Nikon 1 J2 Review

October 26, 2012 | Mark Goldstein | Rating star Rating star Rating star Rating star

Introduction

The Nikon 1 J2 is a stylish compact system camera featuring a 10-megapixel "CX" format sensor and the Nikon 1 lens mount. Boasting continuous shooting speeds of up to 60 frames per second at full resolution, Full HD video capture, an ultra-fast hybrid auto-focus system, Smart Photo Selector and a unique Motion Snapshot Mode, the portable Nikon J2 also offers more conventional shooting modes like Programmed Auto, Aperture and Shutter Priority, as well as Metered Manual and a new Creative Mode that provides a variety of photo effects and easier access to the camera's key settings. Also on board is a built-in pop-up flash with a guide number of 5, a 3 inch rear display with an increased resolution of 921k-dots, and an electronic shutter. The Nikon 1 J2 is available in white, black, silver, pink, red and orange and is priced at $549.95 / £499.99 with a 10-30mm zoom lens, or $799.95 / £649.99 in a double-lens kit with the 10-30mm and 30-110mm zoom lenses.

Ease of Use

The Nikon 1 J2 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 237g 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 J2 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 clean, minimalist front plate is 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 camera 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 (when viewed front on) 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.

With no lens attached, you can see the sensor sitting right behind the plane of the bayonet mount. Like the mount itself, the sensor is brand new. Measuring 13.2x8.8mm this "CX" format imaging chip has double the surface area of the biggest imagers used in compact and bridge cameras like the Fujifilm X10 and S100FS, but only about half the area of a standard Four Thirds sensor. In linear terms, a Four Thirds chip has a 1.36x longer diagonal than the Nikon CX imager. Given that Four Thirds has a 2x focal length multiplier, the CX "crop factor" works out to about 2.72, meaning that a 10mm lens has approximately the same angle of view as a 27.2mm lens on an FX or 35mm film camera. The Nikon 1 Nikkor 10-30mm standard zoom is thus equivalent to a 27.2-81.6mm (or, practically speaking, 28-80mm) FX lens in terms of its angle-of-view range.

The rest of the Nikon J2's faceplate is almost empty, featuring only the lens release, a receiver for the optional ML-L3 infrared remote control, two narrow slits for the microphone either side of the lens, and an AF assist/self-timer lamp. There's no grip at all on the front of the Nikon 1 J2, although strangly the Red and Pink varieties of the J2 do have a textured grip - we've no idea why those colour-schemes benefit, and not the others.

Nikon 1 J2 Nikon 1 J2
Front Rear

There are two ways of powering on the Nikon 1 J2. You can either use the on/off button sitting next to the shutter release or, if you have a collapsible-barrel zoom lens attached, you can simply press the unlocking button on the lens barrel and turn the zoom ring to unlock the lens, an act that causes the camera to switch on automatically. This is an ingenious solution as you need to unlock the lens for shooting anyway. Start-up takes just over a second - nothing to write home about but still decent and entirely adequate.

You can frame your shots using the rear screen - there's no electronic viewfinder as on the V1 model, a key difference between the two. The new LCD screen is an upgraded three-inch, 921,000-dot display (the same screen that the V1 uses) that boasts wide viewing angles, great definition and accurate colours and improved visibility in strong daylight. We missed the EVF when using the J2 alongside the V1, as holding the camera up to eye-level helped to stabilise the lens and avoid camera shake.

The control layout is rather peculiar. The Nikon 1 J2 has a small, rear-mounted mode dial that lacks most of the shooting modes that are usually found on similar dials - most notably P, A, S and M - even though it has enough room to accommodate them. These modes are available on the J2 but you have to dive into the rather long-winded and not entirely logical menu to find them. The J2's mode dial now has five settings, Motion Snapshot, Smart Photo Selector, Auto Photo, the new Creative mode, and Video. The four-way controller also has four functions mapped onto its Up, Right, Down and Left buttons; including AE/AF-Lock, exposure compensation, flash mode and self-timer, respectively. Although this isn't a bad choice of functions, the fact that there is no ISO button will doubtlessly cause a lot of photographers interested in buying the Nikon J2 to be unhappy.

