Is the Nikon V1 really better than the Sony NEX-5n? (I say no!)

Pocket Lint (Click here) compared the Nikon V1 versus the Sony NEX-5n and comes to the conclusion that the V1 is actually better. I want to hear you’re comments on that. My opinion on that? Some of their points are really weird. But let’s start the discussion to see why Pocket Lint may be right (or wrong).
P.S.: Engadget compared the Sony NEX-C3 and the new Nikon J1 sensor size comparison (Scroll the article to see the image). And there is a ISO comparison at Focus Numerique.

Almond
8 months ago |Omg, stop using the N word!!
panmoria
8 months ago |Geez what a fanboyism in here.
Phase detection auto-focus in sensor isn’t a big thing?
That’s not only very innovative – not to mention all the blazing speed improvements of Nikon’s system. It’s the death of the SLR system.
The J/V1 are the probably most important innovation in digital photography in the past decade. Period.
z
8 months ago |Are you high or drink too much mother naikhon’s kool-aid?
Go to your mother nikonrumors
http://nikonrumors.com/2011/09/22/poll-2-are-you-going-to-buy-the-new-nikon-1-mirrorless-camera.aspx/
Their reader, who obviously care about nikon’s welfare, bash this product. Only the hardcore, idiotic, 7.7% fanboys choose to buy this “innovative” fugly camera.
Matt
8 months ago |This camera IS very innovative, it isn’t very good overall, but there is certainly a big step forward here for mirrorless technologies.
z
8 months ago |What step? High speed AF? We have E-P3.. Phase detect is new in mirrorless. But is it even necessary in miliseconds AF on E-P3..
Small lenses? We have panny’s X which is less than half the size of this shitty cam.
Small body? E-PM1 is a lot smaller and lighter. Do your own google!
YES! This is a big step….backwards…
z
8 months ago |Oh wait.. They innovate severe fuglyness…
Boo
8 months ago |I agree that its very innovative, just too bad that they reduce the sensor size.
panmoria
8 months ago |Nikon 1′s pixel size, the size of photosites, is about the same as of the NEX-7.
By going for 10mp, which is more than enough for most shooters, Nikon’s creates quality pixels.
I choose quality pixels over their quantity.
We’ll soon see, but the arguing in here – mine’s bigger – tells a lot.
z
8 months ago |Where did you get those stupid calculations? NEX-7 is 4 times bigger than this, yet the pixel is only 2.4 times more. Simple math makes this nikon is shittier all round.
NIKON CREATES QUALITY PIXELS???? Tell that to D3x that use sony’s quality sensors… How can a company who use other company’s sensor on their top of the foodchain cameras actually produce good sensor at all?
Most of nikon fanboy are actually blind that’s what I figure.
Vlad
8 months ago |“Nikon’s creates quality pixels.”
Lol, that doesn’t make any sense!
Froo
8 months ago |That’s absurd. For a given viewing size (think a print), the NEX-7 has more than double the pixels. This is, effectively, pixel binning. But enjoy your noisy “quality pixel” prints, I’m sure the Nikool-Aid compensates for quality.
Maximus
8 months ago |the pixels of the Nikon 1 are just one third in size of the Nex7 pixels.
Jumph
8 months ago |Nikon pixels are trained harder and had better education at school than other pixels. Each of them can kill 10 regular pixels in a battle. This is common sense!
Pacman
8 months ago |Panmoria, tell me where can I use this fugly V1/J1?
panmoria
8 months ago |Never owned a Nikon BTW, just as a case in point: the language used in here though is just plain childish. How many of you hit puberty already?
Thom Hogan did the calculation, check out his post, you won’t even need a calculator to see how much bigger the NEX-7′s photosites are.
Some keep up with the megapixel race, others try to concentrate on the pixel itself.
Try live with it.
z
8 months ago |We are arguing here. You can bring anything to your table and we can too. How can you expect us to believe anything you said without you providing the proof? 3.9 and 3.4 is far from “is about the same”.
