Challenge! March Symposium: The Small Sensor Look.

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That slimming look achieved with a Nikon 1 J5.View attachment 250749
How is the J5? That was the most advanced model of the series. Wasn’t the J5 the only one to finally use the Sony 20mp one inch sensor? I always felt the Nikon 1 series was hampered by using the sensor that they designed. I can’t think of the name of the company that made the sensor. My friend had the J1 and V2 and I always thought the images were noises and had a bit less DR than the Sony 20mp sensor used in the RX100 series
 
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On my walk around the small town where I live, I took a handful of pictures of things that seemed interesting to me...but upon returning home I discovered that the photos themselves were all uniformly boring, or didn't work. But the last one I took, almost as an afterthought, was of a crushed pair of glasses, lying in the street. Something made me lift the Q7 and take one picture, which I didn't have high expectations for. But I couldn't stop thinking about - and wondering - who they might have belonged to. And if they missed them. And what they might have seen.

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How is the J5? That was the most advanced model of the series. Wasn’t the J5 the only one to finally use the Sony 20mp one inch sensor? I always felt the Nikon 1 series was hampered by using the sensor that they designed. I can’t think of the name of the company that made the sensor. My friend had the J1 and V2 and I always thought the images were noises and had a bit less DR than the Sony 20mp sensor used in the RX100 series
The older sensor was an Aptina, and I quite liked it... The 20Mp from Sony in the J5 is nice but I think the older sensor had more character. Bit weird to say so but there you have it... just an opinion. I have the J5 but rarely use it since purchase.

V1 + 30-110mm

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J1

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Depends what you do with them, what you expect, and how you post process.
 
The older sensor was an Aptina, and I quite liked it... The 20Mp from Sony in the J5 is nice but I think the older sensor had more character. Bit weird to say so but there you have it... just an opinion. I have the J5 but rarely use it since purchase.

V1 + 30-110mm

View attachment 250764

J1

View attachment 250765View attachment 250766

Depends what you do with them, what you expect, and how you post process.
It’s surprising that I never bought one. I thought about it many times.
 
The older sensor was an Aptina, and I quite liked it... The 20Mp from Sony in the J5 is nice but I think the older sensor had more character. Bit weird to say so but there you have it... just an opinion. I have the J5 but rarely use it since purchase.

V1 + 30-110mm

View attachment 250764

J1

View attachment 250765View attachment 250766

Depends what you do with them, what you expect, and how you post process.
This finally did it - I just swapped out the P50 to make room for the V1 with its congenial partner, the 18.5mm f/1.8. Thanks for nudging me over the threshold, Sue!

M.
 
This finally did it - I just swapped out the P50 to make room for the V1 with its congenial partner, the 18.5mm f/1.8. Thanks for nudging me over the threshold, Sue!

M.
Ahh, the V1, a camera that I loved and hated in equal measure. Very nice colors, lightning fast AF, and a battery that would last for days paired with an interface not conducive to my workflow - I still remember not being able to turn off auto-review and missing action shots because of it.

The Nikon 1 lineup was a squandered opportunity for sure.

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Sun Setting over the Manhattan Skyline, as seen from Flushing, Queens.
by John Flores, on Flickr

I've got a J5 now because the V3 is still expensive. Maybe I should look for an old V1 again.
 
The older sensor was an Aptina, and I quite liked it... The 20Mp from Sony in the J5 is nice but I think the older sensor had more character. Bit weird to say so but there you have it... just an opinion. I have the J5 but rarely use it since purchase.

V1 + 30-110mm

View attachment 250764

J1

View attachment 250765View attachment 250766

Depends what you do with them, what you expect, and how you post process.
The Aptina sensors worked well in good light. My friend took an amazing two week trip to the Galapagos Islands and took the V2 and 10-100 (27-270 mme) lens. Her pictures were really nice, and that zoom was surprisingly good.
 
Ahh, the V1, a camera that I loved and hated in equal measure. Very nice colors, lightning fast AF, and a battery that would last for days paired with an interface not conducive to my workflow - I still remember not being able to turn off auto-review and missing action shots because of it.

The Nikon 1 lineup was a squandered opportunity for sure.

View attachment 250786
Sun Setting over the Manhattan Skyline, as seen from Flushing, Queens. by John Flores, on Flickr

I've got a J5 now because the V3 is still expensive. Maybe I should look for an old V1 again.
Fully agree - I love as many aspects of the camera as I find really irritating. The "self-aware" mode dial is another annoying "feature", the lack of tactile dials is a constant nag. I too have missed or bodged shots because the mode dial had "wandered" or I had closed the aperture completely (in A mode) so that shutter speed and/or ISO were completely off. But on the other hand, it's very simple to use as soon as you've figured out the interface, it's pretty fast even by today's standard, the EVF is decent, and it usually just works (once you've learned to anticipate and avoid its pitfalls). For me as someone who really shoots action and takes his images very deliberately, it's a very suitable camera, plus I quite like the files (up to and including ISO 800). It's also my "snapshot" camera around the house; the one I use for documenting stuff I "just" need an image of ... Oh, and the 18.5mm f/1.8 is a right little champ.

In many ways, the V1 comes tantalisingly close to a "rangefinder" experience - not its exact handling paradigm, of course, but the flow is comparable because there's so little to actually fiddle with. There's hardly anything between you and the image - I even use focus and recompose most of the time (in spite of all the clever AF gizmos ...).

That said, I did miss focus on this one, but things were exceedingly awkward (I had my arms and hands full and - because of the rain - no place to put things down first), and I still quite like the sharpness roll-off, so here you go. I'll do better next time - I'm actually surprised I got a shot in today at all (I still have a a couple of old ones in reserve, though).

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ac

M.
 
A slow day most of which I need to spend both reading and writing.
But there is always time for stovetop espresso.

Phase 1: Preparation

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Phase 2: Quest for Fire

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Phase 3: Light at the end of the caffeinated Tunnel

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