Talk me out of "NAS" in regards to a DF (long read)

[Bill De Jager]

Erik, thanks for the job you do as a moderator.  That can't be easy at times.

[Erik Lund]

Thank you on behalf of all the moderators here


Thankfully there is not much to moderate currently 

[Ilkka Nissilä]

I compared the D7100 and D810 with several telephoto lenses with and without EFCS a few years ago. I found that the D7100's shutter caused less vibration than the D810's mechanical shutter but with EFCS the D810 could surpass the D810 can avoid the problem. What I found was also that a large an heavy lens (200/2 II) was less prone to suffer loss of sharpness due to the shutter vibrations than a lightweight 70-200/4. I do not recall  comparing vibrations but I would expect the smaller DX mirror to cause less of a vibration problem than an FX mirror, all other things equal. The D810 has a newer mirror mechanism which uses a motor instead of spring, reducing vibrations by implementing a slowing down of the movement before the end of travel. It would have been interesting to see if the improved mechanism to moving the mirror reduced FX mirror shake down to DX levels or less.

Given similar technology used for the shutter and mirror, I would expect a DX camera to have the advantage in resolving fine detail with a given lens if EFCS is not used. EFCS (and M-UP) should make the problem largely go away though the second curtain causes a tiny bit of shake which was noticeable with a 500mm lens (200-500), but it is much less of an issue than the effect of the first curtain.

The DX cameras have an additional advantage of relative quietness. I think DX is quite elegant for tele and macro work. I sold my D7100 because I was running into its buffer limits often and EFCS gave the D810 an edge in macro. However, today there is the D500 which also has EFCS. Alas, as it costs more.

I think for hand held shooting, the effects of mirror and shutter shake are best avoided by using a fast shutter speed. In mirrorless cameras, electronic shutter can also be used with viewfinder active so that is an important advantage for some types of work. I find I usually don't need such high resolution in my low light hand held indoor photography that I would be concerned about mirror and shutter shake; the print size isn't going to be huge and relevant content is usually human expressions which benefit from being frozen by a fast shutter speed. I think the sound of the camera is a bigger concern for me than shake for this type of photography.

[Frank Fremerey]

The cost of a refurbished DF is well...."kinda' high. Is the DF's 16mp/FF the magic combination, or just another point of future complaint? For $2k, in my neck of the woods can buy a semi-reliable automobile. I tried the "new 24mp half frame, Nikon's DX flagship" & it failed, miserably.

I did not like the D100, D200 and D300 at all. I feel the D300 is still the best of the three but all have in common that the ground glass is very unreliable when it comes to manual focus. Plus the D300 / D300s are extremely slow with 14-Bit-NEFs.

I bought a D3 instead of the D300 which really hurt me financially at the time (April 2008) but paid off later.

I had a D7000 and my experience was similar to yours with the D7100. BUT: This may well have been trouble with the one I had. I should have had her serviced till she worked properly. I guess it was my fault to think it was my fault not a simple technical defect. I know people who got their D7xxx to work flawlessly even in semi pro or pro environments as a second body. Did not work for me.

The best Nikon camera currently when it comes to price/performance ratio a used D600. The IQ ist still out of this world and more of less the same as the IQ of the D810. At the third of the price and Nikon still exchanges the shutter unit fror free if you ask them. The ground glass is good for manual focus if you practice a bit.

On the same level but with speed in mind the D500 performs. She runs circles around the D3 in EVERY SINGLE RESPECT, except for some comfort functions like voice notes or dedicated lock button.

For me the combination of D500 anhd D600 as a two-body-system with a set of primes makes me really happy every day.

Wishes for the D600 replacement (D820?) would be a dedicated lock button, the D500 ground glass, the D500 body ergonomics, the D500 color consistency & White Balance, D500 speed and Auto Focus and --- please --- the same battery extension!!!