If you judge the quality of a camera by its weight, then the new mirrorless Nikon V1 is a high grade beast. The thing weighs about as much as five Amazon Kindles, and twice as much as a Canon G12.
This makes camera nerds excited. "High quality optics!" They squeaked when I took it to the pub for a group review session.
It's also beautiful, shiny and white - this makes the designers at the table gulp their organic free-range wheat-free ale with excitement.
Passing the shooter around the table, and the group feedback is the controls are confusing - but that's the way Nikons are laid out, and if they're your camera of choice, you'll get used to it soon enough.
Now here's the bit where I waffle on about the tech spec, and make you wait until the end to find out if you should buy it.
Like the new Nikon J1, the V1 has a 10.1 million effective pixel sensor, EXPEED 3 processor and the new Nikon 1 interchangeable lens mount. The V1's effective pixel count is 10.1mp, and the sturdy battery lasts for 400 shots or two hours of maximum quality HD footage. Even if you're no pro, swapping lenses makes you feel a little less amateurish.
One of the strangest experiences of using the mirrorless V1, is the tracking on the electronic viewfinder. We will get used to this eventually, but initially, its quite strange to see your viewed image track like a film in slight delay.
Mistake one in my pub test was not taking a flash with me. The Nikon V1 has a hotshoe that takes the new Nikon's SpeedLight SB-N5 flashgun, but at night, without your hotshoe flash, you end up with a whole lot of darkness.
I'm told the key benefit of an electronic shutter is that faster continuous shooting rates. In the pub, because of low light, this didn't work so well for me, but 60fps, 30fps and 10fps options are all available.
We also tried shooting in HD - it records at 1920 x 1080p, 60i, 30p (29.97fps) or 60p (59.94fps) and in slow motion. That works a treat - much better before too many perrys than after.
The Nikon V1 is a beautiful, chunky camera for a serious amateur photographer who wants the ease of a point and shoot, and some of the heft of a full manual DSLR experience. You'll also need a nice case or dedicated camera bag - the Nikon V1 is not a snapper for your coat pocket.