NX10 and Nikon V1 impressions after 2 months

I've now been using my Nikon V1 and Samsung NX10 cameras side-by-side for 2 months and thought I'd give some impressions for anyone that might be considering either system.

At first, I exclusively used the V1 when I first got it. Like any new camera, there was a honeymoon period where I was totally in love with it. It's so fast, images are incredibly sharp, and it's really quite compact, especially the 30-110 telephoto lens. In good light, there's no other compact camera that can autofocus and shoot as quickly as the V1, and the image stabilization in particular is just amazing. The screen and viewfinder are top-notch as well.

But over time, I started to discover some things I did not like so much.

The lack of external controls is particularly frustrating. I think the camera was intended to be used mostly in AUTO mode, but I found that I needed to dive in to the menus far too often for full control, because the AUTO settings simply do not do a good job in many situations. Auto-ISO in particular always chooses slow shutter speeds.

The lack of a grip is also a constant point of irritation. The optional grip is bulky and very expensive. The camera is actually quite heavy despite being small so this makes the lack of grip even more noticeable.

The small sensor gives you a huge DOF, which is advantageous at times, but limiting at other times. Nice bokeh is hard to achieve. I knew this going in of course, but I missed my DOF control more than I thought I would.

Finally, the biggest flaw, is that low-light autofocus can be quite poor. It's slow, and at times, will not focus at all, even in moderate indoor lighting if the subject is low-contrast. Even outdoors on a cloudy day the camera would switch to slow contrast-detection autofocus instead of the much faster phase-detection autofocus that Nikon hypes so much. Basically, the camera requires good bright light to achieve "DSLR-like" autofocus speed an accuracy, and much of my shooting is indoors or outside on dim cloudy days. In those situations, the V1 can feel as slow as a regular point & shoot camera.

So I've been using my NX10 more recently, and find that in many situations it focuses nearly as quickly as the V1, and more reliably. At low-ISO the NX10 image quality is definitley superior, although the V1 performs well and even pulls ahead by ISO 3200 with a much nicer noise pattern and better color saturation. Still, at low ISO the NX10 image is cleaner and more detailed.

And I just LOVE the handling of my NX10. It feels perfect in my hand and all the controls I need are accessible without diving in to menus.

The Samsung 30mm lens does not have a Nikon 1 equivalent, and with that lens on the NX10 actually fits in my pocket beter than the V1 with kit lens.

Finally, the ability to isolate subjects with full depth of field control is something that I really missed. It takes a bit more skill in getting the focus point just right, but I enjoy that part of the creative photo-taking process.

I do miss the odd action shot when using the NX10 instead of the V1, but less often than I'd thought. The NX10 images just look more like photographs instead of snapshots, and I'm falling in love with the camera again after a brief fling with my V1. I may actually sell the V1 system and buy an NX20 when it's released, since I already have a nice set of lenses (18-55, 30, 50-200).

To sum up, the V1 is amazing at capturing action shots in good light, and really pretty good all-around.

But my heart goes to the NX10. It feels much more like a real photographer's tool instead of an impressive gadget.