Nikon Nikon J1. How do you use it?

alaios

New Member
Hi

I have started shooting with the J1 and pretty much I like it.

1. I have been using manual mode and auto iso. If I got it right though that once I press shutter half and lock exposure I can not compensate it somehow. I have been using auto iso400 and I wanted to compensate a bit the exposure I was getting. I was thinking to avoid any menu access at that time

2. What is your mode when you want to go for street photograpy? Actually I want to use the very focus speed of that camera and to not think about depth of field and shutter speed. Which is the mode for that?

3. What are the required shutter speeds needed as minimum to avoid blurines on the 30-110VR lens.

4. Diffence between On and Active in the shake reduction?

5. Is it possible to tune the jpeg engine somehow?

I would like to thank you in advance for your help

Regards

Alex
 
Hello!

The quickest way to compensate is to press the left-side of the four-way control pad on the back. It should put you in Exposure Comp, you can then spin the control dial around the pad to set the EC.But you are correct, AE-L will prevent you from dialing in any EC.

Candid photos - I put the camera into A or S (depending on your preference), My Focus Mode is set to AF-C, with Auto-Area AF (rectangles all over the LCD) and Face Detection Turned On. This is the fastest combination of AF mode/servo and AF area settings that will enable people photos on the fly.

Well, the VR on the 1 series is good for at least 3-stops. But it all depends on how much light is present and your subject's movement rate. For individuals walking, as an example, you would need a minimum of 1/90 - 1/125 Shutter Speed to prevent motion blur, regardless of whether VR is on or not.

Shake Reduction - ON just means VR is compensating for standard up-down oscillation when the photographer is standing still. Active will take out ALL movement in both up-down, left-right and yaw axes. Generally you would use Active when you're inside a moving car or someplace where there is significant movement or vibration that impacts the stability of your telephoto shot.

Not sure what you mean by JPEG engine tuning. I think you're looking for a way to customize the impacts to JPEG out-of-camera, like sharpness, contrast, etc? If that's the case, you need to learn Picture Controls. They're located in the Picture Control menu under the Shooting Menu (Camera Icon). You can choose from self-explanatory Presets such as Standard, Neutral, Vivid (as in Color), etc. I create my own and set sharpness and contrast to their lowest settings. These are settings I prefer to manipulate in post-process on the PC. The rule of thumb being, you can easily add contrast and sharpness back into the photo, but it's incredibly hard to remove them in the first place. Doubly so for JPEGs where they are already hardcoded - this is one of the reasons I shoot RAW format.

Hope this helps!
 
Very very good answer. My comments inline with red

The quickest way to compensate is to press the left-side of the four-way control pad on the back. It should put you in Exposure Comp, you can then spin the control dial around the pad to set the EC.But you are correct, AE-L will prevent you from dialing in any EC.
Hmm does not work in manual mode... I also prefered to have live view but I can live with that as it is

Candid photos - I put the camera into A or S (depending on your preference), My Focus Mode is set to AF-C, with Auto-Area AF (rectangles all over the LCD) and Face Detection Turned On. This is the fastest combination of AF mode/servo and AF area settings that will enable people photos on the fly.
Good tip thanks. Did not know that

Well, the VR on the 1 series is good for at least 3-stops. But it all depends on how much light is present and your subject's movement rate. For individuals walking, as an example, you would need a minimum of 1/90 - 1/125 Shutter Speed to prevent motion blur, regardless of whether VR is on or not.

Shake Reduction - ON just means VR is compensating for standard up-down oscillation when the photographer is standing still. Active will take out ALL movement in both up-down, left-right and yaw axes. Generally you would use Active when you're inside a moving car or someplace where there is significant movement or vibration that impacts the stability of your telephoto shot.
What happeds if you have it in Active whil you are standing still? Is it so bad?

Not sure what you mean by JPEG engine tuning. I think you're looking for a way to customize the impacts to JPEG out-of-camera, like sharpness, contrast, etc? If that's the case, you need to learn Picture Controls. They're located in the Picture Control menu under the Shooting Menu (Camera Icon). You can choose from self-explanatory Presets such as Standard, Neutral, Vivid (as in Color), etc. I create my own and set sharpness and contrast to their lowest settings. These are settings I prefer to manipulate in post-process on the PC. The rule of thumb being, you can easily add contrast and sharpness back into the photo, but it's incredibly hard to remove them in the first place. Doubly so for JPEGs where they are already hardcoded - this is one of the reasons I shoot RAW format.

