The camera is nicely kitted out with unique features, and a few of them piqued my interest.

Perhaps one of the most interesting, and potentially useful, functions is the ability to take stills while shooting video--without any breaks in the video. The camera's high-definition video mode maxes out at a 1920-by-1080-pixel resolution at 60 interlaced fields per second (1080i/60fps), saving the results as MOV files.

Another still/video combo mode is Motion Snapshot, which produces a hybrid file. In Motion Snapshot, the camera buffers video and saves about 1 second of 1920-by-1080 video captured just before the shutter snaps. In this mode, video plays back in slow motion (so the clip is a little over 2 seconds long) and fades out, upon which the accompanying still image displays, with one of four themed music soundtracks.

Since I have no chance of ever owning a high-speed Phantom camera, I was happy to see the slow-motion video options on the J1, with frame-rate choices of 400 frames per second at 640-by-240 resolution or 1200 frames per second at 320-by-120 resolution. Yes, the files are physically small and low resolution, but they are fun. In fact, the models at the Nikon shoot--who were having as much, if not more, fun than the photographers using the J1--conducted a few impromptu shoots of their own using the slow-motion video option, with great enthusiasm and some creative results.

During the test shoot, I switched between the camera's 10mm and 10-30mm lenses. With the camera's 2.7X crop factor (10mm=27mm, 10mm-30mm=27mm-81mm), I elected to leave the 30mm-110mm in my camera bag since it was too long for the studio setup. The 10mm-30mm zoom lens, although small when retracted, extends out farther than I anticipated, but it's lightweight and it zooms smoothly.