Now that Nikon’s new mirrorless format is here with the official announcement of the Nikon V1 and J1, there’s been a lot of head scratching and hoorah over the new cameras. After the dust settles though, will the format be a success for Nikon?
As a refresher, the cameras have a 10.1MP sensor with a 2.7x crop factor. The V1 runs $900 with the kit lens, while the J1 is $650 with the kit lens. (For more details, see the V1 and J1 announcement.)
Cast your vote in the unscientific poll below, and feel free to elaborate on your thoughts in the comment section at the bottom of the page.
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Yes, it will succeed. However, not with the photography enthusiast or Pro. There is not enough exposure control and likely the IQ will not be high enough for the pixel peepers.
It will succeed with the target audience. Those not wanting to think too hard about taking a photo but still want a good image. I will speculate the target audience is new moms, teenagers, and grand parents who are traveling. My problem is with the price – how is a teenager or a new mom suppose to scrape together the coin for this new kit?
There is some interesting technology – like the artificial intelligence protocol selecting the “best” photo. I would like to know what criteria goes into the selection AI.
Quality of compact in price of DSLR? I doubt it will come out as success amongst beginners or unaware people (if that’s the target audience) when everyone around, from people in shops, though web down till enthusiasts around will tell people that m4/3 and NEX offer much more for less money.
Plus: The only one important advantage this system could have – a very small size – doesn’t exist! LOL! It’s all made as if there would be an APS-C sensor inside. Incredible.
Guessing a lot of ppl will still buy it because it has the name nikon on it and ppl will instantly think that’s it’s good
The EV, AF, and frame capture speed/methods on the V1 interests me. I would not be surprised to find these migrate to the FX and DX formats relatively soon.
on paper…it looks like the Olympus and Sony entries offer much more for the money…only die hard Nikon enthusiasts will buy…
Nikon’s gonna kill himself with this cheap products.
I think that the sensor size is too small to create the sorts of effects an enthusiast would want so it feels unlikely that this particular format will succeed for enthusiasts. I’m a Nikon user and I now feel much more comfortable investing in the 4/3 format knowing that the Nikon format is not likely to be of use to me.
You stole my words :)
And mine to
My feeling is that it will be the Edsel of the photographic industry. Price point too high. Consumer types swapping out lenses having no clue what they can achieve or what their intended purpose is will be a joke. This may appeal to those with excess disposable income only because of the Nikon name.
Why Nikon and Canon don’t join the micro 4/3?
The smaller sensor makes no sense.
I don’t think it will succeed – the sensor ist to small for the ambitious photoenthusiast, the styling is a scheduled flop, not enough functionallity.
It could have worked if it were an extension of the 35mm standard lens system. It could have marked a transition from mirrored DSLRs to new technology. This makes little sense and is probably too fussy for photographers moving up from point-and-shoots while not providing the quality of a DSLR. I’m scratching my head on this one.
Nikon has made the camera for people who want to upgrade from their cellcameras. Only they overpriced it.
But the technology is awesome and complete for the average person – from slow motion to fast phase-detect autofocus to video modes with simultaneous still shooting. And more lenses at launch than micro 4/3 had in 2008. And the ISO 1600 and 3200 samples I’ve seen on dpreview and elsewhere look VERY good.
I have a little Panasonic GF1 with the 14mm pancake (28mm equivalent) which I carry around with me. Noise is bad above ISO 640 and AF is slow in bad light. If the image quality of these Nikons is better with their 10mm pancake (also 28mm equivalent) I’ll dump the Panasonic and get the Nikon.
“And the ISO 1600 and 3200 samples I’ve seen on dpreview and elsewhere look VERY good.” – you must have seen different samples than I did. Nikon system photos looks like straight from one of the bigger-sensor compacts. And I don’t see how this is better than GF1. We certainly have seen different photos.
Anybody knowing that the Sony NEX series is available will not look twice at this camera. I cannot figure out who the target group is for this camera. This camera is not only ugly, but doesn’t make much sense up against the already mirrorless cameras available today. If you remotely want anything above average, this camera will not do. I see it appealing only to the uninformed who are sucked in by the nikon name. I use nikon top cameras for serious work and I can tell you that I amalready replacing those hefty $5,000 and up models with my tiny Sony NEX -5. Once I get my hands on the soon to be available NEX-7 I can see me replacing my top nikon’s with it for good.
For me, i like the AF speed, fps & the excellent 28-300mm becomes a 810mm f.5,6 with enough resolution for medium magnification. For that level of tele maybe the expensive price may still work for some people..but I agree that with Nikon’s great advantage in picture quality the very small sensor is very strange…Design can’t be worse
OH…just bring on a high end DLSR…stop this nonsense
We are only seeing the beginning of this technology downsizing…will it be successful? That depends on what you see as successful …are you asking profitable? Maybe…I think it depends on the cameras photographic outcome…what will the images look like? If they are worthy I feel it will sell. Most pros have a small camera around most of the time. Technology will of course get cheaper with time as well. The good thing is Nikon continues to stay on the forefront of technology and development…and I am sure some of this technology will filter down to all DSLR’s in the future.
Will I buy one? Maybe depends on the quality of the photos it will be capable of. I have taken some great images with my old Canon G9.
I think so. There’s a huge action shooters market that will really embrace the high-speed capabilities of this format. However, there’s still going to be a great divide between this format and DX/FX shooters.
I think this camera is more to fill the hole between a video camera and a photocamera. It wasn’t made to make the perfect photo and it wasnt made to make the perfect video.
Looks like no one can understand why Nikon produces something that other camera makers have gone miles ahead. But I’d go and grab one of those for my collection as soon as it’s available, because they’ll be history before you know it!