Review Nikon 1 J3 System Digital Camera Introduction:
At the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nikon has launched two new interchangeable lens cameras. The Nikon 1 J3 has a finely crafted aluminium exterior that feels even better than it looks. The new system camera offers astonishing speed and is always ready to capture spontaneous moments. The Nikon 1 J3 is the successor to the 1 J2 and offers world's smallest body, a very short release time lag and extreme fast continuous shooting. The Nikon 1 J3 uses the same second-generation Nikon 1 technology as the recently introduced Nikon 1 V2, aimed at photography enthusiasts. The 1 J3 incorporates next-generation features like Live Image Control and Best Moment Capture, and wireless image transfer.
Nikon 1 J3 Digital Camera Features:
The Nikon 1 J3 is mostly made out of aluminium with magnesium alloy reinforced parts and is therefore heavier than you would think based on its size alone, weighing in at 201g for the body only. It also feels better made than the official product shots would have you believe. With an essentially grip-less design, the Nikon J3 is very much a two-handed affair that requires you to hold the camera's weight in the left hand, clutching the lens, and use your right hand for balance and operating the controls. This is actually a good thing as it forces you to pay attention to holding the camera properly, which in turn goes a long way towards avoiding shake-induced blur in your photos.
The camera's has an even cleaner, more minimalist front plate than the J2, dominated by the Nikon 1 lens mount. Instead of being a scaled-down version of the good old F mount, it's a completely new design that provides 100% electronic communication between the attached lens and the Nikon 1 J3 Camera Charger body, courtesy of a dozen contacts. Just like on the manufacturer's F-mount SLR cameras, there is a white dot for easy lens alignment, although it has moved from the 2 o'clock position to the top of the mount. The lenses themselves feature a short silver ridge on the lens barrel, which needs to be in alignment with said dot in order for you to be able to attach the lens to the camera. While this may require a bit of getting used to, it actually makes changing lenses quicker and easier.
The new system camera from Nikon raises the resolution to 14.2 megapixels, and 160 to 6400 ISO light sensitivity. Nikon’s CX-format CMOS sensor offers the ideal balance between system size, speed and image quality. The Nikon 1 J3 offers the option to shoot with high ISO settings, meaning you’ll capture enough light even when shooting at speeds of up to 60 fps. Nikon’s EXPEED 3A dual-processing engine processes data at incredible speed for unparalleled performance in any situation. The Nikon 1 J3 powers the world’s fastest continuous shooting at 15 fps with autofocus, and up to 60 fps with fixed-point AF, giving you the ability to capture high-quality images of even fast action.
Pick the Nikon 1 J3 up, and you’ll be impressed by how solid and sturdy it feels. Finely crafted from lightweight, high quality aluminium, the compact, attractive design achieves the world’s smallest body and is available in white, black, silver, red, and beige, with kit lenses to match. The Nikon 1 J3 sales box includes an AN-N1000 neck strap, a MH-27 battery charger, an EN-EL20 Li-on rechargeable battery, Nikon ViewNX2 software and the Short Movie Creator software.
The J3 has a a scroll wheel around the four-way pad which is used to set the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes. Last but not least, there are three small buttons around the navigation pad, flush against the rear panel of the camera, including Playback, Menu and Delete.
The Auto Photo mode, marked with a green camera icon, is for beginners, with a much reduced set of options on offer. The Nikon 1 J3 Battery Charger Scene Auto Selector is a smart auto mode in which the camera analyses the scene in front of its lens and picks what it thinks is the right mode for that particular scene. The Creative Mode is where you will want to be most of the time. With the mode dial set to this position, you can pick your desired exposure mode from the menu. You can also choose one of the conventional PASM modes, which give you full menu access and the ability to manually set the aperture, shutter speed, or both. ISO and white balance can also be manually selected, but only from the menu, as already mentioned.
There are two Best Moment Capture modes, with the F button toggling between them. Smart Photo Selector allows the camera to capture no less than 20 photos at a single press of the shutter release, including some that were taken before fully depressing the button. The J3 Nikon Camera Charger analyses the individual pictures in the series and discards 15 of them, keeping only the five that it thinks are best in terms of sharpness and composition. This feature can be genuinely useful when photographing fast action and fleeting moments. The Slow View mode captures up to 40 full-resolution continuous shots and displays them in slow motion on the LCD screen, making it easier for you to select the exact moment that you want to keep from the burst sequence.
In the innovative Motion Snapshot mode the J3 records a brief high-definition movie - whose buffering starts at a half-press of the shutter release, so again includes events that had happened before the button was fully depressed - and also takes a still photograph. The movie and the still image are now saved in a single MOV file, making them much easier to share than on the J2.
The camera is scheduled to be available in February and comes with two kits. The Nikon 1 J3 kit + 1 Nikkor VR 10-30mm carries a suggested retail price of €650. The Nikon 1 J3 kit + 1 Nikkor VR 10-30mm + VR 30-110mm has an estimated retail price of €800. Availability of colors, optional accessories and suggested retail prices may vary from country to country.
