ET Review: Nikon Df

NEW DELHI: Over the years, DSLRs have become considerably ‘dumber’. Dials gave way to buttons and touch screens, polycarbonate became the material of choice instead of metals & operation became incredibly simple. While it’s true that it’s really easy to own and use a DSLR today, many photography enthusiasts and those who started on manual DSLRs yearn for the grace and poise of older designs.

With the Df, what Nikon has managed to do is pander to those needs — shoehorning modern (and very capable) full frame digital internals into a small, retro design body. Eagle-eyed Nikon enthusiasts will notice that even the Nikon logo on the pentaprism is the old style logo, reminiscent of the older Nikon FM bodies. Nikon seems to have taken the retro theme rather seriously — not only are there dials for everything, the camera body is also compatible with virtually any Nikon mount lens out there, including almost all manual focus lenses that were originally designed for film DSLRs. This is great for anyone who has a stock of older lenses.

Our review unit came with a 50mm f1.8G lens — a special edition, with a design to match the camera body. The results that you get are stunning, with excellent ISO and low-light performance, superlative speed & pleasing colour. This isn’t too surprising when you consider that the Df shares some components (primarily the super-sensitive full frame CMOS sensor) with the flagship Nikon D4. AF suffers because it’s a system borrowed from the cheaper full frame D610 DSLR.

We think that the Df is a great achievement and stands in a class of one. If the price is a bit too steep for you, we also recommend the Fujifilm X100s which has a similar retro design, a smaller APS-C sensor (but is one-third the price). If full frame with all the bells & whistles is what you need, get Canon's 5D Mk III, which is still the de-facto choice of many imaging & video professionals worldwide.

Specifications:

Price: Rs 1,83,950(body only) and Rs 1,99,950(with 50mm f/1.8G lens)

16.2MP full frame CMOS, Expeed 3, 5.5fps drive, 3.2-inch LCD, 39-point AF system, independent mechanical dials for shutter speed, ISO, exposure compensation & mode, 710g (body only).

Ultra small & lightweight full frame DSLR, gorgeous retro design, excellent performance, weather sealed body.

Does not record video, tiny secondary display, small battery, slow AF in live view mode.

Also See:

Canon 5D Mk III

Price: Rs 2,17,995 (body only)

22.3MP full frame CMOS sensor, 61-point AF system, ISO 100 – 102400, 6 fps, 1080p video, 3.2-inch LCD, HDMI, 860 grams.