Is the Nikon 1 dead?

BabaGanoush

spraynpray said:

My canon shooting buddy bought one to use in the sea and took it back a week later full of water. I can't convince him it was unusual. Anybody else hear of that?

Starting in 2014, I have owned three of them, one each of the black, the silver, and the white model. None of them has ever leaked. The 11-27.5mm lens of the black model froze up after 3 years and cannot be zoomed. I still use the white and silver cameras at least once each year. Thom Hogan has reported some of the people on his photography tours have experienced water leaks, which he suspects may be due to a poor seal of the rear LCD viewing screen on the AW1. I have applied a line of plumber's caulk around the edge of the screen on all three of my cameras and not had any issues with leaks.

I am pleased with the pictures I get from my AW1s. The AF is excellent and the colors are quite decent once they have been WB corrected. On the negative side, the menus of the AW1 are truly bizarre and its manual controls are a tad awkward to use. As long as you are staying within the top 5-10m of the water, shooting casually using mostly ambient light, not going deep using SCUBA gear, and not doing macro with hefty strobes, the AW1 is convenient to travel with and use underwater, much more so than a DSLR in a watertight enclosure.

PS: Another real positive of the AW1 is the long battery life of the camera. I can shoot for hours at a time without having to get out of the water to replace the battery.

spraynpray

@HankB - I so agree! However this was a brand new camera and if that couldn't do what it was supposed to be able to do, something is wrong.

dougjgreen

Well, the system is certainly dead as far as new development is concerned, but that doesn't mean that at current 2nd hand pricing, they are not wonderfully useful cameras (with limitations, mainly self-inflicted by Nikon, or course). I just bought a couple of underwater rigs at silly low prices which are VERY good: A WP-N3 housing brand new for $115, and a J4 with 10-30 lens for $135, together makes a superbly capable setup for underwater shooting for about 1/4th the price of anything else comparable. And as a backup, I just got a WP-N1 housing and a J2 together for about $160 altogether. These housings were each originally $750 when new, and built to that quality - they blow away any other sub-$200 underwater housings in terms of quality, fit, and finish, and overall control ergonomics (despite some of the ergonomic foibles of the cameras themselves).

Also, for $200, the current going rate of a clean used J5 body, it's very comparable to a Sony RX100 for much less.

spraynpray

I am looking at buying a P900 or perhaps a Nikon 1. Is there a macro lens in the Nikon 1 line-up?

PB_PM

There aren't any micro nikkors for Nikon 1, but you can also find an adapter and use your F mount Nikkors, it works really well.

spraynpray

Oh, right. My 60 would become what, about 150? That would do it ok.

dougjgreen

I've had good experience with the FT-1 adapter an old 55mm Micro Nikkor (pre-ai, but converted). I know other folks who like the 40mm DX Micro Nikkor lens on the FT-1 adapter

BabaGanoush

dougjgreen said:

Well, the system is certainly dead as far as new development is concerned, but that doesn't mean that at current 2nd hand pricing, they are not wonderfully useful cameras (with limitations, mainly self-inflicted by Nikon, or course). I just bought a couple of underwater rigs at silly low prices which are VERY good: A WP-N3 housing brand new for $115, and a J4 with 10-30 lens for $135, together makes a superbly capable setup for underwater shooting for about 1/4th the price of anything else comparable. And as a backup, I just got a WP-N1 housing and a J2 together for about $160 altogether. These housings were each originally $750 when new, and built to that quality - they blow away any other sub-$200 underwater housings in terms of quality, fit, and finish, and overall control ergonomics (despite some of the ergonomic foibles of the cameras themselves).

Also, for $200, the current going rate of a clean used J5 body, it's very comparable to a Sony RX100 for much less.

As I posted earlier, I've been using the Nikon 1 AW 1 for a number of years. But when I read your post, it dawned on me that you were really onto something that I had never considered. I immediately went over to Amazon to check out the prices of a (new) J4 + WP-N3 case. The lowest price I could find for the pair was $500. If I could find the same combo for around $350, I'd snap one up without hesitation. Would you mind sharing with us where you were able to get such a great price on your gear?

Update: The $350 price is a bit artificial but is what it would cost me to buy the new Olympus TG-5 underwater camera which has a smaller sensor but does offer an excellent macro and closeup capability neither the J4 or AW1 has.

dougjgreen

It's true that I got great deals on both the J4 and the WP-N3. In fact, there is a seller currently selling WP-N3 housing for $245 who sold a slew of them in the past for under $100, but he recently jacked up his price. I paid $115 for mine, from someone else, after trying to get that seller to give me the same price as the last half dozen he had sold (around $95). I also offered $135 to a J4 seller who was asking $180, and he accepted my offer.

NSXTypeR

spraynpray said:

Oh, right. My 60 would become what, about 150? That would do it ok.

