Nikon 1 Series (V1/ V2/ J1 etc) owners thread....

Really enjoying using my V1 and kit lens. Much lighter than my D90 but fairly similar feeling in operation. Even the lack of dials hasn't been an issue - I've only nudged the mode dial once so far too.

A couple of shots from a recent trip:


Untitled by fistameeny, on Flickr


Untitled by fistameeny, on Flickr
 
Cool

Picked mine up yesterday and love it already.
Makes the camera so much better
 
Question - should I swap from the j1 to the v1 if the outlay is minimal?

I've got the opportunity to buy my friends barely used v1 at a good price. I'm confident I can sell the j1 for what I pay for the v1

Is this a good option or should I just stick to the j1?
 
jamin100 said:
Question - should I swap from the j1 to the v1 if the outlay is minimal?

I've got the opportunity to buy my friends barely used v1 at a good price. I'm confident I can sell the j1 for what I pay for the v1

Is this a good option or should I just stick to the j1?
Click to expand...

I've had both and I now have the V1, I prefer it hands down over the J1, the EVF alone is worth the swap.
 
Yup managed to get the V1 today and it looks very nice and feels quite a bit more substantial in the hand.. I know the image quality is going to be exactly the same but hopefully the handling will be better.

Im also hoping to do a few air shows this year so i expect the viewfinder will help then too.
 
jamin100 said:
Yup managed to get the V1 today and it looks very nice and feels quite a bit more substantial in the hand.. I know the image quality is going to be exactly the same but hopefully the handling will be better.

Im also hoping to do a few air shows this year so i expect the viewfinder will help then too.
Click to expand...


Do you have an FT-1 mount for the air shows?
 
Billy said:
Do you have an FT-1 mount for the air shows?
Click to expand...

No, but I sold all my lenses last year when I sold my D90 and im not getting into buying a load of equipment again....
Ive got the 30-110mm so that will have to do.

Did some last year with an X10 and got ok ish results so the 30-110mm should adequate for my needs.
 
The 110mm will give you 297mm so it's by no way off the mark but a FT-1 and 300mm would give you 810mm, but that would be very hard to track with i expect.
 
Yeh, well my longest lens on my D90 was my 70-200 f2.8 and the X10 was 28-112 (or something like that) so hopefully the 30-110mm should fit nicely somewhere in the middle.

Also, on a totally unrelated topic, What focus mode would people suggest for taking photos of fast children?

Subject tracking? auto area? face detection?
 
Had a play with my friend's 18.5mm yesterday.
Any C&C welcome.

DSC_3861-960_zpsb8483821.jpg


DSC_3873-960_zpsff6ac8b6.jpg
 
Strange that this thread should re-appear again on Page 1...I'm almost ready to come back into the fold.

Can't quite decide though, J1, J2 or V1 (not sure I could justify the cost of a J3). I'm thinking of J2 as I still have a spare battery knocking about from my old J1, but my eye is drawn to the V1 which is cheaper at 249. Only things that put me off the V1 are it's larger size and I heard about the less than sturdy hotshoe cover. Is this still an issue?
 
Steelfish said:
Strange that this thread should re-appear again on Page 1...I'm almost ready to come back into the fold.

Can't quite decide though, J1, J2 or V1 (not sure I could justify the cost of a J3). I'm thinking of J2 as I still have a spare battery knocking about from my old J1, but my eye is drawn to the V1 which is cheaper at 249. Only things that put me off the V1 are it's larger size and I heard about the less than sturdy hotshoe cover. Is this still an issue?
Click to expand...

I purchased your J1 then upgraded to the V1, I will say that the V1 handles better than the J1. But I'm still on the lookout for the perfect small camera and the Nikon 1 may not be the one for me, I've just purchased a Sony NEX-5N, I've not had chance to try it as yet but on paper it looks good, if I keep the Sony my V1 twin lens kit will be going up for sale plus I have a FT-1 mount that's never been out of my house only tried once.

Let me know if your interested.
 
I went from a D90 and 2.8 lenses > Fuji X10 > Nikon J1 > Nikon V1

I managed to pick up a 6 month old V1 kit (10-30mm) boxed as new for £150 and for me the EVF makes it a better camera than the J1. Its a bit bigger but still small compared to a DSLR.

My V1 was brought in December 2012 from Amazon and the hotshoe cover is firm and doesn't come off easily so im guessing they changed something at some point?
 
Billy said:
I purchased your J1 then upgraded to the V1, I will say that the V1 handles better than the J1. But I'm still on the lookout for the perfect small camera and the Nikon 1 may not be the one for me, I've just purchased a Sony NEX-5N, I've not had chance to try it as yet but on paper it looks good, if I keep the Sony my V1 twin lens kit will be going up for sale plus I have a FT-1 mount that's never been out of my house only tried once.

