**Item: **Nikon 1 J1 Digital Camera with 2 Lenses
Price: $289.99
Shipping Options: $5 Standard
Condition: Factory Reconditioned
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Pretty good reviews (4.4 out of 5.0) over at walmart.com and bhphotovideo.com
and
Let’s read and watch this review from trustedreviews.com
This was Nikon’s 1st foray into the mirrorless camera market in 2011. An OK start but their later models are major improvements. There is a brief dpreview.com review of the J1
That is a weird-looking camera.
So maybe a stupid question…but can it take pictures without one of the lens attached? Like, is it a normal point n shoot camera that has optional attachments, or it just LOOKS like a point n shoot?
There are no dumb questions, just dumb people. 
to answer your question though, no you can’t
Just spent far more time than I’d like to admit researching this deal.
Yes, this camera came out in 2011, but it has pretty great reviews by people who know what they’re doing.
PLUS, this deal is almost worth buying JUST for the lenses! Cost of those lenses alone is way more than the cost of all three.
Benefit to that is, as Nikon releases new versions of their Nikon 1 series, you’ll be able to keep using these lenses.
i just want the zoom lese 
Can anybody speak to how this camera catches video? I want it for my son who’s main interest is plane spotting and some action photography. I did read how you can take a still photo while shooting a video.
Agreed! I’m going to buy it for the lenses and throw away the camera.
This is a very good deal price wise. Period. Factory reconditioned by Nikon should be good as new. If not, Nikon Customer Service will make it right. You can stop reading here if that’s all you wanted to know.
Having said that, I am not a huge fan of the 1 series Nikons. Probably the best part of the equipment set is the lenses. They are small, well made, and optically excellent. The in lens VR system works quite well. I have taken photos indoors at shutter speeds as low as 1/10th of a second and been able to get sharp shots without camera shake. Just remember that VR only helps with stationary subjects. If the thing you’re shooting is moving, VR can’t help you.
The comment above about having the lenses to use on future, improved models is a very good point. The other thing that the 30-110 lens does surprising well is macros, like of flowers, butterflies, etc. The small image sensor produces a wide depth of field (the area from close to distant that is in focus). This wide depth of field is very helpful taking macro photos, allowing you to get the entire flower or butterfly or whatever in sharp focus. By comparison, a large DSLR may have a very shallow depth of field and make it very difficult to get the entire subject in focus.
The camera and two lenses are small enough that you can carry them pretty casually. I will hang the camera with one lens around my neck, and put the other lens in my pocket. Ready to go. A woman with a big purse or bag or satchel or whatever could easily carry the camera and both lenses. Obviously it will all fit in any kind of back pack, fanny pack, belt pack, or similar.
The camera has some pretty clever video features. The continuous autofocus on moving subjects during live video is impressive. The VR system is silent (no clicking noises), the zoom is silent (manual zoom ring turned by hand on the lens) and the shutter is silent in video mode. So no noise from the camera while shooting video, and unusually good focus performance. But the camera is so small that you’ll need some kind of support if you want to keep it rock steady for your videos.
Ok, I’ve satisfied my conscience by listing the good points of the camera. If you don’t want to hear the bad news, stop reading and put the thing in your shopping cart.
The bad news is that you have to be lucky, or very good, or under ideal conditions, to get great photos from this camera. It is possible to get great photos. I have done it. But a lot of my photos taken with this camera are not so great. This camera will do well under ideal conditions (lots of light, no subject movement, etc) and let you down under difficult conditions. The low light performance is particularly bad, because to get any image at all the camera has to go to slow shutter speeds and high ISO. You end up with blurry photos with tons of digital noise. Even at low ISOs like 100 or 200, the digital noise from this sensor is triple that of some other cameras in the same general category.
If you mostly take outdoor photos with sunshine and pretty landscapes, and don’t intend to print, the camera will be great. But a phone camera would be great too. If you take photos of bands jumping around on stage in dimly lit venues, this camera will be a nightmare, and you will hate it.
Enough already. The Nikon 1s are tough well made little cameras and some people like them a lot. But with several cameras to choose from, I haven’t used mine for about a year. I might use it tomorrow, if the sun is shining and I just want little pictures.
If you’ve read this far, let me give you my bottom line. $300 gives you a lot of different choices in the camera market. You can get a high end point and shoot with all the features, great IQ, and great reviews. You can get a small interchangeable lens camera like this one, from other brands, some of which are better performers. You can get an entry level DSLR with a kit lens. So you can just buy this with a clear conscience, knowing that it’s a great price, and hope that it suits your style of photography. It might. Or you can do some homework and consider the many other options available in the same price range.
That’s exactly the info I was looking for. Thanks for this!!
I do a ton of low light photography, and a lot of cave diving and have been looking for a small compact camera I can dive with. I was all excited to see this until I read that paragraph, but I’m glad you wrote it, as that’s the kind of info you rarely see from a camera review that is very important information to know.
I’m a Canon shooter, but I am interested in some of these small cameras that have come out in the past few years just for dive use (decent lens, image stabilization/VR/whatever, low light use and most importantly an affordable housing are my main concerns)
You’re dreaming if you believe that getting a more expensive camera will automatically get you better photos. Great photos come from knowing how to shoot and getting that shot in.
Nothing about this camera prohibits you from taking good photos, nor will buying a more expensive camera automatically make your photos better. The big caveat with the Nikon 1 series is that the small sensor makes it difficult to find good wide angle lenses. So far, the widest angle lens that Nikon has offered is a 10mm f/2.8 lens, which is the same focal length as the zoom included in this package. Just for the record, 10mm has a similar field of view as 18mm on a Canon Digital Rebel or 28mm on a 35mm film camera (or full frame).
I own the camera. Do you?
The issues with low light performance are well documented by professional reviewers such as DP Review.
Relying on a screen on the back of the camera will prove frustrating when trying to track fast moving subjects.
Can you explain what the low light problems are? Are we talking about noise or the proverbial “blurry” pix taken by folks who do not understand that small apertures result in slow shutter speeds in low light. Thanks.
I’m knid of new to camera’s with interchangeable lenses and not sure how to know what lenses will fit.
I have an Olympus PEN e-pl. Will the lenses work with that camera?
I’m ruling this camera out for my needs (planespotting, some video). Is there another out there that would be suitable for under $300?
Steve’s Digicam, DP and lorenzodem (above) all mentioned things like, “You end up with blurry photos with tons of digital noise. Even at low ISOs like 100 or 200, the digital noise from this sensor is triple that of some other cameras in the same general category.”
Sadly, Nikon chose to go with a small sensor, smaller than the Four Thirds sensor some other companies use and the result is digital noise. You can get cameras in this price range with interchangeable lenses and an APS-C sensor which are much larger and tend to have much less noise.
When it comes to framing, composition and artistic sensibilities, the camera isn’t the decider, it’s the photographer. When it comes to technical issues, it can be hard to get around them.