Complaining about language usage is childish itself in any kind of discussion.
This is internet. Deal with it!
lollo
8 months ago |Panmaria.
It is very likely that Nikon could not get any other APS/c sensor from Sony, therefore they had to go with this small thing.
This is how innovative Nikon will be able to be.
Pacman
8 months ago |Kindly answer my question then, Panmoria.
Vlad
8 months ago |What is childish is your whole idea here. Even if the photosites were the same size (which they aren’t), how do you come to the conclusion that Nikon “concentrate on the pixel itself” and they “choose quality”?
Sahaja
8 months ago |This is not the first time phase detection auto focus on the main sensor of a camera has been implemented:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/1008/10080505fujifilmpd.asp
Similarly all the other “innovations” in the J/V1 system seem to be incremental improvements rather than revolutionary. Hardly the “most important innovation in digital photography in the past decade.”
lock
8 months ago |I think the casio ex p600 was the first with a dual AF system in a compact digital.
Froo
8 months ago |Minolta DiMAGE Z1 was a year earlier.
Clyde
8 months ago |I remember when Nikon fanboys refused to acknowledge that mirrorless systems were the death of SLR’s… But now that Nikon has one, it suddenly becomes the death of SLR’s.
Boo
8 months ago |What different is a Nikon V1 compared to a camera phone if it can’t produce bokehlicious images and low noise nightshot? With that price tag alone, I rather buy a Iphone5 with 8mp as my second camera with tons of functions or a small Pentax Q if I want small size IMO.
Size: Iphone win
Weight: Iphone Win
Consumer Needs: Iphone Win
Speed: Nikon V1(do you need that speed?)
panmoria
8 months ago |Boo, ever attempted photography without the hunt for bokeh?
Much more challenging.
Boo
8 months ago |Yeah, my compact and camera phone does that. So what’s the point of buying Nikon V1 other than its ‘NIKON’? No hard feeling.
z
8 months ago |Obviously he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
How can photography without hunt for bokeh, which is simpler and easier, be anymore challenging than more complex photography with bokeh?
You don’t own Nikon, I presume, and perhaps any kind of camera at all.
Helena
8 months ago |Buy that Nikon, you will be always in a challenge! in no-bokeh challenge, in no light challenge, in no DR challenge, etc. XD
Alfonso Cuitiño
8 months ago |+1 you made me lol!
Gabriel
8 months ago |You should read the comments on that article, readers just burned out the writer!! Awesome reading!
ieR
8 months ago |i agree nikon 1 is better… but also a dead end camera with THAT SENSOR. those spec should be applied to a nikon SLR!!!! not to a 2.7 crop sensor.
z
8 months ago |How can a dead end camera be better? Please enlighten me.
mugen
8 months ago |Admin please don’t post stupid posts here just for the traffic.
Nobody here cares about Nikon 1.
Murphy
8 months ago |Let’s keep the discussion to the facts.
Most interesting from my point of view is the part about the lenses. Question: If I buy a NEX or V1 I want to have a compact camera, right? If I use a lens adapter, I will add approximately 2 cm to the tickness of the camera. Plus, what lenses will I want to use from Nikon on the 2,7 crop? A fisheye? Have fun
Or better the 70-200 F/2,8? That will look really cool. A phone-size-camera with a 20 cm lens.
In the end, if I was forced to buy one of them, I would choose the Sony. The lens selection is much better and 3rd parties (not sure if it was Sigma or Tarmon) has already had a press release that the will make additional lenses for the Nex.
In the end (and again only from where I am standing), both cameras will not have a future. It’s like going to a steakhouse and ordering fish.
z
8 months ago |Personal subjective opinions aside, the future of other mirrorless cameras(anything other than nikon’s) are pretty much bright, if not brightest of all camera systems.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-07/canon-clinging-to-mirrors-means-opportunity-for-sony-cameras.html
Some people even argue the future of conventional DSLR is blunt, to say the least. Though I would love to have both in possession.
lollo
8 months ago |This Nikon thing, looks like a soviet device.
