During our recent trip to South Carolina we faced some very inclement conditions which allowed me to do a quick Nikon 1 J4 wet weather test.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge

While the Nikon 1 J4 is not weather-sealed I did purchase it along with a Nikon 1 WP-N3 waterproof housing to create some additional shooting capability with my Nikon 1 kit. While on holidays in Cuba I did some underwater video and still image shooting with the combination and was pleased with the results.

During some heavy rain while in South Carolina I took the opportunity to test the combination as an inclement weather still image solution. To be honest I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to get images for this article since the temperature was only 3-degrees Celcius (37.4 F) and the high winds made it feel much colder. Within a few minutes I was drenched and more than ready to get back in the car.

Since I was shooting in completely overcast conditions I had no trouble viewing the rear screen of the Nikon 1 J4 through the panel on the back of the WP-N3 housing. All of the camera controls were easy to access and use with the WP-N3 housing.

I was also able to readily see my menu selections and make changes as required.

To avoid getting speckles on my images I did need to be keep the lens port surface of the WP-N3 housing free of water droplets.

How much rain did we get during the day of my test? Well…flood warnings were posted for the local area, and as you can see in the image above the storm water drainage infrastructure was somewhat overwhelmed.

Overall I was pleased with how the Nikon 1 J4 with the WP-N3 waterproof housing performed. I can’t imagine that I will be shooting still images in such harsh conditions very much in the future but it was good to know that the combination can handle it.

I was lucky to have been able to purchase the Nikon 1 J4 with 10-30 mm f/3.5-5.6 PD zoom lens along with the Nikon 1 WP-N3 for a little more than 1/2 of the cost of a Nikon 1 AW-1 kit.

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