The Silver Adventurer

I plan to be at the NY Time Travel Show in the Javits Center in NYC on January 19th, looking for things that adventurous seniors might like to do.  If you’d like to arrange a meet, email me at silveradventurer@cimicorp.com

I just got back from 10 days on the west coast in the San Diego area, and for the first time on a trip I didn’t take a big Nikon DSLR, I tool my new Nikon 1 V1 model instead.  My wife also took a Nikon 1 (the J1) so we had a good opportunity to test the camera out in field conditions.

My primary reason for picking the Nikon 1 over other mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras was the FT-1 adapter that lets you mount standard Nikon lenses on the little guy. Given that it has a 2.7x focal multiplier, the results of the combination of the Nikon 1 and a big Nikon FD glass can be striking.  Linda went with the J1 because she’s used to a non-viewfinder camera and wanted to stay generally compatible with mine simply so we could learn the ropes in tandem.  She doesn’t have (and doesn’t want) an FT-1 so her experience was based on the two common kit lenses, the 10-30mm and the 30-110mm.  I took my 17-55 ED and my Sigma 185mm EX Macro.  Both of us shot in Raw mode for our trip.

Within a day or so, we both realized that the photos from the Nikon 1 were exceptional.  Both these models are 10 megapixel cameras, matching the Nikon D200 that I hoped to replace, and while Linda actually had more resolution on her older Canon model the images captured by the Nikon 1 were visibly superior.  She was able to zoom all the way out to 110 mm (which is 297mm in 35mm terms) without jitter and the image quality at 110 was very good.  I found that the 17-55 (46-149) was a great walkaround lens, though people did tend to stare a bit at the big DSLR glass on the white Nikon 1 body.

The 185mm Sigma macro lens was a real revelation.  This lens is a 500mm macro on the Nikon 1, if you can imagine such a thing.  You could take pictures of the center of a flower at six foot distance with it, and image quality was really good here too.

So does this mean the Nikon 1 is as good as a DSLR like my favorite D7000?  No, it’s not.  It is a better camera, in terms of image quality, ISO, digital noise, etc. than the D200 and so for sure it’s my new second-walkaround on adventure travel.  I normally keep the D7000 with the 80-400VR in a holster on the right side and the D200 with the 17-55 on the left.  The D200 is now staying home and the Nikon 1 is going in its place.  But the D7000 is still my primary wildlife camera.  Even given that, there are a few things I wish worked differently on the Nikon 1.

The primary issue I had with the Nikon 1 was the fact that the ISO being selected by Auto-ISO wasn’t shown at all on the shooting display; you have to review the picture to see it.  My readers will recall that I set the D7000 for Manual model with auto-ISO, and I found that was best for the Nikon 1 as well (Linda, after some experimenting, followed suit with her J1 too).  The problem is that you can end up with a very high ISO setting on a shot simply because you’ve arbitrarily (or accidentally) chosen a faster shutter or slower lens opening, and you won’t see it until you review the picture.  It’s not a crippling problem because even at ISO 3200 the noise is well inside what my Nik Dfine filter can handle in Photoshop.  It’s still annoying.

The secondary issue I had was that exposure compensation doesn’t work in manual mode.  The Nikon 1 has an easy and handy way of dialing in compensation, but if you’re in M mode the mechanism is disabled, apparently because somebody thought you wouldn’t need it.  Wrong.  You don’t need exposure compensation in M mode if you set a fixed ISO, but with auto-ISO set it’s very valuable, particularly if you’re shooting backlit subjects.

Leaving the “issues” for some “findings”, I did notice that autofocus was much better on the 17-55, which has high-speed focusing, than on the Sigma 185 macro which does not.  Not only did the focus on the Sigma take longer, it was also less positive.  In some cases, the camera would simply not autofocus at all and I had to override with manual to get it in rough focus before it would work.  I notice some of this on the D7000 in low-contrast situations at high zoom levels, so I can’t call it a camera issue.  Next trip, I’ll test the Sigma 70-200 EX HSM, which should focus faster.

