Fun with lens adapter on Nikon J1

[jon_shumpert2]

<p>I have read several post about lens adapters here so I decided to buy one for my wife's J1 so I could use my Nikon slr lenses. I know Nikon makes one for autofocus lenses, but it is currently way out of my price range. I picked up one from rainbow imaging for around $15. I can use any of my lenses with an aperture ring, and set exposure manually. I lose autofocus and auto exposure, but I have don't mind metering and focusing manually. So far I have taken photos with my 50/1.4 ais, my 85/1.8af and my Tamron 90/2.8 macro. I use a hoodman loupe to focus since the J1 has no focus confirmation. I have been having fun playing and my 8 year old son even has an interest in using the camera with the older lenses. I took a couple of photos of my recently acquired Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash camera with the 85mm and the 90 macro. The macro goes way beyond life size when used with the J1. The Kodak logo in the photo is smaller in diameter than a pencil. I think I will probably use the adapter more with the macro lens, but plan to use all my primes with it sometime soon.</p><div></div>

[jon_shumpert2]

<p>Here is one that was taken with the 85/1.8 Nikon. I was at ISO 200 for the previous photo and this one. This one was shot at f8 and the previous was at f16. For lighting I used the popup flash on the J1 to trigger an SB-800 set as a remote.</p><div></div>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>The Nikon 1 series are fun cameras and very useful within their sweet spot. For the past couple of weeks I've been archiving older photos found a few sets from the early 2000s taken with my first digital camera, an Olympus P&S, that would have been much better with the V1 I bought a couple of years ago.</p>

<p>These were mostly dance and movement oriented theater performances, taken from the first or second row of the audience (with permission). Although I had a homemade sound-muffling blimp box for my SLRs, I preferred the little Olympus for the quiet electronic shutter and discretion when sitting in the audience. I used the SLR and blimp only from the tech booth. But to capture sequences of movement I had to reduce the JPEG resolution to just large enough for web display, not enough for prints. And the ISO topped out at 400.</p>

<p>Nowadays the Nikon 1 system with electronic shutter would do a much better job for discrete photography from the audience. It can capture bursts at high frame rates in raw/JPEG. The face detection AF works well, even in tricky lighting. And the high ISO performance is acceptable up to 1600 if needed.</p>

<p>With an inexpensive Fotodiox adapter I've mostly used the 50/1.8D AF, 50/2 AI and 85/2 AIS Nikkors, all very compact. Manual focusing can be a bit tricky without focus confirmation, but the EVF on the V1 helps.</p>

<p>I would like to see a fast midrange 1 System zoom, f/2.8 or faster, but I have no idea if that's ever going to happen.</p>

[Wayne Melia]

<p>Thank you. I have been interested for some time in the j series Nikon, and particularly both in the use of the hoodman loupe, and also the camera flash as trigger. </p>

[lex_jenkins]

<blockquote>

<p>"...and also the camera flash as trigger."</p>

</blockquote>

<p>The J1 flash sync is limited to 1/60th sec, if I'm recalling correctly, due to the electronic only shutter. The V1's manual shutter option can sync up to 1/250th. Very handy for fill flash in daylight.</p>

<p>Often I'll swivel the SB-N5 flash head around and bounce it off my cupped left hand as a reflector for very subtle, warm fill flash. Works great for closeup portraits, gets a little catch light in the eyes and minimizing shadows around eyes, and minimizes the appearance of wrinkles.</p>

<p>Occasionally I'll tote the Nikon SB-800 flash, which I'll trigger with the SB-N5 flash on the V1. Unfortunately none of the Nikon 1 System cameras has a standard hotshoe or adapter - no way to use a standard wireless trigger or sync cord. But setting the SB-800 to SU4 mode enables the simple optical trigger for a remote in manual mode. I'll swivel the SB-N5 toward the SB-800 to ensure it triggers reliably. As long as nobody else is using flash (or a cigarette lighter), it'll work fine. But even a spark from a nearby cigarette lighter will trigger the SU4 mode optical trigger!</p>

<p>That's another thing I'd like to see Nikon do - put a standard hotshoe on the 1 System or at least an adapter.</p>

[eric_arnold]

<p>an sb-800 on a J1 hotshoe? i dont know about that, but lack of CLS compatibility is an obvious must-fix for nikon 1. that system does actually have its usefulness, although you have to fight the camera's poor UI and engineering sometimes. i hadnt thought of using a macro lens with an adaptor for extreme closeups, but i cant imagine one would have to stop down to f/16 for DoF with that small sensor. id be more worried about diffraction. </p>