10mm pancake lens, and some at wide (30mm) on the 30-110mm lens but it was not excessive. Some pincushion distortion was visible at telephoto on the 10-30mm, and 30-110mm lens. The distortion was barely noticeable in real world shots.
Some purple fringing was visible on all lenses, the 10mm, 10-30mm and 30-110mm in areas of high contrast. There was very little chromatic aberration noticed. Ghosting / Flare - the lenses coped very well shooting into the sun or with the sun just out of frame.
Detail in corners seemed slightly worse with the 10-30mm lens at 10mm compared to the 10mm pancake lens, and when the 10mm pancake lens was stopped down to around f/5.0 detail was excellent. The 10-30mm lens gave the best macro performance when used on the telephoto setting, and in comparison the 10mm and the 30-110mm lenses could not get as close to the subject.
ISO Noise performance: Low noise at ISO100/200, with some noise becoming more noticeable as the ISO setting increases to ISO400 and ISO800. It's at ISO1600 that coloured noise becomes more noticeable, but results are still good up to ISO1600. At ISO3200 noise is beginning to be quite noticeable, and it begins to distract from the image. ISO6400 shows softer than expected results, with black and white dots, although colours are still strongly saturated.
Compared to the 10 megapixel Nikon Coolpix P7100 at ISO400 the P7100 is showing more coloured noise compared to the V1, and at ISO800 the P7100 is applying much stronger noise reduction to reduce the coloured (chroma) noise. As the ISO setting increases the image quality of the P7100 continues to degrade with increased colour loss, while the V1 images still appear detailed and colourful in comparison. The V1 still produces usable images at ISO3200 with very little colour loss, while the P7100 doesn't really, and images should be resized. ISO6400 is very soft on both cameras, but the V1 shows much more colour (in the coloured squares) while the P7100 has strong colour loss.
Auto white balance: The camera produces very good results particularly using auto white balance, with very little difference between auto white balance and the tungsten preset. Under fluorescent lighting better results were obtained when using auto white balance, with the fluorescent preset giving a slight magenta cast. Some signs of moire are visible in the fabric pattern in the case in the middle of the picture, and detail is very good for a 10 megapixel sensor.
The camera doesn't feature a panoramic mode or any "digital filters" or effects, and the scene modes can't be manually selected, instead there is just auto scene mode selection or P/A/S/M modes. To enhance dynamic range, the camera has the option to switch on D-Lighting, this adjusts the shadows ton bring out more detail in them.
Smart Photo Selector (SPS): Flash is not available, but the LED illuminator on the speedlight is available. The camera takes 30 photos and then presents the 5 best photos, with one of the photos highlighted as the best overall, all 5 photos are saved to the memory card as JPEG or RAW if selected.
The Motion Snapshot or "Living Picture" as Nikon like to call it, takes 1 photo, and 1 slow motion video - 1 second and then when played back on the camera it plays the video then shows the photo with one of four pieces of music (chosen pre-shooting). The files are saved on the memory card as a JPEG 3840x2160, and as a separate 1080/24fps MOV video file, both files have the same name, both starting with NMS and the JPEG ending in .JPEG, and the video file ending in .MOV. An example of the photo is shown above, and the video can be seen here. Flash is not available, but the LED illuminator on the speedlight is available.
Video: Video is recorded at 1080/60i, 1080/30p, 720/60p, with stereo sound, video sound options are: auto sensitivity, high, medium, low, and off with the option of wind noise reduction on or off. Fade in/out black or white is available. Slow motion options are: 400fps (640x240) or 1200fps (320x240) the later mode needs better than indoor lighting. Both of the slow motion video modes can only record 5 seconds, and examples of all of these video modes are available on the ePHOTOzine Youtube page.
The lenses are all optimised / designed for both still image quality and video recording with quiet auto-focus and motors in the power zoom models, and white balance is optimised for each lens. The first three zoom lenses are all retractable / collapsible making them more compact when not in use.
10mm f/2.8 pancake lens - 27mm equivalent.
10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 VR - 27-81mm equivalent "Standard" zoom.
