Do Nikon 1 Series Bodies Have Mechanical Shutters?

[VidThreeNorth]

One or two years ago I read about the Nikon 1 series, but I was only reading casually and not really paying attention (yes, I admit it, sometimes it goes in one ear and out the other... . I think that I recall reading that Nikon 1 cameras have hardware focal plane shutters like most other mirror-less cameras, except for the S1 (and I guess the S2) which do not. Am I right about that or not?

 

[BrentC]

Nikon 1 has both mechanical and electronic shutter. It is a mirrorless camera.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

So even the S1 (and S2) have mechanical shutters? Much thanks!

 

[snowbear]

The NikonUSA site only mentions a mechanical shutter for the V3; all others just list "electronic shutter."

 

[VidThreeNorth]

@snowbear:

Much thanks! I should have thought of looking at the Nikon website myself, but I kept thinking that I wanted to find an article where I read it. I have a feeling there might not have been such an article. I have checked Nikon's website in the past on other matters and I did read up on the Nikon 1's before. But as I wrote above, I was not really paying attention to them at the time.

I have been looking at some YouTube clips about them over the past couple of days and I think there are probably a lot of Nikon fans who could have done well buying some of these products. They are quite good. The "small sensors" have been needlessly under-rated by the Nikon community. Over the past few months I have used the Pentax Q S2 which has an even smaller sensor and I have found the camera can be a very nice addition. Granted, I had a specific goal for it, which has recently changed, but I will continue to use it, and expect to get some good pictures out of it.

As for the shutter situation in the Nikon 1 series, it turns out I was right about the top camera (V's) having the hardware focal plane shutter and most likely correct about the S1 and S2 not having a hardware shutter in the body (neither are current products), but I was wrong about the J5 and AW1 which do not have the hardware shutters either.

I will be mentioning this "elsewhere in the forums, writing about yet another camera eventually.

The hardware shutters do have an advantage, particularly with our commonly used CMOS sensors, but if you are looking at one of these as and extra "convenience" camera body, then quite often they can do well enough without hardware shutters.