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Nikon Df

canonman said:
Me for starters, used all the time. All sports and wildlife photographers use that speed. I can recall doing a golf swing sequence with Tiger Woods a few years back and even at 1/8000 with 10 fps then (quicker now at 14 max), it wasn't ideal.
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I've got a 1/8000th camera or two (1Ds Mark II certainly, and i'm also guessing my Eos 3 does as well). Can't say i've had much use, other than avoiding ND filters when shooting big aperture stuff outdoors.

Sounds like a fun sequence. I'm guessing you'd see artificial bend in the swinging club as the shutter actually takes 1/250th to move across the frame (or whatever the flash sync speed is on the new canons), but only in the horizontal direction.

As for the shared battery and card compartment, this is actually one thing that does annoy me, but only if the cover fouls on a grip or tripod mount, but it's obviously not something that would cause me to reconsider the purchase!

My Mamiya ZD has a continuous mode, and shoots 1.1 seconds per frame, for a burst of something like 10 frames. After that you have to wait a minute for it to flush to disk ;-)


Joe, which colour one do you have on order?

Cesare
 
Cesare,

Joe, which colour one do you have on order?
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Black... if it happens.

I usually prefer chrome -- the FM3a looks great in chrome and I've always preferred Leicas in chrome (the M3 is a classic design in that regard, something the Fuji guys must have appreciated) -- but when I saw the Df in chrome it wasn't as impressive as it looked in the promo pix. The black version of the Df looks ace, though.

Joe
 
Joe P said:
Canonman -- I can see needing a very high shutter speed for action photography, but the Df would not be the camera of choice for sports and wildlife photographers.

Joe
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Correct. The Canon EOS-1DX is the correct choice :)
I was just answering Tony's query about why anyone would need more than 1/4000 sec.
 
Canonman,

I see that now. I thought you were commenting about the suitability of the Df for action photography.

Joe
 
canonman said:
Me for starters, used all the time. All sports and wildlife photographers use that speed. I can recall doing a golf swing sequence with Tiger Woods a few years back and even at 1/8000 with 10 fps then (quicker now at 14 max), it wasn't ideal.
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Interesting. I'd have expected it would freeze action stone dead and make everything look static, e.g. some bloke holding a golf club above their head rather than swinging it. As an example if I was taking a shot of a F1 car (not something I've ever done, I'm only guessing here) I'd use 1/125 or 1/250 in order to try and get some motion blur and then pan with the car to get the right thing moving. I guess high speed could be really interesting for wildlife though e.g. freezing birds in flight etc.
 
Joe P said:
Hmmmm, dpreview wasn't besotted with the Df, but I think they missed the point of the camera.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikon-df

Joe
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dp review is useful only for checking specifications, and has bugger-all** to do with actually making images. IMHO of course.

**Perhaps I should have substituted 'sweet FA', but I didn't want to confuse fellow nikonistas ;)

Nikon_FA.jpg
 
I totally agree with you Tony; I took perfectly good pictures with my Rolleiflexes and they only went as high as a probably not very accurate 1/500th.

Julian
 
Fast shutters aren't all what they're cracked up to be on DSLRs, as above flash sync speed (1/180-1/250 typically on good level gear), this effect is achieved by a moving slit sliding across the sensor over a length of time around a few ms, which isn't ideal for 'freezing action' as it generates some distortion.

A powerful flash used at less than its max power gives better results to freeze the action, if one is into this sort of thing (water drops, etc)
 
Tony L said:
Interesting. I'd have expected it would freeze action stone dead and make everything look static, e.g. some bloke holding a golf club above their head rather than swinging it. As an example if I was taking a shot of a F1 car (not something I've ever done, I'm only guessing here) I'd use 1/125 or 1/250 in order to try and get some motion blur and then pan with the car to get the right thing moving. I guess high speed could be really interesting for wildlife though e.g. freezing birds in flight etc.
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I've used panning for motorsports since god was a lad but golf swings are so fast that low shutter speeds would be hit and miss. Usually , you would get several frames in a swing pattern and choose the best. Similar for cricket.

High shutter speeds/ fast motor drive cameras are known as machine gun cameras. Flash is absolutely verboten in most sports and wildlife photography. High ISO performance on the 1DX is astonishing anyway. Useable at 51,200 and in emergencies, 204,800 is available but that is noisy. I posted a shot of a Red Squirrel leaping from one branch to another. At 1/8000, I got a 14 frame sequence in a leap that took approx 1 second in real time. Similar with Red Kites, Sharks, Ospreys etc
 
Steve Huff tends to write glowing reviews on everything! I enjoy his site, videos and general enthusiasm though. I have no intention of buying the Df, just interested in all new and interesting cameras. But the Df does seem to be getting a mixed reception doesn't it? At least from the reviews and hands on opinions I've read so far anyway.
 
I played with one a in a shop in Germany last week. Based on the very first impressions one can get by handling it for a few minutes, I didn't like it. I agree with the Ming Thein's review posted above in the fact that, to me, it felt slightly too big and too light. My old F100 felt right to me. My old Olympus OM2n feels right to me. I'm sure the Df has great internals, and clearly ergonomics isn't everything, however I'm not sure I would buy it at this price.
 
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