The last announcement of the year will be that Nikon DF DSLR camera (yep, it’s not a mirrorless!). The next bunch of mirrorless cameras will be announced in late January, early February 2014. And according to some trusted sources there will be certainly a new Olympus MFT camera (not a PEN!) and a couple of Sony cameras. This should include the long overdue NEX-7 successor.
P.S.: I still don’t know if that Nikon looks good, bad, weird or what 🙂
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Looks good, potential winner depending on price, features still to be announced, real world ease of use and marketing, if Nikon had been clever they would of launched this before the EM1.
It does validate Fuji and Olympus though 🙂
Apparently, there was a price leak….$2,750!!!!! E-M1 isn’t looking so expensive afterall…
Man that thing looks ugly, nikon cheating again… retard design
what an ugly mock up. The real DF is made out of plastic as we can see in the promo video. This looks metal
That looks bad. Pentax lookin’…
Could be the angle, bad mockup or whatever though…
We’ll see soon.
I like this camera. It brings me back in time. This will not appeal to everyone, especially newer photographers that have never used this kind of classic looking camera. This is a camera for photographers who have used, or that are still using older film cameras and know a lot about digital imaging. The dials just make it easier to know exactly what settings you have.
I started photography in the late 70’s as a kid with film SLR’s, but I have zero interest in this camera.
This is a money-grab by Nikon aimed at nostalgic old men. Under-spec’d, overpriced, and ugly as hell.
It reminds me of the PENTAX 67 more and more: a disproportioned SLR.
It’s too bad that they couldn’t release a FM3a sized dslr. For the size, specs and price, I would go to with a D610 instead.
I think it looks *very* unattractive. Bad 80ies design. I still have an old F80 or something lying around – same ugly look. Design team should be fired. And who needs a click wheel for shutter speed these days? I thought Aperture pre-selection (backed up by intelligent auto ISO) was the accepted universal way of shooting these days…
But maybe the awkward way (of 1972) is better because of that fuzzy “back to the ol’ days feeling”.
From my perspective the only good looking retro camera as of late is the X100. The OMDs are ugly, the A7s a design boldness and now this. Really, how can they manage to screw up their own designs? I still have the FE and love its design. But this is cluttered and has only a slight resemblance of the old nikon bodies.
Nikon guys will probably love this camera as it takes the same path as Fuji with a lot of real dials like the old days. But in another matter, it’s just a half measure, from what I read, one of its highlights is the ability to accept any lens for F-mount – even non-AI – just like mirrorless cameras has been doing with adapters. If the ISO and other specs are real, in several ways this will be an unique camera. But one could imagine if Nikon had the balls to go FF mirrorless and start a new mount and a new system, THAT would be a full measure.
I’m a Nikon guy and I seriously dislike this camera.
After investing heavily in the Nikon DX system, Nikon has decided to stop all progress on DX and force everyone to switch to a D600. Hello defective autofocus and defective shutter mechanism. And now this $3000 monstrosity, still with broken AF. Meh.
it does not matter how good it looks like or bad, but it must have decent 60P at full HD and maybe 30p at4k.
no video no one buys it. wake up Nikon.
It’s reported that the DF gets 1700 shots per battery charge on an under powered battery. If removing video contributed to more pictures, then right on. Finally, a still camera. You want video? Get a friggen camera that has it.
NEX 7 sucessor? Hmm, I am still interested. But the “NEX” brand is dead I thought? I hope they will not have the horrible NEX menus — use the Alpha menus from the RX and Alphas, PLEASE! I also hope it will have weather sealing and touch screen, and some new weather sealed lenses (i.e. like Olympus has for M43). Could be a better fit for me than the A7/r depending on what they do. But this is Sony, so I don’t expect much. Probably will just get another body with a few improvements and no lenses. :-/
Olympus should have patented the hump, everyone’s copying it now…
There is a hump because there is a prims and an OVF, on Oly, nothing justify the hump, except a forced retro look. The GX7 have an EVF, with no hump at all 🙂
You’re right, Sony A7 doesn’t need it as well. What I meant is they should have patented that hump style :).