Hope this helps!
 
So a quick correction on EC - I meant to say press the *Right-hand* side of the four-way pad - because it's marked +/- in standard iconography of EC control.

Secondly, Active VR while standing still - probably the same thing as using Active on a Tripod, which is generally not recommended. Why? Because your hands will still shake in axes other than up/down (and even the most stable tripod still transmits vibrations back up to the camera); in both cases, Active VR will detect it and try to compensate. But you will still continue to shake no matter what, which could set up an endless feedback loop to the camera and overwhelm VR. Better to just tell it, fight up/down only.
 
Hi
I am still struggling to find ways to use my camera in proper way
-I need one mode that reset everything to factory defaults
-One more for using the camera as spot meter. If I am not wrong that should be center focus and meter spot, so to measure the centered focused area
-Manual mode does not work for me. Exposure compensation does not work nor focus lock button. Very weird mode to be honest
 
Hi
I am still struggling to find ways to use my camera in proper way
-I need one mode that reset everything to factory defaults
-One more for using the camera as spot meter. If I am not wrong that should be center focus and meter spot, so to measure the centered focused area
-Manual mode does not work for me. Exposure compensation does not work nor focus lock button. Very weird mode to be honest

There are two places to force a reset: Shooting Menu and the Camera Settings - both have a "Reset to Default" menu item. Hit them both once and you're back to the camera as if you had just taken it out of the box.

Spot Meter: If you are in Single Area AF (where you control the AF point using the Control Pad), the area immediately under the AF sensor shown in the LCD is going to be metered. This is nice because you can drive the AF point to say a face, spot meter off of it and set your focus point as well. This is how all current Nikon digital cameras that have spot metering work. If you are in any other AF mode, like Auto-Area, no guarantees.

I will check Manual Mode when I get back, but what exactly isn't working for you on this mode, besides EC? AF-L will force the focus to lock on the selected AF point - I would use Single Area in this case, and not Auto-Area.
 
Hi

I have been also trying today. There were some pigeons that I was running into and I was trying to freeze them when they were flying. I was able to put the pigeons quite succesfully in the frame but nothing I tired was able to freeze them quite succesfully. I tried even electronic mode but anything turned blurry.

I have tried even shutter speeds of 1/640 but auto focus in continuous mode was not able to keep everything in straight focus as I was writing in the pigeons.

How would you try such scenario?

Regards

Alex
 
Hi

I have been also trying today. There were some pigeons that I was running into and I was trying to freeze them when they were flying. I was able to put the pigeons quite succesfully in the frame but nothing I tired was able to freeze them quite succesfully. I tried even electronic mode but anything turned blurry.

I have tried even shutter speeds of 1/640 but auto focus in continuous mode was not able to keep everything in straight focus as I was writing in the pigeons.

How would you try such scenario?

Regards

Alex


Before we get to your Pigeons question - let me make sure you and I are on the same page about Manual Mode and Exposure Compensation. In Manual Mode, the EC function is not required. Why? Because EC is useful only when you have control over either Shutter or Aperture. If you don't like the combination that picking a Shutter Speed for example 1/60 at f4 and you want to underexpose by a stop, you dial in -1.0 EC. In manual mode you can do this directly. Note in the LCD there is an exposure scale at the bottom of the screen. It looks like this + ----0----- -. So if you wanted to underexpose 1/60 at f4, you could either change Aperture to f5.6 OR you change Shutter Speed to 1/90. Then the scale at the bottom will start to show things like this + ----0||||-- - to indicate you've dialed in -1 EV. So, Exposure Comp does work in Manual Mode.

As to the birds - well, 1/640 should be fast enough, but perhaps not, if you wanted to freeze the birds' wings in flight for example. For this, I would shoot wide but close to the subject, so if you had the 10-30mm VR mounted, I would try to get close as possible, shoot at 10mm, use Auto-Area AF, Matrix Metering. Preferably I would be in Shutter Priority. If you know 1/640 isn't fast enough, try to move up to 1/800 - 1/1000. 1/1000 should more more than enough unless these birds are supersonic. :)
 
Well exposure compensation is still needed in manual focus where auto iso is selected. For the pigeons I was trying with very large focal lengths and I have failed a lot...
 
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