30-110mm f/3.8-5.6 VR - 81-297mm equivalent telephoto zoom.
10-100mm f/4.5-5.6 VR - 27-270mm equivalent power zoom.
A Nikon FT1 adapter is available for Nikon lenses - and with AF-S / AF-I lenses Auto Focus will work. With a 2.7x crop factor, a 35mm standard lens will become a 94.5mm equivalent lens, and this crop factor would suit telephoto lenses particularly if you're interested in having as much zoom as possible. Another way of looking at this is to think of the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 D lens, which is available for around £90, would become a 135mm f/1.8 telephoto lens, which means getting a bright telephoto lens would be very cheap looking at the price of the lens on its own.
Future lenses are already under development with 7 prototypes being shown including a number of thin zooms, portrait, and macro lenses, for details have a look at the future lenses and prototypes here. It will be interesting to find out the specifications of these lenses when they are officially announced.
Whilst this may be useful for a number of people who want to make sure they capture the moment, and gives them both video and high speed photo, it's the 60fps shooting and high quality video that are most likely to interest readers of this site. Continuous shooting is excellent: 60fps at full resolution is generally unheard of except in high end video. Does anything even come remotely close to this? Although it seems a shame that there is not the option to use the high speed shooting for other things, such as auto exposure bracketing, auto-HDR, and auto-panoramic modes, options strangely missing from the camera.
The lens line up is lacking in bright aperture lenses, and it will be good to see if the future lenses address this. The camera features hybrid AF, with contrast and phase detection built into the sensor, and provides extremely fast focusing, although perhaps focusing isn't always as quick as intended, with the Panasonic GF3 / Olympus PEN Mini focusing more quickly at times.
Image quality is very good, with great colour, and detail, although ISO noise is not as impressive as M43 cameras, but noticeably better than serious compacts, such as the Nikon Coolpix P7100, particularly at higher ISO settings.
The price of the V1 seems expensive compared to other mirrorless cameras and the consumer orientated features (lack of AEB, Manual controls on the mode dial, etc) could be a disappointment to some. If you can live without the EVF, and don't mind a smaller buffer then the J1 appears to be much better value for money, although with a shorter buffer for continuous shooting.
I can imagine the 1 series being very popular with consumers and people who want the high speed and high quality video, and the Nikon 1 V1 certainly delivers that. Or for those that want a more compact mirrorless camera, the kits lenses available so far (10mm, 10-30mm, 30-110mm) are very compact thanks to the pancake design and collapsible zooms. However, I suspect that more serious photographers or more adventurous may find some of the limitations a little puzzling.
High speed shooting at 60fps
High resolution viewfinder
Compact camera and lenses
Large range of future lenses
Hybrid AF - Contrast and Phase Detection
Eye-detection EVF
Impressive image quality
Camera switches on when you unlock collapsible lenses
Mic socket
Image quality does not match Micro Four Thirds at high ISO
High initial price compared to market for V1
Scene modes can't be individually selected
High speed shooting could be developed for additional features (HDR, Panoramic, etc)
Handling
Performance
Verdict
Specification
The Nikon 1 introduces two new cameras with a completely new lens mount, completely new sensor design, and new lenses to go with the system. Now that full production cameras have been made available lets see how the V1 performs. With 60fps shooting at full resolution, and claims of the World's fastest focus, the camera certainly offer something unique, find out how it performs in our review.
Nikon 1 V1 Features
Nikon 1 V1 Black
The Nikon 1 V1 is the premium level mirrorless camera from Nikon with an electronic viewfinder, front grip, and accessory hot shoe setting it apart from the J1. For more details on the differences between the two new cameras have a look at our Nikon 1 V1 vs Nikon 1 J1 comparison.
Key Features
- 10.1 megapixel CMOS sensor - CX format, 2.7x crop
- 3inch 921k dot screen
- EVF 1.44million dots
- Full HD video, 1080p, Stereo sound
- ISO100-3200 (expandable to ISO6400)
- World's fastest autofocus system
- Focal plane phase-detection AF + Contrast-detect AF
- 10fps continuous shooting, with AF tracking
- 60fps full resolution shooting (Single AF)
Nikon 1 V1 Top
Nikon 1 V1 Handling
The EVF has built in eye-detection so that it can automatically switch on when needed, and features dioptre correction. Apart from the larger zoom control on the back of the camera, the accessory / flash hot shoe, and the 1.44 million dot EVF, the V1 controls are pretty much identical to the J1.
