What makes the Nikon 1 V1 different from Nikon's existing DSLRs?

Question

I stumbled across the Nikon 1 V1 in my web travels, and it sounds as though it's completely different from Nikon's DSLR cameras.

The Nikon website explains some of its specifications but what technical feature is in it that means that it can take shots so quickly (apparently up to 60 fps) and have "the world's fastest autofocus", according to their website?

Answer

1. The Nikon 1 V1 is not a DSLR. It is does not have a reflex mirror.
2. The V1 has a smaller sensor with 2.7X crop compared to full-frame.
3. The previous two points make it much smaller than a DSLR, particularly when including lenses.
4. It does not have an optical viewfinder, instead it uses an EVF with 1.4 megapixels. This gives it a larger and brighter view than most cropped-sensor DSLRs (D3100, D5100, etc) but smaller than a full-frame (D3X, D3S). Like professional models, it gives 100% coverage.
5. It uses an electronic shutter instead of a mechanical one. Since it has no mirror to move either, it can shoot continuously without any moving parts. As you noted it can do so at up to 60 FPS but also does 30 FPS and 10 FPS with continuous AF.
6. The electronic shutter allows a maximum shutter-speed of 1/16000s, twice as fast as the best DSLRs on the market.
7. It uses a different lens mount called Nikon 1 mount with 4 lenses presently available. To use Nikkor AF-S lenses an adapter is planned but not yet available.
8. It can use fast phase-detect autofocus while recording video. No DSLR can do that which is one reason AF for video is quite disturbing (contrast-detect forces the lens to move back and forth to determine focus).

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