Nikon 1 V2 review – Noise, resolution and sensitivity
These images show 72ppi (100% on a computer screen) sections of images of a resolution chart, captured using the Nikkor 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens. We show the section of the resolution chart where the camera starts to fail to reproduce the lines separately. The higher the number visible in these images, the better the camera’s detail resolution at the specified sensitivity setting.
The Nikon 1 V2 resolves about as much detail as you would expect for a camera with a 14.2-million-pixel sensor. It reaches a little higher than 24 on our resolution chart, which is good without being outstanding. JPEG images look fine, although, as usual, a slight tweak of the sharpening and local contrast can help prise a little more detail out of raw files.
In terms of noise, it is clear that the sensor of the V2 is slightly smaller than that found in most of its competitors. There is a slight bruising of colour noise in the darkest shadow details, even at ISO 400, although this doesn’t get particularly bad, even at the maximum ISO 6400 setting. All in all, colour noise is handled well in JPEG files, and is fairly straightforward to reduce in raw files.
Luminance noise is also visible, but Nikon has been very sensible in keeping the default reduction settings fairly low. This means that while speckled luminance noise is visible from ISO 800, fine details aren’t lost through harsh noise reduction.
Nikon has done a good job of keeping noise to an acceptable level while maintaining detail. Much of this is also to do with having a reasonable maximum sensitivity, rather than pushing it higher where image quality would be more significantly affected.
