And then I realized that Nikon had already made the camera but not with the Sony sensor (which may have been the downfall of that system). I remember thinking to myself when the V1 was introduced that there was no way I would pay what Nikon was asking for that small body, 10 megapixels and a few slowish lenses but after I handled it in a store I caved and bought the system. It was fun but it never worked out the way I wanted it to. I wonder how successful it would be if it was re-imagined today with a selection of smaller, faster prime lenses and one of the marvelous Sony 20 megapixel sensors.
I don't regret selling the V1 system but I am happy I did get to use one for the better part of a year. I did a lot of public relations work with it in situations where clients valued discretion over sheer quality. Now everyone seems to offer cameras with silent, electronic shutters. But none as small and nicely finished as the V1 body of that system was.
I shot into a mirror for the image above. It was taken at a public relations function for Easter Seals and Dell Inc. We came away with a lot of good candids of the executive staff from Dell interacting with Easter Seal's clients. It was a nice project. That was the right camera for that assignment. Much quieter than my bigger Nikons from that era.
The V1 will probably be considered an outlier collectible. I'll let someone else corner that market....
12 comments:
But it would have to have a Panasonic G9 size body, right?
Reminds me of when I had a Pentax Q. Tiny camera, tiny sensor, but it was ridiculous fun to take out and shoot. There were a handful of fun lenses for it, from silly (a cheap fisheye lens) to serious (a 50mm equivalent prime smaller than even a Pen F lens).
Ahh, Darth Vader's pocket camera. Still have my V1 with a few of the lenses. It's a great black and white camera, the files look just right in black and white. The 18.5mm 1.8 lens is really great (50mm equivalent). I took the kit on a cruise last summer and I'm really happy with the photos. Easy to travel with. I think they priced themselves right out of the market when they first came out and the system never got off the ground. Here in Canada they were over 1k, which was very high compared to what other kits were going for. Too bad, the system had a ton of potential and I still enjoy the camera. I just never bothered selling it for some reason.
Try the Pentax Q series. 1/1.7" mirrorless. I think the price of it starts to rise in recent years.
I have two V1 bodies and one V2 body. I have enjoyed the V1's very much, but have to admit that the V2 is better in most respects. A used V1 can be had for a pittance, even with a lens. Copies of the J5 can be found new, and it has a fairly-recent Sony sensor rather than one of the Aptina sensors found in the other bodies. No EVF or Mic jack though. Why not add a used Nikon 1 body to your collection of new used compact cameras? The only downside to buying Nikon 1 gear is that the 1 Nikkor lenses have proven to be relatively unreliable - their aperture electronics or mechanics have been failing at an alarming rate. I had to send in two of my five lenses to have their apertures repaired. Nonetheless, I continue to use my Nikon 1 gear a lot, even though I have an arguably better camera with a bigger sensor.
There was so much potential in the Nikon 1 system. Their autofocus was incredibly fast for a mirrorless back then. I think they just didn't have the right lenses and market it to the right people.
I have various other cameras which are all "better" in various ways, but my V1 with the 18.5mm lens (nifty fifty) is what I still seem to end up using far more than anything else.
Hi Kirk, In 2012 I was looking for a small, discrete travel system and chose the V1 based on your astute observation that the best way to use the V1 was to just let the camera do all the work. At the time, as you will remember, there was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth from the big-iron Nikon guys that the V1’s controls were so minimal that they rendered the camera useless. They could not look beyond their first, myopic impressions to see the fast and accurate focus, the superb matrix metering and the so accurate auto white balance. For me it was a great choice, and I used the V1/J1 system for travel for a full three years before beginning the switch to Fuji. So thanks for that great advice seven years ago! Cheers, John Gordon
I bought a V1 in the fire sale and slowly added a few slow not to great lenses. Then i got the adapter and the excellent 70-300 zoom and use as a backup to my D7200 and 80-200 (great old lens still in production i think- you can pound nails with this lens) for kids playing soccer and birds in flight. Fill the frame so no cropping, have enough light, set the ISO to auto with maximum setting of 800 select the only button to Aperture and you get some terrific images.
At first I thought no controls was just wrong after learning the menu systems i see how the camera does what you want.
PITA is Nikon promised and never delivered on additional adapters for things like flash.
I may pick up a few of the better lenses too.
Right technique and good gear and you still make great images!
My new Canon M6 is not quite as small as my Nikon 1 J5, but I'm loving its controls and results. The EF-M lenses are pretty compact. I bought the clip on EVF that is big and bright. Plus, it sticks out enough that your nose isn't setting the focus on the touch-screen. Dual-pixel auto focus too.
Funny, I had a V1 sitting on the table in front of me when I clicked on this article. Even though I've got a couple of full frame bodies, I have lost count of the number of times I've picked up the bag with the V1 and 4 or 5 tiny lenses when heading out with the family or to an event rather than carry the larger kit. Consequently a large percentage of the photos in frames around the house were taken with this great little system. At the end of the day, cameras are about the photographs you come home with, so that is a testament to the power of the V system. I picked up a mint condition second V1 body at 6 months ago for the equivalent of about $100 - crazy. But hey, if people want to chase the latest and 'greatest' cameras and shell out big bucks in the process, good luck to them!
Four years ago I brought a V3 as my "Street" camera with the 10-100, 70-300, and the 6.7-13mm. Yep!!! The whole enchilada!
The sensor is not up to the quality of the Sony but its "good enough". The focus is lightning fast, very accurate and the lenses are sharp. sharp, sharp at any aperture. Everything fits in a little shoulder bag the size of a DSLR w/kit lens bag and weighs ZIP compared to a SLR kit of similar range (15-800mm). The 10-100 lives on the camera and I've used the 70-300 (189-800) to shoot landscapes. Last year I bought a V1 body for Infrared because I had all the lenses, none of them have hotspots (very common with infrared conversions) and have been having an absolute ball. The wide angle in infrared is an hoot. If I ever get a replacement for the system, I'll keep the lenses and have the V3 converted to infrared.
This system was a brilliant idea, poorly executed, badly marketed and abysmally supported. It deserved better.
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