Noise at higher ISOs wasn’t a problem per se, but you do notice noise starting around ISO 720.  It’s most pronounced when you have a featureless background like the blue sky, but it’s easily eliminated with Dfine.  The noise performance was MUCH better than that of the D200 but not as good as with the D7000.  Versus the D200, I found that at ISO 6400 I had subjectively less noise than with the D200 at ISO 1600.

Another “factor” is that you can’t support the Nikon 1 with a heavy lens using the camera tripod mount, you need to either use the mount on the FT-1 adapter or the lens collar (preferred).  That means that you can’t use the neck strap with the heavy lenses, so if you don’t use a holster (I didn’t take mine to San Diego) the best strategy is to attach a strap via a screw adapter to the FT-1 adapter and sling it.  I got a BlackRapid RS-7 strap and it worked fine, but when you sling the camera over the shoulder with the strap you have to be sure the lens faces forward.  If not, the mode-switch on the back will rub against your body and set itself out of the desired position.

We couldn’t see any significant difference in image quality between the V1 and the J1 models, but there are obviously differences between the standard Nikon 1 lenses and the bigger glass mounted via the FT-1.  Differences, but not radical ones.  I think most people would be pressed to pick out the images without zooming in for a close view.  If you’re trying to decide between the models, I think the most obvious point is the viewfinder on the V1.  Those used to DSLRs and viewfinders will like the V1 better.

So my conclusion overall?  I ordered ANOTHER V1!  My camera kit for adventure travel will now be the D7000 with the 80-400VR, the Nikon 1 V1 with the 17-55, and the other V1 on the Sigma 500mm EX HSM.  That combination will give me the 35mm equivalent of a 1350mm lens at f4.5.  I also intend to take the 185mm Sigma macro.  With regard to the 70-200 (which is 189-540) f2.8, I will have to wait to see how it performs and just what it gains me.  Recall that the 80-400 is a 120-600 in 35mm terms so it has more flexibility; it’s only the aperture and focusing speed that might justify it.  Or Linda might decide to get an FT-1 after all!

Like a lot of travelers or “adventurers” who are getting a tad older, I’m looking increasingly for a way of easing the load of camera gear I carry on trips.  That’s particularly true for travel where I know there will be some hiking or watercraft involved, or for trips (like Africa) where you just know you’re going to have to take everything.

My recent consideration of this problem came as a result of planning for an Africa trip that’s likely to involve both a bunch of gear and some activity.  My specific concern was my 500mm Sigma EX, which as you can guess is no small lens.  That sort of lens, particularly with a teleconverter, is great for birds and distant critters but it’s useless for quick shots.  That means another back just for that lens in addition to the two I already carry (one for the 80-400 walk-around zoom and one for a 17-55 wide-angle).  So I had a brainstorm; try the Nikon 1 system.  With the Nikon 1 you have a 2.7 focal multiplier so a 100mm lens becomes a 270mm, and so forth.  This works not only with the (few) lenses offered for the camera but also for the whole range of F-mount lenses, because Nikon thoughtfully provides an FT-1 adapter that lets you mount pretty much any of the D or G AF and AF-S lenses on the little guy.  How good can it get?  Well, we have to see.

Nikon 1 is one of those hybrid things that it’s hard to love or hate at first sight.  It looks like a point-and-shoot camera, and truth is it’s close to that in features and operation.  But it has interchangeable lenses and solid optics and electronics.  It shoots in RAW mode, and the test images I could download looked very good.  Add to this the fact that my wife was looking to get a combo camera for better photos and video, and thought the Nikon 1 J1 model (in pink, of course) would be perfect, and it spells DECISION!  So I got one (not pink, white; not a J1 but the V1 model).

When you get the Nikon 1 the first thing you notice is that compared with a DSLR (even the D3000-series from Nikon) this is LITTLE.  It’s not as small as one of the SX-family Canon point-and-shoots that Linda was using but it’s definitely smaller than her older S5IS, even with the 10-30mm lens mounted and extended.  It’s surprisingly heavy for its size, particularly with a 30-110mm lens attached, but not objectionably so.  It feels nice, if a little small, to somebody like me who’s used to D2X or D200 or D7000 backs.

