Why NIKON 1 System FAILED

Following up my previous POV shooting video with the Nikon 1 J1, I am now discussing what led to the downfall of the Nikon 1 CX format.

0:00 Intro
0:23 Background Noise
0:40 Disclaimers
1:32 Image Samples Reel 1
1:57 What Nikon Got Right
4:14 Image Samples Reel 2
4:38 Lost Size Advantage
6:00 Product Positioning
7:53 Image Samples Reel 3
8:18 1-Inch Sensor
9:13 Micro Four Thirds
10:50 Other 1-Inch Sensor Cameras
12:20 Image Samples Reel 4
12:44 A Combination of Factors
14:40 Conclusion/END

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Music in video:
Music by INOSSI

[jackkraken]

The fact it looks like a 'toy camera ' could be an advantage now and allow you to act like just another person with a camera instead of a serious photographer! In some places they may charge you to take photos but they might give you a pass with this camera.

[trevorbrooks]

Excellent analysis Robin. Of course we forgive old cameras a lot when we can pick them up for a reasonable price and we are no longer comparing their features seriously against alternatives, but simply using them for fun. Once again you show us that a good photographer can make beautiful photos with whatever camera you have in your hands. Thanks for posting.

[mmartel]

I owned and shot Nikon 1 for a few years and have some very good photos (thanks to RAW shooting) and a few videos that time. But the bodies I used were not enjoyable to shoot and I do not miss the system, especially since I love my current Lumix system.

Going back a decade, I got a J3 kit (10-30 non-PZ, 30-110mm, and added the 18.5mm f1.8) on a fire sale and used it as a light travel kit instead of lugging my Nikon DX kit. I also shot some action/sports with it. I late upgraded the J3 to J5 and tried the 10-100mm and 10-30 PZ. In general, the lenses were compact, light, and good optically - especially the 18.5m f1.8 and the 30-110mm which were both superb in terms of sharpness and rendering. However... they all had a ticking time bomb which I mention below.

In general, the J3 body was OK but controlling it was simply awful (no not simple, simply awful!) because there was no touchscreen and it had just a single control wheel on the back! I can't believe you like shooting with the J1. It was a terrible shooting experience IMO. In fact, only the J4/J5/V3 had touchscreens, and really, only the V1/V2/V3 and J5 had acceptable controls with the V series being the only cameras to get good front and rear dials. The idea was to keep these cameras simple but IMO it made them extremely hard to operate. Even the J5, which was much improved, was still a bit frustrating to control at times.

One thing you didn't touch in your commentary was that Nikon's focus on speed came at the cost of sensors and image processing pipelines optimized for speed rather than quality. Their custom-designed non-Sony sensors/ADCs had very high readout speeds but were famously NOISY NOISY NOISY. While AF and burst rates were truly impressive, JPEG and video quality suffered from very heavy handed noise reduction; and even if you processed RAW images, you needed to use high quality noise reduction software (e.g., DXO PRIME) to get the best results which added a lot of time in post-processing. Additionally, since I also didn't particularly like Nikon colors, I would always shoot RAW to get pleasing images and I was never happy with the video colors, detail, and look.

Furthermore, as good as the AF was for stills, it was shockingly poor in video. It would constantly hunt for focus and lacked sophisticated AF modes and settings that could reduce this. 

I can only assume that people who looked closely at their images and didn't process RAW, like me, simply weren't happy with the results from any Nikon 1 series camera until they got around to the J5, which had a fantastic sensor (a very good 20MP Sony BSI sensor, in fact, same as you'd find in the later RX100 series cameras with BSI sensors). But by then it was way too late.

In addition to the weaknesses I mentioned, Nikon 1 lenses have a time bomb ticking in them. AFAIK almost all of them use a common electronic aperture control unit which is failure prone. I had 2 lenses die premature deaths due to aperture failure, and a third die due to PZ zoom motor failure.

Needless to say, it was with little regret that I parted ways with what was left of my Nikon 1 system (as well as dumping my Nikon DX gear) and traded it in for micro four thirds system (Panasonic) instead. I'm much, much happier with my current system.

Nikon made a lot of mistakes and questionable decisions with their Nikon 1 system. Fortunately, they seem to have corrected course nicely with their Z system mirrorless offerings which are, of course, much much better, although I think they're still insane and insulting their customers by not offering an IBIS-equipped body in the APS-C format.

