Nikon Df First Hand Impression

Got my Nikon Df today, not by reservation, but by just walked into the local camera store.  My major reason of getting the Df is not for its retro look but as a backup camera for D4.  Neither my D800 nor my wife's D600 serves the purpose well.  Df, by using the same D4 sensor and same MP, it becomes a perfect choice.  It is almost like the relationship between D700 and D3.

I shoot most of the time in RAW at aperture priority, thus the excitement of the retro-looking knobs does not really useful for me except for the look.  When I first pick up the camera, what shock me is how do I adjust the aperture!  Took me a while to realize, if I am using the G lens, I can use the knob in front of the camera to adjust it.  The coolest thing is, if I am using the D lens, now I can use the aperture ring of the lens to adjust the aperture.  Now, that is cool.  When was the last time I used the aperture ring on the lens?  Zillion years ago!

I did not go so far as to switch from AF to M.  However with the prime lens on Df, to change the focusing mode is really easy (AF-S/AF-C; single point, AUTO).  To change focusing mode on D4 with heavy profession lens mounted is an almost impossible task.  I almost have to put the camera down to change the focusing mode when I have my D4 mounted with 3000/2.8 lens.

Now I am getting all my old D lens out for the Df.  It should be really fun.  For  my professional lenses, they will stay with D4.  They are too front heavy for the Df.  But just if ever my D4 failed, now I will have my Df as back up!

Does the picture looks a little bit out of focus?  I used the 135mm DC lens with the camera and focus right in the middle of the lens, thus everything behind it is bit out focus.  Df with the 135mm DC lens really feels good and looks good.

Trip to Northwest of China

It is a 12-day trip that covers Northern Xinjiang (), Dunhuang () and Xian () with my sister's family.  I brought with me photographic equipments which include Nikon D4, 27-300mm VR, 16-35mm VR and Coolpix A.  It is a much lighter weight traveling pack, in some occasions I may hope that I have better lens but overall, the set up does its duty.

Many times, I carry only Coolpix A which is a 27mm, DX format pocket camera.  It does its duty but Nikon 1 can do almost the same with same picture quality.

For this trip, I did not use a backpack, but a shoulder bag.  A few times I hope that I have the backpack, but most of the time the shoulder bag is alright.

Coolpix A at Taoyuan Airport

NIKON AF DC-NIKKOR 135mm 1:2D in Practice

F4

DC/0

DC/4

DC/5.6

F2.8

DC/0

DC/2

DC/2.8

DC/4

DC/5.6

The added BOKEH can only really be felt at F/2.8 with DC/4 and DC/5.6.

NIKON AF DC-NIKKOR 135mm 1:2D

Sharpness & DOF

F/2; DC/0:  DOF/2cm

F/2.8; DC/0: DOF/4cm

F/4; DC/0: DOF8cm

F/5.6; DC/0: DOF/10cm

F/8; DC/0: DOF/12cm

F/2

DC/R2

DC/R2.8

DC/R4

F/2.8

DC/R2

DC/R2.8

DCR4

F/4

DC/R2

DC/R2.8

DC/R4

DC/R5.6

Conclusion:

The best sharpness is really started from F/4.
In the sense of DC-Nikkor lens, BOKEH of a image does not equal to out-of-focus.

At F/2, DC/2; F/2.8, DC/2.8; F/4, DC/4, the lens adds a very slight BOKEH to the overall image.  It is a nice setting for portrait.

At F/2, as DC setting increase the overall BOKEH also increase.  It is really used for special effects.

At F/2.8, DC/2 moves the BOKEH forward; DC/4 moves the BOKEH backward, DC/5.6 further backward.

At F/4, DC/5.6 moves the BOKEH backward.

Thus, the best aperture to use is F/4 at DC/0 for sharpness; F4 at DC/4 adds some soft effect to the image; F/4 at DC/5.6 increases the background BOKEH.

Nikon 1 V2, FT1 and AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED

Lat weekend, I took this set up to the Aviary at Hong Kong Park.  I used auto-ISO of 16--800.  In most instance, the ISO was 800.  The resolution and noise is about the level of my old D300, of cause, it is not as good as the newer D700, D4 or D800.  I can achieve the same image size at 810mm, using 300mm f/2.8 with 2x teleconverter on D800.  I will have the same effective aperture of f/5.6.  However, I will have much better high ISO performance and much better focusing.  But the weight difference between these two sets of equipment would be several folds.  