Nikon 1 V1 Back
Ergonomics - There are a good number of buttons, with a mode dial on the back, although the mode dial is quite limited giving the choice of motion snapshot, smart shot selector, normal photo, and video mode. It seems a little surprising that the V1 doesn't include additional more advanced modes on the dial on the back. There is a small raised bar at the front to aid in gripping the camera, and on the rear is a good size rubber thumb grip. The mechanical shutter sound is very quiet, or for complete silence when shooting you can choose the electronic shutter. The collapsible lenses have a clever feature built in, if you press the button and twist the lens to unlock it when the camera is off, the camera will automatically switch on, because presumably the only reason you'd be unlocking the lens is so you can take photos. Clever.
Nikon 1 V1 Black with Speedlight
The lack of a built in flash could be of concern for some, as the optional flash is not as compact as other mirrorless flash systems. Although it does offer more features, by being adjustable (it can point forwards, and tilts 60, 75 or 90 degrees up for bounce flash), it also rotates 360 degrees, and includes an LED illuminator light.
Nikon 1 V1 Speedlight Rear
The back of the flash features an on/off switch, and with the flash switched on the following options become available in the photo menu: flash mode (fill, red-eye reduction, red-eye slow sync, slow sync, rear curtain slow sync), flash control (TTL or Manual), Flash compensation (+1 to -3).
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| Photo menu (from J1) | Setup menu (from J1) |
Menus - There are three main sections, playback, photo, and setup. When the photo mode is selected with the dial on the back, you can then change the exposure mode in the menus to choose between: Scene auto selector, Programmed auto, Shutter-priority auto, Aperture-priority auto, and full Manual. The scroll wheel is used to scroll through the menu options, although it's quite sensitive and sometimes it will scroll through a little too quickly. The F (Function) button on the back will let you choose the shutter mode from mechanical, electronic, and electronic (Hi), with the last option being used for high speed continuous shooting. In the video mode it lets you choose between HD and slow motion video.
Nikon 1 V1 Bottom
Battery Life - Battery life is rated at 400 shots according to CIPA standards, we took over 450 shots with 65% battery life showing as remaining. In the setup menu you can view the battery info where it will tell you the charge remaining (eg 81%), and battery age (0-4, with 0 being new).
Speed - With 135 focus areas (Single-point AF) and Auto-area AF with 41 focus areas the focusing system on the Nikon 1 V1 should be very responsive, and gives excellent control over what you are focusing on letting you choose any position from the 135 focus areas.
We took a number of shots to test the camera's responsiveness, from switch on to first photo, shot to shot, focusing speed etc. We take a number of shots and then use the average to ensure accurate and consistent tests, making it easy to compare with other cameras. We have shown the Panasonic Lumix GF3 here as a comparison.
| Nikon V1 |
Panasonic GF3 | |
| Shutter Response | <0.05 | <0.05 |
| Wide - Focus / Shutter Response | 0.2* |
0.2*** |
| Full zoom - Focus / Shutter Response | 0.25** |
0.2*** |
| Switch on Time to Taking a Photo | 1.5 / 1.2 (10mm) |
0.9 |
| Shot to Shot without Flash | 1.6 |
0.6 |
| Shot to Shot with Flash | 1.7 (Speedlight) |
1.3 |
| Continuous Shooting (shots before slow down) |
10 (33) 30 (30) 60fps (30) |
4fps (13 shots) |
| Continuous Shooting - Flash | N/A |
N/A |
| Continuous Shooting - RAW | 10 (33) 30 (30) 60fps (30) |
4fps (6 shots) |
* 10mm, 10-30mm / 30-110mm lens (wide), ** 10-30mm / 30-110mm lens (telephoto) ^ 10mm *** GF3 tested with 14-42mm Olympus Mk II R
Continuous shooting is as fast as advertised, shooting at 10, 30 or 60fps using electronic shutter (Hi speed), and you can take up to 33 shots at 10fps, and 30 shots at 30 or 60fps. Shutter response was excellent, and focusing was very quick matching the Panasonic Lumix GF3 (and PEN Mini), but seemed slightly slower at the telephoto end of the zoom lens. Switch on time was better with the 10mm lens and was reasonably quick. Shot to shot time was a little slower than expected and there doesn't seem to be any way to switch off reviewing the photo after taking it. These high speed shooting options are available whether shooting JPEG, RAW or JPEG+RAW.
