Series 1 Lenses
As usual, the series one cameras tend to ship with the weakest lens in the collection, which is the 10-30 mm f3.5 - f5.6 'kit' lens. The Vibration reduction system works sluggishly on this lens, and the images are not very contrasty or sharp. it has problems opening from it's compressed position, and any struggle to open it pretty much rules out snapshots. This lens focuses really close at 30 mm, although at it's maximum focal length it is limited to a dim f5.6. It is a pretty passable Vibration Reduced macro lens, that acquires focus in a timely fashion. I rarely used this lens when i had just it and the 10 mm prime. I will be great until you get any other lens. After than, it is useful for dirty or wet conditions, for macro, or when you need the Vibration Reduction [VR].
The 10 mm f2.8 'pancake' lens is a tiny gem. It shoots much less distorted images at 10 mm then the kit lens, admitting twice as much light at 10 mm, and 4 times as much at 30 mm. It's hood is a tiny dome with a fairly small hole in it. This hood protects the glass very well, although it is difficult to screw on the tiny threaded poker chip that is it's special cover. It is safe to drop it in an empty pocket without the cover. It may get lint in there, but you are unlikely to scratch the outer element. Since all of the series one lenses focus inside, this lens never expands or contracts, or turns or does anything. It just sits there poking out of the camera by half an inch, and taking sharp photos with nice colors. This is your wide 'normal' lens. Use it when you do not want a big bag of camera stuff with you. With just this is in your pocket, a full battery, and an empty card, you will make it through a day of light shooting. Shoot raw images with these primes lenses, and the results will spin your wheels! I reach for this lens when i wish to stitch images together into a huge panoramic photo. The corners of the frames are bright, and the distortion is so well controlled that the images will almost always go together flawlessly. Use this lens on a tripod in the vertical orientation for even greater coverage and image quality. there is no VR, so you will have to hold very still, or select a shutter speed faster than 1/30 second. Select a high ISO if you have to. It is better to get super sharp images with digital noise. You can not really 'fix' a blurry image, but I will explain many techniques for fighting the digital noise.
The 18.5 mm f1.8 is the system's 'normal' lens. Physically, it is 2 or 3 times longer than the 10 mm, and about the same size as the kit lens collapsed. So we are getting into camera bag country.. When you add this super sharp and fast optic to your bag, the kit lens tends to move out. It admits many times as much light, and this is a lot better than a slow lens with VR. It can focus very accurately, even in low light. And VR only helps on the photographer end. The subject will still be blurred if it moves. The only way to freeze a fast moving subject in place is with a fast shutter speed. Achieve this fast speed in low light by opening the aperture to f2.8 or f1.8, and by raising the ISO, even to the maximum of 6400. When night falls, one gets out the tripod and the remote release to continue. The ISO can be put back to the base settings of 100 or 200. The 18.5 mm admits twice as much light as the 10 mm, and it works just fine opened wide to f1.8. The raw images will show some distortion and fall off in brightness around the edges, and some purple fringes where light objects touch dark objects. Do not worry, because these problems go away entirely after you apply the lens corrections in Photoshop, Lightroom, or the supplied Nikon software. Use this amazing optic when you do not need a wide or telephoto lens. The aperture [which is the adjustable hole in the lens where the amount of light is controlled] not only admits twice as much as the 10 mm prime, but it also can be closer further to admit half as much. this fact can be used to control what objects are in focus, and what the out of focus areas will look like. This lens makes a good bit of noise when it focuses and when the aperture changes size. Like the tiny pancake, it makes no external movements. Thus, the prime lenses do not fill up with dust, and they do not bring dust into the camera body where the particles will be attracted to the sensor. If I can only bring one lens, and size is not an issue, this is it!
The longer kit lens is the 30 - 110 f3.8 - f5.6 zoom. It is a much better lens than the short zoom. The VR is better at holding the image still while one is composing the shot. It has more color and contrast as well. This lens expands enormously when opened for use, and again when zoomed. This is a big problem, as it pulls dirt into the lens. I do not know if the dirt adheres to the plastic sides of the lens, and comes inside when it is collapsed, or if the dirt is sucked into the gaps when it is expanded. But, in a sandy or damp area, this great lens will develop a gritty action, and will gain dust between the groups of elements. Eventually, it may seize up, or loose image quality. Until that time, you will have a small lens that does everything from sharp portraits to bird and wildlife shots. It is effectively a 300 mm lens at it's longest setting, like 6 power, stabilized binoculars. It is easy to get un-posed shots of people, and follow small pets at some distance. It is possible to get watchable movies without a tripod at 30 mm, but you will need at least a monopod at the longer focal lengths.
The other lenses are ones that I [sadly] do not have, so i will just list them:
There are two types of 10 - 100 mm super zoom. One has 3 speeds of powered zoom for perfect movies, and the other is zoomed by hand. They have vibration reduction, and are said to have fine optical quality. If you need a wide range of focal lengths, and you do not want to open up the camera body, these lenses will do it all. It is tempting to think that the camera is complete with one of these lenses. That is not true. they are large and heavy, and admit less light. And, being zoom lenses, they can get dirty or wet inside. Zoom lenses do not [as is sometimes claimed] replace a large bag of prime lenses. Those who do not like changing lenses can get a better camera outside of the series one system.
There is an ultra wide zoom. The 6.7 - 13 mm f3.5 - f5.6 lens will act like an 18 - 35 mm lens. Its build quality is said to surpass the other zooms, and the photos that I have seen are just wonderful. Once again, it is a slow lens. But, due to the short focal length, and its VR system, it can be hand held with still subjects at quite slow shutter speeds.
At the time of this writing, the final series one lens is the 32 mm f1.2 lens. It is a miniature version of Nikon's favorite lens of all time, which is the 85 mm f1.4. With the 2.7 crop factor, the 32 will behave like the 85. It is the only series one lens that features a manual focus ring to override the autofocus system. this is the most costly lens by far, and it's professional quality signals the companies intentions with this small camera system. It is the best lens for portraits, and for artistic compositions in which the background is blurred on purpose.
Finally, there are adapters to use other lenses on the 1 system. Since there is no mirror, the adapter is an empty tube that takes the place of the mirror area in a SLR. The expensive but marvelous Nikon FT1 adapter has electrical connections that will power and control the larger Nikon lenses, and pass lens information back to the camera. This lens information will tell the flash how strong to fire after focus has been achieved, and be recorded in the raw file for future use. This is how one can attach long lenses to the camera that will focus automatically using the center point, will close their aperture to the selected size at the time of exposure, and will reduce vibrations. Lenses that focus manually, and are without VR can be attached with an adapter that cost 1/10 as much. These adapters that do not have the electrical connections can attach almost any brand of manual lens to the 1 series. Since we are on the subject, I will start a new page for the actual shooting of the camera, and begin with information on selecting and using the manual lenses.
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