There's a button on the rear labelled "F" but alas, this isn't a programmable function button. In the Creative mode, it allows you to quickly choose between the various shooting modes, while in Video mode it lets you toggle between regular and slow-motion recording. There are two more important controls on the back of the camera, including a scroll wheel around the four-way pad and a rocker switch marked with a loupe icon. The scroll wheel is used to set the shutter speed in Manual and Shutter Priority modes (once you've found them in the menu, that is), while the rocker switch controls the aperture. The reason why it's got a loupe icon next to it is that this control is used to zoom in on an image to check for critical focus in Playback mode. Last but not least, there are four small buttons around the navigation pad, flush against the rear panel of the camera, including Display Mode, Playback, Menu and Delete.

Nikon 1 J2 Nikon 1 J2
Pop-up Flash Side

So what are those shooting modes on the mode dial all about? The Auto Photo mode, marked with a green camera icon, is for beginners, with a much reduced set of options on offer (image quality, image size and continuous). The Nikon J2's 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 new 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 (Program AE Shift is available in P mode). ISO and white balance can also be manually selected, but only from the menu, as already mentioned.

Of course there's AWB and auto ISO as well, with the latter coming in three flavours (Auto 100-400, 100-800 or 100-3200) allowing you to specify how high you want the camera to go when the light gets low. You can also choose from three AF Area modes, including Auto Area, in which the camera takes control of what it focusses on (this isn't a great mode to have as your default as the camera obviously can't read your mind and may focus on something else than your actual subject); Single Point, in which you can pick one of 135 AF points by first hitting OK and then moving the active AF point around the frame using the four-way pad; and Subject Tracking, in which you pick your subject, press OK and allow the camera to track that subject as it moves around, as long as it doesn't leave the frame of course.

The Nikon 1 J2 has an intriguing hybrid auto-focus system that combines contrast- and phase-difference detection in a similar fashion as the Fujifilm F300EXR did. This allows the Nikon 1 J2 to focus extremely quickly in good light, even on a moving subject. The company claims the Nikon 1 system cameras are the fastest-focusing machines in the world, and this matches our experience - as long as there's enough light. When light levels drop, the camera switches to contrast-detect AF which, though faster than on most cameras, isn't nearly as fast as the other method. It's always the camera that decides which AF method to use - the user has no influence on this.

Generally speaking, the J2 will usually only resort to contrast detection when light levels are low. In good light, we were able to take sharp photos of fast-moving subjects. The Nikon J2 certainly does not disappoint here. Manual focusing is also possible, although the Nikon 1 lenses do not have focus rings. If you want to focus manually, you first have to hit the AF button, choose MF, press OK and then use the scroll wheel to adjust focus. To assist you with this, the Nikon J2 magnifies the central part of the image and displays a rudimentary focus scale along the right side of the frame - but those are the only focusing aids you get. There's no peaking function available as on some rival models.

The J2 has an electronic shutter (the V1 also has a mechanical shutter). It's completely silent (the focus confirmation beep can be disabled from the menu) and allows the use of shutter speeds as fast as 1/16,000th of a second and, with the Electronic Hi setting selected, lets you shoot full-resolution stills at 60 frames per second. Note however that while this is a major achievement, it's limited by a buffer that can only hold 12 raw files. Additionally, the use of this mode precludes AF tracking - you have to lower the frame rate to 10fps if you want that -, and the viewfinder goes blank while the pictures are being taken. About the only application we can think of where shooting full-resolution stills at 60fps could really come in handy is AE bracketing for HDR imaging. At this rate, a series of 5 bracketed shots could be taken in less than 0.1 second, rendering small movements that can otherwise pose alignment problems - like leaves being blown in the wind - a non-issue. Alas, the Nikon J2 does not offer such a feature - in fact it does not offer autoexposure bracketing at all.

