Nikon Df, The DSLR for film shooters.

Pictured: Nikon Df in black with a Nikkor 35mm ais

Nikon Df next to my trusty F3, "Black Betty"

You can't really tell from this photo, but the Df is actually a bit taller than the F3

The Df was Nikon's most controversial offering when it was first introduced in 2013. People considered it a gimmick, a hipster camera. After five years, it is still being made, so there is obviously a market for it. What attracted me to the Df was the fact that it promised to be a digital camera that worked just like my F3. I could easily use my existing collection of Nikkor lenses with it. I bought it for my photography coursework. The traditional control layout, which makes perfect sense if you have any experience at all with old cameras, makes manual shooting intuitive. It feels like an instrument that you have used before.

The salesperson at the store suggested that I look for a used example, since they are still expensive new, and that if I decided that I didn't like it, I wouldn't have lost as much money. Well, after a few weeks with this Df, I have to say that I would have gladly purchased it new. The camera did not come from the ebay seller with the English version of the owner's manual, but I did not miss it. I figured out most of the camera on my own, it is THAT easy. After a few weeks of use the the rubber cover on the grip began separating. I ordered a new rubber piece directly from Nikon and it was very inexpensive. The grippy surfaces on all of my decades-old film cameras have not gone anywhere. Nikon, please get a better glue.

It seems to me that the Df is much maligned by internet reviewers because it's just not the right tool for everyone and those for whom it's not the right tool think that it sucks because it dosn't fit THEM. It's the right camera for me and MIGHT be the right camera for you.

The made-in-Japan Df's mostly metal construction gives the confidence of a solidly built camera. It feels like it has Nikon's famed blunt instrument ruggedness. The one thing that confuses me is one part that ISN'T metal. The front plate where the lens mount attaches is some sort of plastic, which is weird. The rear screen is fixed. That's fine with me. articulating screens are another thing that can break. The 100% coverage viewfinder is huge, but it's too bad there isn't an eyeypiece curtain for long exposures.

The first things that you are going to notice are the pentaprism, which takes it's shape from the FM/FE series film cameras. The "Nikon" badge at the top uses Nikon's classic boxy lettering instead of the slanted lettering Nikon has been using since the late 1980s. It is Nikon's lightest full frame DSLR, even lighter than the D610. It feels close to the weight of an F3. The clearly numbered dials on the top give off a stempunk vibe. The hand grip is pretty small, it's not the big-bulbous battery grips of modern SLRs.

The grip brings up the first common criticism, the camera's ergonomics. Without the big grip, you are not going to be doing the one-handed running and gunning that you might be used to with other DSLRs. If that is the way you need to shoot, then the Df is not the camera for you.The Df wants to be held like a classic camera. Cradle it from underneath in your left hand and steady it with your right. The wheel on the front of the camera right below the shutter release is the command dial that changes the aperture. You can teach your finger to find it with some practice, but, if you use pre-G lenses you can shut off the command dial and use the aperture ring, which for me is a much more instinctive way to operate. Speaking of lenses, owners of classic Nikkor glass are in luck. You have the complete range of Nikkor F-mount lenses going back to 1959 to work with. The lens mount on the Df has an auto indexing tab for ai-ais lenses. The tab even folds away so you can use pre-ai lenses.

The Df has a single SD card slot. Dual slots would have been nice. There are times when you might want to record image files as .RAW on one card and .JPG on the other. Or, you might want to pass one card on to someone else and keep the other. There are many reasons that you might want your images stored in two physical locations, including piece of mind. I only had one SD card ever fail on me though, and that only happened after years of writing and eracing.

The Df does not do video. If you need a DSLR for video work, then the Df is not the camera for you obviously. I don't do video, so, I don't care. The Df has the same 16.2 MP full frame sensor as the D4. In a world of 30+ MP sensors, 16.2 suddenly seems mighty low, but it's enough to make a decent size print. The Df's sensor is said to have the best low light performance of anything that Nikon has. I don't have the experience to confirm this. The Df has the same 39 point autofocus system as the Nikon D600/D610, where the AF points are crowded into the middle of the frame. This is too pedestrian for some. It's fine with me. I'm used to cameras with one focus point. If you make your bread and butter shooting sports and action, Nikon offers tools other than the Df for that.

All the important controls are knobs and levers on top of the camera placed just where you would expect them if you used any 35mm film camera made since 1960. Shutter speed control is on the top shutter speed wheel, but can be changed to the thumb wheel allows you to make changes in 1/3 stops when that is needed. The ISO and exposure compensation dials are on the left side of the prism, right where they should be. If you like changing your ISO with one finger while keeping your eye glued on the viewfinder, the more traditional setup might seem like a downgrade for you, but is suits my shooting style just fine. Auto ISO exists, but you need to access it through the menus. It would have been better to put it directly on the knob for those of us who hate menus.

