I’ve been quite busy with client work lately and I decided that I needed a break. So, today I headed out to photograph birds-in-flight with my Nikon 1 J5. As most folks know, this camera does not have a viewfinder, so I used four, thick elastic bands to attach my Zacuto Z-Finder to the rear of the J5. It ended up being reasonably snug against the back of the camera. While not particularly elegant looking, it did get the job done.
My first stop was Eastport Drive in Hamilton. I’ve visited this spot numerous times in the past to capture images of cormorants when they are in this part of Southern Ontario from spring through early fall.
Using the Nikon 1 J5 would not be my first choice of cameras to use for birds-in-flight. Many readers have been asking me about the suitability of the J5 for this type of photography. Since it was a decent day with sun and intermittent cloud I thought it would be a good time for a test.
I found that the AF-C on my Nikon 1 J5 was just a tiny bit slower than that on my V2s. I altered my technique slightly by tracking birds from a longer distance to allow more time for my J5 to acquire initial focus.
I headed off to Hendrie Valley to try my hand at capturing some terns in flight. I found that using the Zacuto created a different visual feel when trying to pick up and track birds. I had a much stronger feeling of motion when looking through the Zacuto and panning with it which caused some disorientation.
I certainly prefer the EVF on my V2s but it likely wouldn’t take too long to become acclimatized to using a loupe. I found using slower panning motions and shortening the focal length of my lens was helpful when using the Zacuto to try to locate subject birds.
The burst rate on the J5 is 20fps. Since the buffer is only about 20 images it fills up extremely quickly. Unfortunately the buffer clears very slowly on the Nikon 1 J5, even when using SanDisk Extreme Pro micro-SD cards. As a result I decided to use short mini-bursts to allow the camera to clear the buffer a bit at a time rather than clogging it up with one long burst. Even at that I did miss some photographs as the J5’s buffer still filled faster than the image opportunities presented to me.
After spending an hour and a half at Hendrie Valley I headed off to Ruthven Park in Cayuga Ontario with the objective of photographing some hummingbirds in flight. Unfortunately the little guys didn’t cooperate very much and I only had a couple of decent opportunities to capture some image runs of individual hummingbirds near a feeder.
I used a shutter speed of 1/3200 to try to ‘freeze’ the wing movements at least somewhat. After my initial image captures I reset the J5’s shutter to 1/5,000th to ‘freeze’ the motion better, but I didn’t get any other hummingbird photo opportunities. Perhaps next time. The Nikon 1 J5 has an electronic shutter with a maximum speed of 1/16,000th.
I finished off my day with a visit to the Niagara Gorge where I found what appeared to be a convention gathering of vultures riding the thermals. They likely headed off to the casinos later in the evening.
Even though I had been shooting with the J5/Zacuto combination all day I found that I was still missing some image opportunities as I still hadn’t developed the required eye/hand coordination and muscle memory needed. I did find that the J5’s AF-C performance wasn’t as good as my V2s. Late day I switched back to one of my V2 bodies, resulting in a higher percentage of keepers as would be expected.
While there were some shortcomings using the J5 for birds in flight in terms of AF-C focusing, buffer size and clearing speed, the sensor performance and added resolution were definite pluses.
A lot of Nikon 1 owners have been patiently waiting for an updated V-Series body that incorporates the new 20.8MP BSI sensor that is in the J5. Whether that camera will ever see the light of day is anyone’s guess at this point. In the interim, many Nikon 1 owners who photograph birds-in-flight on an occasional basis may find using a J5 with a loupe is an acceptable, near-term solution. This will be especially true for photographers who tend to take single images of birds-in-flight rather than AF-C image runs as the small buffer on the J5 and its slow clearing speed would not be significant issues for them.
Technical Note:
All photographs in this article were captured hand-held using a Nikon 1 J5 and a 1 Nikon CX 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 zoom lens. The images were produced from RAW files using my standard process of DxO OpticsPro 11, CS6, and Nik Suite.
