Shoot like a pro

A compact and sleek mirrorless interchangeable lens camera that captures pleasing quality photos and is easy to use, the Nikon 1 J4 is a new member of Nikon 1 series. It boasts a compact aluminium housing and is available in four colours – white, black, silver and orange. The silver one tested here look really sleek.

The J4 has good performance and captures great quality shots thanks to its improved image sensor, an image processor with good performance and a fast auto-focus system.

The sensor used in the J4 – CX-format image sensor with 18.4-megapixel resolution – also appears in the new Nikon 1 flagship V3 camera. The sensor measures 13.2 x 8.8mm and its CX format has a crop factor of 2.7x. The test here was conducted using the 1Nikkor 10-30 VR lens with equivalent focal length of 27 to 81mm and 1Nikkor 30-110 lens with equivalent focal length of 81 to 297mm. The 10-30 VR lens captured beautiful landscape photos while the3 30-110 lens was great both for portraits and telephoto shots.

With the improved sensor, the EXPEED 4A engine provides ISO ranging from 160 up to 12800 with enhanced noise reduction so J4 can take good quality shots even in low-light environments. Its noise reduction function takes multiple shots and combines them into a single image to ensure that images remain clear and bright, even when shooting at high sensitivities.

And J4’s auto focus system features 105 focus areas with phase-detect AF and 171 focus points with contrast-detect AF to ensure that images are always clear and sharp. This rapid, accurate targeting makes it possible for you to lock onto the subject, even during rapid motion.

The fast auto focus system and fast image engine allows the J4 to offer a very fast continuous shooting frame rate to ensure fast-moving action is never missed. Its electronic shutter provides continuous shooting at a rate of approximately 20 frames per second with autofocus, enabling the J4 to capture up to 20 shots in approximately a second.

The J4 can also record up to approximately 10 minutes of Full HD video at a resolution of 1920 x 1080/60p. A built-in electronic vibration reduction function maintains clear, crisp video, even when in motion by helping to reduce the effect of camera shake. The J4 can also record 720/30p slow-motion videos at 120fps.

The J4 uses a 3-inch VGA TFT+ touch-panel screen that makes navigation and control very easy and intuitive. The touch screen also allows you to make touch shooting by simply touching the spot on the screen where you want to focus and the camera will capture the scene immediately when you use the auto and creative modes. When you use an advanced movie mode, you can focus by tapping your subject in the display.

J4 allows even new users to capture good quality photos thanks to its full automatic exposure mode, which is accessible by turning the mode dial. Best of all, while in the auto mode, J4 also allows you to further enhance your shots with Live Image Control function.

The lets you select one four functions – Active D-Lighting, Background softening, Motion control and Brightness control. When you select one of the functions, you can use the slider bar to adjust the effect. The Active D-lighting lets you capture pictures of complicated lighting environments with good details in highlights and shadows, for example.

The Background softening lets you soften background details in accordance with the slider bar you have adjusted from low to high.

The mode dial also lets you choose between Creative Mode, Best Moment Capture mode, Motion Snapshot mode and Advanced movie mode.

The Best Moment Capture mode captures 20 frames before and after the shutter is released and you can select the frame you like or let the camera choose the best shot based on composition and movement.

The Motion Snapshot will record brief movie clips with your photographs. Each time the shutter is released, the camera recodes a still image and about 1.6 second of motive footage.

The Creative Mode is where more experienced photographers can access the exposure modes that make the most of the camera’s capability. They include Auto (P), Shutter Priority (S), Aperture Priority (A) and Manual (M) modes as well as Creative Palette, HDR, Easy panorama, Miniature effect, Selective colour, Cross process and Toy camera effect.

I had great fun with the Creative Palette, which displays as a palette and rotates, allowing for a preview of each creative effect.

The HDR mode takes two shots in quick succession then combines them to preserve the details and shadows.

Selective colour allows you to select one of 12 colours for the camera to record. Other colours will be discarded.

I mostly tried the auto mode and found that the J4 captured pleasing quality photos with sharp and good details and well-saturated colours even in standard picture effect. The auto focus was really fast and let me freeze a moving train into a sharp photo.

Nikon 1 J4 KIT with a 10-30mm PD lens retails for Bt19,900 and Nikon 1 J4 with 10-30mm PD and 30-110mm PD lens is selling for Bt25,900.

 

Key specifications

Lens Mount: Nikon 1 mount

Image Sensor: 13.2mm x 8.8mm CX CMOS sensor with 18.4 million pixels

Picture Angle: Approx 2.7x lens focal length (Nikon CX format)

Storage Media: microSD (micro Secure Digital), microSDHC, microSDXC memory cards

Shutter Type: Electronic Shutter

Fastest Shutter Speed: Electronic Shutter: 1/16,000 sec.

Slowest Shutter Speed: 30 sec.; Bulb; Time (requires optional ML-L3 remote control)

Flash Sync Speed: Up to 1/60 sec.

Top Continuous Shooting Speed at full resolution: 10/20 frames per second with AF; 30/60 fps with focus locked on first frame

Exposure Metering System: TTL metering using image sensor

Picture Control: Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait, Landscape, Selected Picture Control can be modified, User-customisable Settings

Autofocus System: Hybrid autofocus (phase detection/contrast-detect AF)

AF-area mode: Single-point AF: 171 focus areas; the centre 105 areas support phase-detection AF; Auto-area AF: 41 focus areas; Subject tracking; Face-priority AF

Movie (max recording resolution): 1920 x 1080/60p

Monitor: 3-inch TFT LCD touch panel with 1,037,000 Dots

Interface: Hi-speed USB, Type D mini-pin HDMI connector

Battery: EN-EL22 Lithium-ion Battery, with 300 shots per charge (CIPA)

Dimensions (Width x Height x Depth): 99.5 mm x 60 mm x 28.5 mm, excluding projections.

Weight: 192 g (camera body only)