In terms of features, the Nikon 1 seems to fall between the point-and-shoot and DSLR lines just as most say it does.  You can set the camera in all of the usual operating modes (P, S, A, M, and “scene mode”) but the process is done via the menu system rather than a convenient dial.  The newest model, the V2, does have a nice dial for setting these modes but it’s not available until late November and the price is about 50% higher than that of the V1 or J1.  The J2 doesn’t have that feature; it seems to be a kind of simplified J1 designed more for the PandS crowd.  We stayed with the V1/J1 combination so the two cameras would work the same, simplifying spousal support!

My normal shooting mode in the D7000 is to set auto-ISO and manual mode and then set both shutter speed and lens opening, allowing the camera to set ISO to match.  It works fine, partly because the D7000 will show you the ISO it’s selecting in the viewfinder when you partially depress the shutter or fire a shot.  I can say honestly that the only thing that’s truly disappointing to me about the Nikon 1 is that it doesn’t do that.  You will see all the settings selected when you review the image, but not while shooting.

In scene mode, the camera does a great job with video and a pretty decent job with photos using the 10-30 lens.  When you mount the 39-110 lens, I found that scene mode (and P mode, as it turned out) tend to present a bit lower shutter speed than I’d like.  In most cases it was acceptable, but in instances where there’s still a lot of ISO headroom I might have picked a faster shutter.  You’re supposed to be able to change the balance of shutter speed and lens opening in P mode but I didn’t find it easy to do that.  More fiddling might be indicated here.

In P, S, or A model the camera seems to do what you would expect of it.  Any time you set auto-ISO (which I do) the way any of these modes work is a bit quirky because the camera has two variables (in S mode, for example, it has aperture and ISO) to play with.  It’s easy to second-guess it, fruitless to gripe.  If you don’t like these modes then shoot in M, which is what I do.

If you mount the FT-1 adapter you can mount a LOT of the Nikon lenses, starting back ten or more years.  I have two Nikon lenses (17-55 and 80-400) and three Sigma lenses (180 macro, 70-200, and 500 prime) and all of them work on the Nikon 1 with the adapter mounted.  The appearance of the combination is sometimes startling; the 500 is so big that the Nikon 1 would fit inside its lens hood!  One obvious problem is that you dare not hang the camera by the strap around your neck or wrist with one of these big mamas attached; even my smallest lens is heavier than the recommendation for camera-dependent support.  You have to hold the lens.  That means you should probably either have a strap that attaches to the tripod mount on the FT-1 adapter (for light lenses with no tripod collar) or mount a strap on the tripod collar.  I got a Black Rapid strap with some of their little adapters to clip to.  Getting them all onto lenses in some way is a chore but it’s possible and I won’t bore you with the details (send me an email if you need recommendations).

Multiply practically any focal length by 2.7 and you spell trouble in camera shake.  The 17-55 becomes (roughly) an 80-150 in 35mm terms (the same lens is a 25-82 on the D7000) and that’s a fine walk-around and handhold lens at any focal length.  The 70-200 Sigma becomes a 190-540mm, which stresses the old hand-holding.  However, setting the shutter at 1/640 and the aperture at f8 generates sharp images and a test video at 85mm also worked OK when hand-held.  I did notice that autofocus is more difficult at full zoom with this lens; sometimes you have to use the manual focus ring (possible with the Sigma HSM lenses) to tune things before you get a lock.  I’ve had this problem even on the D7000 with the Nikon 80-400  when image contrast is low and the lens is seriously out of focus; it gives up!

The Sigma 180 macro seems to work beautifully but I’ll need to mount a monopod to verify it because the effective focal length of the lens is now 486mm, which makes handholding a macro shot a bit challenging.  Depth of field is very short unless you open the lens up, and since you’ll also need a high shutter speed you’ll need to shoot in Manual AND have decent light.  Still more testing here, I can see.

My initial impression of the Nikon 1 with the FT-1 is VERY favorable.  Yes, OK, I know it’s not a DSLR and so there are things that you can’t do, or things that maybe you can do accidentally all too easily.  My goal was to create a handier walkaround and wide-angle extra body, and also to have something light I can mount on the 500mm when I decide I need to use it for the extra range.  So far, the Nikon 1 seems to meet those goals, and besides offer an option for good-quality 1080I/P video that I didn’t really have with the D7000.

