The Photographer’s Guide to the Nikon 1 V1/J1 A practical approach to using Nikon’s advanced compact cameras Luminescence of Nature™ Press www.luminescentphoto.com Jason P. Odell, Ph.D. The Photographer’s Guide to the Nikon 1 V1 /J1 First Edition 2012 Published in the United States by Luminescence of Nature Press Colorado Springs, CO 80923 www.luminescentphoto.com ISBN 978-1-4675-1987-8 ©2012 Jason P. Odell All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission by the publisher, with the exception that owners of this eBook are permitted have a single copy printed for personal use. I authorize single copies of this eBook to be printed by commercial printing services, including but not limited to: FedEx Office®, Office Depot®, and OfficeMax®. All photos by and © Jason P. Odell unless otherwise indicated. Trademarks All terms in this book that are known to be trademarks or service marks have been appropriately capitalized. Nikon and Nikkor are registered trademarks of Nikon Corporation, Japan. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft, Corp. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Disclaimer This book is not sponsored by Nikon Corporation. It is intended to provide information about the Nikon 1 System cameras. Every effort has been made to make the information contained in this book as reliable as possible, but no warranty of fitness is implied. The author and publisher shall not be responsible in any way for any damages or loss of data arising from the information contained in this book. Preface To my family, without whom I’d never have picked up a Nikon 1 camera. iii The Photographer’s Guide to the Nikon 1 V1/J1 About This Book Why an eBook? The electronic book format has some significant advantages over its printed counterparts. Electronic books allow me to deliver my content around the world nearly instantly, thanks to the Internet. My books have features you can’t get in print, like bookmarks, cross-references, and Internet links. Clicking a Table of Contents or Index entry will take you directly to that page. Clicking hyperlinks in this book, which are visible in bold blue text, will take you either to a cross- referenced page, or to a website on the Internet. This added level of interaction is something I hope makes this book easy to use. Printing This Book In the copyright notice of this book (page ii), I’ve indicated that you, as an owner of this book, are entitled to make a printed copy for personal use. I’ve deliberately made the pages a size that will fit on either US Letter or A4 paper for printing. I suggest printing two pages per sheet in landscape orientation starting at page 2 (omit the cover page); this will keep related topics together. You may wish to print the appendix (pages 312-318) and cover page separately as they are iv Preface formatted for single-sheets. If you wish to print double- sided, format your printer for short-edge binding, two sheets per page. If you take this book to a commercial printer, chances are that their software will try to extract the pages from the PDF file, which is a protected function. For best results, have your printer print the book using Adobe Acrobat’s built-in options for booklet or multiple page printing. Should a commercial print service deny you a printed copy due to copyright issues, refer them to the copyright page in this book. What if You Lose the Book? Honestly, I’m not responsible for how you choose to back up your files. If you purchased this book as an electronic download, I strongly recommend making a back-up copy onto a CD or DVD. Treat this book just as you would any other book in your library. The authors are not liable for hard drive failures! System Requirements This eBook is in Adobe PDF format, and requires Adobe Reader for the best viewing experience. Adobe Digital Editons is not supported. v The Photographer’s Guide to the Nikon 1 V1/J1 eReader Compatibility This book should be viewable on an Apple iPad and other eBook readers that support PDF viewing. However, I cannot guarantee the proper functionality of bookmarks and hyperlinks, as it will depend on your reader software. For maximum compatibility with Apple devices, I recommend using either iBooks or GoodReader. You can transfer the book to your iPhone/ iPad via iTunes. If you purchased this book as a digital download, I recommend extracting the files from the parent ZIP archive and immediately backing them up to CD-ROM or DVD. Technical Support If you are having difficulty viewing the PDF content, please first check that you are using the latest version of Adobe Reader and that you have unzipped the contents of the download folder. If that doesn’t solve your issue, please email [email protected] vi Preface Other PDF eBooks by Jason P. Odell • The Photographer’s Guide to Capture NX2 • The Photographer’s Guide to Digital Landscapes • The Photographer’s Guide to Silver Efex Pro 2 • The Photographer’s Guide to HDR Efex Pro (with Tony Sweet) • Field