New V1 Owner & Impressions

Hi All,

I recently picked up a V1 to supplement my DSLR kit. The deal was too good to pass up, so I quickly retired my P&S camera (Canon S95) in favor of a V1 kit. I am in Canada, and I got the V1 +10mm + 10-30 VR for $399, which is less than a decent P&S!

In the past I had completely dismissed mirrorless cameras due to both price, and lack of phase detect AF - the V1 solves both those problems. Not to mention it uses the same battery/charger as the Nikon D7000/D600/D800 which costs $167 if bought separately!

I love the size, weight, responsiveness, etc. of the camera. The AF capabilities are so far ahead any other mirrorless camera it's astonishing, and having AF between frames at 10 FPS used to be reserved for the $6000 pro DSLRs until the V1.

The size with the 10mm pancake is great, I have a feeling I'll be using that combo a lot.

I picked up the FT1 and I have a feeling that will be my favorite thing about it. I've tried it with the 50/1.8 G, 70-200 VR II, and 300/4 and the AF is so fast it's limited only by the speed of the motor in the lens as far as I can tell. I love having the option of a 2.7X crop anytime I want, because to get that on a full frame camera you would need a 74MP sensor!

I have 3 complaints about the camera, fairly minor:

1. No quick way, as far as I can tell, to change ISO in any mode. I hate auto ISO, and like to be able to change that without going through a menu. Seems silly I cannot designate the rotating dial to change ISO, and the rocker switch my aperture (as it is now).
2. No pop up flash for emergencies or use with Nikon CLS (I do have the SB-N5 though).
3. No way to link VR operation to a half press of the shutter with the FT1 - it's either on or off. I do not think it's good for the lens to turn off VR via the lens switch mid-operation, but someone please correct me if I am wrong. I know it's bad to power down the camera mid-VR operation, so I would assume this is no better.

All in all I am absolutely thrilled with this camera. I am more excited about it than I am my D600, simply because it's so powerful for such a small package, and I now have access to "super zooms", 10 FPS with AF, and a ridiculously huge RAW buffer.

Here is one of the first shots I took with the camera with the FT1, 300/4 and 1.4 T (1134mm). Click for larger version: