There is a new breed of cameras in the market nowadays. These are called mirrorless cameras. While they are around for a few years now and have brought success to firms like Panasonic and Sony, the camera heavyweights Nikon and Canon have become serious about them only this year.
Before we review one of the Nikon's offerings, let's quickly introduce mirrorless cameras. Unlike the DSLR cameras, they don't have a mirror-based optical viewfinder. This means they can accommodate a big image sensor in a smaller and compact body. In many ways, a mirrorless camera is an attempt to combine the best of a point & shoot camera, which is the compact size, and best of a DSLR camera, which is the image quality and interchangeable lens, into one device. The idea is definitely sound and has helped mirrorless cameras gain lot of traction in the market.
Nikon launched two mirrorless cameras in India several weeks ago – 1 J1 and 1 V1. Of these the J1, the cheaper one, is with us today. Can it fulfill the promise and match picture quality of a DSLR camera without its additional bulk? Let's find out.
Clean looks, fantastic build quality
J1 has a modern and minimalist design. There are few protruded parts and if the lens is not attached, the camera looks like a single unified block built with aluminum allow. At the same time, the build quality is top notch, something that a user will realize as soon he picks up the camera. It feels heavy for its size and dimensions. Is it a good thing? This will depend on whether you like your cameras to be light or feel reassuring in the hand with their weight. We like the solid feel J1 has.
J1 can capture pictures in up to 10.1 mega pixels. It has a sensor size of 13.2 mm x 8.8 mm, which is considerably smaller compared to the APC C (23.4mm x 15.6mm) used in competing cameras like Sony Nex-5K. However, Nikon says that it uses a technology called high-speed AF CMOS, which helps J1 capture impressive amount of detail even in the low light conditions. The company calls its image sensor CX format. It has a crop factor of 2.7X. This means that if you use a 10mm lens on the camera, the actual focal length will be 27mm.
The camera can shoot videos in up to 1080P – full HD – resolution.
Just like other mirrorless cameras, J1 uses a proprietary lens mount called Nikon 1 mount. As part of the default kit the company bundles a 10-30 mm lens (27-81mm effective) with the J1.
Some hits, some misses
We spent a considerable time with J1, shooting thousands of photographs in different conditions with two lenses – the 10-30mm and 30-110 telephoto. We shot in the daylight and in the pitch dark. We shot macros and landscapes. While the picture quality was mostly good, the overall experience turned out to be average. Let us explain.
The pictures and videos taken with J1 have very good quality if the light is adequate. This means if you are shooting outdoors or in a well-lit room, the performance of J1 is stellar. The images have right amount of detail, pleasant colours and good sharpness. It especially handles dynamic range – the contrast between bright areas and dark areas in a scene – very well. The same is true for videos. Also, focus is very fast and camera performance is snappy.
Unfortunately for J1, good performance in adequate conditions is no longer a big deal. A decent point & shoot camera performs somewhat similar if the conditions are ideal. The difference between good cameras and great cameras lies in the way they handle low-light conditions. Here, J1 performs marginally better than point & shoot cameras but falls short of image quality that similarly-priced mirrorless or DSLR cameras can produce. Given the size of the sensor used in J1, we are not surprised. While technologies like high-speed AF CMOS can be useful, at the end of the day it's all about how much light a camera can capture and process, something that depends largely on the size of image sensor.
Another major issue with J1 is manual control, or the lack of it. For some reason, Nikon has made it difficult to use manual mode on J1. Yes, the options are all there. But they are hidden in menu and using them is cumbersome. We understand that Nikon has tried to simplify the process of taking photo. The company believes J1 will be used by mainstream users and not prosumers, who tend to buy DSLRs. But it would have been better to see more accessible manual control on J1. Nowadays, even cheap point & shoot cameras try to get the manual controls right.
Sum of it all
J1 is a nice camera. It is built well, has a good-looking design, and takes nice pictures when the conditions are optimum. But there are some crucial aspects where it falls short. This makes it a tough sell. It has an MRP of Rs 29,950 with kit lens of 10mm-30mm but it doesn't offer much advantage over a point & shoot camera for mainstream users due to its average performance in low-light conditions. At the same time, the gap between the image quality of J1 and a similarly priced DSLR cameras like Nikon's 3100 is big enough to make it a poor option for prosumers or photography enthusiasts.
It gets even more difficult for J1 when you compare it with mirrorless cameras like Sony's NEX-5K. The only advantage J1 holds over Sony's device is the design. If you want a more compact and stylish camera, J1 is worth the premium. But for everything else, it is a tad overpriced for what it does.
Pros: Fantastic build quality, fast auto focus, slim and sleek profile compared to other mirrorless cameras, good image quality in ideal conditions
Cons: Poor low-light performance, lack of easily accessible manual controls