Nikon 1 J2 review

1 of 10

Gallery

Verdict:

It won't appeal to photographic tinkerers, but the stylish design and dependable image and video quality add up to a good deal

Review Date: 24 Nov 2012

Price when reviewed: £380

Buy it now for: £299
(see more store prices)

Supplier: http://www.amazon.co.uk

Reviewed By: Ben Pitt

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

In an age of me-too electronic gadgets, it's great to find some genuine diversity among compact system cameras (CSCs). The Sony NEX range leads the pack for low noise, Olympus and Panasonic offer fast performance and the biggest choice of lenses, while Samsung NX cameras excel for image detail and Wi-Fi functions.

The Nikon 1 system's niche is harder to define. As with last year's Nikon J1, the J2 scores highly for style and it keeps the controls simple to avoid intimidating casual users, but these are hardly unique traits. Meanwhile, Nikon makes a big deal about these cameras' performance, but its 1.4-second shot-to-shot time is nothing special.

Its continuous mode is more unusual, though, shooting at up to 60fps, and there are various tricks to get the most from this speedy performance. Even more unusual is that Nikon puts these performance-enhanced shooting modes centre stage by including them on the mode dial at the expense of traditional exposure modes and scene presets. These are available, along with ISO speed, white balance and all the other controls we'd expect, but only via tedious menu trawling.

The Smart Photo Selector mode takes 20 photos in quick succession and saves what it thinks are the best five, based on facial expression, composition and focus. It's even able to start buffering photos while the shutter button is half pressed, reducing the likelihood of missing a crucial moment. It's hard to gauge how successfully it judges these criteria without seeing the shots it rejects, but regardless, it's a great idea that works well in practice. Simply having five shots to choose from greatly increases the chances of a winning photo. It's worth noting that the camera uses fast shutter and ISO speeds to allow it to capture frames at a fast rate. This can lead to noisier images than when shooting in Auto mode, although on the upside it also minimises the chances of motion blur.

Smart Photo Selector tends to push the ISO speed up – as a result these skin tones are a little mottled but it's not too objectionable - click to enlarge

Motion Snapshot captures a two-second 1080p slow-motion video followed by an 8-megapixel photo. These play back in the camera with saccharine music in what Nikon describes as a "living image". However, the files themselves are silent and there's no obvious way to share living images. Longer slow motion video clips are available via the Movie mode, recorded at 400fps or 1200fps for 1/13- or 1/40-speed playback, but they stop recording after five seconds and the resolution is disappointingly low.

The main video mode is more successful, recording at 1080p for up to 20 minutes. Picture and sound quality were both superb, autofocus was responsive and completely silent, and priority and manual exposure modes are available.

Prev Next

Get more reviews, tutorials and in-depth advice, every month with Computer Shopper.
Click here to try 3 issues for £1

Best Prices

Price comparison powered by

Prices, delivery and availability at 2 retailers		Go
	£299	Go
	£345	Go

< Previous Reviews : Digital cameras Next >

Sponsored Links

User comments

Tiny sensor = noisy pictures

With all the larger-sensor / larger-pixel choices available, Nikon went with tiny. That gives higher noise and less sharpness than all other mirrorless cameras.

Sure, lenses for the other mirrorless systems are larger. But picture detail for the others approaches dSLR quality, especially at high ISOs. And that's how many folks will use these cameras, epecially indoors around the winter holidays.

For people who already have them, Leica-compatible lenses are small for their field of view and very well-made. They're a great lens alternative with the proper mount adapter. Their only drawback is that they're manual-everything. You set focus and lens-opening (aperture).

Most mirrorless cameras have manual focus aids, either the NEX cameras' focus peaking or 10X magnification. So that's not really a big deal. Just focus at maximum aperture, then stop down for the picture. Use any mirrorless' aperture-priority mode to make exposure settings simpler - just set an aperture and let the camera choose the correct shutter speed.

In fact, you can use the depth of field scale on these lenses to set focus that's sharp from a few feet to infinity at medium apertures, and leave it there. Then you don't have to worry about focus for most shots after your initial setting.

Yes, everything darkens as you stop down the aperture. But many mirrorless cameras will brighten their views to compensate for the darkening, so this isn't a problem either.

So the tiny sensor on the Nikon 1 series cameras is the biggest reason to buy something else.

By lecycliste on 3 Dec 2012