Sunday, June 3, 2012

Nikon 1 J1: what to expect

So I found a pretty sweet deal on Nikon J1 + 10-30mm combo. Let's say after all the buying and selling, the set end up cost me about $350.

I already has Panasonic TS-3 as point and shoot. BTW, it's a great little camera. Definitely worth every penny especially if you are an outdoor , water sport person.

Why J1?
1. It was a good deal.
2. I'm a Nikon fan :)
3. It's a mini DSLR like . Picture quality is ... I'd say I rather take it with me than the old D90 which I already sold.

What else can I do with it beside having it due to small/compact size?

My ultimate plan was  to have this with a really wide or fisheye lens so I can use it with my DIY panoramic tripod head and create wee planet or virtual tour without wasting shutter count on my DSLR :)
After searching and searching, to get Diagonal fisheye on J1 the lens should be about 5.5mm which is not available that I know of. If you do, leave a comment. So I cheap out and bought a Digital Concepts 0.42x fisheye lens with macro which of course you get what you pay for. It is Circular fisheye and not so useful for my application. Probably nice adapter for skater.

Nikon J1 and 10-30mm at 10mm

Nikon J1 and 10-30mm at 10mm with circular fisheye adapter.
Nikon J1 and 10-30mm at 10mm with circular fisheye adapter.

Nikon J1 and 10-30mm at 10mm with circular fisheye adapter.
So it give the fisheye effect but not to what I need.

Next is to use it with FT-1 adapter and zoom lens to use its 2.7x crop.
Downside of the FT-1:
1. Limit focus area to center only

2. Shutter cannot go slower than 1/1.3s
3. Auto focus with AF-S lens. It's quite fast when it works. Out of all my lens, it focuses with 16-35, 24-70, 70-200. Did not focus on 20mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.4, Sigma 105mm, Sigma 85mm f/1.4

So for $270 it only works for some of my lens under certain condition. At the end I would still be ok and keep this purchase if I haven't already has a D800 on my hand. With D800 36MP, at the same crop down to similar resolution with J1, D800 has better detail than J1.

Left D800. Right J. Both at 400mm on 200-400mm F4 100% zoom in LR4 no edit

Left D800. Right J. Both at 400mm on 200-400mm F4 100% zoom in LR4 no edit
At the end... I decided not to keep FT-1 because what I gain compare to $17 china version was auto-focus only on 3 lenses. And the quality or what I expected is not significant if we compare the crop factor with the 36MP from D800.