Nikon 1 J2 Nikon 1 J2
Top Front

Moving on to the video mode, the Nikon 1 J2 has some pleasant surprises here. First and foremost, the camera can be set to shoot Full HD footage, and you even get to choose from 1080p @ 30fps or 1080i @ 60fps, depending on whether you prefer to work with progressive or interlaced video. If you don't need Full HD, there's also 720p @ 60fps, which is really smooth and still counts as high definition. Secondly, you get full manual control over exposure in video mode. This is an option; you don't have to shoot in M mode but you can if that's what you need. Thirdly, you get fast, continuous AF in video mode, and it works well, especially in good light. Movies are compressed using the H.264 codec and stored as MOV files. There are separate shutter release buttons for stills and video, and thanks to this - as well as the massive processing power of the Nikon J2 - you can take multiple full-resolution stills even while recording HD video. This works the other way round too - you can capture a movie clip even when the mode dial is in the Still Image position, simply by pressing the red movie shutter release. We've found that in this case the camera will invariably record the video at 720p/60fps.

In addition to being capable of shooting regular movies in HD quality, the Nikon 1 J2 can also shoot video at 400fps for slow-motion playback. The resolution is lower and the aspect ratio is an ultra-widescreen 2.67:1, but the quality is adequate for YouTube, Vimeo and the like. These videos are played back at 30fps, which is more than 13x slower than the capture speed of 400fps, allowing you to get creative and show the world an array of interesting phenomena that happen too quickly to observe in real time. The Nikon J2 goes even further by offering a 1200fps video mode, but the resolution and overall quality is too poor for that to be genuinely useful.

The second icon on the mode dial stands for Smart Photo Selector. This feature 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 camera 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.

Finally, there's a so-called Motion Snapshot mode in which the camera 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 saved in separate files but the camera can combine them into a single slow-motion clip with background music. It's fun but we can't really envision people using this shooting mode on a regular basis. (If you view the video on a computer, it will play back at normal speed, without sound, so this mode is really only interesting if you view the clip in-camera or hook the camera up to an HDTV via an HDMI cable.)

The Nikon J2 stores photos and videos on SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and supports the fastest UHS-I speed class. The camera runs on a smaller EN-EL20 battery to its V1 big brother, and is consequently capable of producing considerably less shots on a single charge, managing around 230, although it does help to make the camera body more compact. The camera's tripod socket is made of metal and is positioned in line with the lens' optical axis. This also means that changing batteries or cards is not possible while the J2 is mounted on a tripod, as the hinges of the battery/card compartment door are too close to the tripod mount.

Nikon 1 J2 Nikon 1 J2
Memory Card Slot Battery Compartment

So, how did we like using the Nikon 1 J2? On one hand, we liked it a lot. In good light, its auto-focus system is indeed faster than pretty much anything we've used so far, being able to track and lock focus on a range of truly fast-moving subjects, and yielding a lot of sharp images in situations where our keeper rates have never been very high. Additionally, its high-speed continuous shooting modes have allowed us to capture interesting moments that we'd have surely missed if we had used a slower camera. The built-in pop-up flash proved more useful that its modest guide number might suggest, with the clever design minimising red-eye.

On the other hand, the Nikon J2 has its share of frustrating idiosyncrasies starting with the user interface that forces you to dive into the menu to access functions as basic as exposure mode, ISO speeds and white balance. While Nikon obviously cannot add extra buttons to a finished product, they could at least make the "F" button customisable via a firmware update. Also, while there is a dedicated button for exposure compensation - which is a good thing - we did not find a way to activate a live histogram, even though it would have made exposure compensation a lot more useful and easy to use. Again, this could probably be fixed in firmware.

