Nikon J1 - 16mm interchangeable lens movie camera?

[Andrew Reid]

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EOSHD takes a first look at the Nikon J1

If you are doing personal work as a lone artist the Nikon J1 might be of interest. Whilst many filmmakers quite reasonably would think of this thing as a toy, creatively it does have a purpose and there’s also some interesting technology in it.

The J1 is the first outing of Nikon’s extremely fast Expeed 3 chip (a beefed up version of this appears in the new Nikon D4!)

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[Overbastubacka]

Is it a 16mm interchangable lens camera?

Unfortunately it is not.

Regular 16mm lenses will vignette severely at wider focal lengths, because the CX-sensor is horizontally wider (13.2 mm) than regular 16mm frame (10.26 mm). 16mm is 1.33 aspect ratio. Lenses designed for 16mm imaging circle can be used in 16:9 ratio, with frame dimensions of 11.66 mm by 6.15 mm. This is called Ultra 16mm, but then you will naturally lose vertical sensor real estate.

Super 16mm lenses will work very well, but even some S16 lenses will probably vignette slightly at wider angles. Super 16 framesize is 12.52 mm by 7.41 mm. It is slightly smaller than Nikon CX sensor in 16:9 aspect, which is 13.20 mm by about 7.40 mm.

I hope Nikon CX evolves into more usable system for videographers in future – it is a great sensor size. At present CX is severely lacking simple but crucial features: True manual exposure control, 24 and 25 fps @ 1080p and usable HDMI output. I believe Nikon is protecting their current flagship, the D4, by leaving those features out from CX.

There is a J1 and V1 now. Maybe there could be a C1, as in Cinema 1, with excellent video performance à la D4 in future?