Nikon V1 review

Nikon's V1 is marketed as a quality bridge camera, and it pretty much lives up to expectations. It has the characteristic solid feel that sets even entry level Nikons above their immediate competitors; The body is a compact chunk of kit which has a satisfying weight to it. The lenses which come with the kit likewise have the build quality you expect of Nikon and fit quickly and tightly to the body.

As an SLR user I deliberately tried to get stuck into the V1 without using the instructions, to see how easy the transition was. Assuming you're happy to let the camera go full auto, you're on safe ground here. Point and shoot is very easy, and the results will beat any compact camera you care to name. If you're looking to go semi manual however, you might find that aperture and shutter priority are a tad more difficult to find than on your average DSLR. A quick shifty at the manual should sort that out.

One of the V1's selling points is the frame rate for stills. This is pretty impressive, rating at 60 fps flat out. The disadvantage here is that the shutter seems a little slow to fire off the first frame when you compare it to the speed once it's going. Of course as this is a bridge camera you have to remember there isn't actually a shutter anyway, which means once the camera is firing you don't get to see what you're taking as the processor is busy getting images into the SD card, not throwing them up on the viewscreen for you. If you're shooting sports you'll find this makes it difficult to track your subject.

Notwithstanding these slight issues, one you get down to viewing your images you'll be impressed with the quality. You can shoot in jpeg, raw or both and the camera responds well in low light giving crisp night time shots as well as having a nice depth of field for daytime shots. 

One major issue I did have with the camera was the ability to carry it around like a compact. This is entirely possible but if you are going to be taking zoom shots and wide shots you’d be wanting to switch the lenses a lot. This is swift and easy but for me, it led to getting fed up with putting the kit into separate bags and therefore I kept the camera bare in my pocket.  As a consequence I somehow managed to select ‘format’ on the memory card. It felt a bit too easy to accidentally select this rather final option and therefore I have to throw it in as a negative for the camera.

In summary, a very good bridge camera, excellent picture quality and high frame rate leading to some lovely shots, but the menus are a tad easy to select by accident.

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