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Nikon introduces mirrorless system camera with two new models and four lenses

21 September 2011 by
Nikon today announced Nikon System 1 mirrorless camera system and introduced Nikon V1 and Nikon J1 in addition to 4 new lenses

Nikon V1 and J1 System 1 

The new 1-series are closing the gap between Nikon's DSLR and their range of compact cameras. There are several new interesting things about today's announcement. A new mounting system, world fastest auto focus engine, and the worlds smallest camera among those with sensor size larger than 1 inch.

Nikon V1
Nikon J1

Nikon also introduced the CX-format and a new range of exchangeable lenses for this new system. Nikons larger F-mount lenses has been around over fifty years and these old AF-S and AF-I lenses can still be used on new Nikon DSLR cameras using an optional FT1 mount adapter.

There are several other lens mounts available today. The best known are Canon EF, Nikon F-mount, Samsung NX and Four Thirds. Four Thirds system mount are used by Olympus and Panasonic. 

Both the Nikon V1 and Nikon J1 has a 10.1 megapixel CMOS sensor with usable ISO between 100 and 3200. Full HD 1080p video capture is recorded at a maximum of 400 fps at 640x480 and 1200 fps at 320x240 resolution. The V1 and J1 can capture up to 10 images per second when autofocus is turned on and impressive 60 images per second in full high definition fixed-focus mode. The Expeed 3 image engine are able to process 600 megapixels per second. Nikon CX 1 sensor size

Mobile phones and compact cameras usually have sensor size smaller than 1/1.7 inch as seen on the graph to the right. The new Nikon system CX places itself between the 1/1.7" and the larger APS-C sensors found in consumer DSLR cameras. Both Nikon V1 and J1 has a crop factor of 2.7 compared to 35mm. A 10 mm lens equals 27 mm on a 35 mm full frame camera.

Four new lenses were also introduced today.

  • 1 Nikkor 10 mm f/2.8 (27mm on full frame)
  • 1 Nikkor VR 10-30 mm f/3.5-5.6 (27-81 mm on FF)
  • 1 Nikkor VR 30-110 mm f/3.8-5.6 (81-297 mm on FF
  • 1 Nikkor VR 10-100 mm f/4.5-5.6 (27-270 mm on FF)

As you can see, the zoom lenses has Nikons image stabilization system called Vibration Reduction (VR)

Those are the main features and advantages. Some might consider the competitors such as Sony NEX series, Panasonic Lumix or Olympus Pen series. All these have exchangeable lenses and the range of available lenses for the FourThird system are much wider than Nikons four lenses. The new Nikons has external flash mount of a new type where older flash don't fit. The new Nikons also lack manual control wheel for Aperture-, Shutter- and Manual priority settings.

Nikon J1 highlights

  • Size: 106 x 61 x 29.8mm
  • Weight: 277 gram
  • 10.1 megapixel
  • 13.2 x 8.8 mm CMOS sensor
  • Auto focus
    • Phase detection and contrast detection
    • Lens servo: Auto focus, Single focus AF-S, continuous focus AF-C, auto AF-S/AF-C selection, full-time focus AF-F and manual focus MF
    • 135 or 41 focus areas
    • Focus area: Single-point, auto-arena and subject tracking
  • File formats: NEF (Nikon raw), JPEG
  • Storage: SD, SDHC and SDXC memory cards
  • Shutter: Electronic, 1/16.000-30s
  • 1080p video capture, H.264/MPEG-4
  • Video frames: 1080/60i (59.94fps), 1080/30p (29.97fps), 720/60p (59.94fps). Slow-motion with 30fps playback: 640x240/400fps, 320x120/1200fps.
  • 3 inch monitor with 460k dots
  • HDMI out, USB
  • 230 images per charge, 70 minutes of HD recording