It's a 2.7x crop factor, so more like 162mm. If I had disposable income (not to mention being a dead format), I'd be curious to mount my 70-300 or the 105 macro on a Nikon 1 just to play around with. Optically the 70-300 isn't great but when your sensor size is so small it's probably just using the very center of the glass anyway.

dougjgreen

The 70-300 AF-P VR lens (the cheap DX version) is super sharp on the Nikon 1 using the FT-1 adapter, and a pretty light, compact package as well, and works quite well. and makes a nice 810mm equivalent lens that weighs under a pound

NSXTypeR

Is there any advantage to using the FX or DX 70-300 lens over the native Nikkor 1 series 70-300? Shame it was so darn expensive.

dougjgreen

Yes - the AF-P VR DX lens is approximately equal to the CX lens optically, and with the FT-1 adapter, it weighs about the same, but costs about 1/5th as much ~ 1/3 as much if you include the cost of the adapter. Also, the tripod socket on the FT-1 adapter is better than the one on the CX lens. Plus, if you need to shoot at high ISOs in low light, the money you save on the AF-P VR could be used to also buy a D3400 or D5600 body that you can use the AF-P lens on, and get good results out to ISO 12800.

Msmoto

Maybe another question is.... was the "Nikon-1" experience useful to Nikon? Did they learn anything?

NSXTypeR

Msmoto said:

Maybe another question is.... was the "Nikon-1" experience useful to Nikon? Did they learn anything?

We'll find out in maybe 2 days. Worst case scenario it will be a Nikon V3 with a full frame sensor with a non-standard hot shoe.

moreorless

I tend to think that was really doomed the One series was the same thing that doomed the DL compacts, Nikon looking to get out of the mid level consumer business and push more for higher end premium sales.

dougjgreen

Yep, Nikon apparently wants nothing whatsoever to do with 90%+ of their customer base (who also happen to represent about 70-75% of their revenue stream) going forward.

eric727

So the V1 is officially dead?

Symphotic

I've got 3 V1s around here in my lab. We use them for video and photographic monitoring of things we are working on as they are very easy to set up quickly with either their dedicated lenses or any of our Nikon F mount lenses. One of my field engineers just called last night to have one sent by courier to him.
It is a great system for what it does. Video is excellent, and the images are great.
It is sad to see these go, but there it is.

heartyfisher

Just got a nice cheap 10-100 .. :-)

spraynpray

@heartyfisher: I have always had half an eye on a Nikon 1 and now might be the time to buy one as people are off loading them. I would really like an evf and 20 mp sensor hearty - what options are open to me? Do they have built in evf or is it a plug in accessory. The half an eye that I had on them didn't include learning the details (sorry). Does your macro attachment work on yours?

One last question: Do 'G' lenses auto-expose and auto-focus on adaptors?

spraynpray

Oh well, I'll soon find out, I just bought a J5 and lenses off eBay. If it is a keeper I will get an extension tube set to use with the 30-110mm.

HankB

spraynpray said:

@heartyfisher:
One last question: Do 'G' lenses auto-expose and auto-focus on adaptors?

This seems to spell it out:

https://cdn-4.nikon-cdn.com/e/Q5NM96RZZo-MRItDefY8uS3cNHsVS3bpm3NYPzZUKnZZfucInlzzprpuVSEyudQ4_pucHovHlGWaRQ7Qj2v4VLP5OVK-hZI_9VQcvD3ZJzA=/PDF/Nikon_1_F_Mount-FT1_Compatibility_Chart.pdf

though I am baffled by the next to last bullet point:
"• Autofocus may be less precise when Shutter-priority auto, Aperture-priority auto, or Manual is selected for Exposure mode. Focus manually if you have trouble using autofocus. With some lenses the focus distance indicator may not display the actual distance to the subject or the minimum focus distance may increase."

spraynpray

Thanks Hank. That FT-1 is expensive though...

dougjgreen

Spraynpray, there is no N1 camera with a good (Sony RX-class) sensor and an EVF. The J5 has that sensor, but no EVF. The V1, V2 (integral EVF) and V3 (add-on pricey hard to find EVF) have lesser sensors. That is one of the most frustrating things about when Nikon killed the system. It seems that it was euthanized just when the next camera was due to be one that combined the Sony sensor with either V2 or V3 ergonomics and an integral EVF). Most users of the system have decided to either make do with the J5, or put up with the older less light-sensitive sensors in the Vs. I personally use both a V2 and J5, but I have also found that when using the J5 in bright sunshine, or with long lenses, a loupe that shields the screen from the sun, and also provides a brace point, is an indispensible accessory. I use one of the cheap Chinese ones that costs ~5 on ebay. The one called V2 is the one with the correct size frame to fit the N1 system rear screens.

And yes, the system is quite functional with the FT-1 adapter. In particular, it's useful with long tele lenses like the AF-P 70-300mm lenses, Macro lenses (for which there is no native N1 lens) and fast primes (of which even 28mm lenses on up become telephotos). New adapters tend to run $200-250, but you can usually find used FT-1 adapters for $125-150 or so. There are no 3rd party adapters that retain AF and AE functionality as the FT-1 does.