Nikon 1 V1 Field Report

I have been using the V1 for a number of weeks now and I am on the whole very pleased with it. As I have said it is definitely a good light camera because  it has issues focusing in low light and its usable maximum ISO is 400 even though it can be increased to 6400.  My reasons for buying it was its incredible  2.7x crop factor making my excellent Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 an equivalent to 540mm f/2.8 super telephoto.  The results with this combination to date have been mixed.  While it can produce great images there is a softness issue at f/2.8 which I have reported to Nikon and I am waiting for an adequate response about this.  There are no problems at all at f/4.0 with the images coming in with very good detail.  I personally am very happy to use it at f/4 and it must be said that Nikon's 600mm is an f/4.0 lens.

Here are a series of images that I took today along my local beach  These images were all shot at 200mm or an equivalent of 540mm @ f/4.0. The images can withstand up to 60% cropping and still retain sufficient detail to present well at 1400x1050 pixels.

I did however find it impossible to track moving birds as the V1 does not allow continuous focus tracking with the FT1 which obviously limits its use in dynamic action shots.