Wow, I suspected it had the potential to be bad, but never THAT hilariously bad.
It’s even more gratuitous than Olympus or Fuji retro styles, it’s nowhere near as compact as what it references or the competition, it just looks like a D610 in drags, it’s incredibly awkward.
I’d buy a D610 over that monstrosity.
Oh dear, every time I see it I burst out laughing, I’m sure that’s a joke, it can’t be that bad.
It manages to make the E-M1 look good and more ergonomically sound.
Maybe it’s an ironic way of showing how retro is ridiculous by going (quite) a few steps too far ?
Too light on features for $3,000 body only however may sell well to the Nikon faithful….can’t see this affecting mirrorless competitors.
the mirrorless pro-troll. LOL
Time and time again, Olympus leads the way and everyone else copies it. Too bad Oly can’t get licensing fees from everyone for its innovative technologies and styling (yes, even retro).
Not all that concerned with how it looks one way or the other. But one thing does catch my eye that I’m excited about. It appears they’ve stacked at least one of the controls on the top plate. My strong suspicion is that its a ev top/iso bottom manual control with a lock button. Thats cool and exactly the sort of stuff, more specific dials for common functions as opposed to menu surfing, I’d want from a retro design.
How to make a retro look camera :
– design it like a old film slr
– put top and bottom aluminium looking plate
– most important, separate top and bottom with faux leather
– add a maximum of direct botton, knobs, lever
– remove video (“real” photographer never do video 🙂
– price it high, like it was manufactered by hands by a bunch of dwarves in a an old mountain 🙂
– spread rumour on internet with imprecise specs and photo, and 1 day before the glory announcement, gives all the specs and photo to rumors site.
I have mixed feelings with this camera. I like the look, but it does look a bit cluttered. To me, it has a bit of an identity crisis. Is it a dSLR or is it a retro SLR that is digital? The lack of a lenses with an aperture ring makes this sort of a half-way committed step into the retro realm. Fuji is really the only one who hit the nail spectacularly on the head with that (not counting Leica, because they’ve always been that way). I honestly don’t think this really “shakes anything up.” You’ll have some enthusiasts who will buy it because they like it, but I don’t think it will necessarily be the runaway success that some think it will be. I’d be curious to see what Thom Hogan thinks. Something tells me he won’t be so impressed…..
I am an m43 guy, and I love what they did with the E-M5, E-P5 and GX7. In my opinion, those are a perfect mesh with retro meets digital. I wish Olympus would have stuck with that trajectory with the E-M1, but that too has a bit of an identity crisis in my mind, like the DF. A slightly beefier E-M5 would have been perfect. A “pro” is going to buy the additional grip anyway, why build the vertical grip in. The whole idea of mirrorless, in my opinion, is to be “anti-dSLR”, but it seems like everybody is throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks, instead of being fully committed to an idea, and making some bold decisions.
Again, while I like the look somewhat, it’s ultimately a fail. Especially, at nearly $3,000.
I don’t agree. The m43 cameras can be whatever Olympus or Pany want them to be. The beauty is that we have choices.
The Olympus announcement should be for the E-M6 (or E-M7), the successor to the great E-M5. ( The E-M1 is not the successor, it is the higher level pro version.)
OK here’s Nikon’s big problem the Nikon Df 4 years in the making, the Nikon 1 4 years in the making… both theses lines should of been 2 years in the making and hit the market 2 years earlier than what they did. The market is moving too fast for them.
From when features get asked for/suggested on mirrorless rumors sites, mirrorless camera online communities and Flickr Olympus, Sony, Fuji and Panasonic listen and develop then get those features out the door within 12-24 months…
The said same companies also get the pricing right 🙂
No articulated screen, no video and way bulky and heavy than its film counterpart, but probably many nostalgic will buy this camera.
