Nikon 1 J5 review: is this Nikon’s best CSC?

With its new 20.8 million pixel CX-format (one-inch) sensor, the Nikon 1 J5 has the highest resolution of any Nikon 1 camera yet, and it’s stylish, practical, and small enough to compete with regular compact cameras, not just other CSCs.

In her Nikon 1 J5 review video, Amy Davies highlights some of the key specs and features and takes a look at the camera’s performance.

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Nikon 1 J5 Review Video Transcript

Hi, I’m Amy Davies, and today I’m here to look at the Nikon J5.

The J5 features a new 20.8 million pixel CX-format, otherwise known as one-inch, sensor, making it the highest resolution of any Nikon 1 camera to date.

There are a number of other interesting new features including a new fast processing engine, the Expeed 5A, and a top sensitivity speed of ISO 12,800.

As we’ve seen with other Nikon 1 cameras, it’s capable of very fast shooting, with an incredibly high 60fps available with focus is fixed at the start of the sequence. As the camera’s shutter is electronic, it’s also capable of very fast shutter speeds – the quickest available being 1/16000th of a second.

As you can see, Nikon has opted for an attractive two-tone design for the J5, giving it a bit of a slicker and more retro appearance than the J4 it replaces. Although this body is plastic, it looks like metal and feels nicely put together. This faux leather covering is quite stylish and gives the grips a little extra purchase.

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Let’s have a look at how to use some of the J5’s dials and buttons

Here you’ll see there’s a mode dial on the top plate, just like on the J4 or the V3. However, this has been improved to now include a direct route to classic exposure modes such as aperture priority and shutter priority. There’s also a collection of scene and fully automatic options.

There’s quite a few direct control buttons, but there’s also a couple of dials – here and here – which make adjusting key settings easy. This first dial here, is used for altering shutter speed when you’re in shutter priority or manual mode, as well as having some functionality when in playback.

This second dial here, is used for altering aperture – when you’re shooting in aperture priority and manual mode.

You’ll find a customisable function button here on the front of the camera, which can be assigned to one of seven different settings. One of those options is sensitivity, which is a good choice for those who would need to change sensitivity frequently.

Pressing this button here labelled with an F, brings up a number of key settings for quick access. This saves you from having to delve into the main menu, and although this menu is not customisable, there are only a few options within it, so there shouldn’t be lots of unnecessary scrolling.

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Now let’s see what the screen has to offer

This screen here is on a hinge so you can move it to face all the way forwards to shoot selfies. You can also pull it out to face upwards when you’re shooting from low down, and you can also point it downwards for when you’re shooting over your head. It’s also touch sensitive and is nicely responsive.

You can choose to set the autofocus point with the screen, simply by tapping the area you need, or if you prefer, you can have the camera focus and fire off the shutter release when you touch the screen. This can be especially useful if you’re using a tripod or shooting from an awkward angle and don’t want to have to use the actual shutter release button.

The touchscreen can also be used to make settings changes when using the function menu and to scroll through pictures. The good thing here is that you don’t have to use the screen – pretty much everything it can do can also be achieved using one of these buttons here, if you prefer the feel of tactile buttons. I’ve found that my preferred way of working is to use a combination of the buttons and the touchscreen.

Using manual focus with the J5 is not quite as nice an experience as with some other cameras currently on the market. Once you’ve selected Manual Focus from the function menu, you press the OK button to see a magnified view of the scene. You then use the scrolling dial on the back of the camera to adjust focus. If you’re using this kit lens, you’ll see there’s no focusing ring on the lens itself, so using the buttons is the only way to set focus. It’s also worth noting that the J5 doesn’t offer focus peaking.

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Moving on to the camera’s performance

It’s clear that the improvements Nikon has made to the J5’s sensor has had a significant impact on image quality. There’s no anti-aliasing filter, so the amount of detail resolved is very good – especially when you’re viewing an image at normal printing and web sizes.

Overall, the camera’s general-purpose or matrix metering system does a good job to and produces accurate exposures, while automatic white balance copes well with a variety of different lighting conditions.

Autofocusing speeds are one of the J5’s key selling points. In good light, the lens is able to snap to focus incredibly quickly, and while the lens will usually hunt around a little in lower light, it’s still pretty good in all but the very darkest of conditions.

Switching to tracking focus allows you to keep focus on a moving subject. In practice this works quite well, but it can be distracted if another similar looking subject enters the frame – so it’s less useful for photographing subjects like team sports.

Another headline specification of this camera is its 60fps shooting capability – that’s way above and beyond the realms that DSLRs can achieve. However, this is limited by the camera’s buffer capacity – it can only hold around 20 shots before it will stop shooting, so your timing needs to be pretty accurate as you can only shoot for a fraction of a second at a time.

The J5 is the first Nikon camera that’s capable of shooting 4K video, but at that resolution it’s limited to 15 frames per second – so it’s not likely to be a hugely popular option. Full HD video recording is also available at variety of frame rates up to 60fps.

There’s also a 120fps option for 4x slow motion playback. Plus it’s possible to create time lapse movies. Serious videographers should note that there’s no microphone or headphone socket, though.