Nikon Df, more retro in a bigger but smaller package

While I'm not exactly surprised by Nikon's announcement, I'm pleased to see that they've put together a 1970s-style camera body.

When I was selling the Nikon F2, we had a Nikkormat body, which was their less expensive, smaller brand.  It was easily usable without the crane and tripod.  Compared to the Olympus OM-1N, it was still quite heavy.

When I first got a dSLR in 2004, I wondered why they couldn't do something in the same size as the 1970s bodies.  It seemed ridiculous to have a smaller sensor (APS-C or Four-Thirds) in a body larger than 135 format.  Then, I mounted a longer, bigger lens and realized how much more comfortable these dSLRs were.  The grip kept them from being slippery, too.  Using a 4x telephoto zoom, and relaxing and holding everything with only fingertips on the grip says a lot of progress has been made.

So, Nikon brought a camera to market that looks very much like the 1970s, adding a couple of LCDs and a lot of automatic features.  The price is up there, but not outrageous for what you get.  At roughly US$2750, you get their top of the line 135 format/FX sensor.  (If you think higher pixel density leads to better image quality, you need to think again.)  Combine that with the D610's auto focus unit, a single card slot, and all the dials you can handle, and you've got a great casual shooter than wipes Sony's A7/A7R duo right off the camera shop floor, except for size, of course.

No, it's not likely that the same people are going to be driven to Sony and Nikon bodies, or anything with the retro look.  I suspect a lot of people in their 70s will buy the Nikon Df, if for nothing than nostalgia, as they probably have an old Nikon body in the closet.

Why do I damn the Df with the word "casual"?  You'll see that the first time you mount the 70-200mm f/2.8 lens to it without a tripod handy.  It's the same reason I call most of the micro Four-Thirds bodies casual--you'll need to take more care if you want to work handheld with an unbalanced pairing of body and lens.  Thankfully, Fuji has been thoughtful with their X-series bodies and only provided an adapter for Leica M-mount lenses, which are small lenses.  In the 1970s, it wasn't a huge problem because there weren't so many huge lenses, unless you were using Medium Format.

If you fit into that category where you take the time to take the shot, I suspect that you'll be richly rewarded by some very amazing image quality with the best lenses.  If you dig the bottom of the barrel and come out with a 40 year old Sigma lens, you'll wonder why there was any fuss about the Nikon Df.  Using high quality lenses with it will make you admire the D4 even more.

Thinking back a bit to the D610 announcement, I see where it makes more sense now that the update came about the same time as the Df, especially with the update to the Expeed 3 processor and faster burst rate.

Update 2013.11.11: Saturday, I was at a local camera store for a workshop, and I was discussing something later and I noticed a couple of the film bodies from the 1970s and 1980s, and they brought back a sense of nostalgia, having sold such equipment in my past.  Unfortunately, most who spent US$500 aren't as likely to spend US$2750 for nostalgia, I expect.

Update 2013.11.24: Reading What Digital Camera's impressions made me smile when they said that the camera body was larger than expected, even though it's the smallest Nikon FX body.  Nikon built huge camera bodies way back when.  It was only after Olympus started to take business away that they responded with smaller bodies.  The article was suggesting that the balance wasn't very good with zoom lenses.  They should go back to the 1970s when none of the camera bodies had much of a grip at all.  If you wanted stability, you bought a tripod.

Update 2014.12.18: I wonder if Nikon has sold more than a few thousand of these bodies.  I don't see much about this body any longer.  I suppose Nikon enthusiasts and professional photographers from the 1970s bought quite a few of them and that buying spree was over quickly.  What value can you place on nostalgia?

New Sony a7 - a7R

I'm sorry Sony, but I can't stop laughing at the painful looks of the camera bodies you've mangled.

You took a very handsome, curved block that looked almost exactly like a Nikon 1 (not a good idea, considering what Nikon are telling Sakar/Polaroid with the lawsuit), plopped a viewfinder onto it, and riveted a grip onto it.

It looks home-made, like someone's $100 camera body mockup.  Frankenstein's creature was possibly less ugly.

Now, technically, it sounds interesting, but they need to show how huge the lenses are, especially the long lenses, mirror-less or not, it's still 135 format.  Trying to get a good day's work out of it is going to be heavy.

DPReview seemed incredibly supportive of Sony in their first look assessment.  The controls are there but seem illogically placed, as if the outer form followed the inner form, as if the design came from an electronics company.  Samsung and, to a lesser extent, Panasonic have been doing similar types of design work, but Panasonic finally got it right with their GH3, save the SD Card door and Display button.

Supposedly, the grip on the a7 and a7R is quite good, so it should be comfortable.

The lens selection looked a bit bizarre, and given their lack of lenses for their NEX line after these (3, 4, 5?) years, will they improve in their variety?

The features of the two bodies was interesting.  Choose the less expensive body and get a lower resolution (logical) sensor with a anti-aliasing/low pass filter or pay quite a bit to get a higher resolution sensor without the filter.  Of course, if you can afford the more expensive model, they're thinking that you already know how to handle moiré patterns.

Still, I can't see the more expensive model going up against the Nikon D800E or any medium format camera.  I also couldn't see the D800E going up against medium format, although the resolution is plentiful.  Have I thought about buying one?  Definitely, and I've thought about the D800.

Are there people out there who chant "full frame full frame" as the universal panacea?  Yes!  Could this fix their desire?  Possibly.  However, I feel that those people will still have trouble getting the photos they want because they may never know their equipment, and could do much better with the equipment they have, until they've explored everything that a camera body can do.

Update 2013.11.05: Well, that didn't take long.  Nikon's new Df matches 1970s style with 2013 specifications and even allows lenses from as far back as 1959.  That's a lot of crossing time, and you don't even have to switch equipment brands.  The main difference for people trying to decide is whether they want better image quality or higher image density, since the Df uses a 16 MP sensor from the D4.  Of course, thinking about ISO 25,600 photos as clean as most ISO 1600 photos has appeal.  If you happen to photograph concerts for a living, you have a new backup camera body in the Df or your company could afford a couple of them instead of one D4.

Update 2013.12.10: The a7/a7R duo have had mixed reviews.  They have a lot of potential but they're products of checklist engineering.  I think they'll be useful to the casual photographer.  I somehow doubt that a professional would consider them, but a few professionals have considered micro Four-Thirds, so why not this pair and the Sony FE-mount?  Any camera body currently available is good, and these have to be far about just good.

Update 2014.12.18: While I'm still not a fan of their electronics-oriented designs, Sony has gone further with these and produced a successor to the a7 and added the a7S with ISO sensitivity up to 409,600 and increased dynamic range.  The sensor has 12 MP, which should provide good enlargements with lower noise than most, given the low pixel density.

 The a7 II has 5 axis image stabilization, similar to what Olympus started with the OM-D E-M5.  This should improve quite a few blurry photos.

The company has come a long way from buying the assets of poor Minolta.

Update 2014.04.08: I'm glad they've revised the body greatly with the A7 Mk II.   It seems much better overall.