Nikon J1 Camera Teardown

The camera appears to be pretty simple from the outside but when the teardown began, there were layers and layers and it just kept going! The camera was launched on September 21, 2011.

For a product that was released over a decade ago and has since been discontinued, the camera body was in pretty great condition.

The rule I set in mind was to “follow the screws”.. and there were a lot!

The first few screws were easy, then it started to get complicated as all the parts were connected to each other, sometimes 2-3 layers of parts away.

Something very interesting I noticed was that the metal “loop” for the strap attachment was actually connected to the center-most piece of the structure.

I imagine that the camera was assembled by hand as the parts are very small and numerous that it would be very hard to program a machine to do so.

One thing I loved about the design was that they incorporated the tools used to assemble it, into the physical shape of the parts. The two holes on the top were the only way I was able to view or access the two screws on the bottom. The screwdriver I was using was not able to fit in such a small radius. I assume the manufacturers were using special screwdrivers for the assembly.