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Nikon Goes Mirrorless With New J1 and V1

In seven cities around Europe today, residents may have noticed giant statues of arms, bursting out of the ground holding one of the new Nikon System 1 cameras.

Offered in two flavors, the Nikon J1 and the Nikon V1, with the J1 being the color-coordinated basic model and the black V1 aimed at more advanced shooters. Even though there are promo photos floating around of the V1 in white, only the J1 seems to be offered in different colors. Other differences include an electronic shutter in the J1 and a vertical travel mechanical shutter in the V1, along with an optical viewfinder in the V1, which the J1 lacks.

The V1 also has a wider selection of add-on gadgets than the J1. See our comparison of the Nikon V1 vs J1.

Under the hood the cameras are very similar, both sporting a 10.1-megapixel CX (13.2mm x 8.8mm), 2.7x crop factor CMOS chip, which is somewhat smaller than a micro 4/3 chip.

The Nikon 1 models have the features you’d expect in a mirrorless camera, including an advanced burst mode that can capture 5 fps at full resolution and continuous autofocus. Both record video at 1080 60i/30p output to H.264 in a MOV wrapper.

The ISO rating is a respectable 100 to 3200 and both have a 3 inch TFT-LCD on the back and enough manual controls to accommodate those who want creative control.

There are some interesting software additions, including something called Motion Snapshot, which combines a series of still images with a brief movie clip into something that resembles a Hogwarts painting, though one hopes they’re less creepy.

One Secure Digital card slot in each model and both accept SD, SDHC, and SDHX cards.

On the shelves in time for the holidays with the J1 starting at $649.95 and the V1 bumping in at $899.95.

Comparisons:

Nikon J1 specs

Nikon V1 specs

Popular Photography

Six Tips For Better Food Photography

I once visited what I thought was an industrial machine shop, but turned out be a professional food photographer. He employed metal supports, chemicals like lacquer and linseed oil, compressed air, and scaled down stage foggers.

You probably won’t want to go that far, but food photography is suddenly in vogue. From Flickr groups like I Ate This with over 240,000 pictures from 24,000 members and so called food porn sites like Tastespotting and Foodgawker, photographing your food is no longer reserved for professionals, we’re all becoming food paparazzi now. If you’re going to do it, do it right.

1) Take a camera. While many people are buying the latest iPhone just for food pictures, even a low end digital camera will do a better job. Cameras like the Nikon Coolpix P7100 are popular for ease of concealment and their fast start up time. Some users have upgraded to cameras like the Nikon D90 because they want better pictures of their food.

2) Be fast. Cold food isn’t going to look good, so try to shoot while it’s still steaming and before anything melts, wilts or changes color.

3) Use natural light when possible. Side lighting from a booth window is going to be better than a pop up flash. If you’re buying an SLR for food pictures, then take the next step and get a diffuser for the pop up flash for those times you can’t avoid using the camera flash.

4) Use a low angle. The big mistake a lot of food photographers make is shooting from too high of an angle. Most people don’t view their food from straight down, so don’t shoot it from that angle. Get down as low as you can without drawing too much attention to yourself.

5) Get close, go macro. Getting a shallow depth of field on macro settings will put the focus on the food and blur out the table in the background.

6) Style it. Many chefs spend an entire year in school just on presentation. Most local restaurants will not have that training, so don’t be afraid to dress up your food a little. If you get lettuce on the side it won’t wilt by the time it gets to the table.

Nikon Fields Coolpix S1200pj Projector Camera

Nikon announced a slew of new, impossibly thin consumer cameras this year that included the latest generation to feature a built-in projector, the Coolpix S1200pj.

It’s neat enough the camera can project pictures and video of its own, but you can also project video and still images from any Apple iOS device as well.

The Coolpix S1200pj features a 20 lumen built-in projector - photo by Nikon

The S1200pj is actually the third generation of Nikon cameras to feature a built-in projector. The first to have the feature was the S1000pj launched in 2009, but that model suffered from lackluster photo capabilities. Apparently the projector was a popular enough feature for Nikon to stick with the concept.

In this model the engineers were able to up the output of the projector to 20 Lumens, which improves the viewing experience but drains the battery in less than hour.

