Adventure Nomad

Adventure Nomad

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Nikon 1 System... eh?

The Nikon 1 System is Nikon's version of the mirrorless cameras that have been so popular these past few years and created a sort of revival for the business.  There are two bodies in the system.  The J1 (smaller, lighter, cheaper), and the V1 which comes with a built-in electronic viewfinder, dust reduction system, better battery life but loses the built-in pop-up flash of the J1.  For outdoor use, an electronic viewfinder is almost mandatory, hence the V1 will be of more interest for adventure and travel use.
Nikon V1 (White).  Image courtesy nikonrumors.com
The system has a total of 4 native lenses:

10mm f/2.8
10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 VR
10-110mm f/3.8-5.6 VR
10-100mm f/4.5-5.6 VR PD-Zoom 

The '1' system has a crop factor of 2.7, which means that a 10mm lens has the 35mm or full-frame equivalent of 27mm, which is a moderately wide angle lens.
White Nikon J1 with assorted white '1' lenses


My take:  I don't have a great depth of knowledge about the '1' System, but it seems pretty expensive for what you get, but then again, the micro four third cameras are all pretty expensive too.  But micro four third sensors is bigger than the Nikon 1, and should theoretically anyway, give them an edge over the Nikon 1.  In this respect, Sony's NEX-7 looks very interesting, as it uses an even bigger sensor, about the same size as APS-C or cropped sensor DSLRs.

The Nikon 1 does have promise though.  I'll need to see a native ultra-wide lens before I'll take another look, as well as better video performance.  For now though, I'll pass.


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