Article and all images are Copyright 2016 Thomas Stirr. All rights reserved. No use, duplication or adaptation of any kind is allowed without written consent. Photography Life is the only approved user of this article. If you see this article reproduced anywhere else it is an unauthorized and illegal use.
Wonderful images, Tom. And a nice discussion of pros and cons of the J5. I’m with you all the way – the J5 is significantly less capable than a V2 or V3, particularly in terms of buffer depth. Shooting jpegs I never have to wait. So, the question becomes: is the new sensor that much better? While Dx0 rates it higher technically, in practice I can’t see that much difference. Have you seen any significant image quality improvements?
Hi Chuck,
I shoot in RAW + jpeg fine but only use RAW files to produce my images. I use the jpegs as a point of reference for my RAW file processing. In my experience the RAW files from the J5 are noticeably better than either the V2 or V3, especially when creating landscape images. The increased dynamic range is very apparent. Colour differentiation is a bit better as well but not as noticeable to my eye as the increased dynamic range. All of my Nikon 1 files have always loved DxO OpticsPro and I use that as my initial RAW processor for all of my images. I run all of my images through PRIME noise reduction regardless of the ISO at which they were created. I complete my files using CS6 and Nik Suite.
My wife and I did two extended photography tours last fall doing field work for some upcoming photography e-books that I’m developing. I shot with a pair of J5s and absolutely loved using them for landscape photography. Everybody is different of course, but I’ve had no significant problem at all adjusting to using a camera without an EVF. My J5s have really become my ‘go to’ cameras for the bulk of my still photography needs, other than nature and birds in flight where I still prefer a V-Series camera. I recently sold my J4 and WP-N3 waterproof housing and used the proceeds to buy a V3.
I didn’t do an exact count, but I would estimate that at least 70% of the images I captured during our two extended photo tours were taken with a J5 and 10-100mm f/4-5.6 zoom lens.
Tom
Thanks for the in-depth reply, Tom. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.
Since 99% of my photography is of birds or sailboats, the dynamic range isn’t a huge issue. I can certainly see how it would be when doing landscape photography. Honestly, for what I’m doing I could use my P900 except for the buffer depth (pathetic). Since the AF on the V3 seems to be vastly superior to anything in the MFT world, I’m back to the N1. Can’t you use your influence to get Nikon to give us a V4 or V5? LOL.
BTW, my wife and I took a Northeast cruise this fall and ended up using the similar sensor size Lumix ZS100s. Great travel camera with 25-250 in your pocket and plenty of features.
You’re most welcome Chuck – and thanks for sharing more details about your photography interests!
I can certainly understand why the J5 wouldn’t be a good fit for you given that you shoot mainly birds and sailboats. As is often said, every piece of camera gear comes with some kind of trade-off. The trick for each of us is to find gear that best meets our needs, and also has trade-offs with which we can live.
I was at Bird Kingdom in Niagara Falls Ontario a few days ago doing some slow shutter speed hand-held photography practice (article to appear soon) with the V3. I took some images in quite low light conditions and the V3 did a very good job, albeit with some focus lag. All of my images were shot hand-held at less than 1/60 of a second and I was quite happy with the results. So far I am really enjoying shooting with the V3. Not having a low pass filter does make a noticeable difference with image sharpness and having the additional resolution compared to my V2s (18.4MP vs 14.2MP) also has a positive impact on final results.
I’m sure you could put all of the ‘Nikon influence’ I have on the head of pin and still have lots of room left! Like many Nikon 1 owners I have been patiently waiting for a V-Series update. In the meantime I will happily use my newly acquired V3.
Tom
The combo is awesome, how you get BIF is even more spectacular and attribute to your skills more than the cam and lens
I have not been successfull in BIF with the combo yet, but will keep trying after seeing your posts
TFS
Great stuff
Dan
Thanks for the positive comment Dan – I’m glad you enjoyed the images!
