Jared Polin, FroKnowsPhoto.com and this is a preview of the Nikon DF camera or what I
am calling the Nikon Hipstermatic Df camera. But before we jump into the preview, I want
to remind you that if you haven't signed up for the FroKnowsPhoto e-mail list, you can
do so in the orange box over on the website. Just click on the screen now, it takes you
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to capturing in motion.
So, this has been teased by Nikon for quite some time for the last two weeks. They've
been rolling out teasers about a new camera, a throwback, a homage to their older days
and older type cameras. Well, today they announced the Nikon Df, as you can see it's a range,
not a rangefinder, it is not a mirrorless camera, it's a throwback to something like
an FM2. You can see the shape, the design and I got to hold on to this camera, unlike
some of the rumor sites out there or all of the rumor sites, anybody speculating on it,
they didn't get to hold it.
I've got to play with this, shoot it, sniff it, touch it, push its buttons and feel it
up and put my fingers all over it and in it, because that's what I wanted to do. I got
to hold it and what I expected from it, before we talk about the specs, is it to be heavier,
it has that silver look, it has that black look. But I wanted to feel like that old steel
and metal camera that I had in my hands back in the day. Actually, I never owned a camera
that had all dedicated manual buttons until now, but I never, I didn't learn on that,
that's not how I did.
But Nikon was quick to remind me, that it does have a magnesium alloy body. So, we'll
see what happens there. So let's go down the specs, this is not a mirrorless camera. This
is an SLR. It has the pentaprism up top, in the nice shape viewfinder, its 100% viewfinder.
The key here it's a Nikon D4 sensor, inside of a smaller body. So, is this like a D700
replacement? It's kind of similar, because we are putting a D4 sensor into a smaller
type body. It shoots 5.5 frames a second, it has -- it's a retro style, excuse me, that
was the cars outside, being loud.
39 point AF system, which I believe is the same as in the D600. It takes one SD card,
not even an XQD, and not a CompactFlash and has a smaller battery. Now you might say to
yourself, "Well, I don't want a smaller battery with a pro camera like this." Well, you don't
have to worry about, as much power because you are going to get 1400 shots per battery
charge, because it does not shoot video. This camera does not do video at all. It does have
live view? It does have live view, but no video capabilities at all.
Let's see, it has a cable release just like the old days, like a plunger style. So for
two bucks, you can pick those up. It has a dedicated; all the dedicated dials are up
top. You have your shutter speed dials, you can change from a single point continuous
high, single low, all of those type of things on the top and the outside of the camera.
It doesn't mean that you can't control the manual - in manual, your shutter speed and
your aperture; you can still do that with dedicated buttons and make those changes,
you just don't have to turn those dials up top.
So some people want a throwback camera and they could do, make all these changes. But
my question is, should we be going backwards or should we be going forward, who is this
camera for? We will get to that in a minute. It has a 3.2 inch screen, maybe they should've
done away with the screen and because people want throwback a retro style.
Maybe they should just have gotten rid of it and maybe pretend, you know what you're
doing and not get to see the pictures till you take them home. Or they could've built
in a Wi-Fi adapter and just previewed on your camera - on your iPhone or something. That
could have been interesting, but the one another interesting thing here is that you can use
all of your old lenses, all Nikon Fmount lenses. You can use AI plus non-AI lenses, you can
get metering, because there is a coupler level -- lever, not level, lever inside on the bayonet,
you flick it up or you flick it out of the way, one way or the other, you connect your
old lenses and there you go, you can meter with them. That's pretty cool for people who
are looking to use their older lenses. I don't own any older lenses, so that wouldn't be
for me.
What else do we have here? We talked about how it feels. I wanted it to be heavier, let's
-- is it a good backup? Did I say 5.5 frames a second? I think I did. Is this is a good
backup to have in your bag? It could be, but what's the price? $2749.95. How much is a
D800, you say? $2796.95. So for a couple of bucks more, you can have a D800, that does
video, it's 36 megapixels or you get this throwback Hipstamatic style camera that doesn't
do video. Now, I prefer the D4 sensor over the D800 sensor just for the speed, for quality,
for the low light capability. Because what you can get with the D4, you can get with
this in terms of ISO 100 to 12,000, or whatever, what they say? Well a 120,000, I don't know
which one it is, but it's a lot of ISO that you get from your D4, you can also get with
this throwback Df camera.
Are you going to get one? Is this something that you would do? Who is it for? Is it for
the people that, that are they baby boomers, are they hipsters, are they the new style
people that want to look like they used the old stuff? But wouldn't that be going counterintuitive
to the hipster mentality? Do they want to spend $2750 on a retro-style camera when they
could just use a retro-style camera that shoots film? And they would be truly a hipster, right.
So, we are going to talk about this in even more in-depth. I can't say that. We will talk
about this in-depth on the next roll talk which is episode number 60. Steven and I both
got to use this camera, when we were in New York City. So, we will go into more detail,
figure out what we think about it and that's really it guys, that's the Nikon Df. It is
a retro-style camera with a D4 sensor in it. It's quick. It's going to be good. It feels
fine in the hands.
But is it the right fit or is it missing what we want. I want video, shall we move forward
in the world or should we be looking behind us to what we think people want. Nikon thinks
they have a market for it, we will see what happens. Only time will tell. So, thank you
guys watching Jared Polin, FroKnowsPhoto.com. See ya!!!