Pimp Your Nikon J1 or V1! Quick and Easy stickers to make your camera look cooler.

July 13, 2012 Featured, First Looks, Gizmos, Just for fun, News, Nikon 47

Pimp Your Nikon V1! Quick and Easy stickers to make your camera look cooler.

Happy Friday to all! Te weekend is here and this morning I decided I wanted to post something fun to start the day off. Yesterday in my mailbox I found a small packet from Germany. “What is this”? I wondered. I know it was not any kind of camera or lens so I wasn’t too excited but when I opened it I found a set of stickers that go on top of a Nikon V1 to give it a “retro” feel and look. Almost Leica-ish if you will. There were different colors included so I sat there and tried all but the white one because the white was missing one of the cut out holes and would not fit. These decals came from a website called “pimpmydigicam.com” and they also sell stickers for other cameras like the Leica D-Lux series and the Nikon J1 as well.

You can see what they offer here at their site.

I ended up leaving the brown one on mine and will see how I like it for a while. This does nothing to improve your camera of course but you can look cooler when taking it out to shoot, and set yourself apart from the other Nikon V’s out there.  Here is a video they made to show how you apply the decals to a J1.

My only niggle with this is the cost 24.99 EURO is a bit pricey so you would have to be sure you really liked the results. I admit the silver J1 and black sticker looks really cool in the video above. As for grip purposes, it does in fact change the feel of the camera as it adds a bit of a grippy feel much like the Leica coverings do.  I liked all of the colors and I can see the black as being the most sensible but that brown and even red do give the camera different look that I like. So for all of you V1 owners, what do you think? Would you buy these to “pimp your digicam”?

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47 Comments

    • Absolutly, Piiii! But I would suggest only the black for a red one. That rocks!

      Absolut, Piiii! Allerdings würde ich für eine rote nur schwarze Kits empfehlen. Das rockt dann!

  5. Not sure contact paper is exactly the height of bling! – but on the other hand you could cut it up and do some useful things with it – tape down the mode dial, tape down the flash port cover, tape over the EVF on/off sensor…

  6. A silver J1 with the black skin and if possible a red dot sticker with a “1” on it over the number would be very cool.

    • Yes, but the red dot raises the price to $3500. (Body only)
      Lenses (with red alignment dot and yellow lettering) are $2500 each.
      (But no one has any to sell.)

  7. aki-asahi.com has better skins and been around longer, they have the J1 and V1 skins pictured in like every color a leather type. I bought skins for my Q and my SX-70, high quality leather over aki-asahi…

  8. Hideous hideous hideous hideous. Looks cheap and nasty – the cutout for the 1 isn’t even aligned right.

    If you really must pimp your shoot, Olympus is the way to go.

    • The cutout is done at very high accuracy. Maybe Steve was exalted/passioned to try the leather kits. If you give yourself time and don’t go to hurry, you can get results like this:
      Nikon V1 Carbon anthracite.
      Unfortunatly I had not more colors when I borrowed a V1 to make the patterns. So the carbon anthracite is the picture that shows it best. Also it’s a good idea to follow the manual, as I give tips how to align the decals. The side with the “1” is in fact more tricky than the other side.

  10. What about snake leather or a plush one (baby blue or pink ?). Can’t believe that, Steve. Came from Germany? I’m from Germany, too. Here we say “Tinnef”, “Nippes” or “Plunder” to that Kind or stuff.

    • In fact, in germany most people just said “wow” or “cooooool” as they see it first 😀
      And that kind of stuff is called in germany “Schweinegeil!!!” if you want to export a further word after “Kindergarten” to the USA. Schweinegeil should be spoken by an american like “shwine-e-gil” (“i” in gil like “I (am)”.
      Sounds good, huh?
      😀

  11. Nice indeed, but the price is a little silly.

    More important to me is, when is Nikon or someone else going to produce some new fast lenses for this great camera. Low light and high ISO is not its best territory but I can barely fault it otherwise.

  13. I think these are fun and look pretty cool. If they actually add grip they are a serious accessory.

  14. woohooo.. nice!!
    pimping your camera is really something indeed Steve 😀 this article just gave me an idea about how I should pimp mine.. hehehe

  15. Steve: You really are into the V1. Many times, you’ve mentioned how much you like the camera. My guess is you like it even more than the OM-D. Secretly, that is.

  20. Titanium version pleeeeese!! Or Silver, or gentle leather, or what, you name it 🙂 Likion forever huray!!!!

  23. Sorry, but this looks so tacky. It’s got such a “cut out and stick on” look to it. The V1 is a very dull looking camera, but this really doesn’t help :-\

  26. Hi, Steve.

    At least one can now stand out from the crowd. Rather smart and I liked the grey finish, but then I do have grey hair, unlike some. 🙂

    • “At least one can now stand out from the crowd.”

      It would take a VERY SMALL ROOM for Nikon J / V shooters to feel like a crowd. In fact, I’ve NEVER seen anyone with one. I run across m43 shoots, the occasional NEX shooter, and truckloads of DSLR shooters, but I have yet to see a Nikon J / V shooter. I think simply owning one would make someone “stand out from the crowd”.

      • check out groups of Japanese tourists! In London I’ve seen a few J1’s indeed more than I’ve seen Sony’s

        There are quite a few m4/3, again especially amongst Japanese tourists.

        interestingly they seldom use viewfinders even when the camera has one!

      • Agree. 🙂 entirely.

        I believe you may know I have a 5N and I’ve only ever seen another one in the wild. It is as rare as the Contax IIa being toted the other day. The owner seemed rather taken aback when I approached him and said “I’ve got one of those!

      • I see a lot of girls in Berlin with the V (or maybe J I dont know) white with the huge lens hood… I have to admit, there’s a cool factor shipped with it, my girlfriend notices them all 😉

      • You’ll see even less now that Sony have released the RX100 which sports the same size sensor in a body that is a fraction of the size of the Nikon J or V.

        • Intrigued by the proposition that there is a better camera available than the V1, I checked out the RX100. It does have some advantages, such as 2x the pixels and 6400 ISO. Yet, it lacks a viewfinder, has no interchangeable lens system, and then of course it will have Sony’s “user experience” vs Nikon’s.

          There are undoubtedly other differences, but this was enough to refute the implication that the RX100, with its marginally smaller body, would somehow be an easy choice over the V1; some consumers are looking for different utility, and the Cybershot is still a high-end consumer point-and-shoot, whereas the V1 is a low-end professional camera.

          All the cameras in the 4/3 segment are amazing and you pretty much get what you pay for, with the added perk that there’s enough variety to satisfy most tastes.

        • I don’t think “smaller” equals “better’, once you get down to the V1, OMD, E-P3 size level. If I want a pocketable camera, I have a Canon S90, and a cellphone.
          If I’m going out with the purpose of taking pictures, I don’t mind carrying a camera.

          For me, the V1 is about at the lower limit of the size I can reliably and comfortably hand-hold.

          For me, smaller is worser.

      • Travel to Asia and you will see that they are very popular. I was just in Shanghai and Tokyo and I saw tons of them. My Fuji X100 got a lot of curious looks though.

        • hehe, I sold my x100 to purchase a V1. I disliked those curious looks people gave me… I just wanted to go unnoticed when shooting.

          • Hey Rex,
            How are you liking your V1 compared to the x100? I am currently debating between the two: speed and flexibility vs file quality.

            Thanks!

            Paul Crouse
            Kyoto, Japan

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