Experimenting with Hitchcock and the Nikon J1 with 16mm c-mount lenses

[Andrew Reid]

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I have the idea to make a tense but beautiful low light, budget thriller with the Nikon J1. It is ideally suited to it. It has the least amount of rolling shutter for handheld camera movement of all the DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, and the smaller sensor (2.7x crop) makes it far easier to focus at fast apertures like F1.2 for low light. At that aperture on full frame you will have a nose in focus, but eyes off! Not much good.

[url="http://www.eoshd.com/content/6997/playing-with-hitchcock-and-the-nikon-j1-with-16mm-c-mount-lenses/"]Read full article[/url]

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[marino mannarini]

I liked that!. As in photography, knowing how to use wides properly gives some remarkable result, that feeling for the watcher to be IN the scene. wow. remarkable what you could get from such a video-unfriendly little cam.

[cantsin]

You wrote in the article: [quote]It is also extremely fast – it does 4K RAW stills at 60fps. Yes you read that correctly.[/quote]
I can't find this anywhere in the published specs of the camera. This article - [url=http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/NIKONJ1/NIKONJ1A6.HTM]http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/NIKONJ1/NIKONJ1A6.HTM[/url] - says that it can do a maximum of 12 shots at 60fps in JPEG, and a maximum of 19 shots at 5fps in RAW.

[xcm]

hello,
I bought a nikon 1J and some switars (10,16,24 and 75mm) stil waiting for adapter for hem, so I cant test them.
But I already have nikon F mount adapter and tryed with 50mm f 1.4 ais lens.

so It can shoot stils at 60fps but only 12 pictures. ...shit....:)
for timelaps:  under 5 sec it cant make pictures ..shit
light mesure with non nikon lens does NOT work ...shit
there is NO 24 or 25 fps during video mode ..shit
under pal settings slowest shutter 1/100, ntsc  settings shutter 1/60 ..shit...

all of them could be solved by firware update, but nikon never will make it (I think)

when I bought it I was looking for something B cam, like goproHD2 but with changeable lens and full manual control, for timelaps (do not use my dslr) and for video (during flying) but  I get an overpriced toycam... shit

Now I try to do something usable footage with switars and will test it when c mount adapter arrived.

Best, Miki

[Andrew Reid]

Hey, all that 'shit' (well the video related ones) are in the article above!  :P If those were an issue, why did you buy one?

[xcm]

because when I bought did not know these limitations (just know that there are no 24 and 25 fps)
nikon marketing said that it can handle 60 fps... ok I tought it will be fine for rec just one sec at 60 fps and slow down... (do not have to use tvixtor, or twixtor the 60 fps source would be better result) but it  can handle 12 pictures,  (sony can rec at 60 fps)
do not know that for timelaps will work just from 5 sec, etc etc.. 

do not know that light mesuring does not work with other great lenses

and again, all of them depend on just the firmware....  usualy U get what U payed for .... and I payed, it was not cheap

I write down here to the forum, for inform others!

thats all

best, Miki

PS: anyway, I bought it, because this sensor size is almost like the super16mm film, and I love it.
super 16 film is great at 4K !

[macuser88]

[font=arial][size=14pt]I am a fanatic about Hitchcock!  I just had a recent conversation with a friend, who is a professional digital video editor and loves Hitchcock also![/size][/font]

Check this out when you have a chance. Starts at 1:38.

