[Clarkey]

I had the V1, the standard 10-30, 30-110 and 18.5 lens at one point. I also had the FT-1 and 55-200mm for birding.
A mix of sublime and honest stupidity would be how I sum up.

The V1 had pre-buffer and speed capabilities that Panasonic and Sony are now only catching up with that were years before their time. Awesome for birding. The lenses are excellent. In particular the 30-110 (alongside the 60-250mm) is the best telephoto lens I've ever used.

However, a middling sensor that needed lots of light, no mode dial, hotshoe, insane amounts of menu diving and horrible handling (I eventually dropped the camera and broke a lens) meant that I looked at Micro 4/3 and haven't missed the system.

On a good day however, the results were excellent:


Tasty Treat by Aaron, on Flickr


Chillin'; by Aaron, on Flickr


Oriole, 2014 by Aaron, on Flickr (crop)

[kwb]

I had the V1, the standard 10-30, 30-110 and 18.5 lens at one point. I also had the FT-1 and 55-200mm for birding.
A mix of sublime and honest stupidity would be how I sum up.

The V1 had pre-buffer and speed capabilities that Panasonic and Sony are now only catching up with that were years before their time. Awesome for birding. The lenses are excellent. In particular the 30-110 (alongside the 60-250mm) is the best telephoto lens I've ever used.

However, a middling sensor that needed lots of light, no mode dial, hotshoe, insane amounts of menu diving and horrible handling (I eventually dropped the camera and broke a lens) meant that I looked at Micro 4/3 and haven't missed the system.

On a good day however, the results were excellent:


Tasty Treat by Aaron, on Flickr


Chillin'; by Aaron, on Flickr


Oriole, 2014 by Aaron, on Flickr (crop)

Hi Clarkey, great details, especially the giant panda!

Thanks for sharing your first-hand experience. Sorry to hear that you dropped it, I'd have been pissed.


It seems to me that Nikon learned the mistakes it made in V1 and improved upon it. I mean, the "grip" of V1 looks bad, but not any more in V2.

Nikon 1 V1 Camera | Compact Camera System
Nikon 1 V2 Camera | Compact Camera System

V2, V3 and J5 did have mode dial. Also, pre-buffer and ridiculously fast capabilities of V3 (20fps or whatever? with AF) was an improvement over that of V1, right? And the sensor of J5 was a much needed improvement over all previous 1 series cameras.


That doesn't mean that 1 series would have been a commercial success if Nikon continued the development, probably quite contrary anyhow, but I still feel sad that no small sensor ILC survived.

[Clarkey]

Hi Clarkey, great details, especially the giant panda!

Thanks for sharing your first-hand experience. Sorry to hear that you dropped it, I'd have been pissed.


It seems to me that Nikon learned the mistakes it made in V1 and improved upon it. I mean, the "grip" of V1 looks bad, but not any more in V2.

Nikon 1 V1 Camera | Compact Camera System
Nikon 1 V2 Camera | Compact Camera System

V2, V3 and J5 did have mode dial. Also, pre-buffer and ridiculously fast capabilities of V3 (20fps or whatever? with AF) was an improvement over that of V1, right? And the sensor of J5 was a much needed improvement over all previous 1 series cameras.


That doesn't mean that 1 series would have been a commercial success if Nikon continued the development, probably quite contrary anyhow, but I still feel sad that no small sensor ILC survived.

No problem at all. Considering it was the 30-110 that became a collection of screws and plastic, very annoying at the time.

Yes, the sensor improved markedly, especially for the V3, J5 generations. The video is quite good too (although 1080p), as was the burst rate and focus capabilities.
Against that, the EVF did become an optional extra. All part of photo history now! Still quite capable, should you find one at a reasonable price.

