Nikon DF

From the Nikon USA website :

"As digital camera technology has evolved, so has the way we control our cameras. Mechanical dials have given way to buttons, menu systems and LCD displays. But what if we could blend the elegant, simplistic control and styling of classic Nikon film cameras like the F, F3 and FM/FE series with the advanced technology of Nikon's exceptional new D-SLRs? Enter the Nikon Df, a thrilling FX-format D-SLR with a unique mechanical operation system and classic styling along with Nikon's flagship digital camera technology. A perfect blend of classic and modern, the Nikon Df offers a more personal shooting style that will inspire a new relationship with your camera—one you may have known and lost over the years—and reawaken your joy for taking photos."

So it is squarely aimed at film photographers who have been waiting for a camera like this to put their Ai lenses to new use and give us part of the controls back we're used to. Nothing more, nothing less. "Digital fusion" means blending old and new in Nikon's book.
 
ray*j*gun said:
So I wont be able to focus my 50mm Ais 1,2 Nikkor lens on this camera???
Click to expand...

Not on the ground glass for the focus depth needed fully open. But you will probably be able to focus it better than you could with any split focus aid ever sold by Nikon, if you only make use of the AF system's focus confirmation...

I loathe the focus confirmation light almost as much as the LCD focus scale on the Contax G series - both are patently misplaced outside the frame. For my taste any focus confirmation (regardless whether rangefinder spot, split prism or anything electronic) ought to be on the very spot you focus on. And with hybrid screens they ought to give us something like it sooner or later - technically, it would already have been feasible when they started overlaying SLR screens with the focus spot information. But regardless of the display issues, there is little doubt that electronic focusing can be more accurate than SLRs and rangefinders when it comes to extremes like a f/1 lens. Ergonomically (and in marketing terms), I think it is a bad decision Nikon left out the split screen, but as long as they have the (clumsy but technically more accurate) AF confirmation, that is not a technical handicap that will make it useless with any particular lens type!
 
Well there is going to be a lot of winge out there in the world on this. I have come to terms with the fact that the camera I want probably doesn't have much of a constituency in the real world. But because it is fun to put in one's 2 cents (pile on?) here's what I would like to see:

The overall concept for the Nikon I want starts with a hard look at the M9. Picture it in your mind's eye. OK?

What we are looking at in this mind's-eye picture is a mirrorless camera with a small number of buttons/controls. So: top plate 1) shutter speed, ISO dial, exposure comp. & nothing else; front: DOF lever, lens release (no need for a mirror lock up b/c . . . wait for it . . . the camera is mirrorless); back: no screen. What? (yeah, put extra $$ into designing the digital VF -- all viewing and settings accessed through the VF). Put a minimum of 4 buttons on the back and maybe a command dial on the right side of the back for scrolling through/magnifying pix). No AF. Just use MF focus lenses or the MF ring on your AF lenses. SD card, and a nice big battery (say: D3 size, or 4 AA's) and you're done. FF sensor, of course. The left side of the camera can have USB, other ports under a door. The bottom has a the battery/SD compartment. Why AA's? Proprietary batteries guarantee a 10-year life to all current digital designs. Since we are "there" in terms of image quality, it is time to stop the revolving door of new annual models. Hey, I'm a Leica guy: I will gladly part with a shocking amount of samolians if I only have to do it once every 20 years.

Award design engineers a $100K bonus for every button eliminated from the interface. Additional bonus for long battery life and robust through-put. Every other function goes into software, but two of the four buttons on the back are user-configurable.

Blink . . .blink . . . oh, where am I? Dream over.

Maybe another way to get there would be a RED-style modular system that would allow you to put together the camera you wanted. Yeah, no market for that either.

I am still waiting for a good reason to upgrade from a D3 and M9 w/Fuji XP-1 as back up. Oly EM-D-5-whatever came close. The current Sony alpha 7 comes close. Still waiting though.
 
looks big compared to the old FE2, how big is it compared to a d610
q5jk.png
 
Oh dear.

I think they oversold the "Pure Photography" crap.
The camera seems big. It has this weird 1/3 Stop position that make things even more complicated than others DSLRs. A PASM dial that should not be there.

They should have used the Fuji approach to camera modes with simple A positions, add an optional microprism splitscreen focusing aid, and reduce the number of buttons, not pile them up.
 
Benjamin Marks said:
...

The overall concept for the Nikon I want starts with a hard look at the M9. Picture it in your mind's eye. OK?

