Can we please clear something up here? Is the Df good for manually focusing MF lenses or isn't it? For every person who says it is, one person says it isn't. Is it determined by whether you're wearing glasses or not? Why the diametrically opposed views on this matter?
Forget about changing screens and green light focus confirmation for a minute -- is it good for focusing with MF lenses as it is without focusing assistance or isn't it? I've been dithering about purchasing one, and this aspect is an important factor in determining whether I buy one. Thanks!
The D
f has the exact same viewfinder and focusing screen as the D610.
There are severals things to consider while thinking of a DSLR viewfinder : viewfinder framing coverage, eyepoint, focusing screen.
The VF coverage is 100% (good). The magnification is below average for a camera that class. The eyepoint is too low for glasses wearers to see the entire frame at once.
All of this isn't dramatically better or worse than with old film SLRs, all things considered, yet the magnification and eyepoint aren't excellent and certainly not as good as they should be on a camera costing what it costs. Both could have been way better.
You can buy the $50 DK-17M 1.2x magnifier. Pros : bigger VF image. Cons : with it, the eyepoint will be even lower, making truly impossible to see the entire framing image and the shooting informations display at once.
Focusing screen : the camera is factory fitted with a very bright focusing screen with microlenses in it,
designed for AF. As a result, when you manual focus, it's very easy to think that you're in focus while you're not, it's a matter of where the focus plane image looks to be (this has been well documented everywhere when such focusing screens began to be installed in most cameras at the end of the 1980s - look for forums threads speaking of Accute-Matte screens for the Hasselblad 500 cameras and you'll get the idea). Critical manual focusing with such screens is impossible as there are neither a Fresnel pattern nor a center split-image focusing aid.
The D
f focusing screen isn't interchangeable with others made by Nikon. The camera was not marketed that way. There are now third parties screens designed for MF which you can install yourself but this will void the warranty and those screens (made off Nikon F6 or Canon screens by some Taiwan-based companies) aren't terrific.
Contraringly to what the marketing campaign told, the D
f is a camera designed to be used with AF lenses.
You may think that you can rely on the electronic rangefinder green dot and arrays combo located at the bottom left of the viewfinder image but it isn't accurate enough in critical focusing situations.
