With competitors like Olympus, Panasonic, Sony and Pentax well-established in the Interchangeable Lens Camera category, it’s no wonder that Nikon finally decided to make an entry as well. Unlike DSLRs, ILCs are mirrorless and use smaller sensors, which contribute to their compact size. While other manufacturers have opted for Micro Four Thirds and APS-C sensors, the Nikon 1 system uses a CX-format 10.1-megapixel sensor. The company has launched two cameras based on the Nikon 1 system, the Nikon V1 and Nikon J1. The Nikon V1 is the more professional of the two, featuring an EXPEED-3 processor that claims to speed up AF performance.

Look and feel

The Nikon V1 is available in black and white colour options. I prefer the white. The magnesium alloy body ensures a tough exterior, one less prone to scratches. Without the lenses, the camera body weighs approximately 300g. The lenses themselves can be retracted to a smaller size via a button on the zoom ring.

The camera offers users a choice between an electronic and LCD viewfinder. The LCD viewfinder measures 3-inches with a resolution of 920,000 dots. Although I always prefer an optical viewfinder, the electronic viewfinder on the Nikon V1 is one of the best I’ve used so far, with a resolution of 144,000 dots and a diopter to adjust focus.

The camera does away with the pop-out flash of the J1, instead opting for a multi-accessory port which can be used to fit an external flash.

Unlike other ILCs like Olympus’s PEN series and Sony’s NEX cams, the Nikon V1 sticks to minimal physical controls. On the right of the LCD, you’ll find the mode dial, adjacent to a texturised thumb rest. The mode dial on the Nikon V1 gives you only four options: Motion Snapshot, Smart Photo Selector, Still Image and Movie. There is no direct way to bring up P,S,A,M modes, so you’ll have to tinker with these in-menu. Considering half the mode dial sports a blank slate, Nikon had more than enough room to include these controls and I can’t think of a reason why the company chose to exclude them, after observing that they have become commonplace on even compact digicams.

Above the thumb rest, you’ll find a toggle switch which can be used to zoom in and out during playback or adjust aperture/shutter speed, depending on which mode you’re using. Adjacent to it is a Function (F) button which brings up a bunch of different options, again dependent on the mode. Unfortunately it’s not programmable. Personally, I would have liked to set it to bring up ISO or White Balance.

Under the thumb rest, you’ll find buttons for Display, Playback. Delete and Menu. The standard clickwheel also finds inclusion, with a rotating dial on top.

On the left panel you’ll find a flap which conceals a Micro USB, Mini HDMI and a 3.5mm audio jack.

User interface

As of now, users will have a choice of three lenses to go with the Nikon V1 and J1 cameras. The standard kit lens is a 10-30mm f/3.5-f/5.6. In addition, there’s also a 30-110mm f/3.8-f/5.6 zoom lens and 10mm f/2.8 pancake lens.

Pressing the button on the zoom lenses to extend the lens automatically turns on the camera. You could always use the power button instead, but you’ll have to extend the lens before you can start shooting.

The Nikon V1 interestingly has both a mechanical and electronic shutter. While the mechanical shutter is meant for regular shooting, the electronic shutter is recommended for fast shooting or where a silent shutter is required. The camera can shoot at speeds up to 60fps, but you can also select 10fps or 30fps modes.

Moving on to the modes on offer, the Motion Snapshot mode captures a photo along with a few seconds of video taken before the shot, and plays it back with background music, which varies depending on which themes you choose: Beauty, Waves, Relaxation or Tenderness.

The Smart Photo Selector captures a short burst of images (20 photos at 30 fps) and then selects the five best shots from the lot. You’ll have to be patient when using these modes though, as the camera takes a few seconds to process the results.

The Nikon V1 can record Full HD 1080p video in either 60p (approx 60fps) or 30p (approx 30fps) and 720p HD quality video at 60p. In addition, there is a Slow Motion video mode where you can record in either 620x240 at 400fps or 320x120 at 1,200fps. In video mode, images are captured in a 16:9 aspect ratio and photos can be snapped during shooting as well.

The Still Image mode is used for regular photos. Unlike most other cams, the Nikon V1 doesn’t offer the user a choice of scenes. Instead you get to choose from Scene Auto Selector or P,S,A,M modes, all of which must be selected in-menu. There are colour effects which can be tweaked, such as Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, etc.

ISO ranges from 100-3200, but what I really liked was the choice of three Auto modes: 100-3200, 100-800 and 100-400. These are useful when you want to control the ISO range while leaving the rest up to the camera.

The layout of the menu itself is quite simplistic. It’s easy to navigate, but a few more physical controls would have made shooting faster and more efficient. Serious photographers will appreciate the option to shoot in RAW as well.

Results

In the Scene Auto Selector mode, the camera selects the appropriate scene depending on how you frame the shot. I would have preferred to be able to choose the scene modes myself, but that said, the camera does a pretty good job of it.

In daylight, images were crisp and colours true to life. Detail was preserved even when I cropped images, so the smaller 10.1-meg sensor shouldn’t give cause for worry.

One area where the camera did let me down was Macro shots. I wasn’t able to get the kind of magnification I would have liked and the camera often struggled to focus up close to a subject.

One area where the camera stands out is in low light performance. Even in low light or indoors, images retained sharpness. Noise begins to creep in after ISO 800, although even the highest setting of ISO 3,200 gives passable results.

The camera’s Autofocus works quite well and I was able to mostly keep my subject in focus during tracking shots. Shutter speed ranges from 1/16,000 sec with the electronic shutter and ¼,000 sec with the mechanical shutter at the fast end and 30 sec at the slow end. A Bulb mode is also available.

Our verdict

I’m not really sure about where Nikon intends to position the V1. On the one hand, you have seemingly pro features like interchangeable lenses and an accessory port for a flash gun and GPS unit. And on the other, a user interface that offers very little in terms of easy access to manual modes or creative choices like Scene selection and Art filters, something competitors like Olympus’ PEN series have chosen to include. As far as looks and image quality go, the Nikon V1 makes the cut. But the steep pricing which makes some of Nikon’s popular DSLRs seem affordable may have many potential buyers thinking twice.

Love: Attractive build, good electronic viewfinder

Hate: Lack of physical controls, not enough shooting options, expensive

Rs 43,950 onwards

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