We also missed the V1's smooth, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, especially in bright light or when using the telephoto lens which doesn't lend itself well to being held out at arms length. The J2 only has a glass dust shield as it's defense against unwanted debris, rather than the more proactive sensor cleaning unit that the V1 offers, and the smaller battery means that you'll need to buy an extra one to get through a day's heavy shooting. The lack of an accessory port means that almost none of the Nikon 1 accessories are compatible with the J2, such as the external flash and GPS unit.

Another thing we did not like was that the camera would always show the picture just taken for a few seconds onscreen, and we did not find a way to turn this instant postview function completely off (although you can at least cancel it via a half-press of the shutter release). Finally, while the camera is generally fast and responsive, the camera takes way too long to wake up from sleep mode when it has been idle for a while, resulting in quite a few missed shots.

All things considered, the Nikon 1 J2 is a small and compact, high-performance system camera that like its big brother could use a few tweaks to its user interface to better suit the needs of serious amateurs. The intended target market of casual users will like it for its sheer speed, built-in flash, compact size and the fun features it offers. Let us now see how the Nikon 1 J2 fared in the image quality department.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 10 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6Mb.

During the review, the Nikon 1 J2 captured images of very high quality, especially if you consider the size of its sensor. Noise is kept to a minimum, and only becomes disturbing at ISO 3200 in very low light. Colours are perhaps somewhat muted for a consumer camera but you can easily add a little punch by switching to the Vivid picture control. The Nikon 1 Nikkor 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 VR and 1 lens performed admirably with good sharpness throughout the frame and negligible purple fringing. The close-up performance of the 10-30mm lens is surprisingly good. The night shot came out well even with long-exposure noise reduction switched off, and the Vibration Reduction feature of the lens worked very well.

Noise

The base sensitivity of the Nikon 1 J2 is ISO 100. The highest setting is ISO 3200, with ISO 6400 available as a "boosted" value. The 100% crops below show what the quality is like at each setting.

JPEG RAW

ISO 100 (100% Crop)

ISO 100 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 200 (100% Crop)

ISO 200 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 400 (100% Crop)

ISO 400 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 800 (100% Crop)

ISO 800 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 6400 (100% Crop)

ISO 6400 (100% Crop)

Sharpening

The out-of-camera JPEGs are quite sharp but still benefit from a little sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop.

Original (100% Crop)

Sharpened (100% Crop)

   

File Quality

The JPEG quality settings available on the Nikon J2 include Basic, Normal and Fine. The camera can also save photos in Nikon’s proprietary raw file format, NEF.

Fine (5.68Mb) (100% Crop)

Normal (2.87Mb) (100% Crop)

   

Basic (1.43Mb) (100% Crop)

RAW (1.43Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Nikon 1 Nikkor 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens does not suffer from strong chromatic aberrations - the example below shows the worst-case scenario you are likely to encounter in real-world images.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)

Macro

There is currently no macro lens available for the Nikon 1 system, but the Nikon 1 Nikkor 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 lens offers a very good close-up performance for a kit zoom. The following example demonstrates how close you can get to the subject, in this case a CompactFlash memory card. We have also included a 100% crop to show you what the quality is like.

Macro Shot

100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Nikon 1 J2 are Auto, Auto with Red-eye reduction, Slow Sync, Slow Sync with red-eye reduction, Rear-curtain Sync and Flash Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m. Some vignetting and barrel distortion is apparent at the 27mm wide-angle setting.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (27mm)

Flash On - Wide Angle (27mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64
   

Flash Off - Telephoto (81mm)

Flash On - Telephoto (81mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64

And here are a couple of portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Auto or the Auto with red-eye reduction options caused any amount of red-eye.

Flash On

Flash On (100% Crop)
   

Red Eye Reduction

Red Eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Nikon J2 has a minimum shutter speed of 30 seconds, with a Bulb setting also available for really long exposures. The shot below was captured at a shutter speed of 6 seconds, aperture of f/8 at ISO 100. We have provided a 100% crop to show you what the quality is like.

