Overview

The Nikon 1 V2 Compact System Camera is a leader in its class.  It has a clean, retro style that is reminiscent of film compacts such as the Nikon F and the Olympus Trip, and a complete change of look from the Nikon 1 V1, which it supersedes.  I’ve been using this camera, my first time using a CSC, over the Christmas period instead of my normal SLR to see whether the class is worthwhile or a gimmick, and to put the V2 through its paces.  First though, a little primer on CSCs:

Product Images

Looks and Main Features

The Nikon 1 V2 is rather good-looking, I think.  The body has excellent build quality, as you’d expect from Nikon, and feels nice and sturdy when you handle it.  The V2 is the lightest camera in its class (comparing body weight, not the lenses).  As you can see in the pictures, the entire body and 10-30mm kit lens fit into the space of a CD/DVD.  The V2 sees the addition of an SLR-like right-hand grip, which contains the battery and SD card.  The one pictured here is white, but they are also available in black.  The top section houses a pop-up flash and a hotshoe mount (for speedlite flashes and other accessories).  The controls consist of two dials, four buttons, one combination dial, a movie record button, an “F” button for specific settings, and the shutter release.  The screen is excellent.  Nikon have obviously realised that if you can’t look through the lens directly, you’d better be able to see clearly what the sensor can see on the screen.  Both for composition and reviewing pictures and movies, the screen is excellent.  There is a secondary screen inside the viewfinder, and the main screen shuts off automatically when you put your eye to it.  That screen is of lower resolution (it’s much smaller), but could be useful when shooting in bright sunlight.  I imagine most users would use the main screen most of the time, like a modern compact.

The menu is simple and easy to navigate.  As with all more complicated cameras, some time spent with the manual learning what all the features are would be time well spent, but the descriptions and hints it gives you are clear enough to work it out without the manual if you prefer a more trial and error approach.  The camera has the usual mode settings familiar to SLR users: Full Auto, Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and Full Manual.  It also has a dedicated “Advanced Movie” mode (though you can start recording in any mode using the movie record button if you need to start recording quickly), “Best Moment Capture” mode, and “Motion Snapshot” mode.

My only gripe with this camera is that it doesn’t (with the kit lens at least) have a manual focus ring.  To use manual focus, you have to set manual focus in the menu, and then use one of the dials to step through some pre-defined focus distances.  I tried taking some images of the stars using Full Manual mode and manual focus (auto won’t work against stars), but the control isn’t fine enough for doing that.  HOWEVER.  This camera has AMAZINGLY FAST autofocus.  It has an assist mode for dark conditions, and I rarely found it struggling to find focus.  It has many autofocus points, and several configuration options in the menu.

The built-in flash is pretty good, giving close-to-medium distance subjects a nice even light with no blown highlights.  It won’t throw the light very far, being so small, but that’s why it has a hotshoe and a separately available flash unit if you need more flash power.  The built-in microphone is very good too, and wasn’t much different in quality to a boom mic that I attached to the V2’s mic jack to test it.  A USB port enables you to connect the camera to your computer, and it has HDMI for viewing photos on your TV.  A separate Eye-Fi accessory is available to allow collaboration with phones and tablets wirelessly.

The sensor is a 14.2 megapixel CX-format AF CMOS sensor.  That resolution isn’t high enough to make this a professional’s choice, but it’s more than enough for an enthusiast, especially with the Nikon picture quality behind it.  The standard ISO range is 160-3200, extendible up to to 6400 if you don’t mind a noisy image.  Top tip: If you’re shooting in dark conditions and need to use a high ISO, consider shooting in monochrome as the noise looks like film grain and can look quite arty.

The camera can record video up to 1080p resolution through the mounted lens.  The addition of an external microphone via the camera’s mic jack means that you can produce very professional-looking videos on the cheap, and with extremely portable kit.  SLRs are becoming increasingly popular with filmmakers, and I see no reason why CSCs like the V2 couldn’t also be used in this way.  The V2 can also shoot 400fps slow-motion video at lower resolution, allowing you to show time around 13 times slower than normal speed.  It also has a 1200fps mode, but the resolution is so small that I can’t see anyone using it.