Nikon beefed up the picture quality in the S1200pj with a 14 megapixel CCD sensor behind a 5x 28-140mm zoom lens with 720p HD movie capture.

The camera internals feature an automatic motion detector that tracks the subject’s motion and modifies the photo settings to keep the image in focus. The camera also features the type of in-camera filter effects you’d expect in a point-and-shoot.

Blurry images are a thing of the past with a four-way advanced vibration reduction system and people pictures will be vastly improved with the Smart Portrait System with features like smile detection, face-priority AF which can track up to 12 different faces, blink warning, red eye fix and skin softening.

Available for pre-order at Amazon for $429.00 USD.

Top 5 Portrait Lenses

canon 100mm — The Canon 100mm f/2.8 makes a great portrait lens for full frame DSLRs

When buying a new camera most people, unless they already have lenses, will get it with a decent kit zoom. Their first lens purchase will almost inevitably be a portrait lens.There are so many great lenses out there for portraits, it’s hard to pick winners. So my compromise is to pick my five favorites.

Nikon Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 D

Coming in at just under $500, the 85mm f/1.8 is one of the of the most highly regarded lenses in Nikon’s arsenal. Not a great choice for low-light situations, but portrait photographers swear by it.

Specifically that would be head and shoulders style portraits or close-ups. If you want to take full body shots, you’ll have to step back quite a bit.

Nikon makes a f/1.4 version of the same lens, but at twice the price it’s hard to justify the cost.

Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G

Criticized lately on build quality, it’s still a fine portrait lens for around $200. Maybe a tad less sharp than the 85mm, but it takes better eyes than mine to see much difference.

Mounted in front of Nikon’s APS-C, a slightly larger sensor than the Canon APS-C, it yields an effective zoom of 75mm.

Canon 100mm f/2.8 Autofocus Prime

This lens might be a tad long for APS-C models, like my Canon 7D, but matched up with a full size sensor on a 5D, this is a killer portrait lens.

Fast enough to provide good performance in low light, and snaps to focus nearly silently. Work a stop or two under wide open and it’s sharp enough to slice paper. Priced around $600.

The only downside to using this lens all day is the weight. It’s one of the heavier lenses of the top picks.

Canon “Nifty Fifty” 50mm f/1.8

You knew this one was coming. It’s one of the finest portrait lenses Canon makes. Priced around $100, it’s the first lens most Canon shooters purchase and the one that ends up spend the most time on the camera.

Newer models have developed a noticeable buzz in the auto-focus.

Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di-II

This is my personal favorite. A little more expensive than some of the others and the only zoom on my list, I love this lens. It’s a great performer in low and mixed light and delivers razor sharp quality.

The auto-focus is noisier than you’d expect for a lens at this price point and it can act confused and slow hunting around for focus.

Priced in the mid-$600’s, it’s still my choice for portraits or weddings.

Nikon Pops New P7100

Nikon has always impressed with me with their competitive nature and the Coolpix P7100 shows that commitment to continuous improvement. The P7100 fixes a lot of the pain points present in the P7000 and adds some interesting new features.

The P7100 is primarily aimed at consumers who don’t want to haul a full size SLR but still want the manual controls. The camera sports an external hot shoe, a flip-out LCD screen, and retains the ability to store RAW images.

Inside the P7100 sports a 9.98 MP, 1/1.7” CCD sensor with an ISO range of 100 to 6400. Behind the sensor is the refined EXPEED C2 image processing, meant to deliver better resolution across ISO settings. The noise reduction as been tweaked to protect fine detail in the pictures and the purple fringing reported by some P7000 users has been reduced.

Everything is faster in the P7100. The RAW and RAW+JPG is much improved in the newer model, along with faster start up times. The shutter lag has been trimmed from 300ms to 200ms, and the AF system is faster, as is the transition between playback and shooting.

Another nice feature is the ability to lock exposure in video mode, something video editors trying to set color correction will appreciate. The only unfortunate development is the switch to 30 fps instead of 24 fps in the P7000. Anyone who thinks 24fps to 30fps is an improvement probably doesn’t do a lot of video work.

Price point for the P7100 is expected to be around $499, shipping in September.