Night Shot

Night Shot (100% Crop)

Vibration Reduction

The Nikon 1 J2 does not offer body-integral image stabilisation, but the kit lens bundled with the camera features Vibration Reduction, Nikon’s proprietary lens-based optical stabilisation system. This allows you to take sharp hand-held photos at slower shutter speeds than with lenses that lack this function. You can see that this feature really works and could mean the difference between a ruined shot and a sharp capture. Note that even though VR is lens-based, you need to activate it via the camera's menu as the lenses do not feature a VR switch. The available VR modes are Normal, Active and Off.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length

Anti Shake Off (100% Crop)

Anti Shake On (100% Crop)
1/2 sec / 27mm
     
1/3 sec / 81mm
     

Active D-Lighting

Active D-lighting is Nikon’s dynamic range optimisation tool that attempts to squeeze  the full dynamic range of the sensor into JPEGs. On the Nikon 1 J2, the strength of the effect cannot be modified by the user. The only available settings are on and off.

Off

On

Picture Controls

Nikon’s Picture Controls, similarly to Canon’s Picture Styles, are preset combinations of different contrast and saturation settings. The available Picture Controls are Standard, Vivid, Neutral, Monochrome, Portrait and Landscape. The following series demonstrates the differences across these settings.

Standard

Neutral

   

Vivid

Monochrome

   

Portrait

Landscape

Slow-motion Video

The Nikon 1 J2 can capture videos at a frame rate of 400fps which, when played back at 30fps, become slow-motion movies. This example demonstrates what this feature is capable of.

Motion Snapshot Mode

The Nikon 1 J2 has a special shooting mode called Motion Snapshot. In this mode, the camera records a brief high-definition movie - whose buffering starts at a half-press of the shutter release, so it includes events that had happened before the button was fully depressed - and also takes a still photograph. The movie and the still image are saved in separate files but the camera can combine them into a single slow-motion clip with background music. Here we can only show you the video and the picture as separate files.

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Nikon 1 J2 camera, which were all taken using the 10 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample RAW Images

The Nikon 1 J2 enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format files. We've provided some Nikon RAW (NEF) samples for you to download (thumbnail images shown below are not 100% representative).

Sample Movie & Video

This is a sample movie at the highest quality setting of 1920x1080 pixels at 60 frames per second. Please note that this 20 second movie is 59.2Mb in size.

Product Images

Nikon 1 J2

Front of the Camera / Lens Removed

 
Nikon 1 J2

Isometric View

 
Nikon 1 J2

Isometric View

 
Nikon 1 J2

Isometric View / 10mm Lens

 
Nikon 1 J2

Isometric View / 10-30mm Lens

 
Nikon 1 J2

Isometric View / 10-30mm Lens

 
Nikon 1 J2

Isometric View / 10-30mm Lens

 
Nikon 1 J2

Front of the Camera / Pop-up Flash

 
Nikon 1 J2

Front of the Camera / Pop-up Flash

 

Nikon 1 J2

Front of the Camera / Pop-up Flash

 
Nikon 1 J2

Rear of the Camera

 
Nikon 1 J2

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

 
Nikon 1 J2

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

 
Nikon 1 J2

Rear of the Camera / Main Menu

 
Nikon 1 J2

Rear of the Camera / Motion Snapshot

 
Nikon 1 J2

Rear of the Camera / Motion Snapshot Theme

 
Nikon 1 J2

Top of the Camera

 
Nikon 1 J2

Bottom of the Camera

 
Nikon 1 J2

Side of the Camera

 
Nikon 1 J2

Side of the Camera

 
Nikon 1 J2

Front of the Camera

 
Nikon 1 J2

Front of the Camera

 
Nikon 1 J2

Memory Card Slot

 
Nikon 1 J2

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Nikon 1 J2 has a better screen, some new creative effects, more colours, a textured grip on some models, and a slightly lower price tag, but otherwise it's purely an incremental upgrade of last year's J1 rather than a full-blown replacement.

