Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Nikon’s Mirrorless Dynamic Duo

Posted on 21 December 2011 by MatthewBamberg
Finally! Nikon, the first company of the Nikon-Canon dynamic duo to came out with its own version of mirrorless cameras. Two models–the J1 and V1 are small and powerful.
Nikon’s ploy of coming out with two new mirrorless cameras (called the 1 series) to compete against those put out by Panasonic, Olympus, Sony and Samsung puts it at the helm of abiding by Apple’s old slogan: “Think Different.”


The two cameras are different than the others—they have much smaller sensors, a kind-of-inbetween size that has many people puzzled as to why they would do that.
Nikon supposedly markets this camera not to professionals, but to “those who like to take pictures.”
The Nikon pair both have a sensor size of 13.2X8.8 mm, while the other mirrorless cameras are larger (Sony NEX which is 24X16 mm).
Four lenses are on tap for those who opt to shoot both landscapes and portraits: 10 mm f/2.8 (27mm equivalent), 10-30mm (27-81mm 35mm equivalent) f/3.5-5.6, 30-110mm (27-81mm 35mm equivalent) f/3.8-f/5, and 10-100mm(27-270mm equivalent) f/4.5-5.5 “power zoom” lens.



The cameras are also inferior to their big brothers (Panasonic, Olympus, Sony and Samsung) in that their resolution is much smaller 10 MP compared to, say, 24 MP for Sony’s new NEX 7.
No all the professional characteristics are lost, though—both models shoot in Raw format. Both cameras also have a pop-up flash and three-inch LCD display, which has a higher resolution than the other mirrorless cameras.
Just as intriguing in their comparison with other mirrorless models, is the comparison between the J1 and V1.
The V1 is bigger and a little better than the J1. The V1 has an electronic viewfinder and the J1 does not, the V1 has an external flash port for a small flash unit and the J1 has an external flash.
At $900 for the V1 and $650 for the J1, The cameras are not cheap, though cheaper than Sony’s Nex 7 ($1,350)



New options such as the Smart Photo Selector, which takes a series of 20 photos, choosing the 5 best, having you pick the best one; EXSPEED, what Nikon says is the fastest shooting speed in the world—60 frames per second; and you can record a full resolution still shot while the video recording keeps going.
Did someone say video? Yes, the cameras also have video. Both can shoot 20 minutes of 1080p video.
Nikon may be on to something here, but then again it might not.

View the original article here