Nikon 1 V1 Performance
Here are several sample photos taken in a variety of lighting conditions, click "Hi-Res" to view full size sample photos, there are more sample photos in the equipment database where you can also add your own photos:Nikon 1 V1 Sample Photos
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The photos show excellent skin tones, lots of detail and very little to no red-eye with the speedlight flash. Colour is very good, with saturated reds and blues, without being overly saturated.
Nikon 1 V1 Lens test images
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The lenses performed really well in a variety of conditions, with perhaps the 10mm pancake lens standing out as the star lens of the three tested. Vignetting was not noticed, although partial vignetting was spotted on the 30-110mm telephoto lens at full zoom (110mm).
There was some barrel distortion at wide-angle (10mm) on the 10-30mm lens, some on the 10mm pancake lens, and some at wide (30mm) on the 30-110mm lens but it was not excessive. Some pincushion distortion was visible at telephoto on the 10-30mm, and 30-110mm lens. The distortion was barely noticeable in real world shots.
Some purple fringing was visible on all lenses, the 10mm, 10-30mm and 30-110mm in areas of high contrast. There was very little chromatic aberration noticed. Ghosting / Flare - the lenses coped very well shooting into the sun or with the sun just out of frame.
Detail in corners seemed slightly worse with the 10-30mm lens at 10mm compared to the 10mm pancake lens, and when the 10mm pancake lens was stopped down to around f/5.0 detail was excellent. The 10-30mm lens gave the best macro performance when used on the telephoto setting, and in comparison the 10mm and the 30-110mm lenses could not get as close to the subject.
Nikon 1 V1 ISO test images
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ISO Noise performance: Low noise at ISO100/200, with some noise becoming more noticeable as the ISO setting increases to ISO400 and ISO800. It's at ISO1600 that coloured noise becomes more noticeable, but results are still good up to ISO1600. At ISO3200 noise is beginning to be quite noticeable, and it begins to distract from the image. ISO6400 shows softer than expected results, with black and white dots, although colours are still strongly saturated.
Compared to the 10 megapixel Nikon Coolpix P7100 at ISO400 the P7100 is showing more coloured noise compared to the V1, and at ISO800 the P7100 is applying much stronger noise reduction to reduce the coloured (chroma) noise. As the ISO setting increases the image quality of the P7100 continues to degrade with increased colour loss, while the V1 images still appear detailed and colourful in comparison. The V1 still produces usable images at ISO3200 with very little colour loss, while the P7100 doesn't really, and images should be resized. ISO6400 is very soft on both cameras, but the V1 shows much more colour (in the coloured squares) while the P7100 has strong colour loss.
Nikon 1 V1 White-balance test images
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Auto white balance: The camera produces very good results particularly using auto white balance, with very little difference between auto white balance and the tungsten preset. Under fluorescent lighting better results were obtained when using auto white balance, with the fluorescent preset giving a slight magenta cast. Some signs of moire are visible in the fabric pattern in the case in the middle of the picture, and detail is very good for a 10 megapixel sensor.
The camera doesn't feature a panoramic mode or any "digital filters" or effects, and the scene modes can't be manually selected, instead there is just auto scene mode selection or P/A/S/M modes. To enhance dynamic range, the camera has the option to switch on D-Lighting, this adjusts the shadows ton bring out more detail in them.
