New Nikon 1 V3 Mirrorless Camera Capable of 120FPS & 1080P 60FPS
Nikon chose a very different route with its interchangeable lens mirrorless offering, picking a sensor smaller than Micro 4/3 but slightly bigger than Super 16mm. While they have been slowly building up a line of new lenses, using lenses made for larger sensors means a significant crop factor, something that has likely hindered its acceptance (unless the crop factor is a benefit to you -- like if you're trying to shoot sports). The new V3 adds 120fps at 720p and 60fps at 1080p, but unfortunately it looks like there will still not be any 24fps. You may, however, be able to get some interesting clips using the 5K burst mode.
The specs:
- 18.4MP 5232 x 3488 CMOS Sensor (2.7x crop)
- 3.0" 1,037k-Dot Tilting Touchscreen LCD
- 1920 x 1080: 60 fps, 30 fps
- 1280 x 720: 120 fps, 60 fps, 30 fps
- 768 x 288: 400 fps
- 416 x 144: 1200 fps
- Built-In Wi-Fi Connectivity
- Hybrid AF System
- ISO 12800 and Movie e-VR Stabilization
- 20 fps RAW Shooting with Full AF, Up to 60fps JPEG with Fixed Focus
- Availability: April 2014
- Price: $1,200 with Viewfinder and 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 PD-ZOOM Lens
So if the camera still can't do 24fps, why is it even a topic of conversation? Well, besides the impressive slow motion capabilities, some folks took an earlier version of the camera, the V1, that featured many less megapixels, and used the burst mode to essentially shoot 4K videos:
This new V3 can only do 20fps burst in RAW at the full 5K, but it can do 5K 60fps in JPEG mode, which would yield similar results to the videos above. How long you'll be able to shoot this for is unclear, but if you were buying this to mess around with the slow motion (including the crazy 1200fps), there is also the super high resolution burst mode to experiment with.
For $1,200 I think there are some other options that are more interesting (the 4K GH4 is only a few hundred dollars more), especially since this model lacks 24fps. It would seem like an easy feature to add since the camera can do such high frame rates, but since the other versions of the camera also lacked 24p, I don't see it coming in a firmware update.
Links:
- Nikon 1 V3 -- B&H
- Nikon 1 V3 -- Nikon Imaging