Kit Lens

The kit lens which comes with the V2 is a ‘1 Nikkor’ 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 with a 40.5mm filter thread.  You might think that’s a very wide lens for a kit lens,  but because the sensor in the V2 is around half the size of a micro four-thirds camera, the effective focal length is multiplied by around 2.7, giving the 10-30mm an effective length of around 28-80mm, which makes much more sense.  It’s certainly a nice all-rounder lens, especially for landscapes and portraiture.  The lens approximately doubles in physical length when extended for use, but is very compact when not in use, so I can’t really complain too much.  A range of other lenses are available for the V2, and I believe a mount is available to allow standard Nikkor lenses to be used, giving a wide range of creative options. The first additional lens I’d get for it would be a fast prime, as the bokeh (background blur) and shallowness of depth-of-field you can achieve with the 10-30mm lens isn’t brilliant, as you’d expect from a zoom lens. With those two lenses available, you could take some seriously good photos and really develop your skills before moving onto an SLR.

Shutter Settings

The shutter has to be open on a CSC to allow the sensor to relay the lens image to the screen so you can see what you’re shooting.  This almost makes having an actual shutter redundant, except you need one to do flash sync.  Consequently, the V2 has two shutter settings – mechanical and electronic.  In manual mode, the shutter opens and closes just like a normal DSLR or film camera, allowing flash synchronisation up to 1/250 sec.  The other mode is electronic shutter, where the shutter stays open all the time, and the sensor captures the image for the right exposure length when you press the release button.  Having no shutter movements means that it’s totally silent (really, completely totally silent) and can achieve exposures of 1/16,000 sec.  That’s very short indeed, and will allow the even fastest motions to be frozen (given enough light).  It can also shoot stills at a staggering 60fps in electronic mode; 5fps in mechanical mode (still fast).

Specific Features

The V2 is equipped with a new Slow View function, with which the camera captures a short sequence of still images and plays them back in slow motion so that the user can choose the precise moment to record as a photograph. When the shutter-release button is pressed halfway, the camera begins buffering still images and then plays them back in a continuous slow-motion loop at the speed of five times slower than normal speed. When the desired frame is displayed, the user need simply press the shutter-release button the rest of the way down to record that frame. This function is extremely convenient for capturing moving subjects with which it is difficult to properly time shutter release.  This mode is very useful for capturing people engaged in sport, or children or animals, which have unpredictable movement, allowing you the best chance of getting a good shot.

The camera also has Motion Snapshot.  By simply pressing the shutter-release button, this function records a still image and a slow-motion movie. With playback, the slow-motion movie plays for four seconds and the still image is displayed for six seconds for a total playback time of ten seconds of footage capable of expressing emotion. Motion Snapshots can be saved in MNS format, which saves the movie file (MOV) and still image file (JPEG) separately, or as a single MOV file.  These little movies would be great inserted into a digital slideshow to add a little interest and life to the subject.

The Nikon 1 series’ flagship feature, its Smart Photo Selector, has been improved in the V2.  20 continuous shots are taken before and after the shutter-release button is fully pressed, and then the shots judged to be the best are automatically recorded. The version of this function built into the V2 is better at selecting the best shot with a number of improvements, including greater camera-shake reduction and improved detection of subject movement.

Image Quality

Nikon have maintained the high quality seen in the V1.  Both JPEG and RAW images are sharp.  The kit lens performs well in terms of chromatic aberration and fringing.  The noise increases steadily with increased ISO, as you’d expect, but the levels are perfectly acceptable.  The camera performs well in low light, even the autofocus.  The Active-D lighting system and picture effect settings allow for minimal post-processing once you know the camera’s capabilities.

Sample Images and Movie

Nikon 1 V2 Example Movie

Price and Score

Sit down.  The Nikon 1 V2 retails from between £670 (the cheapest I could find) to around £800 in the UK.  That’s entry-to-enthusiast-level SLR money.  If you enjoy taking photographs and want to get into photography as an art, but don’t want a full-blown SLR, this is definitely the camera for you.  If you will be taking ‘snaps’, spend £100-£200 on a good compact and save the money!  If you have an SLR but dread lugging it around with you sometimes, this might make an excellent fall-back camera when you can’t take your main one.  If you have a Nikon DLR, you could even use the lenses with the V2 if you buy the adapter mount.  All in all, this is a class-leading camera, as I said at the beginning.  The cost may be prohibitive for some, but there is definitely a niche market for this kind of camera.  Overall, I score the Nikon 1 V2 4/5 and award it our Silver Award.