Just Posted: Preview and first impressions of using the Nikon V1

Repeated attempts here and at Youtube to watch the video resulted in a message, "This video is private."

What's with that?

One needs to question:

How come so much negative comments and put downs for such a minor niche market camera?

Anybody's answer, but let me put in some:

1. Consumers are going to get angry when manufacturers insult their intelligence.
2. Buyers are smart enough these days to sniff a raw deal.
3. Loyal brand followers are upset the brand they learned to love, admire, follow, support, endorse and be proud of, has LET THEM DOWN on this 1 series.

Nikon should immediately REMOVE from their payroll the DESIGNER of this 1 series and replace them with anybody decent enough to work the hard yards and design the camera from their HEARTS and not with their empty minds.

I know Nikon is not aiming at a niche market, but for birders and digiscopers the v1 is exciting :

- RAW noise on par with D3000 (and not far from D300)
- about twice the reach of DX
- 10/60 fps
- silent
- fast AF
- F-mount compatibility (with Af-S)

This is a very innovative combo of features !

good video

I haven't seen dpreview act as such a shill for a company in quite a while. I wonder how much Nikon pays them for all of these "reviews"?

I've played with one
This camera's awesome ..! 10 fps with no finder blackout , extremely fast focus
With the adapter my 70-200 2.8 becomes a 189-540 2.8 .. 10 fps ..!
This thing has the potential to be a really great sports camera.
It's very well made and a lot smaller than it appears. The kit lenses are very well made,

The question is ,how long before they bring out the normal fast prime

Seems like the only good thing people have to say about this us that it has a Nikon badge. The most common excuse for this is that Nikon made it sub standard on purpose, so it would not compete with their entry level dslr cameras.

Well, I have news for Nikon. Those entry level dslr cameras are as obsolete as their "new" (actually four year old idea) V1 and J1.

Most of these companies take a long time to figure out that what enthusiasts really want out of a compact camera is compact fast primes, like Panasonic's m43 20mm 1.7 and 14mm 2.5. We don't want the same big clunky zoom or a blah F3.5/5.6 kit lens.

I'm not impressed by the camera's sensor size. With its Nex system, Sony managed to make a similarly-sized camera with the same sensor used by DX DSLRs. APS-C lenses can be compact.

I do believe mirrorless is the future of where ALL digital photography is headed. I'll take a wait and see approach before I judge this particular camera. The menus look like a nice change of pace from Sony and Panasonic's. But I can't get over the fact that it will be hampered by a small sensor and clunky slow-aperture lenses.

I can't see the point of a camera that small with a lens that large. If the price gets savaged in the stores it might be worth considering but at this price, no.

I don't see the advantage of a tiny camera with a protruding, non-retractable lens. Seems to have the disadvantages of both form-factors, without the benefits.

At least they could have slapped on 24fps video. It never should be a niche/premium feature and according to Canon, its not.

This system really falls short of what I expected. Lousy build quality, lack of PASM, horrible low light performance... Like everything Nikon produces other than DSLRs, this really seems like nothing more than an afterthought. I find it really hard to believe this was 4 years in development, seems like something they outsourced to fisher price at the last minute.

Why on earth Nikon didn't just make a DX format mirrorless is beyond me.
They could have kitted them single lens with the 35mm 1.8, 10-24 or 40mm macro, with the same size body as the V1, and made bazillions of dollars in the process.

Point-and-shoot quality at DSLR price.

5 years ago, Nikon saw a nice camera and COPIED it.

http://a.img-dpreview.com/news/0609/Leica/dlux3-001.jpg

Now after 5 years of trying to tweak and to clone so it won't LOOK like that nice camera 5 years ago, they plopped some modeling clay and...

Voila! V1!!!!

The one thing that this system have as a strong point is on-sensor PDAF.

How long do we expect this feature to be unique?
When this trickles down to other Nikons, and sideways to other brands, what happens then?

I would have loved to see all Nikons Dxxx DSLRS get a twin lineup, Mxxx .
Mirrorless with PDAF and EVF. Reuse all lenses and get good video at a much lower producion cost. And leaving the choice to the customer.

I'm sorry, but the two-handed picture with that massive zoom lens says it all. Unless they can make some seriously smaller zooms for this thing, it really falls behind m4/3 too far to be taken seriously. Well, that's from me, there's no telling what the consumer response will be and the lack of controls mark this out as a consumer-oriented product.