[ehrwien]

I hadn't seen this thread before answering to the "other ILC system than Pentax" one, so I'll copy my answer to that thread here:

I still have and use my Nikon 1 V1 with both original kit zooms 10-30 and 30-110 (27-81mm and 81-297mm equivalent) and the 18.5/1.8 normal prime. The 10-30 is not the sharpest, but the other two I really like. Just a shame that the normal prime is not stabilized / that the stabilizer is in the lenses, not in the body.
The body has a nice heavy feel to it, the EVF is okay for me and the FPS are good, but with just 10 megapixels and the old, small sensor, cropping and high ISO are not recommended.
It's quite a bit smaller than my K-S2 and so it's more of an "always with me" camera than the K-S2 is, it fits in a jacket pocket with either of the lenses attached.

I got it as my first "serious" camera after some of the "mass market" compact cameras were not enough for me any more, in a massive sale, camera in the double zoom kit for 349€ new, which seemed like a great deal compared to the "big" and more expensive dslrs.

I think the problem - similar to m4/3 - is that the gear was so small and yet expensive that for traditional (Western) sensibilities it was perceived as a poor value.

It was actually what made me buy my K-S2 after shooting for a few years with the V1, when I compared the prices of the at-the-time newly released 6.7-13mm (x2.7 crop) wide angle zoom, 32/1.2 portrait prime and 70-300 "super" tele to the prices of the equivalent lenses for APS-C systems... the total lack of third party lenses for the system was another nail in its coffin (it's a wonder that I landed in Pentax land after having had the experience with a niche camera system before, isn't it? ).

It seems to me that Nikon learned the mistakes it made in V1 and improved upon it. I mean, the "grip" of V1 looks bad, but not any more in V2.

V2, V3 and J5 did have mode dial. Also, pre-buffer and ridiculously fast capabilities of V3 (20fps or whatever? with AF) was an improvement over that of V1, right? And the sensor of J5 was a much needed improvement over all previous 1 series cameras.

Yeah, there's not much of a grip on the V1, but it's not really neeeded with the lenses it started out with. I can only think of the 10-100 PD (motor zoom) and 70-300 that I wouldn't want to hold one-handed when attached to the V1, but then again I wouldn't want to hold any other One camera with one of those attached to it one-handed. And the V1 is a thing of beauty itself, while the V2 is an ugly piece of tech. I still can't understand the decision decouple the viewfinder from the V3, it just didn't make any sense to me. And while I got the V1 in a really great deal, I was not inclined to drop the money they wanted on the later releases.

Regarding shooting with it, it wasn't half bad, even without a mode dial. I mostly shot in M with Auto-ISO anyway (like TAv in Pentax land) and could control both relevant exposure parameters with the thumb rocker and the multi-function wheel without diving into the menus. And if I wanted to change to a different exposure mode, different picture profile,... it was no big deal because the menus were tidy and remembered were you left them last time.

I had the V1, the standard 10-30, 30-110 and 18.5 lens at one point. I also had the FT-1 and 55-200mm for birding.

The lenses are excellent. In particular the 30-110 (alongside the 60-250mm) is the best telephoto lens I've ever used.

However, a middling sensor that needed lots of light, no mode dial, hotshoe, insane amounts of menu diving and horrible handling (I eventually dropped the camera and broke a lens) meant that I looked at Micro 4/3 and haven't missed the system.

I did not own any other NIkon cameras or lenses, so instead of the FT-1 I got a cheap Fotodiox adapter for Canon FD lenses because I got two cheap FD zooms from a relative, but that was not much fun to deal with, the quality of the lenses was just not enough for the sensor (perhaps my own abilites or the lack thereof played into it as well, I honestly can't tell any more) and manual exposure and manual focus and handling that package... was not my thing.
I agree regarding the 30-110, especially compared to the 10-30 it was in an entirely different league.
Regarding the mode dial I didn't see it that limiting, see my lines above. It did have a hotshoe, just not a standard one, but one that would only take Nikon 1 system flashes.
I always was and still am quite sensible about holding my cameras, most of the time I have the neck strap on, so something like this can happen to me in times I don't, but I try to minimize the risk there... especially with the V1 I can have that dangling around my neck the whole day (not so much with my K-S2 ). But I do agree that a proper grip (like I feel I have on my K-S2) is a very comfortable thing to have. Sorry about your camera