Nikon 1 V1 Digital filters
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Smart Photo Selector (SPS): Flash is not available, but the LED illuminator on the speedlight is available. The camera takes 30 photos and then presents the 5 best photos, with one of the photos highlighted as the best overall, all 5 photos are saved to the memory card as JPEG or RAW if selected.
The Motion Snapshot or "Living Picture" as Nikon like to call it, takes 1 photo, and 1 slow motion video - 1 second and then when played back on the camera it plays the video then shows the photo with one of four pieces of music (chosen pre-shooting). The files are saved on the memory card as a JPEG 3840x2160, and as a separate 1080/24fps MOV video file, both files have the same name, both starting with NMS and the JPEG ending in .JPEG, and the video file ending in .MOV. An example of the photo is shown above, and the video can be seen here. Flash is not available, but the LED illuminator on the speedlight is available.
Video: Video is recorded at 1080/60i, 1080/30p, 720/60p, with stereo sound, video sound options are: auto sensitivity, high, medium, low, and off with the option of wind noise reduction on or off. Fade in/out black or white is available. Slow motion options are: 400fps (640x240) or 1200fps (320x240) the later mode needs better than indoor lighting. Both of the slow motion video modes can only record 5 seconds, and examples of all of these video modes are available on the ePHOTOzine Youtube page.
Lenses available:
The lenses are all optimised / designed for both still image quality and video recording with quiet auto-focus and motors in the power zoom models, and white balance is optimised for each lens. The first three zoom lenses are all retractable / collapsible making them more compact when not in use.
10mm f/2.8 pancake lens - 27mm equivalent.
10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 VR - 27-81mm equivalent "Standard" zoom.
30-110mm f/3.8-5.6 VR - 81-297mm equivalent telephoto zoom.
10-100mm f/4.5-5.6 VR - 27-270mm equivalent power zoom.
A Nikon FT1 adapter is available for Nikon lenses - and with AF-S / AF-I lenses Auto Focus will work. With a 2.7x crop factor, a 35mm standard lens will become a 94.5mm equivalent lens, and this crop factor would suit telephoto lenses particularly if you're interested in having as much zoom as possible. Another way of looking at this is to think of the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 D lens, which is available for around £90, would become a 135mm f/1.8 telephoto lens, which means getting a bright telephoto lens would be very cheap looking at the price of the lens on its own.
Future lenses are already under development with 7 prototypes being shown including a number of thin zooms, portrait, and macro lenses, for details have a look at the future lenses and prototypes here. It will be interesting to find out the specifications of these lenses when they are officially announced.
Value For Money
Available from the 20th October 2011 the Nikon 1 V1 is priced at £829 with kit lens. This makes it a premium priced camera, most closely matched to the Panasonic Lumix GH2 (£739), Olympus PEN E-P3 (£775), Sony NEX-7 (£1250), and Samsung NX200 (£699 - although worth noting the recent RRP price drop to £459) and the rest of the compact system camera market is cheaper still. See ePHOTOzine's Top 11 Mirrorless cameras for more alternatives. I suspect the Nikon 1 J1 at £549 will be the preferred choice, with the £250 premium for the Nikon V1 may put people off?Nikon 1 V1 Verdict
The Nikon 1 Series is like a more compact mirrorless system, with a smaller sensor than the Micro Four thirds system, it allows smaller lenses, and the 10 megapixel sensor achieves an amazing 60fps shooting, high speed video and full HD recording. Nikon has used the high speed sensor to develop "Motion snapshot", a combination of video and a photo, as well as Smart Photo Selector that chooses the best 5 photos from 30 taken at 30fps.Whilst this may be useful for a number of people who want to make sure they capture the moment, and gives them both video and high speed photo, it's the 60fps shooting and high quality video that are most likely to interest readers of this site. Continuous shooting is excellent: 60fps at full resolution is generally unheard of except in high end video. Does anything even come remotely close to this? Although it seems a shame that there is not the option to use the high speed shooting for other things, such as auto exposure bracketing, auto-HDR, and auto-panoramic modes, options strangely missing from the camera.