Well TBH many people don’t use video and if there’s no video function then there’s no much use for an articulated screen, it is not bigger than a Nikon FE which makes it quite small for a full frame (much smaller than the D600/5D MKIII/A99)you can see its size compared to a hand here http://www.ephotozine.com/article/nikon-df-hands-on-preview-23344 (scroll down)
There are also some neat stuff like a 1400 shot battery life (CIPA standard) and it uses the D5300 batteries.
Well it won’t be light but that’s what you get for a full magnesium alloy body (which is weather sealed too).
I don’t think only the nostalgic will buy it, the appeal of the Fuji X cameras is that there’s more focus on the photo side of the camera rather than on the bells and whistles (you can control the most important stuff via dials and hard buttons) and the appeal of this one too.
And NO, I don’ own Nikon cameras.
This camera is a lot thicker than film counterpart, but still way better looking than Nikon´s or Canon´s ugly DSLR pro cameras.
Luckily I do not own any Nikon lenses. I really like the rumour/fact of this camera having separate dials for aperture, shutter and ISO. Bummer on the mirrored design, which shows that Nikon also doesn’t have the technology for good mirrorless.
I am 100percent sure NEX7 line is dropped and no direct successor to it.
What a mess! This is ugly in a way that is beyond just bad looks. The cameras this is imitating and referencing are beautiful, efficient machines. The proportions of this are all over the place. It’s clunky and cluttered yet still doesn’t even have a set dial for aperture.
Thumbs up to Nikon for realising that quite a few people want cameras that are tactile things with physical controls – and objects in their own right with aesthetic character and value – I don’t care what people say about ‘Pros’ and only wanting good performance. The Nikons of late are un engaging, electronic feeling pig ugly lumps – and the red sash is just a leftover that they don’t know what to do with anymore.
This does nothing to address that shortcoming – it’s just an embarrassingly flawed, purely commercial attempt to cash in on what they see as a trend – rather than a meaningful need to develop and preserve a very well loved approach to a photography tool
Dishonesty in design always leads to this kind of gloriously over worked pap. Others have managed to take a lead from past glories and make them contemporary. Not as easy as it looks evidently.
Nikon had a great opportunity and missed it: full frame lenses are big, so compact cameras like the A7 might be pointless. Here was a chance to release an F-mount competitor that uses all the old legacy glass and is as neatly sized as the old film cameras.
Nikon should have figured out a neat and clever way to make an F-mount body the same depth as the original film cameras. This could be achieved by making the sensor + LCD plane as thin as an iPod touch, or by clever placement of sensor and/or LCD in new places.
Instead, Nikon went for a D600 in a new skin. Incredibly disappointing.
This camera is the nail in the coffin for DSLRs, and the full frame future now belongs to Sony, Fuji, etc…
DSLR has to go “retro” to survive. Good try. DSLR is dead. Df is recycled from Nikon parts bin. There is no more new tech coming for DSLR. Nickoff and Cannot’s days are numbered if they continue to shun mirrorless. No more DSLR.
Totally agree.
that is just your opinion (mine too, btw). and that is not the reality!
BUT there are others, and they are plenty, who like to buy big bulky DSLRs
Read here:
http://www.43rumors.com/camera-slaes-history-from-2011-till-today-mirrorless-hype-is-over-dslr-rules/
The real opportunity would be for Nikon to one up Olympus with a D-FM. Lose the weird Nikon 1 system, and join 4/3. Like the OM-D, a digital D-FM would be smaller than the original, but with the good looks of the original. But instead of releasing something innovative that pays respect to their heritage, they’ve introduced this weird overpriced plumped up Liz Taylor on Botox looking thing that doesn’t offer any benefits to a less expensive modern Nikon body except oldster looks.
I think the ability to use their beautiful old lenses in native focal lengths is a really important and worth while aspect – but they totally failed to make it in a size and form that feels at all svelt like the FM.
