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Now that we have settled in with Nikon’s most significant announcement since Nikon first introduced digital camera 14 years ago – Nikon 1 J1 and V1. There are already a lot of testing and reviews all over the web; What are your thoughts? You can check out all the reviews on the Nikon 1 system here.
On my previous post Nikon 1 J1 and V1 – What’s missing?, I have mentioned that the Nikon J1 and V1 could possibly matching the ISO performance of the m4/3s despite the Nikon 1 system is equipped with a smaller sensor. Just within a week of the announcement, there are already articles comparing the ISO noise with their counterparts. You can read the full articles here and here.
Without getting into too detail, we compare the Nikon V1 ISO performance with Panasonic GF3, Sony NEX 5 and Olympus EP3. You can be the judge after seeing the comparison at ISO 800.
Test Sample from digitalcamerainfo.com
Nikon J1 ISO 800
Sony NEX5 ISO 800
Olympus E-P3 ISO 800
Panasonic GF3 ISO 800
Personally, I would be happy to use the Nikon V1 on ISO 800 just like with the Olympus EP3. With the Sony NEX5, I would be happy to use it up to ISO 1600, but expect some presence of noise.
I have also mentioned in the post that what’s missing in the Nikon J1 and V1 is the ability to create shallow DoF that you would normally see even on entry level DSLR like the D3100 and D5000. From the example I gave in the post, the DoF with the Nikon J1 is twice of the Olympus E-P3 and three times as much on Sony NEX5 or entry level of DSLR. The example considered using a f/2.8 lens already, so if one is using the kit lens 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6, you are likely going to get a wider DoF.
| Camera | Focal Length | 35mm Focal Length | Aperture | Subject Distance | DoF |
| Nikon J1/V1 | 13mm | 35mm | f/2.8 | 4m | 12.7m |
| Olympus E-P3 | 17.5mm | 35mm | f/2.8 | 4m | 6.48m |
| Nikon D7000 | 23.3mm | 35mm | f/2.8 | 4m | 3.95m |
| Nikon D3s | 35mm | 35mm | f/2.8 | 4m | 2.38m |
The following sample photos from dpreview.com have pretty much confirmed the lack of DoF with the Nikon CX sensor, despite having a fast AF and decent ISO performance. Having said that, sometimes it is not just all about DoF.
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