The Nikon 1 J2 offers most of the key features of its more expensive and bigger, the V1 model, in a smaller, lighter and cheaper package that is even more clearly targeted at people upgrading from a compact. It also shares the same idiosyncracies, however, regarding its low-light focusing and user interface, and it suffers in direct comparison to the V1 by not having an electronic viewfinder, accessory port, mechanical shutter and longer battery life. Still, in our view the J2 is a better fit in many ways for its intended audience who will perhaps appreciate the built-in flash, simple control layout, stylish looks and svelte dimensions rather more than some of those so-called "missing" features.

Just like the bigger and more expensive V1, the J2 is perfectly capable of keeping up with the action thanks to its hybrid AF system and ultra-fast continuous shooting modes. In good light, the Nikon J2 is indeed as fast as anything out there when it comes to auto-focus speed. Its headline-grabbing 60fps burst mode might not be quite as useful as it may sound, but the fact that it can shoot at 10fps and keep the subject in focus is still sensational, especially if you consider that we are talking about a camera that’s quite a lot smaller than a typical SLR. On the other hand, low-light focusing is less than stellar, and there are some other areas of performance where there's still room for improvement. Also, whether the intended beginner audience actually want interchangeable lenses - and if so, whether they are ready to pay the rather high price that price Nikon is asking for the J2 and its assortment of optics - is an entirely different question.

While the Nikon 1 J2 is a good camera for beginners, it's not so well-suited to serious amateurs. The J2 is a very small, high-quality, discreet and generally fast camera but its interface is quite clearly not geared toward users who like to take full control of the picture-taking process, despite the addition of the new Creative shooting mode. Most of the features these photographers want are there, but too many of them are buried within the menu, which is bound to be a source of frustration to any power user. Small firmware changes, such as making the "F" button customisable and/or the self-timer button reprogrammable could make the Nikon J2 more appealing to this group, but the J2 will never be able to overcome its reliance on the LCD screen for image composition or the lack of an accessory port for some of the more interesting extras like a powerful external flash or the GPS unit.

The J2 may only be the junior member of the Nikon 1 family, but its significantly cheaper price and more targeted approach make it a better choice than the V1 for compact camera users looking to upgrade to a more advanced system. It is still expensive though compared to rivals like the Sony NEX-F3, Olympus E-PM2 PEN Mini, Samsung NX1000 and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF5, so you'll need to decide if the out-and-out speed and beginner-friendly approach are really worth the price of admission.

4 stars

Ratings (out of 5)
Design 4
Features 4
Ease-of-use 4
Image quality 4.5
Value for money 4

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Nikon 1 J2 from around the web.

techradar.com »

Nikon was one of the last manufacturers to enter the compact system camera (CSC) market, launching the Nikon 1 system in September 2011. Unlike other systems, Nikon uses a smaller, 1-inch CX format sensor in the Nikon 1 J1 and Nikon 1 J2, which enables a smaller overall body size.
Read the full review »

reviews.cnet.co.uk »

If you need high-speed burst shooting and excellent low-light performance in an attractive and compact interchangeable lens camera, you'll find it with the Nikon 1 J2. However, the 10.1-megapixel resolution might limit what you can do with the output, and at this price, it feels a little mean.
Read the full review »

pocket-lint.com »

The Nikon 1 J2 refreshes the original J1 - a compact system camera that had a tepid reception from photo enthusiasts, but succeeded among more casual snappers on the back of a strong advertising campaign - with an updated mode dial, new creative modes and a higher resolution LCD screen. Add a new textured front, some extra colours and cut back the original’s price and that’s the sum of the differences. Is the Nikon 1 J2 a worthy successor?
Read the full review »

ephotozine.com »