[miket]

I remember when these came out, I took a good look at them. I wanted a simple small travel camera for family pictures. Not being an advanced photographer, I wanted simplicity, size and a good price. I ended up with an admittedly inferior Sony compact. The reason being the price of the Nikon 1 system was like 3 or 4 times more expensive. So I think Nikon did not identify their market very well. Nice review.

[robertfoster]

I bought a white Nikon 1 J1 with a 10-30mm lens at a local weekly auction yesterday for £6 It needs a charger and perhaps another battery. But just looking at it gives me great pleasure. Its such a beautiful iconic design. I was going to list it on Ebay for spares or repair but having seen your video will give it a chance with new a new charged battery. Fingers crossed it works as I am looking forward to using it.

[Drmikekuna]

I played around with the Nikon 1 system "in the day" so my thoughts are foggy remembrances from then. However, my recollection was that the camera was pretty expensive, and you could get a more capable camera for less. Lenses, etc. were also expensive. Beyond size, it didn't offer a lot of benefits to me (at that time). I don't remember it being fun to shoot with. A similarly small camera, the Pentax Q was much more enjoyable to shoot with (but it had an even smaller sensor). I also got into Olympus around that time (EPL 2); I really liked that camera. I thought its images were beautiful. I had a lot of fun with some of its effects. The J1 resembled a point-and-shoot, but a point-and-shoot could be had for much less money. At the same time, it was not serious enough for an enthusiast photographer to pay a fairly high price. At least IMHO.

[mathijsvos]

I just ordered my own J3 yesterday second hand, what a coincidence!😊
I think that these days, pricing for nikon 1 is an advantage. They are really cheap, where I see most prices of compact and small mirrorless cameras go through the roof! I cannot wait to test my new camera out, in the right conditions, so daylight, outdoor, street.

[RobertVEVPL]

I used a V2 for a couple if years to shoot bicycle racing. The camera's auto-focus speed and accuracy and high FPS rate was simply outstanding. It took a few years before MFT could match its performance. But Nikon never made comparable sealed cameras/lenses so there was limited appeal to the sports action crowd. To this day I don't understand why action shooters opt for really expensive full-format systems to do this work which mostly ends up displayed online anyway. I eventually switched the MFT sealed bodies/lenses for sports when it became obvious that Nikon was not going to continue development. Imo, when it came to sports/action, the V2 blew away all full-frame sports-oriented full-frame cameras and that's before taking price into account.

[corykphotography]

I used the nikon 1 j1, j3, s1, & s2. I loved the J3 and honestly i am debating getting the V3 and J5. They were my roots of serious photography

[enossifiedossified]

I started shooting back in 1966 (on film of course) and I saw something back then that applies to the Nikon 1 system and Canon's M system as well.

For some reason, camera manufacturers felt that the market for amateurs (noone said "entusiast" back then) wasn't well served by pro cameras. Of all the manufacturers that went down that road, only Nikon had the sense of using the same lens mount on their amateur lineup. 

Not long after Nikon released the Nikon F in 1959, they were already looking for a simpler camera. In 1962 they announced the Nikkorex F, an F-mount SLR with a fixed prism, a Copal Square shutter, an optional clip-on selenium cell meter and a lower list price. It was built by Mamiya for Nikon. There was confusion with the other Nikkorex cameras, all of which were fixed lend SLRs with leaf shutters aimed at amateurs. Only three years later the Nikkorex F was history and the Nikkormat FT replaced it. It was a very similar camera but was built by Nikon, had TTL metering and immediately was snapped up by pros who were already using the Nikon F as a backup camera. It was not perceived as a camera for amateurs. In 1979, the Nikon EM was released with 8 low cost Series E F mount lenses. It was small and competed with the smaller SLRs that were attractin amateurs starting with the Olympus OM-1, Pentax ME and Canon AE-1. There are claims it was designed to appeal to women in particular. There was a lot of controversy at the time over whether the E lenses were as good as the mainstream F mount AI lenses and also complaints that there was no manual exposure override.There were two later models, the FG and FG-20. The Series E system died in 1986.

Canon tried to offer an alternative to their FL mount in 1969 with the EX-EE. It was a throwback to 1950s German leaf shutter SLRs like the Contaflex, Bessamatic and Retina Reflex, but with a focal plane shutter. The EX mount was not compatible with the FL mount and only had four lenses: 35mm, 50mm, 95mm, 125mm. The EX line was dead by 1974.

