Nikon 1 S2: one-button bezzerkalka

Hello, Geektimes! B> In our reviews, we do not consider for the first time the device not only from the perspective of "What is it?", But also raises a very important question: "Who is it?". Today we once again try to solve the thorny issue of the target audience as an example of a compact gadget bezzerkalki Nikon 1 S2




We have a test - the second generation of super-compact camera Nikon'ovskoy. The first press is not particularly bestowed, and market it has not received much success, the manufacturer drew from this fact the right conclusions and tried to improve the model for all characteristics. Got to do better? Definitely! That's just for the camera turned out to be this time?

Each task has its own tools to perform this task very well. It makes no sense to deliver farm products Ferrari or shoot at the ducks from the 30-mm cannons, just as it makes no sense to ride around the track in Formula 1 on any Lada Largus or shoot a gun on the plane.

About bezzerkalkah
How did bezzerkalki? Scratched someone turnip and said: « And let us take the guts of the SLR, discard the mirror, put the auto focus on the soap dish 1 sup> and pack everything in a compact body! I>». On the one hand - the idea is sound. And shoot well, and a lot of places do not take, and optics replaced, in which case. On the other - this design compromises have appeared in abundance. And the body is not very comfortable to hold, and controls are not the most clear and all.

1 - of course, then tightened the normal autofocus with phase sensors directly on the matrix, but the original idea was just that.
Blockquote> Over time, bezzerkalki found their niche. Someone took them to understand he wants passionate about photography in earnest or not: and advanced settings are available, and different lenses, and at the same time, if not "go down" - in "green mode" can be removed without problems . Others were taken as a substitute for the "big" camera, which is too lazy to carry with you. A man who knows how to take pictures (and not the owner of the camera), good lift and a matchbox with a piece of foil inside. Here bezzerkalki captivated the audience easily and compactness combined with normal quality shooting and a relatively large matrix.

Nikon 1 S2 same applies to the "second generation" mirrorless cameras: it is the fruit of love between bezzerkalkoy and superkompaktami / soap holders. Matrix has become smaller as the camera itself, controls - even easier, all the excess out: no removable flash or screens with twist mechanism. From "older" models went relatively serious interchangeable lenses, a powerful signal processor and the processor is responsible for post-processing of the signal, autofocus and other intimate charm. From "junior" modelek - ease of operation, (if I may say so - one-touch: Press the - got quite a decent result) attractive price (for the basic kit with lens 11-27.5 - about 17 000 rubles in our Yulmart), vivid colors and stunning ease.

Nikon 1 S2
Before considering the test frames and analyze the capabilities of the camera, I want to quickly run through its characteristics, strengths and weaknesses, determine the audience for this product, and in the light of the requirements of the CA to consider the possibility of the baby.



So be honest with respect to the camera, and in relation to the reader and then behold the beautiful images, and then disappointed in the performance characteristics.

The most interesting to discuss the characteristics of the camera are:

CMOS-matrix
Crop Factor: 2.7
Physical Dimensions: mm 13.1h8.8
Effective Resolution: 14.2 Mpixel;
sensitivity to ISO: 200 to 12800 in steps of 1 EV;
Shutter
Type: electronic
Minimum shutter speed: 1/16 000 s .;
The maximum exposure time 30 s .;
X-sync (minimum shutter speed when shooting with flash) - 1/60 sec .;
Autofocus
Type: Hybrid, for phase contrast and image sensors;
Sensor-order phase: 73;
Point estimates of contrast: 135;
Standard lens
Lens Mount: Nikon 1;
Model: NIKKOR 11-27.5 mm;
Aperture: f / 3.5-5.6;
optical zoom: h2.5;
stabilization: not available;
a filter thread diameter: 40.5 mm;
Processor
Model: EXPEED 4A;
Video recording: Full HD, 60 FPS;
Shooting full-size photos during video recording;
High-speed shooting: 400 or 1200 fps with reduced resolution.
 In addition, actually, "iron" features provided with the camera itself is very pleasant and powerful software, which, in my opinion, does the magic. And we are not talking about the user interface (it traditionally have Nikon'ov very, very weak both in terms of convenience and clarity on the part), namely the possibilities in terms of camera shooting.

The first thing I want to note is simply outstanding autofocus. From this, I'm sorry, minnows, did not expect an immediate and clear focus on those objects that are of interest in the field of photography. Camera confidently clings to passing cars, faces, bright objects in the foreground and made from 100+ test frames within an hour I received a total of 3 or 4 slip autofocus.