The lens line up is lacking in bright aperture lenses, and it will be good to see if the future lenses address this. The camera features hybrid AF, with contrast and phase detection built into the sensor, and provides extremely fast focusing, although perhaps focusing isn't always as quick as intended, with the Panasonic GF3 / Olympus PEN Mini focusing more quickly at times.
Image quality is very good, with great colour, and detail, although ISO noise is not as impressive as M43 cameras, but noticeably better than serious compacts, such as the Nikon Coolpix P7100, particularly at higher ISO settings.
The price of the V1 seems expensive compared to other mirrorless cameras and the consumer orientated features (lack of AEB, Manual controls on the mode dial, etc) could be a disappointment to some. If you can live without the EVF, and don't mind a smaller buffer then the J1 appears to be much better value for money, although with a shorter buffer for continuous shooting.
I can imagine the 1 series being very popular with consumers and people who want the high speed and high quality video, and the Nikon 1 V1 certainly delivers that. Or for those that want a more compact mirrorless camera, the kits lenses available so far (10mm, 10-30mm, 30-110mm) are very compact thanks to the pancake design and collapsible zooms. However, I suspect that more serious photographers or more adventurous may find some of the limitations a little puzzling.
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| The Nikon 1 V1 offers great image quality and extremely rapid continuous shooting and fast focusing. |
Nikon 1 V1 Pros
High speed shooting at 60fpsHigh resolution viewfinderCompact camera and lensesLarge range of future lensesHybrid AF - Contrast and Phase DetectionEye-detection EVF Impressive image qualityCamera switches on when you unlock collapsible lensesMic socketNikon 1 V1 Cons
Image quality does not match Micro Four Thirds at high ISOHigh initial price compared to market for V1Scene modes can't be individually selectedHigh speed shooting could be developed for additional features (HDR, Panoramic, etc)| FEATURES |  |
| HANDLING |  |
| PERFORMANCE | |
| VALUE FOR MONEY |  |
| OVERALL | |
Nikon 1 V1 Specifications
| Manufacturer | Nikon | |
| Image Sensor | ||
| Pixels | 10.1Mp (Megapixels) | |
| Pixels (W) | 3872 | |
| Pixels (H) | 2592 | |
| Sensor Type | CMOS | |
| Sensor Size | CX format | |
| Sensor Size (width) | 13.2mm | |
| Sensor Size (height) | 8.8mm | |
| Aspect Ratio |
| |
| LCD Monitor | ||
| LCD Monitor | 3in | |
| Screen resolution | 921,000 | |
| Touch Screen | No | |
| Focusing | ||
| Focusing modes |
| |
| Exposure Control | ||
| Shutter speeds shortest | 1/16,000sec | |
| Shutter speeds longest | 30sec | |
| Bulb mode | Yes | |
| Exp modes |
| |
| Metering |
| |
| ISO sensitivity | 100 - 6400 | |
| White balance |
| |
| Exposure Comp | +/-3 | |
| Viewfinder | ||
| Viewfinder Resolution | 1.44million dots | |
| Magnification | No Data | |
| Shooting Options | ||
| Continuous shooting | 60fps | |
| Video | ||
| Movie mode | Yes | |
| Video Resolution |
| |
| Video FPS | 60 | |
| Stereo Sound | Yes | |
| Optical Zoom with Video | Yes | |
| Other Features | ||
| Image Stabilisation | No | |
| Interface | ||
| HDMI | Yes | |
| USB | USB 2 | |
| Wi-Fi | No Data | |
| Storage | ||
| Card Type |
| |
| File Type |
| |
| Power Source | ||
| Battery Type | Rechargeable Li-ion EN-EL15 battery | |
| Battery Life (CIPA rating) | 400shots | |
| Box Contents | ||
| Box Contents | EN-EL15 rechargeable Li-ion battery, MH-25 battery charger, UC-E6 USB cable, EG-CP14 audio/video cable, AN-N1000 strap, BF-N1000 body cap, BS-N1000 multi accessory port cover, ViewNX 2/Short Movie Creator CD | |
| Dimensions | ||
| Weight | 383g | |
| Width | 113mm | |
| Height | 76mm | |
| Depth | 43.5mm | |
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We don't have the latest price however the link below will take you to the most relevant items. Nikon 1 V1 SEARCH |
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Photographs taken using the Nikon 1 V1
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7 Oct 2011 11:22AMThe 10mm lens is equivalent to the Panasonic 14mm, yet the Panasonic, serving a sensor twice the size, is smaller and lighter and...faster.