Maybe they need to address the mirrorless elephant in the room. They could start by appointing a new head of design.
Totally agree with the comments on the looks – mutton dressed as lamb!
what’s wrong with the nikon 1?
have one, love it.
This is a D610 with the D4 sensor. AF, metering, etc… Nothing really new was developed for this camera, and then they took out the video feature so that it would be “cool” as a photographer’s still camera only. Every single one of my cameras function as a stills only camera if I don’t use the video, and then if and when I need to shoot a little video for whatever reason, that feature is there! To charge a premium to exclude a feature is just silly.
If this camera was released at under $2000, I’d say good on ya Nikon, and would have thought it could really compete against the newer Sony FF’s. As is, it is ridiculous compared to all other offerings that reside anywhere near this price point. The argument I’ve heard so far is that it has a D4 sensor in it, sure, it does have an older, higher performing sensor that has already had its R&D paid for, required absolutely no more investment in technological advancement or testing and then they charge the same price as their top of the line studio juggernaut the D800? Insane.
This confirms Nikon has lost it.
The reasons why I still use and rent a 35mmFF sometimes is not for IQ, but for follow focus (CAF), that hurdle will be taken in not to distant future.
m43 already had/have sufficiant IQ with E-M5 for fully pro work range, journalistic, event (portrait, wedding) and slow sports.
Who want 50mb files if the intention is to use the files sooc. Who wants to increase time spent on workflow. Not me.
Olympus, Panasonic and Fuji got it, Fuji is right not to release a DSLR type but stick to their EX idea. Sony is still searching, but they have to account for the Minolta legacy.
Don’t get me wrong 35mmFF is not going to disappear but it will end up much more niche than today.
I welcome the smaller, lighter thought. With the E-M1 and GM1 we get closer and closer to an easier photographic life iso looking like a mule on events.
Yeah, it would have been great if this camera had the form factor of FM3a, but that is not possible – not with a FX DLSR. The simple reason is that the camera MUST be thicker – with a film camera there is just the film and pressure plate and that’s it. Here you have the sensor, electronics, LCD. That sums up.
It does not look that bad, I just think that once they went for a retro design, than it could have been made really retro. But maybe they are just trying to hide the thickness.
I want to see that viewfinder and focusing screen first though.
Seems to me that by ripping customers off With Leica-esque pricing nikon risk making themselves as relevant to mainstream photography as Leica are
Priced right this could sell very well but I wonder if owners of “legacy lenses” are as minted as Nikon appear to think
“P.S.: I still don’t know if that Nikon looks good, bad, weird or what.”
It’s all of the above, the Df is one camera from the front, another from the top and yet another from the back,definitely not “Pure Photography”.
It’s a niche product and it has a niche price to go with it. But considering in the UK I can buy a Fuji X-Pro1 with 18mm f2, 35mm f1.4 and a 60mm f2.4 and still have almost £1000 change compared to the £2749.00 Df kit (they’re not selling the body only in the UK), I’m not sure the market Nikon are targeting will bite at that price ?
If you really want to capture the look and ergonomics of a classicSLR then ditch the lcd reducingthe depth of the camera and use wi fi phone tethering or similar tech for image review maybe be evenmore radical and have image review in an omd style electronic viewfinder
This camera seems to be primarily targeted at old guys who like pocket watches and fountain pens (and that is represented in one of their promo images). But more practically, it is certainly geared towards the use of old Nikkor lenses. It’s the only digital Nikon with support for all lens types. Only invasive lenses threaten this camera and those are very rare.
The irony, however, is that without AF and without a focusing screen, using those old lenses is anything but comfortable on this camera. And for double irony, the Sony alpha 7 series is going to provide a fantastic platform to use those old full manual, non-AI lenses again. Far better than this Dooƒ of a camera. Focus peaking alone will make the entire difference.
In fact, I ordered a Nikkor non-AI lens arriving today that I expect to use on my Sony a7 coming in a few weeks.