Another pleasant feature for which I must say thank you and the new processor, the camera and the software - "fake» ISO 12 800. No, the camera there is a "real", but he needs to shoot unless blacks playing basketball at night in a black room. For the same static image is worth it to apply ISO 12800 NR (noise reduciton), which causes the camera to make some shots in a row, automatically find a reference point to bring several pictures into one and to compensate for noise. Shoot at night the city is certainly better to fullfreym-SLR, but among all sorts of small-caliber camera this "lighter" gives a stunning result.

The third feature that I noticed, and I just can not fail to mention: the possibility of completely silent operation. In the settings you just turn off the shutter sound / AF confirmation and the camera turns into a silent spy satellite: no one turns to nasty squeak or explicitly triggered synthetic sound of the shutter when taking photographs. Autofocus does not crackle and hiss motor, the lens does not go in general - the dream of a spy.

Void
The camera no useless following features: wireless services (with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth-connection), or rotary touch screen helper exterior accessories (the same "hot shoe" under the flash). In the chamber you also will not find any advanced settings, at least for quick access. On equipment and controls, it is closer to the low tsifromylnitsam than to bezzerkalkam.

Discomfort
Lion's share of disadvantages in communication with the chamber deliver three things tricky interface paucity of controls and absolutely indecent battery.

With an interface is more or less clear: Nikon'ov always been the vision of "convenient" display, but this company has surpassed itself. By "green mode" no complaints whatsoever. By the settings menu - too. Well, yes, mess, and sometimes non-intuitive, but generally familiar letters are added in clear words, and understand what is behind this or that parameter is not difficult.



The main claim - to the selection of shooting modes and switching between modes. Well, if you choose to imagine TRUE-photographer to manually control the shutter speed, aperture and ISO, it is quite the trouble begins ... And it is multiplied by a second disaster: the scarcity of government.

At your disposal are: 4-way D-pad, combined with the ring, the OK button, and ... everything! The remaining buttons are purely functional: Viewing and deleting photos, the main menu, the power button and two-button AF / shutter. And the right would have been a normal D-pad ... but it's small, completely uninformative, and ring in most regimes are simply useless.



For example, in the "creative" mode (where available and any exposure-diaphragm) it switches ... software filters. A little redder, a little greener, sepia-figepiya, well, you understand. Built instagramm only a moderate impact forces.



Well, minus the third this camera - a small battery - simply kills all desire to use it as a substitute for heavy SLR. First, the battery can not be charged from the USB-cable. Only discharge. Secondly, the charger takes up more space than the camera down to the same once gathered "fork" and "dock" to separate them will not work.



Well, at least I did not dare: plastic looks cheap and threatens to break from the effort.



For whom?
Summarizing all the above, I want to summarize and determine who still would have liked such a camera?

I would not recommend it for beginners who want to delve into the picture, to explore the possibilities of cameras and deal with the shutter speed and aperture. The camera simply inconvenient for training: all the settings are buried far, edited reluctantly, the camera is not very good in the hand. Experiment is simply uncomfortable, you will lose a lot of time to fight with the interface and frames will "go away" from you.

For those who already have some type of monster 7D Mk2, 6D, D7000 or any other camera Amateur and above class, the camera as a "compact satellite" will not work for about the same reasons. Yes, you will do her good shots from the point of view of the composition. But as soon as you need it to something more than a "green mode" ... Well, you understand the above paragraph - read.



The remaining two categories of users: a camera owners who want "good picture" and a special group, which I would call "family of photographers." With the first all more or less clear, people change her old bar of soap for something better, hardly read reviews and will shoot JPEG'i in "green mode". But as the "family of photographers" - here the camera hit the nail on the head.

For pevyh, you can be sure that the "green mode" your mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, or brother and sister filmed sharp and quality training. Second, you can set the mode of NEF (RAW-format Nikon'ovsky) and then tighten the frames received on holiday / vacation / cottage. Third, the camera fits perfectly in the segment of relatively inexpensive devices, as well as in the segment quite good cameras. Well, as a bonus, if you have at hand was not your own personal monster, you can take the "home" and the camera down (mothers and overcoming the flour from the curve menu) to get great shots, hold on RAW'y and print great photos with this baby.



I would define Nikon 1 S2 is in the category of cameras, which in 90% of cases will be removed in the "green" mode, and the remaining 10 - those who are versed in the photos. That is, as the duty "home" camera: for parents, children, take what can be removed without problems, one button and requires virtually no post-processing. The camera and produced with the help of her staff do not preclude the competent finalizing picture.

