Nikon has announced its long-anticipated mirrorless interchangeable lens camera system, with two models aiming to bridge the gap between its enthusiast point-and-shoot compacts, like the P7100 and P300, and its DSLR market. The ‘CX’ system utilizes a 10MP CMOS sensor with a crop factor 2.5x bigger than the 1/1.7″ sensor found in most enthusiast compacts, while coming out behind its main compact system rivals at 1/3 the size of APS-C sensor used in Sony’s and Samsung’s offerings, and 1/2 the size of Micro Four Thirds standard adopted by Olympus and Panasonic.
The system will launch with two handsome little cameras (all available, along with lenses, in five colors), both tentatively scheduled for an October 20th release date. The introductory J1, with a MSRP of $650, has a hybrid contrast detect and phase detect autofocus system, shoots up to 10 fps, 1920 x 1080 @ 60i/30 fps video and comes with a kit 10-30mm (27-81mm equivalent) lens. The more advanced V1, at $900, has these same specs with a magnesium alloy construction, 1.4 million dot electronic viewfinder and accessory port for optional speedlight or GPS functionality.
Entering a Crowded Field
With roughly the same dimensions as the Sony NEX-5N, the similarly-priced Nikon J1 will have a slight advantage as far as lens size, leading to higher portability. But the advantages end there. Comparing the spec sheets side-by-side, Sony’s option is simply more compelling than Nikon’s. Offering a sensor three times as large: Sony’s 16MP ‘magic’ sensor very similar to that in Nikon’s own $1200 D7000, an LCD resolution twice as dense, three stops more high ISO range (up to 25k!), the Nikon offering is looking seriously outmatched.
It’s hard to discern the target demographic for the 1 cameras. At these prices and with this spec sheet, they are not competitive in the high-end mirrorless interchangeable lens market: pros and enthusiasts looking for a second “carry everywhere” camera when they are not on a shoot with their bulky full-frame or medium format camera. Likewise, consumers (the multi-color availability makes it look like a nod to this demo) looking to “trade up” from compacts will balk at these prices, considering the entry-level models of the established mirrorless players, like the E-PM1 from Olympus, the Panasonic GF3 and Sony’s NEX-3C are cheaper and better spec’d. It’s unclear that the consumer market really cares about interchangeable lenses, but the promise of baked-in DSLR image quality, or something approaching it, is more compelling, and that’s something the 1 system is in the least advantageous position to offer.
Too Little, Too Late?
All this doesn’t even take into account that Nikon is seriously late to the party. The other mirrorless systems have a few years head start, with all the advantages that entails, including a few generations of cameras to iron out the inevitable early kinks, shrink the bodies, and foster a relatively mature family of lenses with third party lenses now trickling out. Nikon will launch with four (relatively slow) lenses: the kit zoom, a 10mm f/2.8 (27mm equivalent) pancake, a 30-110mm f/3.8-5.6 (81-297mm equivalent), and a 10-100mm f/4.5-5.6 (27–270mm equivalent) PD-ZOOM and has promised an F-mount adapter.
At a time of tremendous industry upheaval, when dynamic, game-changing innovation is required, Nikon has taken a staunchly conservative position, choosing to avoid stepping on the toes of its entrenched interests – its bread-and-butter DSLR business and lucrative P&S market – rather than using its impressive engineering prowess to really tackle the elephant-in-the-room question head-on: “what will the camera of tomorrow look like?” It looks like they are depending on their brand name to sell these cameras rather than true innovation. As a longtime Nikon user myself, it’s like watching a car crash in slow motion.
To borrow a metaphor from Thom Hogan, so much of the mirrorless war has been geared to finding a “goldilocks” solution, with the “just right” combination of portability, functionality, image quality and, of course, price. Only time, and consumers can tell us what that magic spot is, but I wouldn’t put my money on ‘CX.’
You have to hand it to Sony, with relatively little to lose, and much to gain, they are acting like an ambitious startup, rethinking every accepted convention inherited from the legacy of film cameras. Leveraging their extensive range of consumer technologies from their entire product catalogue, they throw every new feature they can into as tiny a package as possible, and with each iteration, add thoughtful touches that show they are actually listening to the desires of the marketplace.
