When they announced the new V1 and J1 cameras, people seemed to be generally pleased with the overall specifications from the first mirrorless SLR offerings from Nikon….there was however, the oft-repeated criticism that the sensor was too small. More than a few message board “experts” surmised ( well before ever actually shooting with the camera system, of course) that the smaller sensor would produce too much noise and not enough detail to be a “serious” enough camera for someone who is used to shooting with a full sized DSLR.  We decided to put this question to the test and sent one of our staff writers, David, to the National Zoo to shoot some critters at a moderately high ISO ( 2200 for example).

His results show that not only is ISO 2200 not prohibitively noisy, the dynamic range didn’t suffer much and the kit lens ( 10-30mm)  is acceptably sharp. Below is an image and crop for your review. We will be testing this camera system soon with long exposure landscapes and will post the results for you here.

F 5.6, 1/30th , through glass, hand held shot raw processed with ACR

 

 

 

Click to see larger size

cropped image to show detail