Tom
www.dpreview.com/forum…t/57993223
Hi Thomas,
The SevenOak loupes works well, too, but you need to do a slight modification to the mounting plate (it is twice the size needed, so you have to cut it in two, a simple job with a hacksaw). Optically very good, and it looks very much like the Zacuto ;-) ! Costs about $60 Canadian, at Amazon.
Hi Tord,
Thanks for the clarification re: the SevenOaks loupe! I already sent the one I bought back for credit. Using the thick elastics with my Zacuto will suffice for my needs.
Tom
I loved the hummingbird image. As your other article this is also very informative and well written. But the nice thing in this article is that it is also very inspirational. I do bird photography in my little way but yes mostly stationary birds. Birds is in flight is very challenging but at the same time very thrilling. Thanks for sharing the photos.
Thanks for the comment Anubandh! I’m glad you found the images and article of interest. I hope you continue with your adventures photographing birds.
Tom
Many photography enthusiasts are reading your advices to the pictures.
But … You never mentioned flash. Your images show the use of the flash.
At ISO 500 , 1/3200 , f / 5.6 with Nikon CX 70-300mm f / 4.5-5.6 without flash
in manual mode will be poor quality.
Hello Michael,
I did not mention flash because no flash was used to capture any of the images in the article (BTW I do not even own a flash). If you are referencing the hummingbird images taken at 1/3200, ISO-500 at f/5.6 – the birds were in bright sunlight.
Tom
I’m sorry I did not mean to offend. So I have yet to learn to shoot hummingbirds. Thank you.
No need to apologize for anything Michael! My reply was simply to clarify how the images were captured and to confirm that no flash was used. I would not want readers to think that I misinformed them in any way.
Tom
Hello Thomas,
thank you for the great Photos and sharing your experiences with the Nikon 1 J5.
I´m an Nikon Photographer since the early 1970es (F1 with Photomic FTN). Actual I shoot with the D750, but in some situations, I need a tiny Camera (for Street and travel Photography). So I bought a J5 and I like she so much. But there are 2 functions that I miss so much; 1: a Fiewfinder 2: the ability to trigger a external Flash.
For 1: I find 2 solutions: 1, I use it like my Hassleblad looking from top to down and 2, I also us my Large Format Viewfinder.
For the Flash issue, I have no idea how I could handle this.
Peter
Hi Peter,
Thanks for your comment and sharing your experiences with your Nikon 1 J5. I think the J5 is a really great, little camera that handles a number of photography genres very well like landscape, street photography, flowers and macro-type images. Like other Nikon 1 models it is challenged in low light situations, especially when photographing people. As far as using a CX sensor camera with a flash I think a lot of Nikon 1 owners are looking forward to the DL series of cameras since they will accept standard Nikon flashes.
While I would much rather have a camera with a viewfinder I didn’t find the transition to using the non-EVF J5 very difficult…at least for the specific types of images I planned to capture with it. I find the flip-screen very useful to deal with glare, and in a pinch I simply take off my hat to shield the back of the camera and shoot with one hand if needed.
Tom
Hello Peter, the simplest solution to external triggering is to use optical triggering on your off-camera strobes. Most speedlights today can be optically triggered. If yours do not, you can attached a simple optical trigger to the speedlight. Simply search for “optical flash trigger” on Amazon and you’ll find them, between $10-15.
With (preferably) some gaffers tape, tape the J5 flash so it’s aimed up instead of straight ahead, get the flash out of TTL mode and drop the power level on it to the lowest level you can still trigger with. Typically once you’re down to 1/32 you should still be able to trigger your speedlights and not have any significant exposure added by the J5’s flash unit.
Two caveats here. First, make sure you’re in manual or shutter priority mode and set your shutter speed to 1/50. The J5 (as well as, apparently, all compacts with electronic shutters) has a very low flash sync, and 1/50 is tops. Secondly, if you’re outdoors in daylight slave triggering may not work.
Hopefully this info will be useful for you.