What we are looking at in this mind's-eye picture is a mirrorless camera with a small number of buttons/controls. So: top plate 1) shutter speed, ISO dial, exposure comp. & nothing else; front: DOF lever, lens release (no need for a mirror lock up b/c . . . wait for it . . . the camera is mirrorless); back: no screen. What? (yeah, put extra $$ into designing the digital VF -- all viewing and settings accessed through the VF). Put a minimum of 4 buttons on the back and maybe a command dial on the right side of the back for scrolling through/magnifying pix). No AF. Just use MF focus lenses or the MF ring on your AF lenses. SD card, and a nice big battery (say: D3 size, or 4 AA's) and you're done. FF sensor, of course. The left side of the camera can have USB, other ports under a door. The bottom has a the battery/SD compartment. Why AA's? Proprietary batteries guarantee a 10-year life to all current digital designs. ... (etc.)
Click to expand...

Certainly not the craziest thing I've encountered in this thread. There have been some curious things posted here; this does not lead that pack. 🙂
 
Plainly it is just another DSLR in different clothes, albeit a nice DSLR.

I have a feeling not too many professionals will want it, but it should do well in the amateur market as a chick magnet.....of sorts. I think if you want to accessorize with a camera you may want to try a nice F2.

The Sony A7r seems that it may have more promise, in spite of it's lower battery capacity.
 
teleparallel said:
Oh dear.

I think they oversold the "Pure Photography" crap.
The camera seems big. It has this weird 1/3 Stop position that make things even more complicated than others DSLRs. A PASM dial that should not be there.

They should have used the Fuji approach to camera modes with simple A positions, add an optional microprism splitscreen focusing aid, and reduce the number of buttons, not pile them up.
Click to expand...

Amen, but consider that dials save you from trips into menu-land. Digital cameras have more setting that need to be user-adjusted than film camera, ISO sensitivity and white balance among others. I(t's a toss up between having specific dials to input your settings or diving through sub menus. The R-D1 had it just about right!
 
sevo said:
Not on the ground glass for the focus depth needed fully open. But you will probably be able to focus it better than you could with any split focus aid ever sold by Nikon, if you only make use of the AF system's focus confirmation...

I loathe the focus confirmation light almost as much as the LED focus scale on the Contax G series - both are patently misplaced outside the frame. For my taste any focus confirmation (whether rangefinder spot, split prism or anything electronic) ought to be on the very spot you focus on. But there is little doubt that electronic focusing can be more accurate than SLRs and rangefinders when it comes to extremes like a f/1 lens. Ergonomically (and in marketing terms), I think it is a bad decision Nikon left out the split screen, but as long as they have the (clumsy but technically more accurate) AF confirmation, that is not a technical handicap that will make it useless with any particular lens type!
Click to expand...

Thats the approach I take with my D90 and older manual lenses. I know it works but jeeze I was hoping this new Nikon would be a better focusing tool than the D90.
 
Many thanks! So you need a camera you can change the screens out on.

craygc said:
The problem is that with modern laser cut focus screens you cant see better than f/2.8 ~ f/2.0 (depending on the model) in the viewfinder so, visually, you cant achieve accurate focus on fast manual lenses. It also doesn't matter what people want to say about how they've never had an issue - its either been luck or they haven't noticed its not dead sharp - but the physics of how the viewfinder optical path is constructed does not allow the user to see the true DoF at apertures wider than these. This is why people expected the split prism focus capability of the focus screen to avoid this problem...
Click to expand...
 
This is a camera I would have been very happy about in around 2005 when I finally had to confront reality and start using digital for some of my work. The menus and lack of physical controls on DSLRs seemed daunting at the time. Now that I am used to modern DSLRs, this camera looks to me, as the dpreview article says, "a bit silly." Shutter speed dial, ISO dial and aperture ring seem redundant when you can change those things quickly and accurately via command dials in one-third stop increments, etc. Also, I personally find the ergonomics on most modern Nikon DSLRs excellent, they really fit well in the hand. Would not want to go back to the boxy shaped bodies. Just my take on it....
 
Having the dials just takes a couple of things out of the menus. The menu structure will still all be there. Frankly, with the SCP option on my Pen, I can change many more things quickly without taking my eye from the viewfinder.
 
I have have had six or seven bodies in the FM/FE lineage (still have an FE2). This looks like the old FA that I disliked so intensely, only worse.

No split image or microprism = GFYS.

Thanks for helping me decide to stay in the Fuji system, Nikon! Sony and Fuji —*and for that matter, Panasonic and Olympus —*get it, and they are going to eat your lunch.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

A
LTM lens aperture ring/focus interplay question
Replies
6
Views
710
jc031699
J
J
Help with GW690 (winding mechanism)
Replies
4
Views
174
jcapunta
J
A
Panasonic, Voigtlander, and the birth of the travel film
Replies
4
Views
645
Bolo Kukus
B
peterm1
Leica SL (first version) AF adapters for Canon mount lenses?????????
2
Replies
26
Views
4K
trix4ever
T
J
Did Nikon really blow Leitz and Zeiss out of the water in 1950? Not quite, but....
Replies
9
Views
1K
aoresteen
aoresteen
Back
Top Bottom