Nikon Df Review - Df for Digital conFusion

Introduction

I suspect there’s very little I can do to sway your opinion about the Nikon Df. From the people I’ve shared the camera with to the various reviews already on the internet, I’ve seen what Thom Hogan wrote in his review: the Df is a product to which you’ll have an emotional response to first, and that response tends to stick.

So chances are that you already like it or not, review be damned. On the unlikely basis that you’re sitting on the fence about the Df, let’s continue.

The Nikon Df is short for Digital Fusion, a camera which Nikon markets as “pure photography” (makes you wonder what previous cameras have been up to then) and is the company’s attempt at going retro. Unless you’ve been out of the scene for the past few years, retro is big in the camera world, with Olympus and Fujifilm leading the retro look and producing some beautiful cameras in the process.

According to Nikon though, the Df was already being designed four years ago, and its launch was derailed by the terrible 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which took down its production facilities in Sendai. So - no, the Df exists totally not because of retro as the trend, since the Olympus E-P1, the first camera to bring retro back in recent times, was revealed four years ago too in 2009.

The Df is S$3,699 for the body alone. For that price you essentially get a 16MP D4 sensor with the Multi-CAM 4800 AF system from the D610, with 39 AF points bunched in the middle. The Expeed 3 image engine nets you 5.5 frames per second, and an ISO range from 50 to an astronomical 204,800.

The Df is slightly lighter than the D610, making it the lightest full-frame DSLR camera in Nikon’s stable. The magnesium alloy body is water and dust resistant, and the camera comes with a long battery life, to the tune of 1,400 shots per charge. It’s also Nikon’s first DSLR to be compatible with Nikon’s full range of classic lenses, including non-AI (automatic maximum aperture indexing) lenses, so if you have a few lying around, you’re in luck. A collapsible metering coupling lever enables the attachment of non-AI lenses, and allows for full aperture metering.

What the Df doesn’t have is video (that’s right, the first Nikon DSLR since the 2008 D90 without the ability to shoot video) and built-in flash. It also doesn’t have built-in Wi-Fi, which we suppose fits in with the whole retro theme.

Oh yes, the Df also comes with a retro-inspired look and top dials reminiscent of Nikon’s FM 35mm film camera. That retro-inspired look is important, as it will be the main reason many will be buying the Df for.

Design and Handling

I’ve never seen a more polarized response to a camera than the Nikon Df, people either seem to love the way it looks on the spot or to be completely turned off.

Me? I think it’s ugly. The classic FM2 had elegant long and slim proportions, but the Df looks squat and chunky, with an ill-fitting angular front grip. It doesn’t look authentically retro, but like someone had welded an idea of retro onto an existing modern-day DSLR body. In fact, turn the Df around and that’s exactly what you get, a button layout the same as previous Nikon DSLR cameras.

To be fair, Nikon did say it was a digital fusion. But when combined with the way it works, it’s more of a digital fission, or simply put, digital confusion. The camera contradicts itself, and some of the design touches seemed to have been placed there for the sake of retro’s sake instead of actually helping you shoot pictures.

We’ll start with the dials, since that’s where most people’s eyes will go to first. Yes, they let you see your exposure compensation, ISO settings, drive mode and shutter speed settings at a glance. Shutter speed is set via the top dial - unless you set it to 1/3 Step, in which case you change shutter speeds via the rear dial, now you have two ways to get at the same thing.

ISO sensitivity can be set to auto within the digital menu, and then it doesn’t matter where the ISO dial is set to - the camera has just contradicted itself. If you set the Df to ISO Auto and forgot about it, you won’t know unless you hit up the Info button or see the indicator on the bottom right of the viewfinder. There’s really no reason why Nikon couldn’t have had an ‘A’ on the ISO dial to set ISO Auto and left that setting out of the digital menu.

The top dials are all locked (except for drive mode, and the shutter speed dial which locks on the 1/3 Step setting), which is both a good and bad thing. Good because it’ll stop the dials from being moved around by accident, bad because it’ll make you a half-second slower when changing settings. The Mode dial is also locked, but instead of pushing down on a lock, you pull up to twist it.