Let me know if your interested.
Click to expand...

I could very well be. I've not purchased yet, busy reading reviews of the 18.5 mm.
 
Steelfish said:
I could very well be. I've not purchased yet, busy reading reviews of the 18.5 mm.
Click to expand...

The 18.5mm looks a good lens, as for your question about the hot-shoe cover mine has never come loose.
 
Here's some more with the 18.5mm, I grabbed the V2 during a boudoir shoot just for some quick test shots. I've put them in a gallery as they're mild boudoir and I don't want to make the thread NSFW!
CLICK
(No C&C needed... I'm aware of their faults!)

They're all shot at max aperture under continuous lighting, I have to say that I would like a much narrower depth of field (in the first three in particular) but even f1.8 on this size sensor keeps a lot of focus... roll on the 32mm f1.2!
 
Hi all,

Just a quick one. My wife's J1 developed a fault the other day and she gets an error message on the screen telling her "Lens Error: Contact An Authorised Nikon Service Centre."

I must have looked at the Jessops receipt 20 times but for the life of me, cannot see a purchase date!! She also said that she registered it with Nikon UK to get the 2nd year warranty. We roughly estimate it was around 2 years ago.

Anyway, my questions:

Can anyone send me a link for the Nikon site where I can check the registration date please,or, can someone who has paid for this same error tell me roughly what it cost?

Many thanks
 
Hi,
I am looking into buying a V2 and FT1 with a view to having a small walk around camera for casual use and also to take advantage of the 2.7 crop factor. I would use my 70-200 f2.8 ,105 vr micro, and maybe larger lenses.
Can anybody please give me some idea of whether or not this combination works, and the quality of image taken using DSLR lenses.
 
Roger, check out Brad Hills website ' natural art images' he gives quite a comprehensive review of the v2 & v1 with various lenses, may be of some help to you
 
005269 said:
Roger, check out Brad Hills website ' natural art images' he gives quite a comprehensive review of the v2 & v1 with various lenses, may be of some help to you
Click to expand...

Thanks Mark I'll have a look.
 
Jesus Quintana said:
I must have looked at the Jessops receipt 20 times but for the life of me, cannot see a purchase date!! She also said that she registered it with Nikon UK to get the 2nd year warranty. We roughly estimate it was around 2 years ago.

Anyway, my questions:

Can anyone send me a link for the Nikon site where I can check the registration date please,or, can someone who has paid for this same error tell me roughly what it cost?

Many thanks
Click to expand...

If you registered with Nikon you should have got an emailed 2 year warranty certificate from them with all the details (I sold mine, so don't have a copy to hand anymore), I would suggest checking your email to see if you have one.

Edit

Found mine in my inbox.
• Go to www.nikon.co.uk and follow the ‘Services & Support – Support & Downloads’ link for FAQ’s regarding your camera
• Phone +44 (0) 330 123 0932 for information, usage and troubleshooting advice from our support staff.
• Go to www.nikon.co.uk/repairs should you need to return your product to an authorised Nikon service centre
Click to expand...

The date on the Jessops receipt is right at the bottom.

8732665127_20a09c2c4e.jpg
 
Last edited:
rogerj said:
Hi,
I am looking into buying a V2 and FT1 with a view to having a small walk around camera for casual use and also to take advantage of the 2.7 crop factor. I would use my 70-200 f2.8 ,105 vr micro, and maybe larger lenses.
Can anybody please give me some idea of whether or not this combination works, and the quality of image taken using DSLR lenses.
Click to expand...

Hi Roger,
I can confirm both the V1 and V2 can take the 70-200mm.
I also use use it with a 50mm f/1.8 to give me a mini portrait lens (135mm) and AF is very snappy and quality very good indeed.
IMHO both the 50mm and 70-200mm lens used with the FT1 seems sharper than 1 series lenses I have (10-30, 30-110 and 18.5)
Do note that currently it only allows center point AF-S (no continuous-servo AF). Let's hope this can be corrected via some firmware instead of a new FT2.
Let me know if you would like some samples.

EDIT: Another point to note is that VR CANNOT be switched off when using it with VR lenses (well, certainly on my 70-200mm). So this could well drain battery a bit.
 
Last edited:
dac said:
Hi Roger,
I can confirm both the V1 and V2 can take the 70-200mm.
I also use use it with a 50mm f/1.8 to give me a mini portrait lens (135mm) and AF is very snappy and quality very good indeed.
IMHO both the 50mm and 70-200mm lens used with the FT1 seems sharper than 1 series lenses I have (10-30, 30-110 and 18.5)
Do note that currently it only allows center point AF-S (no continuous-servo AF). Let's hope this can be corrected via some firmware instead of a new FT2.
Let me know if you would like some samples.