The Nikon 1 J2 is this years update to the Nikon 1 J1, and features a new creative mode selection on the mode dial, improved resolution screen, as well as a number of new colours and updated styling. With 60fps shooting at full resolution, and claims of the World's fastest focus, the camera certainly offer something unique, find out how it performs in our review.
Read the full review »

Specifications

 
Type Digital camera with support for interchangeable lenses
Lens mount Nikon 1 mount
Effective angle of view Approx. 2.7x lens focal length (35 mm format equivalent)
Effective pixels 10.1 million
Image sensor 13.2 mm x 8.8 mm CMOS sensor (Nikon CX format)
Image size (pixels) Still images (auto photo, Smart Photo Selector, and all creative modes other than Easy panorama; aspect ratio 3 : 2) 3872 x 2592 2896 x 1944 1936 x 1296 Still images (Normal panorama, camera panned horizontally; aspect ratio 40 : 7) 3200 x 560 Still images (Normal panorama, camera panned vertically; aspect ratio 8 : 25) 1024 x 3200 Still images (Wide panorama, camera panned horizontally; aspect ratio 80 : 7) 6400 x 560 Still images (Wide panorama, camera panned vertically; aspect ratio 4 : 25) 1024 x 6400 Still images (movie mode, aspect ratio 16 : 9) 3840 x 2160 (1080/60i) 1920 x 1080 (1080/30p) 1280 x 720 (720/60p) Still images (Motion Snapshot mode, aspect ratio 16 : 9) 3840 x 2160
File format NEF (RAW): 12-bit, compressed JPEG: JPEG-Baseline compliant with fine (approx. 1 : 4), normal (approx. 1 : 8), or basic (approx. 1 : 16) compression NEF (RAW) + JPEG: Single photograph recorded in both NEF (RAW) and JPEG formats
Picture Control system Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait, Landscape; selected Picture Control can be modified; storage for custom Picture Controls
Media SD (Secure Digital), SDHC, and SDXC memory cards
File system DCF (Design Rule for Camera File System) 2.0, DPOF (Digital Print Order Format), Exif (Exchangeable Image File Format for Digital Still Cameras) 2.3, PictBridge
Shooting modes Auto photo (3 : 2); creative, with a choice of the following options: P, S, A, M (3 : 2), night landscape (3 : 2), night portrait (3 : 2), backlighting (3 : 2), easy panorama (normal horizontal 40 : 7, normal vertical 8 : 25, wide horizontal 80 : 7, wide vertical 4 : 25), soft (3 : 2), miniature effect (3 : 2) and selective color (3 : 2); Smart Photo Selector (3 : 2); movie (HD 16 : 9, slow motion 8 : 3); Motion Snapshot (16 : 9)
Shutter type Electronic shutter
Shutter speed 1/16,000-30 s in steps of 1/3 EV; Bulb; Time (requires optional ML-L3 remote control)
Flash sync speed Synchronizes with shutter at X=1/60 s or slower
Release mode Single frame, continuous, Electronic (Hi) Self-timer, delayed remote, quick-response remote, interval timer shooting
Frame advance rate Electronic (Hi): Approx. 10, 30, or 60 fps Other modes: Up to 5 fps (auto photo mode or P, S, A, M chosen in creative mode with Continuous selected for Continuous, single AF or manual focus, Shutter-priority auto or Manual exposure mode, shutter speed 1/250 s or faster, and other settings at default values)
Self-timer 2 s, 5 s, 10 s
Remote control modes Delayed remote (2 s); quick-response remote
Exposure metering TTL metering using image sensor
Exposure metering method Matrix Center-weighted: Meters 4.5 mm circle in center of frame Spot: Meters 2 mm circle centered on selected focus area
Exposure mode Programmed auto with flexible program; shutter-priority auto; aperture-priority auto; manual; automatic scene selection
