Saying goodbye to Df...

[Bill De Jager]

How many such hobbled bodies do you think Nikon would sell light of current fodies having the ability to be operated manually, and produce monochrome images as well?

Which is why I suggested we'll never see such a thing.  The market isn't there to support the R&D cost or even fixed manufacturing costs. Leica can do it as a vanity project for sales to the rich, but any sensible company operating in the normal interchangeable-lens camera market wouldn't.

Nobody is being forced to use AF, or shoot color, AFAIK, or did I miss something?

The point would be a smaller and simpler body, and a specialized sensor as noted by MILLIREHM. With a monochrome sensor the raw files can be processed without the interpolation and blurring inherent in demosaicing.  That allows you to get the full resolution possible from a given array of pixels, unlike any color sensor (other than the Foveon from Sigma). You can actually purchase cameras modified to have a monochrome sensor from maxmax.com but they are very expensive.

[chambeshi]

Nikon has had its ups and downs in the ILC industry. The company has demonstrated impressive resilience. Nikon recently stated they are concentrating on the higher-end ie more profitable hobbyist and Pro markets with respect to the ILC market. So we should not underestimate the potential for future cameras designed to tempt the upgrader, and attract a switch across brands

It's instructive to consider, for example, the poor representation of the F system among Pros at the Beijing Olympics (2008), which  then recovered significantly by London 2012. To quote from a 2014 interview with Hidehiko Tanaka [see pdf],  then President of Nikon UK in 2014 (he's moved to run Nikon Thailand since):

“The Beijing Olympic Games, held in 2008, had been far from a success for Nikon in terms of their representation among the ranks of professional photographers, so in his role as worldwide head of NPS, the pressure to reverse the situation at the 2012 Games was enormous…. Opening ceremony of London 2012 more than 55% of the accredited professional photographers at the Games were using Nikon equipment.”
“As I have this sort of background, I believe I have a better understanding of the needs of photographers and of course I have very good connections to our headquarters, which enables me to pass on information to the relevant people. Luckily I have a very strong NPS team here in the UK and as I speak English I am able to communicate with both them and the professional photographers we support, so I receive direct feedback. When I was head of NPS in Japan we had regular meetings with professionals to discuss our products and seek ways of improving them. This is how features such as Ethernet connections and wireless transmission came about and, if you think of the size of the WT-4 Wireless Transmitter and then the much smaller size of its successor, the WT-5, this is one example of the progress such collaboration can deliver.”

However, the dialogue with established photographers could be broadened and consolidated - above all to be institutionalized firmly with the established channel to submit reasoned requests and constructive criticism. It is far too ad hoc and localized (the regional websites confirm this persisting problem with the company). Cliquey in fact, and subject to the whims/climate of regional initiatives.

[Akshay]

I was walking by a camera shop with its depressed sales staff hanging around with no customers and frankly given how the retail economy is doing, perhaps last few months of existence as a business. 
Out of interested I asked about Nikon Df stock. They did have 1 set and at a price even lower than I had bot it 2 years ago ( and foolishly sold 5 months ago). To put in perspective it was few 100 $ above great condition used bodies. So i bought it! Now i m happy again.

Using both the Df and Z6 now and have started to appreciate the Z6 a little bit more too. But that Df sensor is so sublime.

[Kenneth Rich]

Akshay's comment on saying goodbye to the Df is now a week old and the latest reply to any comment on CAMERA TALK, and I am wondering if the inaction is because everyone is out waving goodbye to the dear old Df.

[Birna Rørslett]

Lots of other commitments, but those do not include waving 'goodbye' to the Df .... It sits silently and patiently waiting for me to get through the publishing chores that bog me down at present. So I promised it a spin in the weekend.

[Bent Hjarbo]

I was actually out last night with the Df, for som blue hour and night shots. ( I also used my Z6  )
But get less use after the Z6 entered the house, is is easy to use with MF Nikkors, but the Df, is way more compact with the same lenses

[Airy]

145 shots with the Df since Sept. 1st, despite my nearly permanent confinement... another thread coming up.