Review Nikon 1 / Nikon J1: measurements

8 June 2012

This review is part of the Nikon J1 review. Strengths, weaknesses, conclusions and practice shots are shown in the test Nikon J1 review and associated lenses for the Nikon 1 Series: Nikon 10 mm, Nikon 10-100 mm, Nikon 10-30 mm and the Nikon 30-110 mm. The measurements for this test were performed using Imatest. For the test method and explanation of terms, see FAQ.

Sensor resolution

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The Nikon J1 delivers, both with the Nikon 10-100 mm zoom lens as the Nikon 10 mm pancake lens, reasonably good results in terms of resolution. A Jpg file has over all ISO settings in the center a resolution of about 1500 lines per image height on average. At the lowest ISO settings, the resolution of 2000 LW/PH is at the highest to finish at 6400 ISO at about 1300 LW/PH. This is similar to the performance of the Nikon V1. The resolution of a RAW file, developed in Lightroom witout applying noise reduction, is almost constantly 1750 LW/PH.

Dynamic range

The measured total dynamic range is, just as with the Nikon V1, almost 10 stops for a 100 ISO RAW file and 9 stops for a 100 ISO jpg file. On average, the total dynamic range amounts 8,5 stops. Which is impressive for such a relatively small sensor.

The signal/noise ratio in the shadows is worse than the signal/noise ratio in the midtones or highlights. Therefore, a useful dynamic range of 5,5 stops remains at the lower ISO settings, down to approx. 1,2 stops at 6400 ISO. The Jpg files perform, by in-camera noise reduction, seemingly better than the RAW files at all ISO settings. Yet, that is not the case. We test the raw files without using noise reduction. That is how you maintain the highest possible detail in the shots, while the noise (though measurable) is not visible in a print. If you carefully optimize contrast, sharpening and noise reduction of RAW files, it is possible to realize a usable dynamic range for RAW files, which is better than or equal to that of the jpg files.

Noise

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Comparison of the noise in jpg files with the measured noise in RAW files without noise reduction, shows that the jpg files noise occurs above 400 ISO.

Color accuracy in daylight

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The Nikon J1 produces files with a good, a little too saturated color. The color rendering of jpg files has been tested in the Picture Style course. In particular, the color rendering of the RAW files is very good.

The illustration shows the errors of an ISO 200 color jpg image was shot in daylight. The further the ideal color (square) is removed from the color of the camera (round), the greater the color difference. For the test method and explanation of terms, see FAQ

Color accuracy in tungsten light

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The automatic white balance does its job properly with the Nikon J1. The color deviation is slightly greater than in daylight shots, but these results are still very good. In terms of color rendition and white balance, the Nikon J1 performs just as good as the average SLR camera.

See our list of tested cameras to compare the performance of this camera with other cameras.