Nikon 1 J1 and V1 First Look Discussion

[Allison Johnson]

Yesterday marked the official unveiling of the Nikon 1 V1 and J1 compact system cameras. Today we spent some quality time with these new mirrorless offerings. We've got first impressions and sample images to share.

Read the full content of this Article: Nikon 1 J1 and V1 First Look

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• Nikon Coolpix P7000 Review

[KCook]

Some curious rooftops there!



Kelly

[Andy Stanton]

Interesting that Nikon's project manager felt it necessary to mention that the new cameras have not been advertised as equal to DSLR's. Nikon is clearly worried that they may cut into its DSLR sales. That may be why Nikon decided to equip them with a smaller sensor than any of the other mirrorless cameras out there.

[Allison Johnson]

Kelly - I love the Manhattan rooftops, they have those giant water tanks that you don't see anywhere else. And the Chelsea Highline is there, didn't notice it til after I took the picture.

Andy, I thought the same thing. Keeping the sensor smaller definitely keeps the 1 system differentiated from the DSLR fleet. The question is, will consumers pay DSLR prices for the smaller sensor? Or will they be more interested in the lightweight/compact size benefits? I think that Nikon has taken the position that the 1 system will take better-than-a-compact pictures with a size and weight that is decidedly more compact than a DSLR.

They're sort of in uncharted territory here, it's going to be interesting to watch this new product category for Nikon.

[Jim Keenan]

Interesting that Nikon's project manager felt it necessary to mention that the new cameras have not been advertised as equal to DSLR's. Nikon is clearly worried that they may cut into its DSLR sales. That may be why Nikon decided to equip them with a smaller sensor than any of the other mirrorless cameras out there.

The sensor is physically smaller than m4/3, but a good bit larger than the 1/1.6 and 1/1.7" sensors of the top compacts like the G12, so the cameras look to be the Nikon you buy if Coolpix isn't enough and a D3100 is too much. If they made the sensor an APS-C (DX in Nikon terms) I think it might impact their DSLRs, but the 2.7x crop of the new sensor (CX) is so far removed from the 1 and 1.52 crops of the Nikon DSLR fleet I don't see it as a substitute for a DSLR - more likely it will appeal to most folks as sort of a "Super Coolpix".

When all the rumors about the specs were flying I didn't think the camera would be of interest to me, and now that the rumors are largely confirmed I've begun to rethink my original position. Even with my new VR600 lens I'm shooting at "only" 900mm with the D300s, but drop a J1/V1 on the lens and I'm at 1620mm without using a teleconverter. The Dahl sheep on distant hills in Alaska would be a lot closer, as would the surfer's at Maverick's in northern California. 10MP resolution is fine for what I want to do, and upon further review the idea of having 1620mm (and 1080mm with the 400/2.8) on tap without a converter seems likely to be of use. If AF with the F-mount adapter is decent on movers those big focal lengths might be all it takes to get me onboard with one of these.

With MSRPs where they are right now, Nikon is clearly betting size and image quality will be the trump card to justify the price of admission to Club Mirrorless for most folks.

[KCook]

Early test shots online show some softness, compared to the top 4/3 images. But it's not clear whether to attribute that to the lens, sensor, or test processing.

Kelly

[Jim Keenan]

Early test shots online show some softness, compared to the top 4/3 images. But it's not clear whether to attribute that to the lens, sensor, or test processing.

Kelly

I've got the J1 right now (and also an E-PM1) for review, and spent the morning dodging raindrops at the Wild Animal Park with the Nikon. Shot for about an hour until things got too wet, and shot only in auto - in this case "scene auto selector". The camera had default settings and the goal was to see what a typical "put it in auto , point it and push the shutter" user would get in the way of results. Did a quick review of images and my overall extremely first quick impression of the J1 is default images tend to be a little soft for my taste. However, there are some shots in the mix that look pretty good and these tend to be ones where the camera selected a "landscape" mode for capture. And they all look pretty good with post processing. It's early in the review process, but I don't think image quality is going to be a negative issue for this camera.

The camera doesn't permit user inputs to change image capture parameters in auto, but it does in the manual modes, and I'll be shooting those with additional sharpening and perhaps a bit of contrast to see what we can get directly out of the camera.

I was shooting the 30-110 zoom and based on post processing of some giraffe captures I'd have to say right now there's a fairly good chance I'd pickup a J1 or V1 for those cases where I needed to maximize focal length out of my 400 or 600mm lenses - the image quality off of the sensor looks pretty good.

[KCook]

With my Canon sharpness doesn't show that much. But the in-camera programming does kick both contrast and saturation around a lot with different image style parameters. Fun game if your head is into camera settings.

Zenfolio | Kelly Cook | Canon 50D Picture Styles

Zenfolio | Kelly Cook | Canon 50D Saturation

Kelly

[Jim Keenan]

Well, here's a J1 shot (JPEG) as it came out of the camera (auto/default settings), and after post processing by sharpening. Certainly easy to see the difference on my monitor, I hope it translates onto here.

[KCook]

No workie on Google's Chrome. Clicking on a thumbnail does open a new window. Very long load time (but about right for a full rez image). But no photo when done, only a completely blank page.

Update: Now a stripe at the top that is about the upper 1 or 2 % of the image does appear. Each refresh of the page adds another stripe. Can you just post a URL for the image that is not on the DCR host?

Kelly