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Nathan Lee Bush is a fashion and fine art photographer and filmmaker in New York City. His work is on his site and blog.
I was recently approached by producer Jonathan Federico, who was putting together a short promo for a fantastic men’s fashion label, Copperwheat. The theme of the collection is Urban Warrior, and the clothes have military-fatigue-crossed-with-military-uniform quality, so we chose to pay homage to that aesthetic with the look of the film.
The concept he had was of two ‘urban warriors,’ members of rival gangs, making their way to a final showdown (and, of course, looking great in the process). I was immediately enthralled with the concept. Jonathan gathered photos of fighters from a variety of revolutionary periods, especially the Zapatistas, and he scouted locations in Bushwick and Williamsburg, which look almost like bombed-out, third-world war zones, filled with barbed-wire, graffiti and dilapidated windowless buildings.
We decided on a war-zone documentary style, with a cinéma vérité, handheld look, using Children of Men, The Battle of Algiers, Z, L’Enfant and The Bourne Ultimatum as references.
I must have watched this closing scene from Children of Men ten times (spoilers obviously):
Since we were going for a handheld look and quick action, my primary concern, from a technical perspective, was rolling shutter. I usually shoot with DSLRs, which are often affected by the dreaded ‘jello effect’ at the edges of the frame during fast, erratic movements. So I decided to go with the recently-introduced Pansonic AF100, which is much improved in this area.
It was a single-day shoot, so I knew that we would have to work quickly to get all the shots we needed. The smaller Micro Four Thirds sensor was attractive in this regard, because of its more forgiving deeper depth-of-field relative to the full-frame Canon 5D Mark II and also the APS-C Canon 7D or Nikon D7000, and allowed us more focus leeway for fast action shots. And I also like that Micro Four Thirds is closer than APS-C in size to the 16mm film stocks that front-line war documentarians classically used, giving it a more authentic war zone vibe, while still achieving a somewhat cinematic depth.
Using the Voigtlander Nikon adaptor for Micro Four Thirds, I used Zeiss primes, 18mm f/3.5, 35mm f/2.0 and 50mm f/1.4, which gave us a decent range. I knew I didn’t want any wide-angle distortion, and a 50mm proved useful for long shots, though in retrospect, I would have even liked something longer, to bring a telephoto alienation to the piece, as in news reportage on hostage crises.
In more controlled scenes (as in the first half of the video), however, where critical focus was a luxury we could afford, it was slightly frustrating to be shooting without the digital zoom I’ve become accustomed to on the DSLR live view modes. I found it occasionally difficult to quickly find critical focus using the Focus Assist built into the camera in low depth-of-field scenarios. However, putting the viewfinder in black-and-white mode helped tremendously in finding the red outlines of the Peaking Focus Assist tool, and I’ve since discovered other tricks on forums to help with critical focus that I’m eager to try on future shoots.
Shooting all day from dawn to scorching midday light through to soft dusk, the built-in ND filters were a Godsend, allowing me to keep my ISO/gain as low as possible and my aperture exactly where I wanted it for each shot. I quickly became unable to contemplate life without it. It’s hard to imagine that the market demand for a convergent all-in-one stills/video camera would not eventually force this indispensable feature into DSLR bodies.
Coming from the DSLR world, and only having a few hours to familiarize myself with the camera, I had only begun to get a sense of the vast potential and extensibility of the camera before we were off and running. The 1st AC, Alan Lewis, is a master troubleshooter, and encyclopedic in his knowledge of video cameras, even though he comes from the stills world, so any problems we encountered were quickly resolved.
The camera is very well-built, but surprisingly light, even when on a shoulder rig. The LCD screen is bright and beautiful, and surprisingly clear even in midday sunlight. The menu system, indebted more to Panasonic’s pro video cameras than it’s Micro Four Thirds stills cameras, was foreign to me, but it didn’t take long to adjust. With many programmable function buttons, there are seemingly infinite ways to customize the camera to your needs, so I’m really excited to get to know it better before my next shoot.
And now, here is the video!
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Nathan Lee Bush is a photographer and filmmaker in New York City. His work is on his site and blog.