Hello Spy Black,
thank you for your tipps and I will try your suggestions.
Normaly I use the SB900 Flashes (with CLS or with Yongnuo YN622N Trigger).
If I´m sucessful, I will report my experiances.
Kind regards
Perter
Although it will be a bit clumsy unless you take care to tape it up properly, you can use an optical trigger taped to the flash, with the YN622N attached to it. This will allow you to use it in any light condition, you use the optical trigger to trip the YN622N, which in turn fires off your flash. ;-)
Hmm most of them are not sharp. Your other bird posts are better, so I can’t blame you or the lens. From this pictures I get, that the J5 is a fail for birds in flight.
Hi Daniel,
I’m not sure that I would give the J5 a fail. The AF-C is not quite as fast locking on as my V2 is, but some of the difference in sharpness could be due to my lack of familiarity using the J5 for birds-in-flight…so a degree of ‘operator error’ may be at play here :-)
The hummingbirds were hovering which helped with sharpness as the J5 could lock focus better. The vultures were approaching from a distance which gave me more time to ‘set up’ the shots a bit better. The cormorants and terns were the most challenging for the J5 and it does show in the relative sharpness. They were moving the fastest and also allowed for the least amount of time for the J5 to acquire AF-C focus. I did miss quite a few more shots with the J5 than I would have with the V2 so I think the J5’s AF-C performance isn’t quite a good as the V2. For people who only shoot birds-in-flight on a sporadic basis the J5 with a loupe may meet their needs.
Without question I do prefer using my V2s to capture bird-in-flight.
Tom
Hi Thomas, I have say I agree with Daniel here. While I love how far you want to push the N1 system, this time you’ve pushed it beyond it’s capabilities. Certainly a good amount of the shots are good, but you can certainly see, even at web res, that the camera simply couldn’t keep up. The sharpening applied to compensate is also a bit high and the ringing artifacts are noticeable. The lens may also be working against you.
That you have the images you have here is a testament to your skills, and as usual I congratulate you on your handywork. Perhaps if you continue to modify your technique you may very well have the camera responding a little better. Keep it up, I know you love the challenge. :-)
Hi Spy Black,
Thanks for your comments and adding to the discussion – always appreciated!
When I bought my J5s my intention was always to use them for landscape, street photography, flower and macro-type images with extension tubes. I’ve been shooting with them for about a month and half (including this BIF test) and I still think those genres of photography are best suited to the J5. I like to respond to readers whenever I can…thus this series of test BIF images. As your post notes, I do enjoy pushing things to see what will happen. Sometimes things work out…and sometimes they don’t! I certainly will be sticking with my Nikon 1 V2s for birds-in-flight. :-)
Thanks very much for your observation regarding the ringing artifacts. I’m still experimenting with J5 files in post and learning about how to best handle them and where I need to treat them differently than my V2 files, so your feedback is very useful.
Tom
Dear Spy Black,
I wouldn’t say it’s a problem with Nikon’s 1 system itself. I have a Nikon 1 V3 with the same lens and I end up getting shots that are sharp and I dare say some of which difficult at best to be done w/ other equipment. My V3 does have an Electronic Viewfinder by the way.
Thanks.
Yes, actually, I should have been specific to the J5, although that’s presently at Thomas’s core N1 system, so hence my broader statement. Although things don’t look good at the moment for N1, it is my hope that a really qualified and completely capable V4 does emerge, with a real hotshoe, an integrated EVF, and a deep buffer for the high speed AF capabilities, among other fully blown professional features.
Gorgeous images. I’m always so impressed with your work. Thanks for sharing. ;o)
I’m glad you enjoyed the images Linda!
Tom
Hi Thomas, every time I see you have another post I think, OK, we’re in for some amazing images – and of course you never disappoint! Your images of birds are always intriguing. Thanks for sharing these.
Ron
Hi Ron,
Thank you for the supportive comment – I’m glad you enjoyed the images!
Tom