Footage!
For the most typical conditions, I took my camera, went into the city and just shoot everything will fall into the lens, without any particular purpose. Such things travel "and do not remember, then pofotkat." All frames were shot in NEF format and were converted to JPEG without any correction. Here's what happened:

Hidden Text







6,532,158





































As you can see photos of more than "normal" and almost all turned out well. Yes, somewhere a little overexposed objects, places much stronger distortion of the lens, but, first, everything was filmed in "green mode", and secondly, NEF'y easy rules.
Download one archive originals (NEF) can here here . Volume File - 491.5 Mb.

Consider the most interesting and challenging areas in which in automatic mode could be difficult:



Difficult conditions for shooting: a bright light source, shade, usually at the camera sensors in such conditions occur problems with the camera's metering and white balance. Everyone remembers the scandalous dress ? Glitches with color vision observers dress arose precisely because of the difficult shooting conditions, improper white balance and different monitor settings and viewing conditions in the audience.

Look closely at the picture. Even though the general "blue", the camera is well captured as a shade of the house, and the dark dome. I recall survey was conducted in automatic mode.

Frame, in my opinion, somewhat perekontraschen, but Nikon 1 S2 supports NEF-format and the resulting photos easily edited.



Frame to get a deep and expressive. I cut out the central part with the contrasting sections: Part gray house faces the sun is almost at a right angle, while the second is in the shade, besides a number of contrast is the object (the red brick house), because of what the camera could greatly "missed" exhibition and overexposure important parts of the frame. Some of the "overexposure" and indeed there, but he legkoustranim to the same general picture turned out quite lively and pleasant colors.



Very difficult conditions for the camera: shooting a bright subject with contrasting elements of the shadows. Of course, the light meter was wrong, but the frame has turned out quite detalizovannye and foreground - did not fail in the blackness. Poluicht normal result in this case can only be shooting in NEF-format images being under or over exposure bracketing, followed by gluing the frame in the HDR-image.

By the way, this picture the same problems and the same solutions:



And now the most unpleasant that may be obtained from the automatic mode to the Nikon 1 S2: when shooting against the light you get here are "special effects».



This - the highlight of the sun on the coated lenses. The absence of the hood and a small matrix given here are unpleasant artifacts.

Pull-shall pull
The camera is able to shoot in RAW-format, so not the most successful shots nice stretch in many ways. I spent a basic image processing, color corrected, pulled some settings, and chose two frames, which is one of the detailed objects was clearly underexposed and the other - on the contrary, overexposed. Here's what came of it.

Originals processed photos 1 , 2 , 3 , < a href = "http://armarium.org/u/2015/03/21/963c3b55fe01febe8e03952d4db1a446.jpg"> 4 .

Resolution and detail photos can hardly be called inadequate, especially when you consider the small matrix camera. In the approximation clearly visible colored tiles on the temple.



Cruising on the "pull" of parts of the dark areas of the frame is not bad:



But if much closer picture, of course, we will see lasciviousness as noise:



On the other hand, even a medium-sized picture is not so "noisy" and is quite suitable for discharge as a social network, desktop, or as a greeting card and print, if you want to order.



Much closer picture you can see that the matrix is ​​not "zamylivaet" contrasting objects small size, and leaves them crisp.



With regard to "reverse tyanuchesti" - has always believed that the best nedosvet overexposure. From nedosveta can get details from strong overexposure, as Delhi is not a performance matrix, in addition to various shades of gray will not get anything. Nikon'ovsky RAW-format allows good pull and overexposed parts of the frame, and not lose in this part. Yes, the picture is not very busy, but it's certainly better than gray or purple spots glare :)

What say obzorschikov
Camera and its capabilities in detail considered journalists Ferra.ru, abroad fairly complete and interesting review to provide resources photographyblog.com.

That's what our colleagues write.

Nikon 1 S2 became noticeably better than its predecessor. It is the merit of the sensor and the latest processor. The matrix provides a better picture, including color and noise. Also worth noting is incredible for a budget bezzerkalki performance, an interesting set of video capabilities and other chips. The camera takes some getting used to the control system has a fairly primitive display and wireless communication is possible only after the purchase of the external module. Nikon 1 S2 is one of the most affordable and compact bezzerkalok today. Blockquote>

Tags

See also

New and interesting