Nikon 1 J1 with 10-30mm lens review: Nikon 1 J1 with 10-30mm lens

Nikon took its time introducing its interchangeable-lens camera system, dubbed the Nikon 1 series, and though I don't agree with a lot of the choices the company made, it clearly put a lot of thought into the cameras before rushing out me-too versions of competitors' products. The entry-level model, the J1, firmly targets point-and-shoot upgraders with its feature set, but the implementation is a mixed bag and the price is a bit steep for that crowd.

7.5

Nikon 1 J1 with 10-30mm lens

$110 at Amazon

The Good

The <b>Nikon 1 J1</b> delivers excellent video and low-ISO photo quality, plus some aspects of the camera's performance lead its class.

The Bad

The CX lens system drops manual focus rings on the lenses; you can't use flash above 1/60 sec; and there's no option for an EVF.

The Bottom Line

The Nikon 1 J1 is a fine camera, but there's nothing here that screams out "buy it" over similar competitors. It's also on the expensive side for a point-and-shoot upgrader, but has drawbacks for the more advanced user.

Take for instance, the sensor, which is smaller and lower-resolution than all but the even-more-expensive Pentax Q. With a 2.7x focal-length magnification factor, that means the kit 10-30mm lens has the equivalent angle of view of 27-81mm. In practice, that will severely limit your options for real wide-angle shooting--even more than Micro Four Thirds does--as well as your ability to get even moderately shallow depth of field on typical portrait shots. That stuff may not matter to a person paying $400 for the camera, but it might to someone paying $600.

And I have to point out that as one of the companies pushing 16-megapixel sensors out to consumers, it takes guts for Nikon to try to sell them 10 megapixels in a higher-end camera (though it's quite sufficient for printing up to 8x12 on a Canon or HP printer or 10x16 on an Epson).

Ultimately, the photo quality is very good--and occasionally excellent. Its noise profile is just OK, though, at least for JPEGs. I started to see some stippling as low as ISO 200, but as with Panasonic's cameras I suspect they're the result of JPEG processing rather than native to the images; the only really clean setting is ISO 100 (I'll revisit the raw results when the Adobe Camera Raw codec becomes available). I started to see color noise at ISO 400, and by ISO 1600 detail began to degrade. I think the J1 handles color more accurately at the higher ISO sensitivities than many competitors, but I'm not sure this crowd is looking for color accuracy or the desaturation you see in low light so much as they are looking for pop.

Nikon 1 J1 photo samples

However, in all other respects--notably lens sharpness, exposure and metering, and color--the J1 delivers consistently and accurately. The tonal range doesn't look particularly stronger than that of competitors, but I suspect it's compressed out of the JPEGs or may only be used for raw files.

The video quality is also quite good: sharp and saturated. And the autofocus system works exceptionally well--quickly, quietly, and accurately--when shooting video. The stereo mic acquits itself well, and there are a few sound-level options and a wind filter.

The performance rating of the J1 was a really tough call. Ultimately I came down on the side of excellent, because it really does feel pretty fast. On one hand, it's got the least shot lag--time to focus and shoot--of any camera in its class, plus a fast burst rate. But then it gets bogged down a bit on sequential shots, which slows down your overall shooting experience. It takes about a second to wake up and shoot, which is just OK. The roughly 0.2 second to focus and shoot in good light and 0.4 second in dim are both excellent times for any class of camera. And the center-point autofocus is quite accurate, as well as fast. But the shot-to-shot time rises to about 1.1 seconds--1.3 seconds if you're shooting raw--which isn't horrible but is comparatively slow. Add flash and that rises to 1.6 seconds. Its 5 frames per second in standard burst mode is also very good, and the camera allows you to start another burst quickly (rather than pausing while it saves to the card).

Other aspects of the performance drag it down a little, however. In the complete auto AF, it selects the focus points quickly, but inconsistently; for any given scene, it will choose different sets of points each time you prefocus. Plus, the battery life is pretty short. The LCD is typical--a little reflective in bright sunlight but otherwise fine.