It seems to be a step up from a compact rather than the 4/3s which are a step down from DSLR. It lacks expected high end camera functions yet can shoot at 60fps.
I hope I'm wrong but I cannot see the intended market for this. If it was small in size commensurate with its sensor dimensions, that would be a selling point at least. As it is, it seems to offer technical flashiness at the expense of photographic function.
Maybe it's like the iPad, everybody says 'what the hell is that for' and then gets it and it sells in millions.
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7 Oct 2011 12:13PMI agree with all of lemmy's comments - in fact I currently have a 4/3 GF1.
It's intangible, but somehow this seems a more serious job, and I'd struggle to explain why. Many things I like about my GF1, but I don't like having no viewfinder, and I don't like either the Panny EVF because of poor res, or having to carry it separately. Having one always built in seems better.
By contrast, I'd rather carry a decent flash for the rare times I ever use one - pop up ones are generally poor in my experience, and the GF1 always has a lens hood shadow until I remember to take the hood off (which I leave in place all the time unless in my pocket).
I've also always been a believer in Nikon glass too from my old film days with a Nikon FM.
Finally, very few of my pics ever demand more than 10mp - so I'd settle for reasonable noise levels with decent IQ at this resolution. In fact, I'm still on a Canon 40D SLR because I can't really see I get more that I really need from a 7d despite the fact that it's a lovely body and an obvious upgrade.
So there you have it - no rhyme or reason, but I find this appealing.
- Rob
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7 Oct 2011 12:43PMQuote:So there you have it - no rhyme or reason, but I find this appealing.
I can imagine people who buy this getting the same sort of 'you're an idiot' lectures that people who buy iPads do!
The people who buy them love them and the people who don't hate them - maybe that will be the type of market for this camera.
I'm seeing the 60 frames per second as a gimmick myself. I can pick the moment when I want to take a picture myself. Hosing the subject down and picking what happens to be the best doesn't appeal to me at all. And 5 seconds only on slo-mo...that sound like something of more specialist scientific than pictorial use.
As a photographer I'd swap all the slo-mo for the same noise levels as a 4/3. I like the form of the camera very much, with the built in evf, though the camera is unnecessarily large for something with such a small sensor.
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7 Oct 2011 12:50PMQuote:
I'm seeing the 60 frames per second as a gimmick myself. I can pick the moment when I want to take a picture myself. Hosing the subject down and picking what happens to be the best doesn't appeal to me at all. And 5 seconds only on slo-mo...that sound like something of more specialist scientific than pictorial use.
As a photographer I'd swap all the slo-mo for the same noise levels as a 4/3. I like the form of the camera very much, with the built in evf, though the camera is unnecessarily large for something with such a small sensor.
100% agree on both of the above - hardly ever shoot video, and certainly have no use for that frame rate.
I'd love this form factor, with built in EVF and Nikon glass, but a 4/3 size sensor. Wouldn't be able to open my wallet fast enough.
I may still go take a look at one of these once they've been out a few months and we've seen some real feedback that indicates it may be worthwhile.
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8 Oct 2011 11:44AMQuote:I'm seeing the 60 frames per second as a gimmick myself. I can pick the moment when I want to take a picture myself. Hosing the subject down and picking what happens to be the best doesn't appeal to me at all. And 5 seconds only on slo-mo...that sound like something of more specialist scientific than pictorial use.
When this appears on serious cameras I can see sport newsdesk editors using it to pick the shot they want from the video stream
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14 Oct 2011 5:25AMOwning a Nikon D300 and the Panasonic GF1, GF2 (which was a mistake!) and the Ricoh GRD III I see no compelling reason to invest in this new format camera. I agree with most of the posters above and understand Walkerr's point above but will he really get any tangible benefit from this very expensive for what it is new format Nikon? I'm so disappointed.
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