Nikon 1 V1

Opinion: Some noise in low light Great for sightseeing.

Opinion: I use nik since F2. I use almost all mirrorless: nex 3/5, pen 1/pl1/pl2/pm1. I use dSLR : 300D to 5D2, E1 to E3, E410 to E620, D40 to D700. Now it's time for BOTH J1 and V1.

J1 designed for newbie and it holds. Easy to use. Guarantee good pictures almost all the time. File quality better than compact while size & weight the same. You can bring J1 to you almost everywhere and get satisfaction and happiness back. Everywhere from sit-down formal dinner to jungle and hill trip.

V1 is heavy. NO FLASH. OVER-PRICED external flash that's just 'a little bit brighter than firefly' and pull LOTS of power from camera battery. Olympus and Sony give you BETTER flash for FREE when you buy Olympus Pen or Sony NEX.

Battery is heavy. Use it on D7000 and you get 1,000+ pics. Use it on V1 and you last only 300. Use it with that defect-by-design flash and you're finished.

Very confuse menu & button, to say the best.

Stay away from V1, live with J1 if it's your first camera.

If you're nikonion and already have some lens, just buy v1 and 10-30 kits & (over priced) FT1.

The only reason I keep V1 is to use it with 300mm f/4 ED-IF VR. The combo is 800mm f/4 equivalent for money less than a TC-20E III.

Opinion: I consider the Nikon V1 one of the most underrated cameras on the market and having used it for 4 weeks I believe that a lot of the bashing its received online is largely unjustified. I have 30 years of amateur / enthusiast experience and have always preferred the direct connection you get from an optical viewfinder, so the early EVFs with their pixelation and lag just put me off EVFs altogether. So point #1, the EVF on the V1 is excellent. Fast refresh rate and enough detail to be a real alternative to optical. As a comparison, my Fuji X100 (hybrid optical/EVF) when set to EVF the refresh rate is only as fast when half pressing. With the V1, the refresh rate is high speed all the time. One small downside is the eye sensor delay (which activates the EVF) is a bit slow, so you get a black viewfinder for a short second while the EVF wakes up. A bit annoying if you want to pull off a quick shot. Point #2, the V1 uses the same battery and charger as my D7000 so I save $ not having to buy more spare batteries and I can share between cameras. (The IR remote is also the same). The battery is also a decent size. Point #3, the AF (phase detection) really is fast - so long as you keep the light good (by using the 10 mm prime indoors or in poor light). The zooms are a little slow so the camera falls back to contrast detection in poor light and you get the familiar hunting delay, although still not bad, just way slower than PD. Point #3 the V1 can pull off 10 fps in electronic shutter mode and still maintain focus! And you can shoot at this rate for over 3 seconds and capture around 34 raw images before the buffer is full. Recovery is about 1 sec/image with a fast card, so this camera really lives for short, repeated bursts (3-5 frames) of continuous shooting. It can even go up to 60 fps. Not much else out there that matches this. Want to to do a water drop/crown movie at 1,200 fps? V1 does 400 & 1,200 fps slow-motion video. Point #4 the CX sensor, while small is still about 4x a typical PAS sensor in size, and it delivers surprisingly good images even at 3200 ISO - quite acceptable for most typical users. Point #5 this camera is small and the lenses are even smaller - especially the zooms. The CX sensor (2.7 crop) really helps here to allow much smaller lenses - even compared to M4/3. Point #6 you can use your existing DX and FX f-mount lenses on your V1 with the optional FT-1 adapter and get crazy tele lengths, although not all 3rd party lenses register. Nikkor CPU lenses with built-in AF motors and VR will work (AF-S only). The 18-200 DX VR lens is a nice match on the V1. To put this all in perspective, by D7000 is now being used only for very wide angle and wildlife use. The V1 is taking over as my general purpose camera and primary system.

Opinion: In leiu of DPR's review:
Everything in the "pro"column is what counts for me (IQ, AF, EVF etc)
most things in the "con"I couldn't care less about (no filter effects,
no in - camera RAW conversion, hey thats why I shoot in RAW and use lightroom).
As far as design - I love it compared to the quasi retro feel, and as far as handling - the V1 has enough bulk and heft to feel secure whilst the small size makes it easy to carry one in one hand ( what I couldnt with my d90).
As far as changing shooting modes, ISO,focus mode: although missing a dedicated control its extremely easy and quick to change settings even on "the go"and in the middle of shooting.
Of course I have ideas to make it more user friendly especially if one prefers manual controls.
A perfect camera? ain't no such thing , not in this price range, not even the M9 . Well maybe the D4 but that's a different story altogether.

Opinion: I bought this camera 'bout 2-3 weeks ago with the 10mm lens + Sb-N5 external flash. And I'm very impressed by the quality. Although I miss the option where you can turn off the picture-viewing after each picture. I hope Nikon will release some sort of update to these cameras where you can turn it on/off.

Have treid some editing in both in Capture NX2 and Lightroom, and it's just perfect for this type of camera.

My personal summary:
+ the size of the camera
+ fast autofocus
+ the viewfinder
+ low noise at high ISO (even at 3200)

- picture-view after each picture
- photo movable objects
- the release button for the zoom lenses (schould've been a slide as in Olympus in my opinion)
- the little zoom in/out button for pictures (neft to the F-button). Small peice of plastic which will easly broke.

Opinion: Having owned this camera for several weeks now, I'm very impresssed by what Nikon has put together.

Before purchase I was nervous of the sensor size debate etc etc, but after using the camera and the 10mm, the 10-30mm, and the 10-100mm I do think that the tradeoffs are well thought out.

Quality of build is excellent; The viewfinder is very nice, and gives a very responsive and useable alternative to pocket cam handling. Some friends who handled it commented on its "Leica-ness".

Focus is excellent, truly outstanding.

Image quality is very good out of the camera.....

Overall : I like it!

Opinion: Well, at least for me a very nice camera.
The size fits me well, small but not too lightweighted.
Fast autofocus, very nice viewfinder, can justify the taken pictures better at the viewfinder than at the display.
The picture quality is surprisingly fine, the external flash a better solution than a weak build-in version.
I also have no problem changing parameters hidden in the menu very fast. Can´t tell any weak point exept the high price compared to other brand´s competitors. Hope, Nikon will produce some more lenses, as a example a faster 10-40 regular zoom.

Opinion: Very, very, very fast and precise autofocus. Very good noise even at HI (6400 ASA), little bit confusing menu, beatifull EVF, small command buttons, battery life exceptional, point and shoot camera No 1. Very expensive!