Nikon Df Review

Lens Selection and Compatibility

The Nikon Df is the first modern DSLR that works with pretty much every Nikkor lens, including really old pre-AI lenses that cannot be used on regular DSLRs. Nikon was able to achieve this by making the AI coupling lever on the mount flexible – you can flip it vertically and it will be out of the way, so that you can mount a pre-AI lens without jamming it. I have an old pre-AI NIKKOR-S 55mm f/1.2 lens that I never had a chance to convert and had been wanting to use, so it was a perfect candidate for the Nikon Df.

Once I got the AI coupling lever out of the way and mounted the lens (which mounted easily), I went to the “Setup Menu -> Non-CPU lens data” and set up the focal length, maximum aperture and picked “Non-AI” under “Exposure meter coupling”. The only thing that I had to remember to do, was to change the aperture on the camera when I changed it on the lens’ aperture ring. Once everything was set, the lens worked perfectly and I enjoyed it quite a bit wide open at f/1.2! Here is a sample image taken with this lens at f/1.2 of my baby girl Jasmine, who posed for a couple of shots while sitting right next to a window with her rabbit toy:

Manual focusing was a breeze, although I was looking through the viewfinder to acquire focus and not Live View. This one is also with minimal post-processing (+15 Shadows, +10 Blacks, 50/1/50 Sharpening, Camera Standard Profile) in Lightroom.

So if you own some old Nikkor glass, the Nikon Df will definitely make you happy, as it is designed to be used with old Nikkor classics. Armed with an f/1.2 manual focus lens and with Nikon Df’s insane low-light capabilities, you are opening up some great opportunities for extreme low-light photography! And the best part – those old manual focus lenses can be bought for real cheap on sites like eBay and Craigslist.

Metering

Unlike the Nikon D4 and the D800 that have a sophisticated 3D Color Matrix Meter III exposure metering system with a 91,000-pixel RGB sensor, the Nikon Df comes with an older and simpler 3D Color Matrix Meter II system with a 2,016-pixel RGB sensor – the same one used on the Nikon D600/D610. Again, this is another feature that I wish Nikon did not cut corners on. While I did not find myself constantly fiddling with the Exposure Compensation dial, I did notice that my D800E is more consistent and does a better job in general with handling unusual / high-contrast lighting situations.

Buffer and Battery Life

Similar to the Nikon D600, the Df can shoot at up to 5.5 frames per second. In comparison, the Nikon D700 with a 12 megapixel sensor is limited to 5 frames per second (without a battery grip), the Nikon D800 can only shoot up to 4 frames per second and the Canon 6D is limited to 4.5 frames per second. So I find the 5.5 fps speed to be pretty reasonable for the Df. It strikes a good balance – not super fast to compete with the D4, but not a slow crawler either. The bigger concern is not so much the shooting speed, but how long the camera can last before filling up the buffer.

Here is a comparison table of different Nikon DSLR camera buffers:

Note that the Nikon Df can fit a total of 47 images into the buffer before it fills up and starts slowing down, which is the second-best according to the above chart. The shooting time is also second-best after D4 – a total of around 8.5 seconds will elapse before you start seeing the camera slow down to slower speeds. SD card speeds are obviously important in such situations, so if speed is important to you, make sure to get a fast SD card, like the SanDisk Extreme Pro series. I have a few of the SanDisk 16 GB Extreme Pro cards and they are incredibly fast.

When it comes to battery life, while the camera has a rather small EN-EL14a battery (the same one used on entry-level Nikon DSLRs like Nikon D5300), it is stated to deliver 1400 shots, which is a lot for such a small battery. In comparison, the bigger and heavier battery on the D600/D610 DSLR can only deliver up to 900 shots. But keep in mind that those numbers are based on CIPA testing, which means that the built-in flash is used for some of the shots, if the camera is equipped with one.

Naturally, the built-in flash drains the battery much faster. Since the Df has no built-in flash, it can deliver a lot more shots in comparison. In my opinion, Nikon did the right thing by going with a smaller battery – it makes the camera a lot lighter. At the same time, if you own a D600/D610 or a D800, you will have to carry around another charger when traveling. The good news is, the Df is very efficient in terms of battery life. My first charge lasted close to two weeks, which is impressive. Cold winter temperatures definitely do have an effect on the battery life though, so you might need to recharge it more often when shooting in below-freezing temperatures. To get the maximum life out of the battery, I turned off image review in the camera settings. Unlike most higher-end Nikon DSLRs, the Nikon Df has no battery grip option.

Dynamic Range

As I have already stated before, the dynamic range on the Df is very good, especially when shooting at high ISOs. As you will see from the next page of this review, the camera does a great job in retaining colors as well, something that high-resolution sensors are not as good at. Measuring dynamic range requires a very consistent lab setup (which can get quite expensive). I have done some measurements of dynamic range using Imatest before, but without a dedicated lab and very strict measuring protocols, I found it hard to measure dynamic range consistently between different times. But when I did my measurements in one go before, especially comparing dynamic range between different brand cameras, I discovered that my results were very close to what folks at DxOMark produce. Therefore, until I get a dedicated lab for these kinds of scientific measurements, I will be referring to DxOMark data.

Looking at DxOMark results, the Nikon Df is rated at around 13.1 EVs, which is the same as the Nikon D4. In the overall ranking, the camera stands as #33, right below the D4. In comparison, the Nikon D800 and D610 take the first two spots with impressive 14.4 EVs of dynamic range. If you are wondering why there is over a stop of difference between the cameras, then you should know that resolution plays a big role in dynamic range at low ISOs. DxOMark always down-samples images to lower resolution (I believe it was around 8 MP) when measuring ISO and Dynamic Range performance. So a camera with more resolution would definitely look better in recovering shadow details. You can see some of this in the Camera Comparisons page of this review as well, where cameras like Nikon D800E and Sony A7R show very impressive shadows. However, the ranking of dynamic range in DxO’s measurements only applies at base ISO of 100. If DxO were to take the average dynamic range performance across the ISO range, then the Df would actually rank higher than the D800! Take a look at the below graph, which clearly illustrates this:

It is pretty clear what happens past ISO 800 – the Df takes over very quickly and stays consistently high in comparison to the D610 and the D800.

Live View

Since there is no video recording option, the Nikon Df only has one Live View mode, primarily aimed for precise focusing. And I am happy to say that Live View on the Nikon Df rocks – it looks very sharp at 1:1 / 100% magnification and represents true pixel-level performance. In comparison, the Nikon D800 has a really crappy interpolated Live View at pixel level, which makes it incredibly hard to obtain very precise focus. So the Df is a much better candidate for precision focusing. Once in live view mode, you can press the + – buttons on the side of the camera to zoom in and out. Pressing the AF-ON button will make the camera acquire focus using contrast detection method, which is more precise than phase detection.

See the next page to see more examples of Df’s ISO performance, along with comparisons to Nikon D600, D800E, Sony A7R and Sony A7.