I’ve described in earlier blogs and site reviews of the D7000 that I use my U1 setting to hold my “normal” shooting setup, which is essentially Auto-ISO and manual mode.  That lets me pick both shutter speed and f-stop and the camera then sets ISO accordingly.  I can change one or the other if I don’t like what ISO I get, of course.  I’ve worked with this setup quite a bit and it’s payed off for me, but I have found a situation where another option would be helpful.

In reviewing my New Zealand shots, I realized that there were many shots in deep cover where exposure changed literally with every step.  Under these conditions it’s very difficult to set a shutter speed and f-stop that will work optimally, and if you succeed the simple act of turning to take a shot of a bird on a branch will blow the whole equation.  And there’s no time to change things because the darn birds, as we all know, flit in and out in seconds.

My thought now is to use the U2 setting to save an alternative setting, this one for P-mode operation with Auto-ISO but with the minimum shutter speed 1/320th.  That’s the low end (but not the minimum) for hand-holding with VR at 400mm zoom levels on my 80-400 Nikon lens.  With this setting in deep cover, I’d hope to have the camera pick a reasonable combination of f-stop, lens opening, and ISO even if flitting birds create major changes in lighting.  I can still diddle the f-stop/shutter combination using the dials.

I’ll need to test this out, though, because the problem is that there are three variables that the mode has to set, and the mechanism used isn’t clearly documented.  What I think will happen is that the camera will try to find a combination f-stop and shutter at the “preferred” ISO value I select, and will gradually open the former and slow the latter until it hits the lower limit (for f-stop on the 80-400 that depends on the zoom; for shutter speed it would be 1/320th with my setting).  Then it will raise ISO but stay at the 1/320th and whatever the maximum opening for the zoom level happens to be.  That’s not perfect versatility; it would be nice if it tried to optimize all three settings, but that’s not going to happen.  I’ll report on my results when I’ve had a chance to put the mode through its paces.

I just came back from a wonderful trip to New Zealand that give me an opportunity to further test the setting model of “manual-plus-auto-ISO” that I’d been touting.  The conditions were challenging because as most probably know, New Zealand tends to be cloudy or rainy, and in rain forests things are darker than even normal because of the extreme shade you find.  What I found was that the method of setting Manual Mode with Auto ISO does indeed work well even under these conditions, but it’s critical to remember to “test-shoot” when you have a major change in lighting.

Imagine you are walking along a trail on a cloudy day, in dense cover.  At some points you may be in a sunny/clear spot where exposure settings are fairly normal, and at others you may be in deep shade.  Forest birds are always a challenge because they flit in and out, so they need a fairly fast shutter or you get a blur.  So you set a 1/1000th shutter speed, and say you also set a fairly fast (f5.6) lens opening.  This works in the clear areas, but in deep shade you’ll underexpose.  I did that a couple of times, and the only remedy is to check exposure by half-pressing the shutter when you move into new lighting conditions, and resetting something (in this case, shutter speed) to get a workable exposure when needed.

Does this mean the M-plus-AutoISO method doesn’t work?  No, it means that you can’t make light out of nothing.  ISO, shutter speed, and lens opening are three independent variables in the exposure equation.  There will be some conditions under which you can’t get any satisfactory solution.  I photographed kiwis at night on a beach, for example.  There’s no flash allowed, no bright lights.  You are taking pictures of a bird on the sand by the light of a hand torch that isn’t even shining directly on the bird.  Even at ISO 25,600 and 1/60th of a second (with an 80-400mm lens!) the shots were a half-stop underexposed.  About a third of the pictures were trash because of exposure, subject movement, camera movement, or a combination of all of the three.  But some worked, and with the M-plus-AutoISO method I was able to decide what to change to give me the best chance!

Hi, I’m Tom Nolle and I think of myself as a “Silver Adventurer” even though I’m not all that sliver at the moment.  This blog is going to be my forum for talking about the adventures my wife and I have experienced.  It’s an extension to the www.silveradventurer.com website, where I’ll be expecting to post travel tips, gear tips, photos and videos, and other information.  Please check back here for new entries or use the feed subscription capability of WordPress to get updates automatically.