Nikon 1 J5, adaptor+lenses vs dSLR upgrade

[DavideY]

Hi Guys,

I am a very beginner into photography ( I don't consider taking iphone photos at photography).
I will be doing a bike trip in South America in coming months and wanted a camera that was easy to carry while mountainbiking and giving me the chance of taking good personalized pictures so a friend of mine advised the Nikon 1 J5 that I got a month ago.
I have been practicing quite a bit, shooting all in manual (I want to get decent manual skills) and I realized I really enjoy shooting landscapes (this is an example https://500px.com/photo/207293867/t...-wanderlust-newzealand-nikon1j5-jpg-by-davide )
But I have to say, I have been getting more and more into photography and would like to develop good skills.
The camera came with the standard 10-30mm f3.6 lens, so I bought the Fotodiox adapter for Nikkor lenses. I did't buy the Nikon FT1 adapter because it's price is like 75% of what I paid for the camera.
The Fotodiox stoppes any electric connections between body and lens, so I have to shot in manual (all good to me) but when I tried with my friend's lenses did not allow me to modify any aperture that was automatically at closest.

Now I am in a bit of dilemma. I am thinking of purchsing the Nikon 1 18.5mm F1.8 lens for better landscapes even with lower light, and that is 250 nz$. but all the other Nikon1 specific lenses are not greatest, so I am not sure if it's actually worthed buyng the FT1 adapter (nz$450) so to use the nikkon lenses, or at this stage buy a used Nikon dSLR body, like the D7000 for about nz$500.
My thought is: for my original plan/necessity (mountainbike international trip) the J5 with 18.5mm-f18 should do the job, and for other situations I would use the dSLR VS. the 1 J5 is a great multy use body and don't really need a dSLR to expand the type of photography, hence worth to purchase the FT1 adapter?

I would really appreciate your feedbacks/opinion

Cheers

 

[Sonyshine]

Buy Nikon1 lenses - there are no bad lenses and many are top quality. The 10-100 (non PD) 18.5 and 6.7-13 would be a good start for travel.

The FT1 adapter is worth every penny but you really need a Nikon 1 camera with a view finder to get the most out of it.

--
Stupidity is far more fascinating than intelligence. Intelligence has its limits...

 

[rube39]

Go slow, decide what you need, and then take half of that. Gear is heavy, and S.America can be dangerous, so take as little as possible. Personally, I would try to take the J5, the zoom you already have, and the 18.5. And that is all.

 

[Seedeich]

The J5 with the kit lens should be fine for your trip as your minimal gear. You can complement with the 18.5 mm. It’s a bit hard to predict, if you will use it much or just use the convenience of the zoom.

If you have DX or FX lenses, the FT1 adapter might make sense. Although personally I much prefer the N1 lenses for the N1 system. They are more compact and easier and faster to use - and some of them are outright excellent lenses.

Whether you later get a DSLR is a question, which is separate from the trip. It depends on what you want to do. DSLRs are good for certain things (taking them on a bike trip through South America is not one of them) and smaller cameras are good for other things.

From my experience is less gear no disadvantage when you want to develop your skills. It forces you develop an eye for what you can do with the gear you have. I find that having a lens with a focal length or zoom range that suits me is more important than having the fastest lenses for low light. The high ISO capability of the J5 is quite good if you shoot RAW.

You could also take a mini tripod with you. The UltraPod II is a versatile lightweight tripod, which is strong enough for the J5 and the shorter zooms.

Or you could use a Manfrotto Nano Clamp with a little ball head and clamp that to some gear you have with you or your bike as camera support.







--
Seedeich in Colour
Seedeich in Black & White

 

[Gaber]

Go slow, decide what you need, and then take half of that. Gear is heavy, and S.America can be dangerous, so take as little as possible. Personally, I would try to take the J5, the zoom you already have, and the 18.5. And that is all.

 

[PaPeRo]

Personally for me less is more. I have both the 10-100 and the 18.5...though I mainly use the latter because I love the shallow DoF and I could always zoom with my feet. The small size and lightweight along with the low light performance is hard to beat. The shallow DoF is also fantastic for shooting "cinematic" video. The zoom is convenient but it's bigger and heavier and I tend to either use it at the 10 or 100 focal lengths...anything in between and I use the 18.5 and zoom with my feet.