Thanks to the locks, it’s impossible to change ISO settings with one hand. It’s also impossible to switch on the camera with one hand, as the power switch is a perfect circle without a lever. The one thing I’ve loved about Nikon’s DLSR cameras is their ability to power on and shoot, using just one smooth finger motion. That’s not possible on the Df (well, I managed it once with a lot of finger yoga).

The Df’s front control dial is a vertical circle, instead of the horizontal dials used on other Nikon DSLRs. It looks cool, but doesn’t work well. There’s too little to grip, and the dial is stiff to the touch.

The Info screen still doesn’t work. Tapping Info brings up the screen, tapping ‘i’ gains access to some controls, like High ISO NR and Picture Control. But even though info like ISO, white balance, file format and autofocus modes are displayed right on the screen, you can’t get to them.

The most positive thing I can say about the Df’s design and handling is how light it is. At 710g (body only), the Df is 50g lighter than the D610 and is the lightest camera in Nikon’s DSLR catalogue. That’s nice for a camera with a D4 sensor inside.

Image Performance

The Df comes with the same sensor found in the flagship D4, so image quality is as expected: Very, very good. In fact, we don't have a D4 to test it against, but Thom Hogan has said that from base ISO to ISO 1600, images are actually cleaner from the Df than the D4. From ISO 1600 and above, it looks to be the same. Like the D4, the Df can 'see into the dark', with high ISO and low image noise performance. This is a camera we'd comfortably shoot up to ISO 3200 with, and ISO 6400 with some noise reduction applied. The Df is easily among the best high ISO full-frame cameras in the market today.

If we look at the economics of it, the sensor is the best and only reason I can find to recommend this camera. Nikon's flagship D4 retailed at S$9,799 at launch, and you're getting the same image performance for less than half price at S$3,699 for the Df body alone. However, you're only getting the Multi-CAM 4800 AF system and coverage from the entry-level D610, and not the Advanced Multi-CAM 3500FX AF system from the D800 and D4.

These sample photographs were shot with the Nikon Df. The originals were shot in raw and processed to taste with no noise reduction applied. They were exported to JPEG in AdobeRGB, and are copyright to SPH Magazines. These photographs are provided for your reference only and we ask that you do not reproduce them elsewhere. Click for the full-resolution JPEG exports.

Conclusion

The Nikon Df can be described as a camera with a D4 sensor inside a retro body with the lacklustre AF system from the entry-level full-frame D610. The D4 sensor is stellar and is the only reason I would recommend the camera for, since you’re basically getting flagship image quality for less than half price. But if you’re looking at the Df for its retro controls, then I’m going to ask you to slow down, because the retro controls are clunky and slow you down instead of make you better.

The entry-level AF system has the AF points all bunched together in the middle. In my experience, you’ll find yourself compromising composition at times just to line up the subject inside the AF area. That might be okay for an entry-level full-frame camera, but it’s not okay for a camera that’s about “pure photography” and halfway in price between the D610 and D800.

Perhaps Nikon thinks that pure photography means purely manual focusing. Well, back in the film days we had focusing aids to help us with that, but the Df doesn’t come with any. And it turns out that the focusing screen cannot be replaced, so even though the Df can mount older non-AI lenses you’ll need to basically wing it for manual focus or use Live View and magnify the view to check focus.

In the end, there are just too many compromises you’ll be paying for the D4 sensor and the retro vibe. I don’t see it, and if you’ve already had your emotional reaction to the Df, you may think me a fool for it. This is a camera that people seem to just hate or love.

For what it’s worth, my first ‘serious’ camera was a Nikon FM10, when I was still a student in the 90s. I’m no stranger to manual controls so the Df doesn’t fail for me because of a fondness for digital controls. It’s because it fails to make ‘retro’ controls work in a way that, well, works. Instead, it just feels like an idea of retro made for retro’s sake.

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