So, the Df is imperfect, but it's imperfections don't really subtract from the experience that Nikon is trying to offer the photographer with this camera. It's worth talking about the Df's actual raison d'etre. Among Nikon's full frame lineup, the Df is not trying to be a single-digit flagship model, nor is it trying to be anything like the 600, 700, or 800 series cameras. For $2,996.95 typical retail new, we are talking about professional camera prices here. This, and the premium sensor both point to the fact that this is to be seen as a serious machine, but it's filling it's own niche. The phrase "it's not a flaw, it's a feature" suits the Df well. There are a few throwback design cues, but the functionality of the camera is not about any nostalgia trip or ironic hipsterism. The old school top mounted and locking controls intentionally slow you down and create a more contemplative shooting style. The clicking, spinning dials, reasonable size and weight, solid feel, and huge viewfinder give a visual and tactile experience that encourages a relationship with the machine. The camera that you leave at home is not doing you any good. The Df begs to be taken out and used and begs to be used in full manual. It exists to put a certain kind of fun into producing photographic art.

Returning

My father's cancer began attaching him rapidly after it was discovered and he passed away of February, 12. His affairs are finally settled and I can start thinking about other things. We are going to try to have my mother's house sold in 12 months. She has her heart set on moving to an age restricted community. I will probably find a condo somewhere in the area.

I plan to start a professional photography course soon. This will help me improve my art and the professional certification is also part of my "escape plan" from my company, which I lost my passion for. My mental state has been agitated by my high caffeine intake, and I've had a few anxiety attacks. I'm drinking mostly decaf now.

 "Undergrowth"

Fujifilm X100F at ISO 400 Fuji Acros film simulation

Photography Book: Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Story by Richard Bach
Photographs by Russell Munson
c.1970

One of the best photography books isn't strictly a photography book. Richard Bach's novella is a proverb about a seagull who spends his life practicing to be the perfect aerialist but in the end becomes so much more. He is banished from his flock for practicing fast dives and aerobatics when he is expected to hover over fishing boats looking for scraps. He meets a guru, an ultimate seagull, and returns to his flock as a teacher. This book is about seeking perfection in whatever it is you do, even photography. It's a wonderful story that everyone should read.

Richard Bach is an active aerial photographer. His accompanying black and white photos of gulls are beautifully grainy with silky transitions between light and dark. They have a dreamy quality that imbues mystery into the lives of gulls.

Photography Book: The Family Of Man

In 1947, Edward Steichen became Director of the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art. The most important exhibition that he directed was "The Family of Man", which opened in 1955. The project began in 1952 and the call for entries resulted in a staggering 10,000 images for Steichen and his staff to cull down to 503 photographs from 68 countries. The Family of Man was seen world-wide as a traveling exhibition.

This is the book created to accompany the exhibition. It begins with an introduction written by Carl Sandburg. The photographs in the book follow a progression through different stages and aspects of the human experience: courtship, marriage, pregnancy, birth, childhood, work, family, celebration, war, old age, death. The book is arranged to show people from all cultures experiencing the same moments to show that we are all more the same than we are different. 

My copy of this book is an original printing and it is in exceedingly poor condition. The binding is broken and the pages are falling out. The book seems to be still in print though. at least, you can still buy new copies for normal book prices. There is even a 60th anniversary condition. It's an important document of the human experience and and even an excellent coffee table book. I highly recommend it for anyone, not just photographers. 

Photography Book: A Life In Photography by Edward Steichen

I'm in a period right now where not much is getting done with my own shooting. My father is fighting cancer. He is 88 years old now, and a little weaker every day. When I'm not at my job, which has nothing to do with photography, I'm staying close to my parents. One of my aunts passed recently, leaving behind an extensive personal library and had many great books on painting and photography. This gives me the opportunity to stay active by studying great photographers and blogging. I'm attempting a systematic approach to studying these books. I began with Stieglitz, now on to Edward Steichen. This fantastic book written by Steichen, full of quality reproductions of his work, traces his career from 1895 up to 1963. The story of Steichen's career is the story of how how the art of photography changed and developed  over the course of the early and mid 20th century.

Steichen was born in 1879 in Luxembourg and Settled in Michigan with his parents in 1881. He had one sister, Lillian, a writer, who would marry the Poet Carl Sandburg in 1908. Steichen first picked up a camera in 1895. He was bitten by the photo bug and began to teach himself printing. His first work was very atmospheric. He used his camera to capture the emotion of moments instead of attempting to make an accurate recording. He liked to shoot by moonlight and to intentionally throw his camera out of focus.