 

[tomhongkong]

Quick advice

1. Don't go with the adapted lenses, the N1 lenses are good and sharp wide open. They are also much smaller if you are travelling

2. Consider buying used on ebay from reputable seller. You will save a packet

3. Get the 30-110 to go with your 10-30. It is cheap and gives better IQ than the 10-100 (at the cost of the inconvenience of changing lenses, but that is what you bought, an ILC)

4. By all means buy the 18.5. It is small, cheap on ebay, and gives good results

5. Try to distinguish between photography which you do for the fun of it and the challenge of the technology (e.g. your manual focus), and that which you do to capture memories. For the latter you need a reliable, simple, process, so that you can concentrate on the subject not camera adjustments.....even use everything on automatic, if you have to

6. Whatever, enjoy!

tom

 

[Tord S Eriksson]

Quick advice

1. Don't go with the adapted lenses, the N1 lenses are good and sharp wide open. They are also much smaller if you are travelling

2. Consider buying used on ebay from reputable seller. You will save a packet

3. Get the 30-110 to go with your 10-30. It is cheap and gives better IQ than the 10-100 (at the cost of the inconvenience of changing lenses, but that is what you bought, an ILC)

4. By all means buy the 18.5. It is small, cheap on ebay, and gives good results

5. Try to distinguish between photography which you do for the fun of it and the challenge of the technology (e.g. your manual focus), and that which you do to capture memories. For the latter you need a reliable, simple, process, so that you can concentrate on the subject not camera adjustments.....even use everything on automatic, if you have to

6. Whatever, enjoy!

I agree fully with Tom!

But a backup body is not to be frown upon, on a tour like that, and then you can have one lens on one body, and another on the other, and two chargers!

A J5 with a 10-30, plus a 18.5 could be found in Japan for a little over $350 a year ago (that's where my wife's son bought hers).

Several here use a loupe on their J5s, to assist focusing/finding the target, in their quest with long lenses.

When it comes to FT1 I must say I love it with relatively short lenses with autofocus and VR/VC. Sonyshine inspired me to get the Nikon 40/2.8 micro, and I myself found the Nikon 85/3.5 VR micro, two cheap DX macro lenses I couldn't be without, as useful for portraits, as for close-ups and macro.

Together with the 18.5 they make an excellent triplet, and should you in the future complement with a DX body these DX lenses will still be very useful tools, and they even work OK on a FX body!

The 6.7-13 and the 70-300 CX are the stars on the Nikon 1 skyline, but you'd know that already, I'm sure!

Some mixed samples:


1


The 10/2.8 is not a bad lens, either!


3


My 10 has a close-up lens/filter, so it a bit wider.


6


7


The 85/3.5 VR is nuce for shy insects, and the VR helps a lot.


9


The 40/2.8 micro


12

Most of the shots taken with the 70-300 CX, the first possibly with the 10-100, but I would not bank on it.

--
Tord_2 (at) photographer (dot) net
Mostly Nikon V1, V2, J5, & D600, user

 

[Nung]

Actually the 10-30 kit lens is probably the worst of all Nikon 1 lenses. There are pretty much no bad lenses for the CX mount.

If you're into landscape, you must buy the 6.7-13 VR. It's a really really good lens. The 18.5 f1.8 is very nice too, although I rarely use it nowadays. Whenever I use my camera, I always carry the 6.7-13 VR, 32 f1.2 & the 70-300 VR. They're just too good to be sitting at home. Unless you're planing to move to DX or FX, it's not worth using the adaptor ring, because you're taking out one of the best feature of the N1 camera. The blazing fast AF.

 

[Tord S Eriksson]

Actually the 10-30 kit lens is probably the worst of all Nikon 1 lenses. There are pretty much no bad lenses for the CX mount.

If you're into landscape, you must buy the 6.7-13 VR. It's a really really good lens. The 18.5 f1.8 is very nice too, although I rarely use it nowadays. Whenever I use my camera, I always carry the 6.7-13 VR, 32 f1.2 & the 70-300 VR.

I guess you mean the 70-300 CX?!

They're just too good to be sitting at home. Unless you're planing to move to DX or FX, it's not worth using the adaptor ring, because you're taking out one of the best feature of the N1 camera. The blazing fast AF.

The FT1 is excellent for use with smaller lenses for macro, as there is no true macro lens in the CX gang (the 18.5, and the 30-110 with extension tubes, are OK, for close-ups).

And if you need faster lenses (f/1.8-4.0), with long focal lengths (70mm, and upwards), as there is nothing available among the native lenses.

Have a great day, all!

 

[SiFu]

Hi!

May I ask if you did some funky PP to No.6 or if anything went wrong there, because this is the worst extreme example of wide-colour bleeding/fringing I have seen since some dark days in the 1980ies with some of the crap zooms back then... this can't be the 70-30?!? Can it? I am very surprised at that result.

