Nikon 1 V2 Review Part 4 Performance

Elements of camera evaluation  When reviewing a camera I look at four main qualities, Description, Image Quality, Performance and Ergonomics. This post details my findings about the most interesting aspect of the V2, namely it's performance.

Switch on/off   With a collapsing zoom lens mounted, the camera is switched on by rotating the lens barrel while holding down the lock button.  Switch off is by reversing this procedure.  With non collapsing lenses the camera can be switched on/off  by rotating the toggle switch around the shutter button 1/8 turn.

Shutter optionsThe camera has two shutter systems built in. Both are very capable. There is no direct way to choose between them however if [Silent Photography] is set to [Off] in the Shooting Menu, the camera will select mechanical shutter up to 5fps. If [Silent Photography] is set to [On] or the frame rate selected is greater than 5 fps, the camera will use the E-Shutter.   By the way "Silent Photography" means just that in single shot mode. The thing is so quiet it's hard to know if a photo has been taken.   At 15 fps and above the camera makes an artificial sound to let you know it is working. At 5fps with [Silent Photography] set the camera fires away without a sound which is a bit disconcerting at first.  Actually it's not absolutely silent. With one's ear pressed directly onto the lens the very soft sounds of the VR, AF and Aperture mechanisms can be heard.   If this camera had a bit better high ISO image quality it would be perfect for photography in situations where silent operation is required.

The mechanical shutter supports flash up to a shutter speed of 1/250 second and Continuous Drive/AF up to 5 frames per second.  The shutter sound is soft suggesting a physical shock absorber may be in place. I found no evidence of image blur due to shutter shock with the 10-100mm f4-5.6 lens adding confirmation to the idea that a shock absorber of some kind may be operating.

The E-Shutter supports flash to 1/60 second and is used for frame rates faster than 5 per second. I found various types of banding can occur in images made with the E-Shutter in fluorescent light. This appears to be shutter speed dependent.

EVF Performance  The EVF refreshes very fast after each exposure. So fast in fact that there is no appreciable viewfinder blackout at all, even when firing at 5 or 15 fps. I think all other makers of mirrorless cameras with EVF should beg, buy, copy or steal whatever EVF refresh technology Nikon is using in the V2 because it is very good indeed.

Phase Detect and Contrast Detect autofocus  The V2 has a very sophisticated dual autofocus system. It runs both phase detect and contrast detect, both technologies operating directly on the imaging sensor. Phase detect is used in bright light, contrast detect in low light. The camera decides which will be used.  There is no opportunity for the user to select one or the other.

Autofocus, single shot, AF-S, subject reasonably static   The Shooting Menu provides three AF-Area Modes: Auto-Area, Single-Point and Subject Tracking. Auto-Area is convenient but gives the user no control over the actual AF Area selected. Subject Tracking is a feature found in many mirrorless cameras. This endeavours to hold focus on a selected subject element as it moves laterally across the frame. If the Auto [Green camera symbol] Mode is set, the camera will use Face Detect or Auto-Area Autofocus Mode.

For all tests I used Single-Point Mode which provides the highest level of speed, user control, reliability and  accuracy.

I noted while testing that the AF system needs vertical lines (in landscape orientation) or texture on which to focus.

 Outdoors in good light the V2 focusses very fast indeed. One could hardly imagine faster AF performance. It is very sensitive in the sense that the AF system will focus promptly on the least hint of texture. It is also accurate. In my many hundreds of test photos of still subjects none was out of focus. It is however possible for the camera to focus on some subject element other than that desired. The classical case is the small bird in a tree situation. If the focus rectangle is larger than or extends beyond the edges of the subject bird the camera is likely to focus on something bright/contrasty in the vicinity of the bird, either in front of or behind the desired point. Unfortunately in their (mostly successful) efforts to simplify operation of the V2, the camera's designers have not included a facility for user control over the size of the active AF area.

Indoors in lower light levels the AF slows from lightning fast to merely prompt. Sometimes there is a little hunting before the system locks on. In very low light, without the focus assist lamp, the V2 is not in the same league as the latest Micro 4/3 cameras which are amazingly fast, sensitive and accurate. But it usually does find focus after some hunting and is reliably in focus when so indicated by the green focus rectangle and double beep.

