Nikon just announced their new mirrorless camera today… Following suite of Sony and a few others. Canon is expected to release theirs soon also. With this sudden outbreak of “advanced” cameras, it got me thinking… why?
It’s not a point and shoot… or an SLR. It’s not for stay at home moms shooting pictures of their 5 year old’s crafts… but it’s not for the professional wedding photographer either. It’s the awkward middle schooler that smells bad and has acne.
The “J1” and “V1”, as they are so cleverly named, are basically a small point a shoot camera, with not so small removable lenses. I like point a shoots because you can put them in your pocket or purse, pull them out, take a picture, put them back, and be on your way. My DSLR that I used for all our professional work is a little more cumbersome than a point and shoot, but I need to use different lenses and accessories. This camera will not fit in your pocket but it does not produce the results like my DSLR will. It’s just awkward. There is no mirror (hints mirrorless) so you preview the image on an LCD screen rather than through a viewfinder like DSLRs. This means you are sucking up A LOT of battery to keep the image sensor and the LCD powered all of the time rather than just when the take a picture. On the subject of the image sensor, REALLY Nikon?!? Sony’s awkward mirrorless camera at least has the same size image sensor as an APS-C DSLR, which means it does better with higher ISO’s… Nikon, for whatever reason, decided to go with a smaller sensor about 3 times as small as a normal sensor. One good thing is that there IS an adapter for Nikon F mount lenses which means you can use your Nikon lenses on this camera…. But like I said before, the image sensor is smaller so now your 50mm lens is almost a 150mm. (see my image sensor size article.) I havnt figured out who this camera is for yet. Is it just a gimmick?? Who are they targeting?? They went with a simplistic design which means you can not easily change your shutter speed, aperture, or ISO… so it’s not for pros. It’s not for every day shooting because it’s too big and expensive… If you’re going to go through the trouble of attaching lenses and carrying your gear in a bag, why not get a Nikon 5100 which is an excellent camera for just a little bit more money? If you don’t want to spend a lot of money, get a Coolpix camera, it’s portable and not as complicated…
What do you all think? Who is actually going to buy this?!