Nikon V1 highlights

  • Size: 113 x 76 x 43.5 mm
  • Weight: 383 gram
  • 10.1 megapixel
  • 13.2 x 8.8 mm CMOS sensor
  • Auto focus
    • Phase detection and contrast detection
    • Lens servo: Auto focus, Single focus AF-S, continuous focus AF-C, auto AF-S/AF-C selection, full-time focus AF-F and manual focus MF
    • 135 or 41 focus areas
    • Focus area: Single-point, auto-arena and subject tracking
  • File formats: NEF (Nikon raw), JPEG
  • Storage: SD, SDHC and SDXC memory cards
  • Shutter: Electronically-controlled vertical-traverl focal plane mechanical shutter, electronic shutter.
    • Mecanical: 1/4000-30 seconds
    • Electronic: 1/16,000-30 seconds
  • 1080p video capture, H.264/MPEG-4
  • Video frames: 1080/60i (59.94fps), 1080/30p (29.97fps), 720/60p (59.94fps). Slow-motion with 30fps playback: 640x240/400fps, 320x120/1200fps.
  • 3 inch monitor, 921k dots
  • HDMI out, USB
  • 400 images per charge, 120 minutes of HD recording

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Bonovox13 years, 1 month ago
Wow fantastic i love Nikon quality. Would love to see a Nikon lens in a mobile too
[ This Message was edited by: Bonovox on 2011-09-21 17:32 ]
julias13 years, 1 month ago
Is it me or do the camera designs look quite dated?Sony's NEX range look far nicer.
Bonovox13 years, 1 month ago
No,that is the fashion lately with alot of high end compact system cameras. The retro look. I buy & read alot of digital camera mags all the time & it's a current trend. I don't like the Sony NEX range. The best thing about the latest Sony cameras is the video quality. Nikon make far better lenses than Sony. Anyway lets not make it a topic of who is best
yuunanase13 years, 1 month ago
Are they serious? Crop factor of 2.7!?
I have a GH2, and a crop factor of 2.0 is seriously ruining my lenses already!
julias13 years, 1 month ago

On 2011-09-21 18:35:25, Bonovox wrote:
No,that is the fashion lately with alot of high end compact system cameras. The retro look. I buy & read alot of digital camera mags all the time & it's a current trend. I don't like the Sony NEX range. The best thing about the latest Sony cameras is the video quality. Nikon make far better lenses than Sony. Anyway lets not make it a topic of who is best

I know the retro look is in at the moment but its not for me I like my tech to look current and modern.The Olympus PEN is also a very nice compact DSLR and retro designed.
Yes I know that Nikon make better cameras and will most likely produce better images but I am only refering to the design in this case and not who is best.
Bonovox13 years, 1 month ago
This does look nice though
julias13 years, 1 month ago
I don't think it does at all I would pick the Sony NEX everytime even the Olympus pen looks nicer than this I honestly don't get this whole retro look?Would anyone buy a retro look mobile phone I think not.
[ This Message was edited by: julias on 2011-09-21 19:40 ]
Bonovox13 years, 1 month ago
Variety & different taste is the spice of life!! If we all had the same taste life would be very The quality inside is what matters to most people. I am not the type of person who looks for style in a product I look for quality. I once had the Samsung EX1 camera with the worlds brightest lens f1.8 which also had a slightly tank like look to it. But the quality inside spoke for itself.
[ This Message was edited by: Bonovox on 2011-09-21 19:45 ]
julias13 years, 1 month ago
I'm all for variety and choice and that's always a good thing but its just not my own personal choice that's all.Im the kind of person that's willing to compromise good design over quality and its why Apple has taken over the world not because the internal quality of their products is anything special if anything its quite mediocre.
Bonovox13 years, 1 month ago
Apple took over the world not cos of quality but just style?? You said it It's an ipod with a phone in it
julias13 years, 1 month ago
There is very little between this Nikon and the Sony NEX there is a good side by side review here....
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/42175/nikon-v1-vs-sony-nex-5n
[ This Message was edited by: julias on 2011-09-21 22:33 ]
razec13 years, 1 month ago
nikon cameras have consistently ranked high in High ISO image quality, they can even outperform Canon EOS in most cases, So people have high expectations on this. i don't know for sure but NEX's saving grace would be its large APS-C sensor, but with one of the most aggressive Noise reduction of all the cameras i've seen. NEX's AVCHD format is almost unchallenged though
MyP91013 years, 1 month ago
I think the new Sony NEX C3 is far better than this. Most of the reviewers praise NEX C3 especially in the low light situation. As for lenses, I prefer Carls Zeiss glass or at least Sony G but unfortunately, the NEX does not use Carl Zeiss or Sony G.
Bonovox13 years, 1 month ago
I have the Sony HX9v compact camera with AVCHD full HD video & it is unsurpassed for quality. But the image quality is only about average. It is Sony with it's cartoon looking images when cropped.

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