Topcon introduced the Uni (Auto 100 in USA), a leaf shutter auto exposure SLR in 1964. The UV mount was incompatible with the RE mount used on cameras like the Topcon Super D. The UV mount died in 1978 when production of the IC-1 Auto camera ended. It was the longest lived amateur system.

Rolleiflex, Ricoh, Zeiss Ikon and Kodak all released SLRs starting in 1967 that used 126 Instamatic film rather than 35mm film. Although the Kodak Instamatic Reflex used the existing Retina Reflex mount, both the Zeiss and Ricoh cameras had new mounts unlike their existing 35mm SLRs. All were out of production by 1974.

In 1979 Pentax came out with the truly bizarre Auto 110 system, an SLR using 110 Pocket Instamatic film. It had multiple lenses and even a motor drive! The system lasted 5 years.

What all of these cameras had in common was they were market failures largely because except for Nikon the cameras could not use the same lenses as the flagship models. Other design limitations such as using 126 and 110 film or lack of manual controls scared off serious amateurs.

Nikon's CX mount only lasted 7 years and Canon's M mount less than that. They follow along in the path of failed amateur systems of the film era. With today's smartphones stealing the amateur market, we'll probably not see such systems again.

[hyau]

There were some odd decisions made that stopped me from upgrading my V1 to the V2/V3: changing the battery from the EN-EL15 that's used in their DSLR; the FT1 adapter that only works with the central focus point; having a hot-shoe that's incompatible with their legacy Speedlight; removing the built-in viewfinder on the V3; putting a better BSI sensor on the J5 instead of the 'flagship' V3. I really wanted a small camera that complemented my DSLR - especially when I needed extra reach. Instead, the Nikon 1 was just too incompatible with their DSLR products and felt like two separate camera systems. Thankfully, Nikon has done better with the Z-series - imagine if they had limited their FTZ adapter to be 'central focus point' only!

[GreggFellows]

love the Nikon 1s, took them all over the world without a problem, was my main airshow workhorse for many a year with a Nikon 300mm/4 lens, came out the gates fully PDAF and it worked, modern AI NR gives them even more life

[gerryhardman]

I enjoyed your review, and I agree their marketing strategy was definitely skewed as well as the price made them unpopular. For me, I was already invested in the nikon system so it was a no-brainer. The V1 had the same back screen as my D 300 and the auto focussing was second to none as far as point and shoot cameras were concerned. With the FT 1 adaptor I was able to use all my other lenses with it and they worked seamlessly with that system. Later I bought the J5, and with that 20 megapixel sensor it blew the Sony RX series out of the water for because it had interchangeable lenses. As far as size goes, I have large hands and for me even the J5 is too small so I can’t imagine why you would want it to be any smaller compared to other cameras. The V 1 also had one gig of RAM so it had a large buffer, even for shooting raw files for video and stills. The lenses for these cameras were also exceptionally small, the 30 to 110 with an extension tube makes an awesome macro lens and all the lenses were very small compared to the micro 4/3 lenses which were more expensive. I will never sell mine.😊

[AmbercoolPhotography]

I loved this system. Did Europe with it years ago alongside my Olympus.

[kevinhealy]

Just got one. Really like how portable it is especially as the photographs are superb from it.

[dgaijin]

I have the same question. What happened? I have the Nikon 1V3 and the 1J5. Wonderful tiny cameras.

[graxxor]

bought into the N1 ecosystem in 2021 during the Pandemic... Prices were finally where I could handle them... Bought a Nikon 1 V2 and V3 (with EVF) and every lens except the 32 1.2, the GPS unit and a N7 flash... all for about $900... Just a beautiful system and it hurts me as a camera nerd that this ridiculously specced (for the time) was cancelled.

[cawsha]

I agree with everything you said Robin. I wonder whether Nikon's experience caused them to create the dual format Z system so that even people buying a bottom of the range APS camera could feel they were using a high end professional system.
The 1 System was probably intended to give people a step up from smartphones which apparently was Olympus's intention with the Pens, but they look and feel like serious cameras and are part of a pro system.

[oscars]

Awesome camera .
Still use mine along with my bashed up Olympus XZ-1.

[stuartking]

I Still use the V1, V2, V3.with, 10.18.5, 30-110, 70-300 cx.Great lightweight walkabout kit and and the 6.7-13 vr is a gem of a lens.