EDIT: Another point to note is that VR CANNOT be switched off when using it with VR lenses (well, certainly on my 70-200mm). So this could well drain battery a bit.
Click to expand...


Hi, thanks for your reply. Yes some samples would give me some idea of what to expect. Thanks for the offer(y)
Roger
 
For a couple of days I've been using a J1, FT1 and 55-200VR as a very lightweight 540mm equiv setup and have to say I'm pretty impressed with how it performs. I'm looking forward to getting my 70-300VR back from my sister to see how that does, I suspect handling and finding the subject may become a bit of an issue at that focal length though...

The 55-200 isn't the best of lenses but I am very impressed with how the camera handles it - it automatically adjusts minimum shutter speed depending on focal length and it seems to know when you have VR switched on or off (on the lens) and ups the minimum shutter speed for that.

The 10mp sensor on the J1 is really good too (IMHO) and seems to pretty much match, if not beat, my old D60 in terms of IQ which is pretty amazing from a sensor so small I think.
 
When you use a teleconverter on a DSLR , anything up to 2 stops of exposure can be lost. Can anyone tell me if there is any ilght loss using the FT1?
 
rogerj said:
When you use a teleconverter on a DSLR , anything up to 2 stops of exposure can be lost. Can anyone tell me if there is any ilght loss using the FT1?
Click to expand...

It isn't a teleconvertor, it is an adapter so no light loss.
 
Dave1 said:
It isn't a teleconvertor, it is an adapter so no light loss.
Click to expand...

Many thanks Dave. I realised it is not a converter, but was wondering whether there would be any penalty to pay for using the the FT1. Glad to hear not - Thank you
Roger:)
 
What bag do you guys use?

I'm after a messenger style type bag that will fit the v1 10-30mm 30-110mm and 18.5mm

Any recommendations ?
 
rogerj said:
Hi, thanks for your reply. Yes some samples would give me some idea of what to expect. Thanks for the offer(y)
Roger
Click to expand...
Hi Roger,

Took some samples on Friday evening. Light wasn't the greatest as it was just after 7pm and was overcast/dull/grey.

All pics taken handheld with the exception of the V2 + FT1 + 70-200mm mk1, which I used a Monopod.

Shot wide open (f/2.8 when using the 70-200mm, variable on 10-30mm and 70-
300mm) at ISO 400 and centre point AF (ladies head/blue area)

I'll start of with the D7000 + 70-200mm so you can compare CX and DX.

70mm
8752424736_5de24c8f1e_z.jpg


105mm
8751305001_79db06debc_z.jpg


130mm
8752426196_78da9ed989_z.jpg


200mm
8752425342_18a0c8c008_z.jpg
 
V2 without FT1, just the kit 10-30mm VR lens

11mm
8751305293_9cfaba3bd9_z.jpg


18.2mm
8752426786_aa7eb3e414_z.jpg


30mm
8752427068_992f5cbb35_z.jpg


V2 + FT1 + 70-200mm

70mm
8752427498_9475b487d1_z.jpg


135mm
8751306945_125c1e7310_z.jpg


200mm
8752428530_c28a37b0c9_z.jpg
 
V2 + FT1 + 70-300mm

75mm
8751307979_b433d17e37_z.jpg


100mm
8752429598_c7b4eddcaa_z.jpg


135mm
8751308999_568e3153a4_z.jpg


210mm
8752430566_4cd839f1f8_z.jpg


300mm
8751309965_b17726382f_z.jpg


Hope these samples of some help. I am amazed at how far in you can get with the FT1 + 300mm, especially given how far away the details seems to be when viewing the 11mm pic.
IMHO, the detail and sharpness is good enough for me :)

Full set with EXIF info intact can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dh14162/sets/72157633529530642/

[PLUG] I'm going to be listing my V1 twin lens kit, 18.5mm f/1.8 and official grip in the classifieds soon. Might be a useful upgrade for the J1 owners ;) [/PLUG]
 
Last edited:
jamin100 said:
What bag do you guys use?

I'm after a messenger style type bag that will fit the v1 10-30mm 30-110mm and 18.5mm

Any recommendations ?
Click to expand...

Hi Ben,
I am currently using the Crumpler Pretty Boy (L) and it fits my V1/V2 with lens attached. In the smaller compartment (adjustable as it's just a velcro padded divider, I have my 2 other lenses stacked on top of each other and the SB-N5 flash. There is also another pouch on the front to store memory cards etc. Velcro and clip to open/close the "flap".
Highly recommended bag for a walkabout. Very small and compact.

See the review below. Mine is the black/orange one.
http://www.cambags.com/bag-type/sho...lder-bags/item/194-crumpler-pretty-boy-l.html
 
dac thanks for the comparison shots. I'm stunned by the quality of your results with the V2 + 70/300mm.

How good is the V2 for travel and general use?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top