Nikon DF

I can't believe it. The retro looks, the AI tab on the mount, the big F3 style eyepiece, metering with every Nikon lens under the sun and on and on and on.

And then you read...

The focus screen is fixed and there is no split prism option.

Seriously.

WTH is the point of making a camera that is so clearly geared towards manual photography and then completely dropping the ball by leaving out what may be the most important feature on a camera like that?

Why Nikon, why? @#$%!@@#!!!!

Guess I'll be sticking with my F2/F3P
 
If Nikon are going to take the piss by swapping the dollar sign for a pound one then it's goodnight from me.
Hello Sony.....or wait another year or two. I'm patient.
 
The indignation being displayed by some people at Nikon daring to make a camera that doesn't suit 'them' is pretty funny! 😀
 
Keith said:
The indignation being displayed by some people at Nikon daring to make a camera that doesn't suit 'them' is pretty funny! 😀
Click to expand...

Predictably predictable though, Keith. People do love a good moan.

For the record, I prefer this way more than the A7/A7r.

And I'll still be buying neither.
 
ronnies said:
They apparently will only sell it in the UK as a kit with the retro 50/1.8. And at £2749. Why no body only option in the UK ?

Way too expensive for me, plus I don't want the lens as I already have two Nikkor 50s.

Ronnie
Click to expand...

Always stiff the UK market. Rule One. No matter the product. Bitter? Always😛

For a potential work tool, as I had my dreamy head on earlier, it doesn't look like it would ever stack up for me. For what it is, a Prosumer quality 'niche' product I don't think its too bad, not too bad at all - though of course this is based only on the released information not use. Looks are always subjective but then so is what 'we' want from a camera. The hurrumphing from various people that it doesn't do this, that or the other is no surprise as someone was always going to be disappointed and/or annoyed.

I think the point made earlier about design by committee is a truism of today to be frank. I see DSLR's being used, often almost solely, by people using the video function from corporate types to kids making skate videos and I must admit I am a little surprised this has been left off, why? Because this clearly isn't the stripped down D-FM that so many hankered after. The committee kept thinking of things it needed and its tummy got fatter and fatter...yet they decided to leave off a video feature to be "pure." I think the message was diluted over time even though the idea that the camera was ever going to be as pure and stripped back as having just a couple of top plate dials and possibly not even a LCD was nothing more than fantasy. It's business and they want it to appeal to as many people within their targeted niche as possible.

In the end what we all want is a bespoke, custom made camera and anything else will always disappoint in some small manner. Cue a M2 user to rebut😀
 
uhoh7 said:
"The Df offers fantastic build quality (...)"
Click to expand...
Not too sure. OK there are weather sealings and the top and bottom are made of molded magnesium but the inwards are plastic (polycarbonate, yes, but plastic nonetheless) and so the lens mount is bolted on a plastic plate.

This was my concern when the D600 came out, because I have a heavy lens I use very often (Nikkor Ai-S 180/2.8 ED). This is why I got a D700 eventually. And also why Nikon is said to have reinforced things somehow on the D610, although the D610 is still plastic made.

At that price for the body only I'm quite disappointed to discover that it's the same plastic inwards construction as on the D600-610...

nikon-df_6.jpg


🙁
 
Harry Lime said:
I can't believe it. The retro looks, the AI tab on the mount, the big F3 style eyepiece, metering with every Nikon lens under the sun and on and on and on.

And then you read...

The focus screen is fixed and there is no split prism option.

Seriously.

WTH is the point of making a camera that is so clearly geared towards manual photography and then completely dropping the ball by leaving out what may be the most important feature on a camera like that?

Why Nikon, why? @#$%!@@#!!!!

Guess I'll be sticking with my F2/F3P
Click to expand...
Because Nikon wouldn't make much money from selling manual lenses.
 
I've just had an email from Wex Photographic UK to offer me a pre-order opportunity 🙂rolleyes🙂 and it is the kit version only at £2749. That is the biggest disappointment to me - offer something that makes use of old lenses and then force the customer to buy a new lens.
 
I finally discovered what the round dial thingy is at the front of the camera just in front of the shutter release ... it's a command dial and there is a matching rear one of course.

I don't really think these were necessary in the scheme of things and the camera would have looked a little cleaner without them ... but come to think of it I suppose you need them to use the modern chipped non aperture dial lenses?
 
Keith said:
I finally discovered what the round dial thingy is at the front of the camera just in front of the shutter release ... it's a command dial and there is a matching rear one of course.

I don't really think these were necessary in the scheme of things and the camera would have looked a little cleaner without them ... but come to think of it I suppose you need them to use the modern chipped non aperture dial lenses?
Click to expand...

For lack of a useable aperture ring, you're gonna need at least one extra command dial (compared to a 'classic' SLR). Another one... might be unnecessary clutter, indeed. We'll see.
 
straightmp said:
what´s wrong with using the mf focus-indicator. you can even choose the focus point...
Click to expand...

It works different - most noticeably, the focus area and confirmation do not coincide, you have to look somewhere on the margin LCD to see whether you are in focus and which way you are out. That is ok - or even superior - for critical tripod focusing, but it is next to useless for manual focus handheld work. From the F4 on all new Nikons I got in the past twenty-something years had a electronic focus indicator - I have purchased and used a split finder screen on all of them nonetheless.

FWIW, I am quite convinced that the screen on the DF will be (supposedly service) replaceable, as it is on the vast majority of Nikon DSLRs - if Nikon does not offer a split screen, third party makers will jump in, just like they did on all the consumer/prosumer DSLRs so far.
 
sevo said:
It works different - most noticeably, the focus area and confirmation do not coincide, you have to look somewhere on the margin LCD to see whether you are in focus and which way you are out. That is ok - or even superior - for critical tripod focusing, but it is next to useless for manual focus handheld work. From the F4 on all new Nikons I got in the past twenty-something years had a electronic focus indicator - I have purchased and used a split finder screen on all of them nonetheless.

FWIW, I am quite convinced that the screen on the DF will be (supposedly service) replaceable, as it is on the vast majority of Nikon DSLRs - if Nikon does not offer a split screen, third party makers will jump in, just like they did on all the consumer/prosumer DSLRs so far.
Click to expand...



That's true but if you do it often enough it becomes second nature ... we all drive our cars with an eye to the speedometer and that certainly isn't directly in your line of vision but we manage to monitor it constantly without running off the road. (mostly) 😀
 
Keith said:
we all drive our cars with an eye to the speedometer and that certainly isn't directly in your line of vision but we manage to monitor it constantly without running off the road. (mostly) 😀
Click to expand...

some people need dials projected on windshield and even then they have lane assistant active.
 
Keith said:
That's true but if you do it often enough it becomes second nature ... we all drive our cars with an eye to the speedometer and that certainly isn't directly in your line of vision but we manage to monitor it constantly without running off the road. (mostly) 😀
Click to expand...

btgc said:
some people need dials projected on windshield and even then they have lane assistant active.
Click to expand...

... proper drivers don't use a meter
 
Keith said:
Some people shouldn't be allowed out of their houses! 😀
Click to expand...

Or to write about Pure Photography on photo forums while they grew up through the digital age only ! 😀

Katzeye Optics will make a split image focusing screen for it, sure. And frankly, as it is with a 100% high magnification VF I'm sure that manual focusing won't be a problem at all anyway.
 
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