Nikon Df
Early march I swapped my D700 with the Nikon Df. At the same time I bought two new lenses.
The Nikon 70-200 f4 and the new Nikon 18-35
So I sold everything except my AF-S 500 and the TC-14E II.
I must admit I was surprised how easy it was to sell the old gear. After two weeks it was all gone.
Have a look here if you want to see my old gear. http://500px.com/
Why the Df you might ask, and why sell the D700? More about that later.
As
a nature photographer I use my gear in all kind of weather. When the
conditions gets rough you can get some nice shots. If the gear is not up
for the task then you have the wrong equipment. The D700 was with me
for six years and I have never had any problems. Not once did it let me
down. After half a year with the Df I have no doubts that the Df will
handle conditions just as well as the d700. Weather sealing seems very
good, so does the build quality. My personal experience is that it's all
about how you take care of the gear. When you have been out by the
seaside, always clean camera and lenses not to allow salt or sand to
cause corrosion or damage.
My options for a new model was D3s, D600/610, D800
or the Df. Anything else is too expensive. I ended up with a second hand
Df, barely used. So I got:
- sensor that can handle high iso very well
- light and compact body
- nice manual handling, wheels for shutter, iso, +- compensation
- weather sealed
- silent mode
- af only button
- wifi
- reasonable price
I also got a few things I did not like so much:
- weird handling of the aperture, unless you have old lenses where you can operate the aperture on the lens itself
- bad grip
- autofocus not always my friend
- manual eyepiece cover
Several
things to be mentioned. First of all, it takes time to get used to this
camera. The handling is not quite so intuitive as we are used to with
Nikon. Having said that, I figured, you can't have it all. Here you get a
very powerful tool with a D4 sensor in a small package. You have to
appreciate the good things and live with the rest. Being an old school
type of guy I use the manual mode a lot and here I find both the shutter
wheel and the iso wheel useful. The small wheel to switch between auto
and manual mode is maybe not the best, but it is not used as frequent as
the other, so to me it does not matter so much.
Another thing I have noticed is the dynamic range,
an absolute major step ahead. The files from backlit landscape photos
captures an impressive amount of details. I guess that goes for all new
models. White balance is not as good as on the D700. I do find that the
Df misses from time to time. But by shooting in raw mode you can easily
correct that.
Files: Looking at the LCD screen the files just pops
out. Importing them into the computer, and surprisingly the files need
very little corrections. This might also be caused by the new lenses.
With my D700 I always had to process the files, adjust levels, sharpen ,
etc. Now, with the Df, the files seems to need no processing at all. To
me this is absolutely a good thing. Having a full time job sitting in
front of a computer, I really don't need to spend my spare time doing
the same.
Exposure: With the d700 you could do nearly
anything. A raw file was never really damaged, but with the Df, under
exposure can really harm a file.
With my new
lenses I have the perfect travel gear. For a day trip or on holiday, I
use a Lowpro fastpack 200, add the Df, 18-35 and the 70-200, all in
total just 2kg of gear, and I still have room for food&drink and
some extra clothing. Perfect.
When shooting wildlife I use a Kiboko 30L. This hold
my Nikon AF-S 500mm II with the Df mounted, also possible with the 1.4
converter mounted. The two extra lenses, macro tubes, filters ++ Can
also accommodate an extra body if I ever buys one. In total just 8kg,
kiboko included. I also use a tripod of course, most of the time I carry
this in my hand. Another 2kg there. In my mind, light weight is
important.
Autofocus: I have tried a lot of different
adjustments here. Most of the time a use AF-C and 21 centre dominated
points. AF always locked to AF-On button. The af-lock defaults to
normal. I have tried to turn it off, don't do that cause the camera will
re-focus as soon as your subject move out of the focus points area. I
have tried setting it to Long and found that it gives me more keepers
than setting it to short. Buffer capacity has increased from 20 (d700)
to 29 (Df), NEF RAW 14-bit lossless compressed. Recently, with the
settings mentioned, I fired off a series of 24 frames in one burst and
every image was pin sharp. The trick, I have found, is to get the first
couple of shots within the range of the focus points.
In the end I have to mention the wheel at the front.
What did Nikon think of there. Weird and possibly hard to operate in
cold conditions. We will see in a few months time :)
So why not go for the cheaper D610, or a D800? And why sell the D700?
Well, to take the D700 first. I really loved that camera, and it
was sort of a mixed feeling. But ended up with the conclusion that
something must have happened in six years. One of the main reasons was
to get a camera that can handle low light better, and then I would end
up with not using the D700, so I sold it.
D610 has the same functionality + you can do video. Yes I know. Has
been some discussions about high resolution files are more sensible to
slow shutter speed / camera shake, especial for shooting birds in
flights and similar, but not sure if it applies. Df seems more pro and
better built, but not sure. D600 miss the af-only button, but guess you
can use the ae-lock button. Second hand price might be better on the Df,
only time will show. Df came with a 50mm/ f1.8, have I used it a lot,
no. The Df might be slightly better at high iso, but I'm not sure. So
still I wonder. Maybe because it's different and because I got a good
deal.
After six months I'm still happy with my choice.
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