While at Photokina 2014, one evening...
4 guys were sat at a Brauhaus, 2 of the 4 were giving the one shooter and his Nikon Df a verbal beating.
It's too big, they said.
It's too heavy, they said.
It has a mirror and only a dark, antiquated OVF, they said.
It has no focus peaking, they said.
It has no tilting LCD, they said.
It's not even the king-of-darkness anymore, they said.
I tried to fight back..
There are a large selection of lenses, I said.
It's still quite light compared to the D700 and for a FF DSLR, I said.
The focus may not be class-leading but it's faster than the A7-series, I said.
The shutter response is very quick, I said.
The battery lasts all day and more even if the camera is left switched on, I said.
I wouldn't mind having a tilting LCD, I conceded.
But it works for me, I said.
So there was an exchange of words and our fingers twitched.
It was time for an old fashioned shootout!
The target: a slightly unsuspecting Tohru.
The objective: the quickest to shoot an in-focus photo of Tohru to be declared the winner.
The details:
- the Sony to be started from camera OFF (typical modus operandi as the battery doesn't last long)
- the LCD to be used, as it's faster than using the VF
- Tom even prefocused his camera!
- the Nikon to be started from camera ON (typical usage as the battery can last all week and more)
The result: Nikon gets 2/3 in focus in a quick burst. The A7s got 1 frame off which was out-of-focus.
A win for the Nikon Df!Of course this was all informal, a small victory amongst friends and gave us all a good laugh - but in all seriousness that's why I went with the Df. It does what it does well-enough. It's still a compromise and definitely not a perfect camera...but it works for me.
The A7s might be the camera I would choose now if I bought a Sony though.
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| Tohru series Nikon Df, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/50s, ISO5000 3x OOC jpegs stitched together |
I'm sitting in dark food court, trapped by torrential rains. I could sure use a fast focusing DF right now :-)
ReplyDeleteGetting the shot and working for you are big pluses.
Image the verbal beating I would've gotten with my puny sensored E-M10. They would've completely ignored your DF.
Hi Bjorn,
DeleteSorry for the late reply. In fact I've only just discovered the "Reply" button. Up until now I've just been commenting on my own post, I think!
The Df doesn't focus particularly well compared to the D700 I used to own. That said it does well enough.
Btw I still think they would have ganged up on my Df. I've noticed myself that the Df seems to polarise opinion. Cristian seems to dislike it. I've also met a few people who are curious about it or love it. It's a fun camera to shoot with though :-)