It seems that Nikon's latest foray into the compact world shares the Coolpix mix of innovative features yet a final package that photographically falls behind the competition. Perhaps the combination of small sensor and fast operation will be just the ticket for the intended audience. But will anyone non-enthusiast be willing to spend so much on a consumer item? It really is a long shot and they ought to sort out the pricing, $500 would be about right, which is where I see it ending up in a couple of months.

I remember Mick Jagger once answered about the his 20 years playing with the Rolling Stones, "Yeah, its was great — 5 years of hard work and 15 years of fooling around".
When Nikon says they've spent 4 years thinking, then at least 3 years marketing and engineering team spent fooling around bars in Tokyo trying to think to which bar they should be going next ...

I think this explains a lot, from the dpreview preview:
"According to Nikon, the 1 system has been four years in the making. Tracking back, this means that Nikon started work on its new mirrorless system in mid-2007 - about a year before Panasonic launched the pioneering Micro Four-Thirds system with the Lumix DMC-G1."

They spent too long on this. Now 4 years have passed, Nikon has launched it's cameras but oops, seems like some other manufacturers have had better ideas that make Nikon's 4 year old obsolete. Thankfully there still seem to a lot of folks out there who are willing to buy the Nikon cameras regardless...

Now I understand why Nikon didn't just make a micro four thirds camera. Micro four thirds didn't exist when they were choosing the specs for this thing. Maybe Nikon will eventually launch a micro four thirds camera. Hope it does not take them four years.

At this price I would opt for an APS-C sensor.

Just buy a Canon G12 for 1/3 the price... at least it will fit in a big pocket!

This would be an interesting, albeit expensive, camera if not for the micro 4/3 cameras and other mirrorless systems. Also, the zoom lens dominates, making the camera look awkward.

I'm a m43 user and where this camera fails for me is price point.

I do think some of the features are interesting and the image quality is "good enough" for me (and I'm sure most of us, except, well, pixel-peeping is the life blood of this forum).

I also like the idea of a very small sensor camera with interchangeable lenses, because of the advantages for telephoto.

But this camera is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too high priced, especially considering all of the excellent dslrs in the used camera market.

And if it is for non-enthusiasts, then why are they trying to sell it with a couple of esoteric features that even the majority of enthusiasts care little about?

If it were a $300 or $400 camera, maybe.

I think there is a danger of missing the point here. Nikon has introduced a new and competent system. To me it means a different perspective to photography and is welcome. Some people will find it useful others will not, or just think so.
Had Nikon produced another equivalent mirrorless, it would have meant nothing to me.

My main system is and will remain DSLR based (FX and DX). But I also use film SLR, a u4/3 system, an ultrazoom and occasionally I borrow a pocket quality camera from my daughter. All have their space depending on the situation.

Dear manufacturers,

All I want is a pocketable mirrorless, with a perfectly balanced feel, the IQ and bokeh of a FF SLR, a pancake 24-210 zoom, 12 fps stills, 1920 x 1080 60 fps video, a superior EVF and zero lag-time shutter for less than $600. In short, everything. Why is that so hard?

And when you get done building that, I’ll have a brand new request list for next year’s model. Don’t disappoint me.

Yours truly,
Pollyanna

Nikon has filled a yawning gap in the sensor-size bestiary, but the pricing isn't consistent with the technical positioning or the users apparently targeted by Nikon for the System 1. Nikon needs to correct this mismatch if the system is to be successful.

A point and shoot with no flash (The V1)??? Who exactly do Nikon expect will buy that thing?
Serious photographers? No, sensor size smaller than similarly sized cameras made by other manufacturers and the lenses don't seem to be very good. (See samples posted earlier, top of Martini bottle).
People looking for a camera for holiday snaps? No, you can get cameras that are a lot cheaper and better suited to that purpose. Cameras that have an integral flash and are a lot more compact.
The only people I can imagine buying this are this are those who want a Nikon badge and could care less about anything else.

Im looking for a small mirrorless system to compliment my D7000.
so I have looked carefully at all that are available.
I had a chance to play with the J1, It's really a very nice little camera.
It's small, , equal in size to the NEX5 and the Pens. The lenses are small and very well made. I don't know why DP's testing the 10-100. the kit lenses are very small. It's very well made, the controls are solid and you get the impression that it will last..It's really fast, the focus is excellent , and 10 fps is cool in a mirrorless camera, you get instant feedback, I'm anxious to try the V1 with the EVF.
As far as IQ there are dozens of sites that have samples and it's the equal of 4/3's . They will be very successful . Sure , they're probably $150 overpriced but so what..?