A friend of mine recently took delivery of a new Nikon 1 J5 with two kit lenses, the 10-30 mm PD zoom and 30-110 mm f/3.8-5.6 zoom. We visited the Niagara Butterfly Conservatory this morning to help him get some practice time with his new gear. I’ll be posting a few articles based on the images I took this morning. This one features a selection of 30-110 mm plant macro images.

Many users of Nikon 1 gear own the 30-110 mm f/3.8-5.6 zoom lens. I’ve always liked this particular lens, especially when used with extension tubes.

Rather than focus my articles on images captured with higher priced Nikon 1 lenses like the CX 70-300 mm f/4.5-5.6, I think it is beneficial to showcase images captured with 30-110 mm from time to time. At about $280 CDN, this lens is quite affordable for most folks, and does a very nice job.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

I did start the day shooting the 1 Nikon 30-110 mm f/3.8-5.6 without the use of extension tubes.

This lens is always a joy to use. It is so small and light, making it very easy to handle.

Focusing is fast and accurate, and using single point auto-focus with the Nikon 1 J5 allows for very precise AF control.

After the first 45 minutes or so I switched to using the 1 Nikon 30-110 mm f/3.8-5.6 with a 21 mm MOVO extension tube. Then towards the end of our visit I added a 10 mm tube onto the assembly.

When using the MOVO extension tubes I typically use Manual camera settings along with Auto-ISO 160-3200. This allows me to adjust my aperture and shutter speed as needed, while allowing the ISO to ‘float’ and create the right exposure.

As I noted in earlier articles, the Nikon 1 J5 meters differently than do my V2s in terms of measured ISO and manufacturer-stated ISO. There is about 2/5 of a stop difference between the two camera models.

At a camera setting of ISO-3200 the J5 is actually shooting at ISO-1853. At this ISO level I have every confidence that the PRIME noise reduction function in OpticsPro 11 will do a good job with my files.

Depending on the subject matter I often will stop the 30-110 mm f/3.8-5.6 down to f/8 to get more depth-of-field when shooting with extension tubes.

I try to keep my shutter speeds at 1/80 or higher when using extension tubes. This is especially when shooting with the J5 as it does not have an EVF.

I have noticed that the Nikon 1 J5’s 20.8 MP BSI sensor is more forgiving dealing with underexposures than are the Aptina sensors in my V2s.

At times I will purposely underexpose a J5 image in order to get the aperture and shutter speed I want, while keeping the ISO setting to a maximum of ISO-3200. Underexposures of a stop or a bit more doesn’t seem to be an issue with the J5.

Overall, we had a very enjoyable morning at the Niagara Butterfly Conservatory, photographing butterflies and some plants.

An article featuring some butterfly images captured with the 30-110 mm should be forthcoming soon.

The 1 Nikon 30-110 mm f/3.8-5.6 is one of the earlier lenses introduced for the Nikon 1 system. Sometimes it is good to remind ourselves that this cost affordable zoom lens is a little gem!

Technical Note:
All of the images in this article were captured hand-held in available light using a Nikon 1 J5 and a 1 Nikon 30-110 mm f/3.8-5.6 zoom lens. MOVO extension tubes were used for some of the images as noted. All photographs in this article were produced from RAW files using my standard post process of DxO OpticsPro 11, CS6 and Nik Suite.

If you enjoyed this article and would like to learn more about the Nikon 1 system, you may want to have a look at our eBook, The Little Camera That Could. It illustrates the capability of the Nikon 1 system through hundreds of original photographs. There is also commentary and tips about the Nikon 1 system. The cost is $9.99 Canadian.

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