V2 with FT1 and G lens can only focus in AF-S mode.  If we turn the "Silent Photography" off, the shutter release has two distinct steps, press half-way, the camera signal that the subject is in-focus.  Press fully, the second noise from the camera indicates that the shutter is released.  It is good for focus/re-composition mode.  But it is too slow for the moving subject such as birds.  It is much better to turn "Silent Photography" on and just press the shutter release all the way down.  The camera focusing mechanism is extremely fast and usually can get the subject in-focus instantly.

f/7.1 1/40 ISO800,110mm at 297mm

f/5.6 1/60 ISO800, 240mm at 648mm

f/7.1 1/125 ISO800, 116mm at 313mm

f/5.6 1/200 ISO400, 135mm at 364mm

f/5.6 1/60 ISO800, 85mm at 229mm

f/5.6 1/125 ISO800, 300mm at 800mm

f/5.6 1/25 ISO800, 165mm at 445mm

Nikon 1 V2, FT1 and AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED

A much cheaper, lighter and more versatile alternative is to use AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED on Nikon 1 V2.  It makes a 189-810mm package.  As previously mentioned, the focusing may still an issue.  But Nikon 1 V2 can focus very quickly, for moving subject just place the subject in the middle of the viewfinder and keep on pressing the shutter release.  It was amazing how the camera can respond and focus so quickly.

f/8 1/500 ISO160

f/8 1/500 ISO160

f/8 1/1250 ISO160

f/8 1/250 ISO800

f/8 1/200 ISO400

Nikon 1 V2 and AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II

Nikon just released its US$ 17899.95 AF-S NIKKOR 800mm f/5.6E FL ED VR which weights 161.6 oz.  Putting on Nikon 1 V2 a AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II making a 810mm f/2.8 lens.  It is V2 at its best, let us doing things that we normally cannot do.

f/5.6 1/200 ISO160; 300mm at 810mm

Nikon 1 V2 vs. D800E

Can you tell which image was taken with Nikon 1 V2 (14.2 MP) and with D800E (36 MP)?

f/4 1/320 ISO100; D800E 24-70mm f/2.8 at 52mm

f/5.6 1/250 ISO220; Nikon V2 105mm at 283mm

The two images, both were RAW, were processed exactly the same using NX2.  I could not tell which one has better resolution either at 100% or adjusted to the same size.  There is a very capable sensor in the Nikon V2.

Nikon 1 V2, FT1, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED

 Got the Nikon 1 V2 shipped from Adorama yesterday.  It is still not available in Taiwan.  I tried it with AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED lens.  It is one of the sharpest lens from Nikon and it has worked well with the previous version of V1.  V2 ergonomically is a much better camera than V1.  I would like to see whether the ISO performance is also getting better.  It has a base ISO of 160 as compare to V1's 100.  The focusing is still a problem: the autofocus only worked with G lens and only with the central focusing point at AF-S mode.  The auto ISO also worked much better, now take into consideration of the focal length of the lens (105 mm x 2.7 thus 1/250).  I set the auto ISO at 160-800.  You can see how the camera was working from the metadata of each image.

f/7.1 1/250 ISO220

f/7.1 1/250 ISO360

f/7.1 1/250 ISO280

f/8 1/250 ISO160

f/8 1/400 ISO160

f/3.2 1/25 ISO800

f.3.2 1/20 ISO800

f/5.6 1/2000 ISO160

I need to do a little bit of noise reduction for the Japanese dolly's white face otherwise the image at ISO800 is quite acceptable.  When I do macro, I will set the focusing at single point, AF-C and shutter release at focus priority in order to get the sharpest image.  This set up is not possible with V2.  However, it is also beyond the point, Why do we need to do marco with V2, other than we can stand back a bit more from the subject.  I like V2 is to use it on condition that we normally not easy to achieve form DSLR, the long-telephoto situation.

AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II with TC-14E and TC-20E III: D4 vs. V1

The weather suddenly warmed up when I visited Taipei Zoo for testing the AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II lens.  The flamingo swam in the pond like a swan and dipped its head quickly into the water to cool itself down.  The movement was too quick to use single-spot and AF-C focusing.  I was quite confident with the even background, the bright color of the bird and especially the clear yellow eye would activated the facial recognition of the D4 focusing system.  I switched the focusing to Auto and AF-C.  It was such a joy to photograph, D4 nailed the focus 9 out of 10 times.  With TC-14E converter, the focal length is 420mm.  I used f/5.6, the camera auto-ISO set the speed automatic to 1/500 and ISO160.

Here is an enlarged view and we can see the water freeze in action.

The enlarged image looks good on the web, but in reality, at 300 dpi, the image is only 5.45 x 3.63 inch, 1.8 MP.

Here is an image shot with the same lens with TC-20E and V1, a 35 mm focal length equivalent of 1620mm.

The image size at 300dpi is 12.9 x 8.6 inch, 10.1 MP.  However, it was a pain to use the V1 with the lens, only one single focusing point in the center can be used at AF-S.  I have to set the ISO at 100 to get the best image quality, at f/8 the speed is 1/60.  Because of VR, it is not too slow to get sharp image from the lens but it is often too slow for the bird in action.  Furthermore, whenever a shot was taken, the viewfinder freeze to show a preview.  Opposite to D4, only one out of 10 shots is good.

Using more realistically, AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II and V1 make an incredible  810mm f/2.8 combination.  Hopefully with the new V2's better ergonomics, better ISO performance and 14.1 MP, the experience will be a much better one than V1.