Nikon V1 mirrorless camera gives you a thousand great shots on a single charge

Nikon V1 – the eldest member of the belated Nikon One mirrorless system. A clever name, it begs to be translated as “Nikon one” or even “Nikon – first”, but in reality only one, literal association worked.

the system is based on a non-standard one-inch sensor form factor, half as large as four-thirds sensors of Olympus and Panasonic, and three times as large as APS-C sensors of Samsung and Sony.

The size of the sensor does not say anything in particular except for the theoretical possibility of downsizing the optics and camera itself. Nikon V1 takes photos nicely and even well if you limit yourself to normal conditions and sunny days and if you don’t need to raise the sensitivity above 800 ISO.

But competing with cameras equipped with larger sensors will be difficult even for Nikon, which has unique technologies. Interesting are the reasons that prompted the company to take this step.

If Pentax, with its nano system, more or less adequately assessed the potential of the target audience of both the brand and the product, Nikon played a different kind of factor. Perhaps the company’s management is worried about the company’s F-mount – the basis for its classic DSLRs – and was afraid to give it even the slightest competition until recently. The end, of course, is expected: the competition will be Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and Olympus. And all the same to separate the lines, the company, even daring to release its own compact system, has considerably simplified it.

What neither experts nor fans expected, the simplification applies not only to the sensor but also to the camera control. The V1 is probably the most amateurish of all the older mirrorless cameras, simpler even than Sony’s first models. Use the menu to switch between exposure modes, and the menu to switch between sensitivity and white balance.

There are no modern digital effects, no advanced functions for experienced photographers, no special modes like multiple exposure.There are pros and cons to this. We’ve long been aware of the oversaturation of most cameras with unnecessary features, but it should be considered that many photographers prefer to have a camera with maximum functionality even if they don’t use it.

The camera is hardly a miniature camera, despite the best efforts of the developers. The interchangeable optics, even compact, brings its own limitations. The V1 won’t fit in your pocket under any circumstances and not every bag will do – it would be better to have a separate case or pouch for transportation. And the price of about 30 thousand roubles for a camera with a standard zoom does not persuade to run to the store.

The V1’s superb points include picture quality that’s better than the average compact, a very good electronic viewfinder, very fast phase focusing in snapshot mode, and the powerful EN-EL15 SLR battery. The camera is capable of shooting under a thousand frames on a single charge, and by this measure, the Nikon V1 is indeed absolutely the first.