My Week with the Nikon 1 J3

The Nikon 1 J3 turns heads. In the short week that I had it, it prompted hairstylists backstage at Fashion Week, waitresses at restaurants and passing strangers to start conversations and compliment it. It’s definitely one of the most useful and stylish accessories I’ve ever had!

Of course, the J3 does more than just look good around your neck!

Quick Specs: Mirrorless interchangable lens camera. Shoots in RAW & Jpeg. 14.2 megapixels with Nikon CX-format CMOS image sensor. Price: $299 for body

The Nikon 1 J3 is a solidly built camera that feels good in your hands. It’s available in white, black, champagne, red and silver.

The body of the 1 J3 is compact, measuring 2.4 by 4 by 1.1 inches. The small camera body is also extremely light weighing just 244 g without the zoom lens.

My camera came with the 1 NIKKOR VR 10-100mm f/4-5.6 lens. At the time of release, it lauds itself as the world’s smallest high-power 10x zoom lens. Even with the zoom lens, the camera was able to easily fit into my purse and wasn’t heavy.

The J3 sports a 3 inch LCD screen. The navigation menu features large icons and is fairly easy to use.

The LCD display has no lag after taking photos. In fact, it took me a little bit to realize that I had already taken the shots, as the LCD did not so much as flicker. Speedy!

Shooting modes include:

I had fun playing with the Creative Modes. These included Miniature Effect, Night Landscape, Night Portrait, Backlighting, and Selective Colour.

Best Moment Capture Mode helps you capture fast-motion scenes. In this mode, when you half-press the shutter-release button, the camera shoots continuously, capturing as many as 20 frames in seconds. When you look on the LCD, you’ll see the action occurring in slow motion. Once you see an image you like, fully depress the shutter-release button to keep the shot.

The built in flash automatically pops up when you are in low light situations, which I found a bit annoying, but got used to it. Low light shooting could be better- I found it hard to shoot in dim restaurants.

The J3 uses SD cards, comes with a neck strap and a rechargeable Li-ion battery that lasts for 230 shots.

Take a look at some photos from my week:

Verdict? The Nikon J3 is a great camera to bridge the gap between coming from a point and shoot and moving up to a DSLR. It’s a bit of the best of both worlds. It has great build quality, takes sharp, bright photos and will turn heads! Find out more about the Nikon 1 J3 here.

Note: I am not a camera pro by any means, so this is not a review of the technical aspects of the camera. Rather, it’s an overview of some features and my experience using the camera.