Enough said!
EvanZ
8 months ago |I didn’t realize the Nikon was 100 g heavier.
relax
8 months ago |Wow, hold on a second. The problem here is pricing. The same goes for Pentax Q, they’re both out just when the world is in a recession. M4/3 also had high pricing when it came out. It’s the same with most new mount/systems.
Seems like only Sony had deep enough pockets and sound enough strategy to beat the ‘initial high price’ tax.
Again, if Nikon and Pentax’s MILC sell for around US $300-450 we’d have a much different conversation.
alphafan2011
8 months ago |the problem is, that its not easy here to discuss with acceptable arguments … everything offered by others is worse than Sony.
Look, its a new system, its Nikons first step into the mirrorless interchangable category. Of course a lot of things are probably better with a NEX-5N or a Panasonic GH2 or others. BUT, its the fist step, you dont have to forget, that the first examples of Panasonics lineup or the first NEX cams also had a lot of issues, needed improvements, too small list of lenses to choose from and so on. So it’s wrong to say that Nikon does everything wrong with it.
They try to be in its own league with a smaller sensor than M4/3 and they offer in my opinion thinks others dont have, especially not in their first models! Like hybrid AF, 60fps Full size, slow motion videos and so on.
I think we have to appreciate that Nikon enters this market, Canon doesn’t even plan to do it! And if we get more opponents, we will get better offers and more features and lower prices and so on …
To be honest, probably I will buy the NEX-5N (although I think some more buttons would have been much better :-/ ), but for the first try the offered features and the first shot pics with the Nikon 1 are definately not that bad, everyone tries to make it!
Vlad
8 months ago |“the problem is, that its not easy here to discuss with acceptable arguments ” Huh?
Of course, it is nice that Nikon enters the segment – as you say – more choices. The problem is that Nikon’s offering isn’t much of a choice. Smaller sensor than m43, yet lenses as big as NEX’s ones. And priced similarly. Doesn’t make much sense. Hybrid AF and 60fps are obviously interesting, but that is all. Even the slow motion videos are at some ridiculous resolution.
Frankly, I have no idea who they are targeting here. Those who like compact systems? No. Those who like great IQ? No. Consumers? Quite expensive. Advanced consumers or enthusiasts? Priced similarly as m43 and NEX, each better in some very relevant aspects.
z
8 months ago |It’s beyond obvious they are targeting the blind nikon fanboys like some people here and pocket-lint editors. For them, I’d proudly recommend a sexy pink v1.
Bugger
8 months ago |If it was smaller like the m3/4 systems yes.
But it’s the same size! what’s the bloody point?
alphafan2011
8 months ago |well as they said, they want to have a gap between their more professional dslr market and the new Nikon 1 … its not like the NEX lineup to put the same sensors in smaller bodys.
But I think we have to be fair, there will be definately much more lenses in the future and maybe next year newer models come which improve a lot of issues most of the people have.
Of course the sensor is even smaller than m43, but isnt it the same problem we have with APS-C and the new 24 MP A77
sometimes the resolution is limited if you want to have better results than compact cams (and they are mostly in low light, high iso). With good light you can take similar pics with good compacts.
And definately I think they also will make some nice pancake lenses. We have to give Nikon some time here to improve. And in my opinion the pics shown on some pages at higher isos (maybe until 3200, but again, its the same with the A77) dont look that much worse than the m43 cams!
Of course some of the features are again commercial features like Sony does with “biggest resolution” and “fastest burst shoot” and so on. But some of them could be useful I think, also the slow motion. 400 fps with 640×240 is ok in my opinion, especially if no other of the better quality cams (sensors from m43 upwards) offers something like that!
relax
8 months ago |We already know it’s using a smaller than 4/3 sensor. And there are limits associated with that on absolute image quality terms. But if the price was LOWER, i bet there will be more positive reviews.
The current prices of C3 and 5N kits are very attractive. But, you can find new stock of older m4/3 bodies selling for about half that.