He quit a decent paying job at a lithographic company in 1900, and with a friend, he went to travel in Europe and go to art school. Stopping in New York City, he introduced himself to Alfred Stieglitz, and became involved with the Photo-Secession movement. While in France, he came up with the idea of traveling the continent and making photographic portraits of the great artists of the day. Steichen was not afraid to go dark. His photos were studies of darkness and shadow permeated by bright clusters of interest. His photos invite the views in to study the subtle detail in his shadows. 

Portrait of Auguste Rodin with Le Penseur by Steichen

When Steichen returned to America, he looked up Stieglitz in New York and eventually opened up a small portrait studio at 291 5th Avenue. 291 Would become the home of Stieglitz's "The Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession". Steichen quickly became the go-to portrait photographer of anyone-who-was-anyone in America. When the U.S. entered the first world war, he received an army commission and joined the fledgling air reconnaissance unit. He hated the war, and the fact that the photographs he was responsible for told the Army where to drop bombs on people depressed him, but the challenges of figuring out how to take sharp photographs from a bucking aircraft 10,000 feet off the ground impacted his later work.

After the war, he settled in France and entered a period of experimentation, a period he referred to as an "apprenticeship". He worked on methods of suggesting a feeling of physical weight to the objects that he photographed. Photographing natural objects, he looked at spirals and brought the idea of the "Golden Section" into photography. 

1923 began a commercial, fashion, and advertising period in which Steichen photographed for Vogue and Vanity Fair. This lasted until 1938 when the work had become routine and stifling. He spent World War Two working for the Navy Department and was placed in command of all Navy combat photography. He was on board the U.S.S. Lexington when it was damaged by a torpedo. The post-war period found Steichen as director of the photography department in the Museum of Modern Art. During this tenure, he created one of the defining exhibitions in the history of photography known as "The Family of Man". I will be exploring the accompanying book to "The Family of Man" in a later post.

From the 1880s to the 1960s, from pictoral photography to social documentary photography, Edward Stiechen was a guiding hand that led photography into the modern art form that it is today. This monograph, if you can find it a great work that anyone interested in photography should own.

Camera Review: Nikon FE2

I wanted a camera in the Nikon FM/FE/FA family as something lighter than my trusty workhorse F3. I found this at my favorite camera store in practically new condition for a mere $80. It was the deal of the century.
It's manual focus only. Focusing is easy with a combination split image and microprism focusing screen. It has manual exposure plus an aperture-priority auto setting. The meter reading inside the viewfinder is an easy to understand match-needle system. The FE2 is a little bit more advanced than the F3, shutter speeds are 8sec to 1/4000 sec. Flash sync is a handy 1/250 sec. There is a 1/250 dead battery speed. Two 3.5 volt batteries or one 3 volt battery available at any pharmacy last for months and months.
It's looks are stupendous. The FE2 and it's close kin in the Nikon lineup are pieces of photographic jewelry. Especially in silver, the looks of this precision Japanese-made machine are up their with any classic Leica. Hate me all you want, I stand by this statement.
The FE2 is an ergonomically superior camera. It feels very well constructed, solid and confidence-inspiring. Weighed on my kitchen scale, the FE2 is 559g or 1lb 3 1/4 oz, body only. With a Nikkor 50mm 1.8ais, the weight is very comfortable to carry around. It's perfectly sized for a pair of average hands. Controls are located where your hands expect them to be.  Everything moves like a well-made machine. The FE2 begs you to handle it and photograph with it. Simplicity is the word with the FE2. There are no gizmos other than what you really need. It gets out of your way to let you be creative.

If it seems like I am singing this camera's praises without mentioning anything bad about it, it's because I really can't think of anything bad about it. I only have two small critiques, neither of which bother me personally. To see everything including the meter reading, your eye has to be right up against the viewfinder, so, if you must shoot with glasses, you should try one of there cameras out before purchasing one. The camera turns on by pulling the film advance lever part way, so, if you are left-eyed, you will find yourself poking your right eye out when you try to shoot.

The following photos were taken with a Nikon FE2, 50mm Nikon Series E lens and Fuji Pro 400 H.

Photography Book: Georgia O'Keefe, a portrait by Alfred Stieglitz

An edition of this book appears to still be in publication. Mine was printed in 1978. According to O'Keefe, she first wandered into the gallery "291" in 1908. Over the years a rapport blossomed with the proprietor, Mr. Steiglitz until, in 1917, he made his first photograph of her. Stieglitz's idea of a "portrait" was not that it should be a single image, but a study over a long period of time showing multiple aspects of his subject. This is a book of fifty photographs made between 1917 and 1933 chosen by Georgia O'Keefe for a showing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.. This collection shows the evolution of Stieglitz's photographic style and is a study of the decades-long relationship between Stieglitz and O'Keefe, two great artistic talents.