Even though some people think that it's crazy or even a profanity to think about using such an expensive lens with a cheap and small sensor V1 camera, the most wildlife photographers can see the relevance or at least are curious how one of the exotic super telephoto primes performs with the 2.7x crop cameras J1/V1.

If the lens' resolution is high enough for the J1/V1 camera's pixel density, mounting the J1/V1 camera with a FT1 adapter on the VR500mm f4 lens will give a 1.8x "teleconverter" compared to using this lens with a DX DSLR, but without the 1.5 stop of light punishment you get with a traditional 1.7x teleconverter.

Then some say you can just crop the DSLR to CX crop size. Yes of course you can, but then suddenly your D700 is a 1.7MP camera, D300 is a 3.8MP camera, D800 (rumor) is a 4.9MP camera, and D7000 is a 5.0MP camera, and if you can live with that it's fine with me. Of course if you already have a lens that's long enough with your DSLR this is not relevant at all, unless you want to use a lighter and less expensive lens.

Again I decided to use my wife's Christmas Elf Dolls as patient test objects, and mounted my VR500mm f4 lens on a solid Gitzo Systematic GT3530LS tripod, triggering the shutter with a ML-L3 remote, though after a short while the battery run down, and I had to use the 10s self-timer instead. I used the SB-N5 flash in manual 1/16 output swivelled to the side to trigger a SB-800 in SU-4 mode with manual output adjusted to the different apertures tested, bounced at my white ceiling to give some pleasing light.

Because of the size of my living room the subject distance was limited to 7.8m (25.6ft). This distance is often the distance I use when photographing small birds of the size of 10-15cm (3.9-5.9in).

A note about AF speed. This lens mounted on a V1 without a teleconverter is insane fast, even faster than my D300, also in normal indoor light. With teleconvers it will need good outdoor light to have a fast autofocus, specially with a 1.7x teleconverter. In less than good light i.e. indoors it hunts a lot for focus on a V1. I had to use a powerful torch to help the V1's AF-S getting an AF-lock for this indoor test with the teleconverters :-)

Nikon 1 V1, FT1, AF-S VR 500mm f4, 500mm f4 (1360mm FOV):
DOF s=7.8m f4 16mm, f5.6 23mm, f8 33mm, FOV Horizontal: 206mm
f4: sharpness excellent+, CA none
f8: sharpness excellent+, CA none

Nikon 1 V1, FT1, AF-S VR 500mm f4, TC-14E II, 700mm f5.6 (1904mm FOV):
DOF s=7.8m f5.6 11mm, f6.3 13mm, f7.1 14mm, f8 16mm, FOV Horizontal: 147mm
f5.6: sharpness excellent, CA none
f8: sharpness excellent+, CA none

Nikon 1 V1, FT1, AF-S VR 500mm f4, TC-17E II, 850mm f6.7 (2312mm FOV):
DOF s=7.8m f6.7 9mm, f7.1 10mm, f8 11mm, FOV Horizontal: 121mm
f6.7: sharpness very good+, CA none
f8: sharpness excellent, CA none

I'm very satisfied with the results of my VR 500mm f4 test. This lens mounted on the V1 with the FT1 adapter will be a valuable tool in the toolbox. When I photograph small birds jumping around in trees and bushes with my D300 I use AF-C but use short presses on the AF-ON button to refocus the lens all the time avoiding misfocussing on branches and leaves. This technique can be transferred to V1, just using the shutter button instead.

Photographing small birds with my D300, I mostly use the VR 500mm f4 with one of the 1.4x or 1.7x teleconverters.
D300, AF-S VR 500mm f4, 500mm f4 (750mm FOV), DOF 29mm (s=7.8m/25.6ft)
D300, AF-S VR 500mm f4, TC-14E II, 700mm f5.6 (1050mm FOV), DOF 20mm (s=7.8m/25.6ft)
D300, AF-S VR 500mm f4, TC-17E II, 850mm f6.7 (1275mm FOV), DOF 16mm (s=7.8m/25.6ft)

See below for downsized samples. When you see the pictures, some information is relevant about the doll's face. The face width chin-to-chin is 55mm (2.2in), and the "hair" yarn diameter around 0.3mm. The NEF files are processed with Nikon Capture NX2 with the Portrait Picture Control, sharpening level 1, increased contrast with a weak S- curve, and sharpening with a combined USM and High pass sharpening step. If you want to see fullsize samples you can get them at the following rapidshare link:

Rapidshare link to zip file with full size JPG files