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/37334381?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/37334381">Conversations with Friends • Episode 004</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/eduardoangel">Eduardo Angel</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

[zanino]

Hi,
I am on a low budget, I was thinking of buying a gh2, however good quality lenses (a decent 14mm wide angle, a good 25mm lens as "normal lens") and stabilizers cost too much for me.
In your opinion a J1 with c-mount lenses (like 10mm bolex and 25mm pentax 1.4) could compete in terms of video quality with a nex5/nex5n with kit lens only and some cheap old MF lens (like md 50mm 1.8, vivitar 35mm 2.8 etc..)?
I've seen lots of students wasting their money for excellent body like gh2 and at the same time crapy lenses, crapy light, no stabilizers, no follow focus..
I was searching a good balance between lens and camera performance (saving money in order to buy better light etc..) and j1 seems to be very interesting (despite of its 30p) but there very little videos on the net shooted with good and cheap c-mount lenses...what do you think about it?
Best ,
Tonino

[richg101]

Ah cool. never saw this Andrew. Nice stuff. I'm in the process of planning a RX100 tear down and lens removal to replace wit han e-mount to allow s16mm arri lenses (superspeeds, Angie zooms etc). as well as some other c-mount types. Being the same sensor size i hoped the Nikon 1's would be viable too - negating the need to rip off the zeiss zoom from the rx100, but apparently there are some limitations and lack of functions in the nikons such as no manual control. I think the RX100 will be nuts with a 10-100mm French zoom lens on there!

[brucker]

i've been using the V1 in 100%manual with dumb adapters and old lenses,... mostly takumars, and recently i've been playing with anamorphic too.

its my only digital as i'm normally a film shooter, and i got it cos i got it really really cheap,.. so i dont have anything else to compare it to.

in manual mode it is really 100% manual, like old film body manual, which i like, but you may not,... no metering which isnt a problem cos you can see the exposure on the screen, and no focus aids of course but the screen is pretty is high res enough to get decent focus. in the anamorphic forum i've put up a couple of test shots with anamorphics.

[richg101]

[quote name='brucker' timestamp='1352159087' post='21093']
i've been using the V1 in 100%manual with dumb adapters and old lenses,... mostly takumars, and recently i've been playing with anamorphic too.

its my only digital as i'm normally a film shooter, and i got it cos i got it really really cheap,.. so i dont have anything else to compare it to.

in manual mode it is really 100% manual, like old film body manual, which i like, but you may not,... no metering which isnt a problem cos you can see the exposure on the screen, and no focus aids of course but the screen is pretty is high res enough to get decent focus. in the anamorphic forum i've put up a couple of test shots with anamorphics.
[/quote]

nice. is it full manual in video mode? shutter, iso, etc? what are the profiles like? can you get a low contrast flat profile? Cheers

[brucker]

yeah fully manual in video mode, shutter goes to 1/60 or higher, iso fully manual, and of course the aperture is on the lens. and the screen is a "what you see is what you get" so you see the exposure whereas funnily enough, in still mode you dont get that.

as i said tho, no focus aids if you're using a dumb adaptor and manual focus lenses, and on m42 and c-mount they're all dumb adaptors. there is an ft-1 adapter that will let you use certain auto nikkor lenses but i've got no experience with those.

re: profiles, you've got standard, neutral, vivid, monochrome and a couple of others, all of which can be tweaked colour and saturation wise. the colours is one of the reasons i actually got this,.. like choosing a type of film for us old school guys :P the neutral setting is pretty neutral and you can make it even more boring if you want.

the main reason i got it though is that the noise at high iso is very nice,... its still noise but under certain conditions can resemble film grain. so sometimes i like to push the iso high and switch to black and white,.. nice grimey monochromes :D

i've only just started getting into video on it and i'm finding it quite fun, but i'm no where near a professional so, grain of salt and all that.

i've yet to get any c-mounts as i've been messing with anamorphics and the ones i have vignette with anything under 35mm,... having said that i think i'll be picking up something in the 12-16mm range soonish which should give me a 35mm-ish field of view.

if you think of it like you would an 8mm/16mm film camera, then i think you'll enjoy it quite a bit,.... get it cheap and its a load of fun B)

[zanino]

hi brucker, it would be nice to watch some professional footage with c-mount lens, on vimeo there is only Andrew's video! ;) Please upload something when you will get some footage! ;)

[brucker]

but i'm so far from being a professional :D

i'll upload something for sure when i get my hands on a nice c mount.

[zanino]

thanks!!!!!