I agree. I was eagerly awaiting a V4 since the J5 seemed to finally get things right. Such a shame. Then I was looking forward to getting one of those 1 inch DL series fixed lens cameras but Nikon made the worstpve ever and cancelled them in favor of their key mission action cameras instead

If I recall correctly they were cancelled because of a massive delay because of flooding (or was it an earthquake, or both?) in the factories? Long time announced and eagerly awaited, long time of uncertainty until they finally announced they cancelled the whole line


I think what also contributed to the death of the system was that Sony showed with their RX100 line of cameras what was possible to achieve with 1 inch sensors and fixed lenses... the audience that was willing to invest big money into a camera system was not quite the same as the one looking for a portable, capable camera...

Quite a few small walls of text combined to one giant one. I'm gonna go dig for some of my favorite pictures with the V1 to drop them here later.

---

Last edited by ehrwien; 10-27-2019 at 12:43 PM.

[ehrwien]

I'm gonna go dig for some of my favorite pictures with the V1 to drop them here later.

Didn't know when I wrote this that there was a 1inch club, so I dropped some there now, more to come: Pentax Forum - Camera & Photography Community - PentaxForums.com

[geo444]

Sorry Kwb, I didn't see your answer before ! ...Too much Astro nights ?

... USD 600 or so if the EVF is built in, not an add-on...

.
This may be difficult while keeping both Price and Size at the minimum -> see below...

... for such a camera I want a Q lens adapter with full control (AF, aperture)
if the mount is different from Q mount, which looks too small for 1"-type sensor...

.
Yes, this may be more easy to achieve with a slightly Larger Mount...

... Good point about long exposure noise reduction,
it annoys me when I take many long exposure shots for making a composite.

.
This is a pain for Composites / Stacking, as you never know if the Q will do the LENR or not...
After a night of Astro shots, you end up with 1/3 of yer pictures being Smoothed by the LENR !

100 ans de Pentax, Interview de Philippe Farreng : DG-Ventes Ricoh.EU :
Pentax fête ses 100 ans : "notre communauté est extrêmement attachée à notre marque"

Au début du dernier § : Si vous pouviez concevoir votre propre appareil photo...
Philippe Farreng : « le Meilleur Appareil Photo, c’est celui que vous avez toujours sur vous »
.

P. Farreng : « the Best Camera, is the one you carry everywhere with you ! »

... maybe the White Paper's Title for a tiny Pentax 1" BSI ILC ?
.

.
How much would you pay for this 1" BSI ILC : everyday in your Pocket
- it's just slightly bigger than the original Q... or the Q7 for a cheaper plastic version... see attached Pic
- its 01 Standard Prime Lens is a SMC Pntax 15mm f/1.8 w/ a 49mm filter thread... see attached Pic

- its 02 Standard Zoom is a SMC Pentax 9-27mm f/3.5-4.5... the 06 is a 25-75mm f/2.8-4... etc...
- IBIS & K-adapter are present as the Q family... its LCD tilts, could support an Optional EVF...

it's NOT Crippled as was the Q Family :
- No more 30 sec. limitation for the Bulb Exposure...
- No more Automatic LENR, it's also Fully Applicable / Cancelable...
- No more Lack of a Wired Remote control socket, the IR Remote works 4 Bulb Mode...
- Multi Exposure Mode outputs either .JPG or .DNG files...

High Image Quality guaranteed, even in Very Low Light conditions :
Samsung NX mini, a Top Infra-Red ILC for $125
Maxi Astro (Ciel Profond) au NX mini...

Please guys, would you add your own suggestions...
thanks