Notes: A Photographic Journey All of Jason’s eBooks are available for direct download from Luminescence of Nature™ Press. vii The Photographer’s Guide to the Nikon 1 V1/J1 Contents About This Book iv Introduction 14 Nikon 1 System Camera Comparison 20 Objective of This Book 23 1: Getting Started 26 Parts of the Camera 27 External Controls 34 Initial Setup 36 Battery 36 Lenses 39 Installing a Memory Card 40 Software Menus: Basic Navigation Tools 44 Completing Setup 46 Powering up Your Camera 46 Setting Camera Date and Time 48 Firmware Version and Updates 51 Adjusting the LCD and Electronic Viewfinder 52 On-Screen Display Information 55 Other Items in the Setup Menu 58 Image Format and Appearance Options 60 Selecting a File Format 60 Controlling Image Appearance 67 Picture Controls 67 Adjusting Picture Controls 71 2: Still Images 84 Still Image Mode 85 Choosing a Shutter Type (V1) 87 Frame Advance Modes 91 Focusing the Camera 94 viii Preface Focusing Scenarios: Combining AF Area Selection with Focus Modes 103 The AF Assist Lamp 106 Controlling Exposure 107 Shutter Speed and Image Sharpness 110 Aperture and Depth of Field 112 Camera Sensitivity: ISO Settings 116 Noise Reduction 120 Metering Modes 124 Matrix Metering 124 Center-weighted Metering 125 Spot Metering 125 Exposure Modes 126 Program Auto Exposure Mode (P) 127 Aperture-priority Auto Exposure Mode (A) 128 Shutter-priority Auto Exposure Mode (S) 131 Exposure Compensation and Auto Exposure 134 Locking Exposure: The AE/AF-L Button 135 Manual Exposure Mode 137 Active D-Lighting 145 White Balance 147 Changing Camera Settings Between Camera Modes 154 Scene Auto Selector Mode: The Ultimate Point and Shoot Option? 155 Scene Modes 155 Limitations of Scene Auto Selector Mode 158 Timer and Remote Options 159 Setting the Self-Timer 159 Using the ML-L3 Infrared Remote 160 Advanced: Interval Timer Shooting 163 Reviewing Still Images 166 Handling the Nikon 1 Cameras 166 Recommended Settings for Still Images 169 ix The Photographer’s Guide to the Nikon 1 V1/J1 3: Imaging Workflow 170 Reviewing Images 171 Deleting Images 175 Rating Images 179 In-Camera Image Editing Options 183 Resizing Images 183 Cropping Images 184 D-Lighting 186 Presenting Your Images 186 Slide Shows 186 Using a Television Monitor for Playback 188 Printing Images From Your Camera 190 Direct Printing 190 DPOF Print Orders 191 Transferring and Viewing Images on Your Computer 192 4: Smart Photo Selector 196 Using Smart Photo Selector Mode 199 Recommended Settings for Smart Photo Selector Mode 204 5: Movies 206 Movie Mode 207 Capturing Movies 208 Shooting (Movie) Menu 210 Exposure and Metering Options when Capturing Video 214 Focusing in Movie Mode 216 Recording Sounds 217 Slow Motion Video Capture 219 Capturing Stills While in Movie Mode 221 Picture Controls and Movies 221 Fade In/Out Options 222 In-Camera Movie Editing Options 222 Clip Editing 223 x Preface Movie Playback 225 Using a Television Monitor for Movie Playback 226 Recommended Settings for Movie Mode 227 6: Motion Snapshots 228 Capturing Motion Snapshots 229 Limitations of Motion Snapshots 231 Playing Motion Snapshots 231 Recommended Settings for Motion Snapshots 233 7: Flash Photography 234 Deploying the Built-in Flash (J1) 235 Connecting the SB-N5 (V1) 236 Controls & Software Menus 237 Fill Flash Modes 237 Slow Sync Flash 239 Flash Control Menu (V1) 242 Flash Photography and the Dual Exposure Concept 243 Flash Compensation 245 Common Flash Scenarios 246 Scenario #1: Outdoor Fill Flash 246 Scenario #2: Dragging the Shutter 249 Scenario #3: Creating Subject Isolation With Flash 250 Other Flash Settings 251 Choosing ISO Settings With Flash 251 Bounce Flash With the SB-N5 253 Advanced: Triggering Off-Camera Speedlights With the SB-N5 254 Motion Snapshots and Best Image Selector 255 Troubleshooting the SB-N5 Speedlight 256 xi The Photographer’s Guide to the Nikon 1 V1/J1 8: Accessories 258 1-Nikkor Lenses 259 SB-N5 Speedlight Flash Unit 263 GP-N100 GPS Unit 264 ME-1 External Microphone 271 FT1 F-Mount Adapter 271 TA-N100 Tripod Adapter 275 Optional Screw-in Grips 275 Remote Release ML-L3 276 AS-N100 Accessory Shoe Adapter (V1) 277 EH-5B AC Adapter 277 BS-N1000 Replacement Shoe Cover (V1) 278 Other Accessories 279 9: Troubleshooting 280 Troubleshooting Common Symptoms 282 Problems with the Camera Display 282 Problems During Image Capture 282 Exposure Warnings 284 Resetting the Menus 284 Resetting the Camera 284 Warning Dialogs 285 Mapping Hot Pixels 290 Troubleshooting Lenses 290 Battery/Charger Issues 291 Memory Card Errors 292 Cleaning the Image Sensor 293 Sending Your Camera to Nikon For Service 295 xii Preface Index 298 Appendix 312 Recommended Settings for Still Images 313 SB-N5 Maximum Range 314 J1 Built-in Flash Range 314 Hyperfocal Distances for the Nikon 1 System (meters) 315 Hyperfocal Distances for the Nikon 1 System (feet) 316 Nikon 1 Exposure Characteristics with Auto ISO 317 xiii Introduction Welcome to the Nikon 1 System.