Yet another new toy, the Nikon V1

Welcome the Nikon V1. Getting old is not fun, and the D3 is starting to strain my shoulder. I've been looking at the interchangeable lens compacts, and settled on the V1 as a compromise between price and features.

Why the V1? A viewfinder is a must-have (refer to my post on the Olympus E-P1). It's a plus that there's an available adapter for AF-S lenses, but it's out of my budget for now. AF is very fast in bright daylight, slower in dim light. The viewfinder is bright and the refresh rate is high. I tried an OM-D and the viewfinder showed noticeable flickering. There's a slight lag before the viewfinder turns on, but this can be fixed with a little tape.

The camera has a 10mp sensor that's on the small side. With some PS retouching, I was able to make a clean 13x19 print. 

The rear LCD screen is the same as that in D3, but without the fogging issue (so far). I do enjoy the rotating rear controller, which makes it easy to go through the menu items (spin quickly instead of clicking or holding a button). So far the mode dial hasn't slipped, but the detents are on the loose side.

Now for the drawbacks of the V1. Noise is always present, even at the base ISO100. Very noticeable in blue skies and in shadows. Higher ISO's are a problem, limiting the usefulness of the camera. Battery life is also dismal, giving 160 shots with 20% left on one of my outings with the camera. That works out to about 200 shots maximum, much less than the 350 rating for the battery. It's the price you pay for an electronic viewfinder that's always on.

Selecting simple things like exposure mode, ISO, AF settings, and other basic features are hidden in the menu system. The V1 is targeted at the p&s user, and the novice user to be specific, hence the simplified controls. It's not likely that Nikon's going to change the firmware, so this is just something that I'll have to accept.

The lens selection is limited for now, and given the small sensor, it's doubtful that buying a lens for isolation is going to be cheap. Third-party lenses are non-existent, although there several adapters available for other mounts.

Surprisingly, it's not that hard to manually focus. I've tried the 50mm f/1.8E and 75-150 f/3.5E, and it's easy to get accurate focus with either lens. They also perform decently on the camera. Metering doesn't work with these lenses, so it's back to the sunny 16 rule and guesstimating.

I considered the OM-D, Nexus 6 and 7, but they're all more expensive than the V1. The Panasonic G3 is now a steal at $300 with the kit lens, but the AF isn't up to the V1's speed. I also looked at the Nikon D3200, but the price is a bit high, and it's not as small or as light.

The V1 is not a D3 replacement, but then again at $350 for the body and kit 10-30mm lens, it's definitely a bargain.

Things to order: a second battery, a handgrip, a lens hood, and a strap.

Hit rate: 59/162, or 36%. Click here for more photos.

Addendum on 12/02/13: B&H is now offering the V1 for $300. Definitely a bargain. Now, do I take the savings and buy the 30-110mm, or the FT-1....

Whew

After almost a month of turtle-like speed, the Bay to Breakers photos are done. I seem to be slowing down as it shouldn't have taken more than three weeks to edit the shots. There's still the photos from the Cherry Blossom Parade, Asian Heritage Festival, Carnaval, and the surfing shots from the last Hawaii vacation to go through. Oh joy.

B2B hit rate: 36%, or 280/787

I've continued my scanning efforts, but have hit a stumbling block. My ancient Epson 2450 scanner has an intermittently dead sensel that gives a nice line across the scans. I can still scan using one negative slot instead of two, but this does slow things down a bit. For the 126mm film, I've tried using the 35mm slot, but this results in heads being lopped off. Two pieces of glass work, except for the occasional Newtonian ring. I haven't tried scanning any of the 110mm film, although I am really curious to see how well that tiny negative holds up compared to 35mm film. Who has access to a machine shop so I can carve a nice holder?

The fun part of scanning old negatives is the discovery of old photos that you've never seen before. Who would have guessed that I'd find a set of images from a beach outing with the extended family back in 1969? I've also discovered colored photos from my parents' wedding that they didn't remember seeing ever.

I still have to watch "Up." The dvd has been in my possesion for over a week now, but Netflix doesn't care.

Waking up early helps

Success! After five years of trying, I was finally able to wake up early enough to make it to the Haight, find parking (tons on Haight itself), and catch the elite runners at the Bay to Breakers. I made it early enough that I had to wait almost an hour before I took my first photo (need to adjust that wake up time). And I found out that the women actually run ahead of the men, but the men catch up and pass them at the end.

Being that early in the morning, I'll blame my shots on my lack of sleep. And it's tough to watch the runner's feet to time the photo just right.

Women's winner Lineth Chepkurui of Kenya on her way to breaker her record:

Will Ferrell impersonator crosses behind the lead male runners:

Race winner Sammy Kitwara (#21) and runner-up Peter Kirui (#24), both from Kenya:

Events beyond your control

It really bites when your timing is spot on, and something just gets in the way of that perfect shot. That's what happened to me a few times today while shooting Muay Thai at the Asian Heritage street fair in San Francisco earlier this afternoon. The referee was just doing his job of course, and didn't really worry that he blocked several good photos. The fighters didn't help by moving around the ring so much. And why do they have to put all those ropes around the ring...

There's something to be said about having a press pass.

I did manage to take some good photos this year, out of 1,971 taken. At last year's event, I was too far from the ring, and two years ago I found out too late about the fights. This year I got ringside seats by dint of waiting for a few hours before the bouts started. The Nikon 28-105mm f/3.5~4.5 managed to keep up with the action, although it did mis-focus on a few shots. I would have liked just a little more FOV (maybe 24mm?), but until Nikon releases an updated 24-120mm, I'll use what i have in my bag. The 28-70mm AF-S would have focused faster, although it's a little on the short side. I didn't use the 70-200VR that I brought since I was close to the action.

Metering was off my hand, shutter speed, aperture and ISO set manually to match and adjusted as the lighting conditions changed. Fill flash? Always a good idea when you have bright sunlight in the background and a covered tent for the foreground, but flash wouldn't have been able to keep up with the action. And I don't think the fighters would appreciate an SB-800 blasting in their faces at 8fps. So I have a blown background, but that's fine with me.

I started out in machine gun mode, and managed to hit the buffer limit a few times. As my timing improved, I throttled down to shorter bursts and single shots towards the end of the event.

Batteries are charging for tomorrow. Need to get up early to reach my oft-missed goal of photographing the lead runner of the Bay 2 Breakers.

Remember to test your equipment first

Time for the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown in the city. Brought my usual parade kit, D3 + SB-800 + 70-200VR. Got to the event, started firing off some shots. Blinking highlights. Odd, but I ignored them and continued to shoot. Even more blinking highlights.

Decreased the aperture, and whoa, major overexposure. Stopped the aperture down (whoops, flash is strobing in modelling mode) and looked down the lens barrel: aperture is wide open. Removed the lens, and the aperture lever is stuck. It was easy to move it back to the fully closed position, and I moved it around just to make sure it was ok. No more blinking highlights after that fix.

Capture NX to the rescue. Of course it can't give me back the missing DOF, and some shots are just too overexposed to be of any use.

Lesson learned: always test your equipment before shooting, and don't ignore the blinking highlights.


On a side note, the Olympus E-P1 and 14-42mm lens are arriving tomorrow. New toy!