With the uproar over the Nikon 1 still lingering and me seeming like the calmest and sanest person in the mix for a change, let me add a few bits to the roar. The things that disappointed me about the Nikon 1 are:
- Price too high. Nikon would have sold many boat-loads of 1's if the price was right. Both prices are about US$150 too high initially. I predict we'll see Instant Rebates on these cameras before year's end.
- No fast lens. Just one f/1.4 lens would have been nice. Even f/2. I suspect we'll eventually get this, but the apertures on the announced lenses are distinctly compact camera consumer crowd. The problem here is that we have 1/1.7" compacts with f/1.8 lenses. Which, in theory, means they should perform better than the J1 with the kit lens.
- Lens size. The 1 mount lenses are too big. I doubt this makes a lot of difference to the compact user moving up--they'll pick between a GF3, E-PM1, NEX C3, and Nikon 1 on other factors--but it is a very important thing for those who are looking at a mirrorless camera to replace a compact camera as something more capable (e.g. the enthusiast's second or third camera).
- It's not a Coolpix. I don't know what Nikon is thinking. They have a hard time marketing two lines of cameras. Adding a third is beyond their ability, I believe. Moreover, the 1 would make a nice cap on the Coolpix line and still allow the DSLR line to extend downwards. Instead, we have three camera lines, three lens mounts, pricing overlap the wrong way, and a host of other issues that are all marketing problems.
- Speaking of marketing. The last minute countdown (I Am Coming) and big hands promotions were, well, hideously bad. Nikon breached their own countdown by half a day (and it wasn't time zone aware, apparently). They didn't actually identify themselves or set people's expectations about what might be coming. And the big hands thing just seems wrong, wrong, wrong. Nothing about the "big hands" scheme says or reinforces anything unique about the Nikon 1. You could have used that same promotion for any camera. Indeed, if anything, it seems to imply that the Nikon 1 is just another camera. And this was too last minute to make any real impression. The hands should have been up for a week (assuming that you could find a unique message by which to use them).
- Crappy sample images. No, the underlying pixels aren't all that bad (I see some deep corner softness with the 10-30mm and some CA on blown highlights), it's that the photos themselves aren't marketable. I'd have hit the delete button on all these samples, for various reasons. This is a great vacation camera, so send a great photographer on vacation with the damned thing and let them take some real photos that are compelling. I suspect too many marketing and advertising guys were standing around directing the blah we got. Fire them. And stop cutting off elbows and having random arms in the frame and a haze of cyan/beige overall. Or maybe it was a product manager's samples trying to save money on marketing. Fire him and the decision makers. You only get one chance to make a first impression. The Nikon 1 samples didn't make a great impression. (The brochure pictures were better. However, the seagull image in the brochure shows that it was strongly post processed over the sample on the web [just look at the sky color alone] ;~).
- There's a lot we don't know. Where it is made (China, I think). When it will be delivered (the camera is in the US dealer ordering system already, though, and the rumor is October). What the time line on the other lenses is (as much as three years according to sources in Japan, which is bad news). Who actually designed and made the sensor.
- Still not social. This camera needed to be connected. To the social Internet, that is. Nikon myPicturetown won't cut it. Put a WiFi into the accessory shoe and let it talk to the world. Just don't botch it like Olympus did with their Bluetooth accessory.
And the things people need to pay more attention to:
- Phase detect sensor. Think DSLR. Think Nikon having their own sensors for half their DSLR lineup. Think Nikon getting rid of the mirror in future DSLRs. A better solution than Sony's, IMHO.
- V1 to D3100 gap. There's still a pretty large gap between the two models. The question is, will they fill that gap with a 1 model upwards or a DSLR model downwards (and consider the previous point before you answer).
- Sensor/Expeed bandwidth. The Nikon 1 is running extraordinarily high data rates internally, higher than many of the DSLRs manage. This bodes well for next generation Nikons higher up in the lineup.
- Sensor pitch. Without getting too deep into the bigger is better arguments, note that the photosite size on the Nikon 1 is about the same as on the NEX-7 (3.4 microns versus 3.9). Also, it's not tremendously far from the XZ-1 (3.4 microns versus 2.2). The implication is that Nikon could size up this sensor to DX and have 24mp+. See first point.
- The camera can be silent. As in completely silent while taking photos. That's the benefit of the electronic shutter, another aspect of this new sensor that is being not noticed as much as it should be.
- Certain DX lenses now look more interesting. The 40mm Micro-Nikkor, for example, is a 108mm equivalent on the Nikon 1. Wait, that's a lot like...OMG, it's a 105 macro! The 50mm f/1.8 (yes, I know, not DX, but a recent of-interest-to-DX-users lens) is a 135mm (though not DC ;~). True, we're still losing out on the aperture game, but it just seems like there are a lot of recent Nikkors that have come across my desk that seem somewhat interesting on the Nikon 1. Almost to the point where I might be more likely to carry a Nikon 1 along with my D7000 instead of a m4/3 camera.
Finally, here's one more thing that's food for thought: it's time for a lot of people to start throwing out data. The Smart Photo Selector mode on the Nikon 1 does this directly, but there are other hints in the Nikon 1's design, as well. What the heck am I talking about? Let's say I'm a casual photographer and photograph the heck out of my weekends and vacations. Maybe 10,000 images a year. Do I want 24mp images? No. 10mp is more than enough for Facebook 2011 and even Facebook 2015. Maybe I want to analyze my golf swing at 1200 fps. Do I really want a full 16GB card of that? No, 120P is probably enough for me. Casual consumer photographers think differently than high-end photographers. They're not interested in how many bits they can get (24mp x 14), but rather in just enough bits for their purpose. Knowing which group you're in--pixel collectors or image collectors--is probably a good thing to know. There are more of the latter than there are of the former, by far. Most of you reading this site are probably in the former category, though.