Shot to shot time, Single Shot, AF-S, AF on each frame  After each shot, the camera will fire again just about as quickly as I can press my finger down. By the stopwatch I counted 10 shots per 3 seconds [3.6 shots per second]  pressing the shutter separately for each shot.

Autofocus Continuous, Continuous Drive, Predictive AF on a moving subject   The V2 can manage predictive AF at 5 fps [with mechanical shutter] or 15 fps [with e-Shutter] with AF on each frame. I am unaware of any other camera at any price which can match this performance.

For my initial series of tests I used motor vehicles approaching or departing the camera position and accelerating or braking as they left or approached a slow corner. I used the Nikon 1 10-100mm f4-5.6 lens at 100mm focal length for all tests. I ran several tests each with about 100 frames in lighting which varied from sunny to shade. I used a Sandisk 95MB/sec card for all tests.

5 fps, Continuous Drive, AF-C   At 5 fps the camera fired 72 frames at 5 fps before the frame rate abruptly slowed indicating a full buffer. The buffer cleared in 25 seconds if I stopped firing at 72 frames. If desired, I could continue firing and/or making adjustments to camera settings with the buffer incompletely cleared.  This level of performance has been, until the arrival of the V1 and V2 cameras, only found in very expensive professional DSLRs.

15 fps, Continuous Drive, AF-C   The camera fired 47 shots in 3 seconds giving a measured rate of 15 fps, before the frame rate slowed abruptly indicating a full buffer, which cleared in 24 seconds if I made no further shots.

Setting [Auto Distortion Control] to [On] in the Shooting Menu did not slow the frame rate.

Predictive AF accuracy  Speed is all very well but if the resulting frames are not in focus all that speed is worthless. I compared the V2 at 5 and 15 fps with a Panasonic Lumix GH3 fitted with Lumix 45-150mm lens at 150mm focal length. The GH3 ran at 4.6 fps with AF-C  on each frame, filling the buffer at 28 frames.

  

* It is often stated by camera reviewers that phase detect AF is better for following a moving subject than contrast detect.  These results call that view into question. With the specific equipment used in the conditions present, the Lumix GH3 [which uses contrast detect AF exclusively]  with budget zoom lens scored a slightly higher percentage of frames sharply in focus than the V2 which would have been using phase detect AF for the test photos.

My guess is that if or when Panasonic raises it's sensor sample rate to about 500 or even 1000 times per second then contrast detect AF on sensor will easily match the best phase detect systems for both speed and accuracy with predictive AF.

* The percentage of sharply in focus frames fell when the V2 frame rate went from 5 to 15 fps.

* My observation while scanning the many hundreds of test photos was that with the V2 in particular, the likelihood of a frame being sharply in focus increased if the subject was in direct sunlight [as opposed to shade] at the time of the exposure.

* It is my experience that best predictive AF performance of a camera is enabled when  AF-Tracking (Lumix) a.k.a Subject Tracking (Nikon) is set to to OFF. I always use single point AF area positioned at the frame center for this type of work.  

Manual Focus  This camera's very poor manual focus arrangements are disappointing and perhaps reveal ambivalence in the product development team about the  intended target user group. At the time of writing the only Nikon 1 series lens with a manual focus ring is the 32mm f 1.2.  To enter Manual Focus Mode the user must access the Shooting Menu or press the F Button then scroll round to the Focus Mode icon. Press OK, then scroll to the MF position. Press OK. Then press OK again. Now an analogue distance scale appears at the right of the screen, unfortunately without actual distances indicated, just an infinity sign at the top and a flower at the bottom. A box indicates the degree of screen enlargement. Zoom into the image with the Command Dial. Rotate the Multi Selector ring to move the focus point. I found it extremely difficult to judge when the image was in focus, there being no clearly defined in/out focus differentiation. The whole manual focus system is a dreadful kludge, tediously slow to operate, imprecise and almost useless in practice. Fortunately the autofocus system is generally very reliable.

Summary  The V2 delivers very good to outstanding Continuous Drive, Continuous AF, Predictive AF, EVF refresh and buffer size. Manual focus is dreadful.  It's a curious mix.