Tag Archives: Nikon Df

5-minutes First Impression of the Nikon Df

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Managed to finally get my hands on the Nikon Df and thought to run it through all you folks with an objective first impression.

In terms of height, the Nikon Df is indeed as short as the Nikon D7000 (or D610), leaving my little pinky dangling and unsupported when holding the camera. As for the remaining fingers holding the camera, the half-baked grip provided a rather limited leverage, confirming to me that the grip was introduced out of necessity to counter-balance the heavy camera and not designed with day-long ergonomics in mind.

With the heap of dials on the top plate of Nikon Df, another few additional impressions can be drawn while using them. All three bigger sets of dials are each equipped with both a miniature lock release button and an extremely stiff gear counter movement. Changing a dial position is excruciatingly tedious and plain counter-productive. (I have a feeling that the Nikon Df was secretly developed by an independent team) Try turning these dials with a gloved hand and move on to do the same with the even smaller Exposure Mode Dial before turning on the camera!

Are we there yet? Not quite…The sub-command dial is also so smoothly machined that it’s painfully hard to use them even without a gloved hand! Honestly, I have nothing against the honorable intent to encourage photographers to think more about getting a better composition, secure a better source of light etc. But I will have a big problem with any camera which has been solely designed to intentionally “road-blocked” each of our intuitive movement via such horrible design philosophy.

Nikon specifically emphasized the preferred use of small prime lenses with the Nikon Df, and I fully agree so. Anything heavier and you would be very close to the border of absurdity.

Note: Nikon Df does subtly claim the ability to effortlessly measure the white balance of a scene without the need of  a grey card. If so, I must say this has just became one of the few greatest redeeming features of the Nikon Df, among having an ultra-sensitive D4 sensor!

Advocating Against the Nikon Df

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Let me start by saying that the Nikon Df is a camera that has not earned her recognition as a qualified gear in our Nikon’s NPS membership criteria. That truth alone is enough to justify today’s article title. 

But there’s more to it than a mere regulation if you are willing to read on. To begin, Nikon Df does not have a battery grip for use with the camera. This simply mean its rationale of being a lightweight camera should efficiently allow users to change their shoot orientation in fluid motions. In other words, Nikon is not designing the Nikon Df with ergonomics as a top priority.

The petite camera grip again reinforces the fact that the Nikon Df is not designed primarily to be used with the current lineup of pro telephoto lenses. Handholding a telephoto lens is extremely common but will require a bigger, stronger, comfortable grip for extended time – again something that’s not found on the Df.

The single memory card slot of the Nikon Df puts her totally unsuitable for any real commercial work of mine. A single corrupted card is all I need to kill my entire work for the client on the field, with moments that may not be available for a reshoot. 

The low 16-megapixel FX sensor of the Nikon Df also makes the removal of her OLPF impossible, with disastrously more pronounced moire artefacts as opposed to the higher 36-megapixel Nikon D800E (due to diffraction) without one. 

Outdoor Portrait work has all along been heavily dependent on a fast 1/8000s shutter, giving us the possible use of extremely wide aperture with fast FP sync strobes in bright day condition. A 1/4000s shutter just doesn’t fly in my professional opinion. 

I could go on but I think I have made my point.