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In an effort to test the new (to me) Nikon 1 J1, Hdeezy from Slumberproject and his lady friend met up with me in the dead of night to put the J1's low light capabilities through the gauntlet. We decided to go to the local college proving grounds, an odd mixture of very dark, and very well lit areas, with trees, architecture, and a wide assortment of different light sources, which should be a fine test of noise control, dynamic range, and focusing. Anyone familiar with the Nikon 1 series knows that it's manual focus..well..isn't. :/ Auto focus is the name of the game, and it's very good at it, needing the barest minimum of light. all told it packs over 200 focus points, well over 100 are embedded in the sensor itself, making it's focusing capabilities equal to, or better than, many DSLRs, even some higher end models. Sometimes we would find ourselves having to light the subject with a cell phone to lock focus, but once focus was dialed in, further depressing the shutter would yield fantastic color, and tremendous light gathering capabilities. It should be noted that the sample images have all been through processing, since I've always found standardized camera testing to be dull at best. I don't care much if it can take a fine photo of a test card and some bottles of salad dressing, I want to know what the images will look like after I put them through the kind of processing that can turn a standard image into something usable. Typically I don't do a ton of post, but some is usually the standard. The test shots here were only touched up for color mood, (not out of a need to make the colors true, but rather to give the images a mysterious night-timey look), and contrast, and they were all shot in .jpg "Vivid" mode, with in-camera Long Exposure Noise Compensation active and Active D Lighting set to "On". The camera was generally set to aperture priority mode, and this is for several reasons, not the least of which was the somewhat annoying method of changing modes, which can only be done through the menu system, and not through a mode-selector dial, though it does have one, but only for selecting general modes ie: Video, Auto, Best Shot, Etc. while mysteriously Nikon chose to leave off the traditional PASM modes from the giant rear facing dial, which has waaaaay to much empty space on it ... :o ? Noise was well under control, with the camera doing it's dead level best to give a noise free shot, and generally succeeding quite well. This should be a good time to note, also, that the 10mp rating on this camera is somewhat misleading. If you are thinking that the mp count seems low for a camera in 2014, well it is, but through some method of techno wizardry, Nikon really has made the most of the 10mp sensor in this camera, and it's image quality is top notch, even though the sensor is smaller than many available. I never really find myself wanting a bigger sensor, or more pixels, which, in the age of the 41mp cell phone should seem far below the standard for a camera that you pay money for to use instead of your cell phone camera...? I'd like to emphasize again, that this thing puts out solid images, period. Not considering megapixel count, sensor size, kit lens selection or any of the other pixel-peepy things you would normally judge a camera by, and just looking at the photos, you really do get more than you paid for in terms of image quality, especially when considering the price, vs a standard point and shoot. During our shoot, we decided to do some impromptu light streak painting, which is the majority of what I'm showing this go-round because I'm a sucker for light painting. Many of the photos from this test shoot were shot in total darkness, well after my normal bed time :p The camera was very capable and though it had some limitations, in terms of user interface, I genuinely found myself having alot of fun, and being challenged (in a good way) to get better shots because of the limitations.
The handling was solid, with it's aluminum body adding enough weight to make it feel solid on the tripod (a Manfrotto Compact), and small enough to use comfortably for the entirety of the shoot. I did not miss a grip on the camera, which everyone seems to complain about, it would seem awkward to me I think to have a grip, but I have hands on the larger side of average, so perhaps it's just no big deal to me.. :/ ? Anywho, enough for tonight, enjoy the photos.
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