Now we come to what I consider the weakest aspect of the camera: the design, and, to a certain extent, the feature set. A hair smaller than models like the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3 and the Olympus E-PM1, it looks like an overgrown point-and-shoot with rounded sides and a rather featureless front view. One thing Nikon didn't seem to learn from its competitors' predecessors was the need for a grip. Though I wouldn't go so far as to call the glossy body slippery, there's nothing to use for leverage on the front. On top are the small power button, large, flat shutter and movie record buttons, and a pop-up flash that one of my coworkers likened to an old-fashioned mailbox flag.

The back looks quite busy, given how few direct-access controls it has. The four-way navigation dial controls exposure compensation, self-timer, flash, and AE/AF lock; an F button pulls up some context-sensitive options, such as continuous shooting (single, continuous, and electronic shutter) or movie (HD movie or slow motion); next to it is a vertical rocker labeled for playback zoom but which controls shutter speed; there are display, playback, menu, and delete buttons; and a small, partly filled mode dial takes you into Motion Snapshot, Smart Photo Selector, standard still options (where you choose from auto and PASM), and movie mode.

Most of the settings are in the menu system, though the menus themselves are relatively short and don't go more than a couple levels deep, so that didn't bother me too much. But for a camera targeted at newbies and point-and-shoot upgraders, I think the J1 can get somewhat confusing, such as by surfacing the Electronic shutter as a burst option, or not using the dial for changing shutter speed in shutter-priority mode. The F button, rather than bringing up a quick menu. is hardwired to a couple of options that you may use less frequently than others in the menus.

Nikon has adopted the collapsible-lens design that's become common for ILCs, and the initial lens offerings are pretty compact. But to achieve that, Nikon has jettisoned a manual focus ring. Instead, you have to use the awkward and imprecise dial and screen scale from point-and-shoots. Though the camera has a metal lens mount, it feels like the lenses use silver plastic.

The J1 simultaneously has one of the larger and yet more limited feature sets I've seen in this class of camera. On the plus side, there's a time-lapse mode, which few cameras offer. Nikon introduces a few novelty modes. Motion Snapshot records a still image and a 60fps 1-second video clip, which it then combines, adds music, and saves as 24fps for a 0.4x slow-motion playback. It would be really cool...if it could do more than 1 second.

Smart Photo Selector is a point-and-shoot staple, which bursts 20 shots and then saves the best 5 as determined by your camera. I'm not sure anyone uses this feature, and I don't think I want the camera deciding which shots to toss and which to keep. In the electronic shutter mode, you can shoot 10, 30, or 60fps at full resolution but for a limited burst; I always find the burst lengths too short to be useful in these types of modes, but at least the camera doesn't get bogged down in the file saving so that you can burst again pretty quickly.

For some reason, you can't use the flash with shutter speeds above 1/60 second, and when you pop up the flash it automatically drops to 1/60 if you're set higher (it automatically switches back to your previous setting when you close the flash). I think that's really going to frustrate some people trying to freeze action. There's also no exposure bracketing, a feature that Nikon has dropped from its entry-level dSLRs as well. Nor are there any special effects, which is odd given how hot they are these days. But bizarrely, the camera does allow you to save your image settings (Picture Control) and copy them to an SD card for use with another camera, a high-end feature that doesn't really fit here. Finally, there's no option for an EVF.

Conclusion
The J1 is a fine camera, but there's nothing here that screams out "must buy" compared with similar competitors. It's on the expensive side for a point-and-shoot upgrader, and has drawbacks for the more advanced among you, including having to commit to a completely new lens mount that's years behind Micro Four Thirds when it comes to variety.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

1

1.3

1.1

0.4

0.2

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3

0.6

0.6

0.6

0.6

0.3

Sony NEX-5N

1.2

1.1

1

0.6

0.3

Olympus PEN E-PL3

1

0.8

0.7

0.6

0.3

Sony Alpha NEX-C3

0.7

0.8

0.8

0.8

0.4