Nikon 1 J1 Digital Camera Tech Review

The Nikon 1 J1 camera gives you the ability to take great pictures without dragging around an DSLR. With features like a high resolution 3" screen, 12 megapixel image sensor and the world's fastest auto-focus, this camera may be worth the $600 price tag. Kevin Pereira and Matt Mira take a closer look on Gadget Pr0n.

Find the full review from Gadget Pron on Attack of the Show after the cut.

What You Need To Know

• The Nikon N1 J1 camera promises to take your pictures to the next level, complete with interchangeable lenses.
• This camera is made for someone looking to take a leap up from the point and shoot cameras.
• The lenses are interchangeable but right now, Nikon only has 4 different options to choose from.
• The lens that ships with this particular kit is 10-30 mm which really means you're getting about a 3x zoom.
• The body of this is slim but smooth with no grip for your shooting hand, other than a small bit of textured rubber next to the shooting dial.
• The top also has very little tactile feedback to differentiate between the shooting button and the record button.
• There is a high resolution 3" LCD and pop up flash and we didn't really find ourselves missing a view finder.
• The LCD is great and is really one of the best we've seen in a long time.
• The flash pops out of the body but you are limited to a shutter speed of 1/60, which can be a problem for those trying to freeze any really fast action without optimal lighting.
• There aren’t as many shooting modes as we've seen with other mirror-less systems.
• In fact, the shooting dial looks kind of sparse with just 4 modes.
• There are a couple odd shooting modes, like motion snapshot, which records a still image and a 60 fps video clip, combines them, adds music and then saves it at 24 fps for slow motion playback.
• The camera can shoot 1080p at 30 or 60 fps.
• It even has a slow motion setting where it can capture video at 400 and at a whopping 1200 fps.
• It was actually a very cool feature to see on what is essentially a point and shoot.
• One caveat is that you can only shoot 5 seconds of footage at a time.
• Regular speed video looks great on this camera and the image was really sharp.
• Color reproduction was very good with excellent saturation.
• The camera records stereo sound and has a wind filter to cut down on wind sound.
• Aside from shooting modes, this camera has a 10 megapixel sensor which is not as high as some cheaper Nikon cameras we've used.
• Noise performance wasn't the best but it was still very good, even in low light.
• We played with the macro settings and were able to get some great shots, even while fumbling around with the focus selector on the LCD.

Price

• $599

Rating

• 4 Seals of Approval out of 5. (How do we rate gadgets?)
• The Nikon 1 J1 is a very good camera that takes excellent pictures.
• However, it's a bit pricey and the shooting options are a little too complicated for novices and not customizable enough for advanced shooters.

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