Exposure compensation -3 - +3 EV in increments of 1/3 EV; available when Programmed auto, Shutter-priority auto, or Aperture-priority auto is selected for Exposure mode
Exposure lock Luminosity locked at metered value with AE-L/AF-L button
ISO sensitivity (Recommended Exposure Index) ISO 100-3200 in steps of 1 EV. Can be adjusted by user when Programmed auto, Shutter-priority auto, Aperture-priority auto, or M Manual is selected for Exposure mode; can also be set to approx. 1 EV (ISO 6400 equivalent) above ISO 3200; auto ISO sensitivity control (ISO 100-3200, 100-800, 100-400) available
Active D-Lighting On, off
Autofocus Hybrid autofocus (phase detection/contrast-detect AF); AF-assist illuminator
Lens servo Autofocus (AF): Single AF (AF-S); continuous AF (AF-C); auto AF-S/AF-C selection (AF-A); full-time AF (AF-F) Manual focus (MF)
AF-area mode Single-point, auto-area, subject tracking
Focus area Single-point AF: 135 focus areas; the center 73 areas support phase-detection AF Auto-area AF: 41 focus areas
Focus lock Focus can be locked by pressing shutter-release button halfway (single AF) or by pressing AE-L/AF-L button
Face-priority AF On, off
Built-in flash Raised by sliding flash pop-up control
Guide Number (GN) Approx. 5/16 (m/ft, ISO 100, 20 °C/68 °F)
Flash control i-TTL flash control using image sensor available
Flash mode Fill flash, slow sync, red-eye reduction, slow sync with red-eye reduction, rear-curtain sync, rear curtain with slow sync
Flash compensation -3 - +1 EV in increments of 1/3 EV
Flash-ready indicator Lights when built-in flash unit is fully charged
White balance Auto, incandescent, fluorescent, direct sunlight, flash, cloudy, shade, preset manual, all except preset manual with fine tuning
Movie metering TTL metering using image sensor
Movie metering method Matrix Center-weighted: Meters 4.5 mm circle in center of frame Spot: Meters 2 mm circle centered on selected focus area
Frame size (pixels)/recording rate HD movies 1920 x 1080/60i (59.94 fields/s*) 1920 x 1080/30p (29.97 fps) 1280 x 720/60p (59.94 fps) Slow-motion movies 640 x 240/400 fps (plays at 30p/29.97 fps) 320 x 120/1200 fps (plays at 30p/29.97 fps) Motion Snapshot 1920 x 1080/60p (59.94 fps) (plays at 24p/23.976 fps) * Sensor output is about 60 fps.
File format MOV
Video compression H.264/MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding
Audio recording format AAC
Audio recording device Built-in stereo microphone; sensitivity adjustable
Monitor 7.5 cm (3-in.), approx. 921k-dot, TFT LCD with brightness adjustment
Playback Full-frame and thumbnail (4, 9, or 72 images or calendar) playback with playback zoom, movie and panorama playback, slide show, histogram display, auto image rotation, and rating option
USB Hi-Speed USB
HDMI output Type C mini-pin HDMI connector
Supported languages Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian
Battery One rechargeable Li-ion EN-EL20 battery
AC adapter EH-5b AC adapter; requires EP-5C power connector (available separately)
Tripod socket 1/4-in. (ISO 1222)
Dimensions (W x H x D) Approx. 106.0 x 61.0 x 29.8 mm (4.2 x 2.4 x 1.2 in.), excluding projections
Weight Approx. 280 g (9.9 oz) with battery and memory card but without body cap; approx. 237 g/8.4 oz (camera body only)
Temperature 0-40 °C (+32-104 °F)
Humidity 85% or less (no condensation)
Supplied accessories EN-EL20 rechargeable Li-ion battery (with terminal cover), MH-27 battery charger, BF-N1000 body cap, UC-E15 USB cable, AN-N1000 strap, ViewNX 2/Short Movie Creator CD, User's Manual, Reference manual CD

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