Best,

Alex

PS: this is not meant in a negative/ offensive way at all - I am sincerely puzzled by the look of that shot alone

 

[holgerlinke]

Hi!

May I ask if you did some funky PP to No.6 or if anything went wrong there, because this is the worst extreme example of wide-colour bleeding/fringing I have seen since some dark days in the 1980ies with some of the crap zooms back then... this can't be the 70-30?!? Can it? I am very surprised at that result.

Might have been shot through thick glass? Just a guess... was puzzled by this as well.

Cheers, Holger

 

[SiFu]

Hello!

The FT1 is a great piece of equipment if you allready own some nice F-mount Nikkors or other lenses (I use my vast array of vintage Nikkors, which I hand-picked from the 70ies onwards on my V1s with great fun and results) - Aperture-priority makes shooting much more convenient imho.

What probably happened with your friend's lenses, is the "G" - to be able to use crude stop-down operation with a dumb adapter, you need a special "G" adapter with an aperture ring built in itself - I use such an adapter for my A-mount lenses.

N1 lenses I can recommend without hesitation are the 18.5 and 32. Both great performers. I also use the 10mm for the occasional wider shot.

For your trip, I would pick the 10mm, 18.5 and FT1 plus MF Nikon 100/2.8 btw. All of that fit's into the smaller (padded and insulated) Maxpedition bottle holder pouch (for example), which can be fixed to all kinds of things with ease:



Best,

Alex



--
carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero

 

[Tord S Eriksson]

Hi!

May I ask if you did some funky PP to No.6 or if anything went wrong there, because this is the worst extreme example of wide-colour bleeding/fringing I have seen since some dark days in the 1980ies with some of the crap zooms back then... this can't be the 70-30?!? Can it? I am very surprised at that result.

Might have been shot through thick glass? Just a guess... was puzzled by this as well.

Cheers, Holger

It was taken through thick safety-glass, yes.

 

[pnw_pow_879]

You've got some beautiful shots on your 500 pix page. Bravo!

I would recommend keeping your kit light especially for a bike trip through South America. As others have said, adding the 30-110mm lens would give you significantly longer reach and excellent IQ in a small and light form factor. The 18.5 would provide shallow depth of field and low-light capability. Both lenses are superior to the 10-30mm.

Beyond those two, I see that a lot of your shots include a foreground element (your bike) and a wide landscape background. As a third option, if you find that you want to go wider than the 10mm on your kit lens, you may consider the ultra-wide angle 6.7-13mm zoom (about $350 used). I absolutely love this lens. Because it has Vibration Reduction (VR), you can use it for indoor, and low-light shots. I can hand hold this lens down to 1/4 second, but realize that at this speed movement will be blurred. A flash can solve this issue.

Finally, not sure what your budget is but it may make sense to bring a backup body - like a V1. These can be had for $150 USD and would be a nice complement to the J5. The V1's EVF can be helpful in bright conditions and for longer shots using the 30-110.

Have a great trip and do post photos when you return!

 

[rube39]

Finally, not sure what your budget is but it may make sense to bring a backup body - like a V1. These can be had for $150 USD and would be a nice complement to the J5. The V1's EVF can be helpful in bright conditions and for longer shots using the 30-110.

If you are going to bring a back-up body (a good idea) also consider the J1-2-3-4, or the S series. They are much smaller than the V1, and cheaper too. Size counts when you are travelling, and an extra body can also mean less need to change lenses. Remember, a bike trip in SA is a dusty affair.

 

[WestSeattleDan]

You do not need anything more than a Nikon 1..... check out Thomas Stirr all done with a Nikon V2... http://tomstirrphotography.com/

 

[Tord S Eriksson]

You do not need anything more than a Nikon 1..... check out Thomas Stirr all done with a Nikon V2... http://tomstirrphotography.com/

Dan is totally right on the money, with a little patience and training you can do wonders with a V2 and a good lens!




Pallas cat kitten playing with its luch, a rat.






Pallas cat, female.






Sleepy Persian Leopard, male.






Through a fence, but still OK (Amur leopard, female).






Another shot of the Amur leopard female.






Another Pallas cat kitten!



--
Tord_2 (at) photographer (dot) net
Mostly Nikon V1, V2, J5, & D600, user

 

[anixi]

I'm not convinced that the 18.5 is a great travel lens.I use the 18.5 in studio, which is far more stable than your application. Since it has no VR,it may be problematic during/after a long day in the saddle.

If I were you I'd be going with VR lenses for the trip. My $.02

 

[nigelht]

I would buy the 18.5 and a dry bag. Then decide if my smartphone was good enough as the backup cam or if I wanted a waterproof point and shoot.