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Customizing the Df


christian_fox

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<p>I am new to the digital SLR. I favor a purist mechanical camera like the Nikon F, so there is a desire to tame modern tools and render them as simple platforms as possible, then be able to change an internal capability if needed. This is probably why it has taken me so long to get into the digital world beyond P&S. </p>

<p>As far as customizing the Df, I have been able to turn-off the red focus bracket and focus point illuminator, as I would only need it when focusing on a black jacket in a closet. While most would consider this a minor thing, I don't like distractions. </p>

<p>I like to take the time think about the metering variables and review viewfinder information, so I set the meter to remain on for 30 seconds. In time, I will learn how to meter naturally beyond Sunny 16. With ISO as a new variable, is there a revised Sunny 16 rule for the digital world?</p>

<p>My preference is to setup the Df in manual mode with a Non-AI lens, in this case, a 1972 or so Nikkor-H 85/1.8. This day of age, I would expect a retro digital camera to read the Non-AI lens aperture as I change it manually, but I will deal with notifying the Df the change I made on the lens. Actually, I don't bother to change the lens aperture until I have metered the calculated aperture in the Df and reach a happy value, then I change the lens aperture before shooting. </p>

<p>I set the Df to limit the shutter speed close to the focal length of the lens to minimize camera shake. By setting ISO to auto, I get an immediate recommended meter reading after selecting the aperture in the sub command dial. BTW, this dial is awfully stiff for my taste, as the position and configuration of this dial does not need protection.</p>

<p>I want the focus point (a single box) to remain on the VF screen to compare my eye to the focus confirmation light, but I would like to turn-off the wide focus bracket on the screen, as I do not use it. I still don't need the focus bracket if I ever need to move the focus point around. </p>

<p>Has anyone been able to turn-off the wide Df focus bracket (without removing the battery, of course)?</p>

<p> </p>

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<p>This day of age, I would expect a retro digital camera to read the Non-AI lens aperture as I change it manually</p>

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<p>And it would accomplish this how? There is an easy way out though - just Ai the lens!</p>

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<p>Has anyone been able to turn-off the wide Df focus bracket</p>

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<p>AFAIK, there's only an option to turn it off for playback</p>

 

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<p>This day of age, I would expect a retro digital camera to read the Non-AI lens aperture as I change it manually</p>

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<p>Exactly in this day of the electronic/digital age how can you expect the camera to interface with a purely mechanical coupling?</p>

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<p>From the Nikon web page:</p>

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<p>Combined CPU and AI (collapsible metering coupling lever). - are compatible</p>

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<p>I guess that most more expensive Nikon dsrls can measure with manual lenses.</p>

<p>See if there is a menu option where you set the lens aperture to be the controlling element instead the front/side wheel. That is usually possible to do. You might also benefit from adding your lens in the manual lens selection menu.</p>

<p>An old piece of advise tells one to eat the elephant piece by piece. Current dslrs have settings well beyond the first month needs.</p>

 

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<p>Nikon could have engineered an electronic ADR that reads numbers. <br>

Kari, my Non-AI lens is completely disconnected from the camera, so I don't think I can the aperture can be a controlling element. I do save the lens in the camera's settings so it can calculate a meter recommendation. </p>

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<p>See</p>

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<p>http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/dslr/df/compatibility02.htm</p>

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<p>for compatibility of non-cpu lenses. Non-Ai lenses are mentioned. Also the manual shoud have that info available. One sentence explains how to operate. If I got it this time, you eg. set the aperture on the lens and match the camera setting to that.</p>

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<p>Can be used only if Non-CPU lens data has been used to specify lens focal length and maximum aperture and to set exposure meter coupling to Non-AI lens. Match camera aperture setting to value selected with lens aperture ring.</p>

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<p>I would train and test with a fixed ISO value first to keep things simpler.</p>

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<p>Kari!<br>

I think Christian understood how to use preAI lens but he doesn't like having to set the aperture on the ring and then using the front dial to set the matching aperture. I think Christen thought that Nikon oughta be able to put in a tiny camera in front of the viewfinder looking at the aperture ring, capture the f number and using OCR to transfer the f number to the metering circuit. </p>

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<p>Yes BeBu, I was discussing how Nikon designed the Df, and contemplating how they could have solved old problems. I'm sure an advanced ADR with OCR reading would not be worth the cost, given so few who have the nerve to use Non-AI lenses in the first place. Its a retro camera, so I felt free to comment - its difficult to tame a classic camera guy that loves old chrome. My oldest camera is a Nikon S and it looks and feels like a old car. </p>

<p>BTW, I play with the Df calculated meter based on my lens' settings first, then when I like the suggested exposure, I change my lens aperture as a last step. I am wasting my time if I change the lens aperture incrementally in sync with the camera's calculated meter.</p>

<p>I am having fun with the Df, but it is also overwhelming - I am trying to tuck its complexity under the hood as much as possible. I have had a discussion with one user who is so experienced with exposure, he ignores the meter altogether and enjoys the camera in manual mode with AI modified or AF lenses and the dials on top. </p>

<p> </p>

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<p>There is a better way than to use sunny 16.<br /> It's based on the APEX system and using EV (exposure value).</p>

<p>EV is an exposure value and is usually given at ISO 100. It's indirectly a measure of light level, illumination on a subject if you so will. It can be translated into lux or footcandles.</p>

<p>EV 0 is defined as 1 second exposure at f1 and ISO 100. Each EV is exactly the same as one stop. So EV1 is one stop more light than EV 0.</p>

<p>Sunny 16 is the same as EV15.</p>

<p>On a real cloudy and rainy day you might get EV10. Otherwise during daylight light levels are going to be between EV 10 to EV 15.</p>

<p>Indoors a normal indoor lighting level is EV5. A little more cozy in the evening and light levels can drop down to EV3 or so.<br /> When you start getting down to EV1 and lower it is starting to get hard to see where you are putting your feet. So EV 1 to EV 6 is where indoor shooting will normally take place.</p>

<p>So how do you use this? Well, you look at the light and guesstimate the light levels. Using a incident lightmeter at first will make you better at guessing. After some practice you can guesstimate pretty accurately. Within a stop or so will become the norm.</p>

<p>After knowing the EV you just need to figure out the camera settings. You can do it with the table below or in your head with some practice.</p>

<p>It goes something like this:<br /> All right, I'm going to shoot this portrait in the sun. EV is about 15 and I want to shoot at f2.8 for shallow DoF. ISO 100 is the lowest my camera can go. f2.8 is 3 stops down from f1 which means that I have to drop the exposure another 12 stops with my shutter speed. 12 stops is 1/4000s so that's what I'll shoot at.</p>

<p>I take a few shots and determine I need to add some flash. Hmm, flash sync speed is 1/250s so I'll drop down to that to get maximum flash power to sun capability. 1/250s is 4 stops down from 1/4000 so I have 4 stops I need to get rid of. Hmm, either I need 4 stops of ND filter to keep shooting at f2.8. Hmm let's put on my 3 stop ND filter and stop down to f4.</p>

<p>It sounds complicated but it actually pretty easy and it takes longer to write it than to do it.<br>

Looking at the table or figuring it out in our head, we can add and subtract them to get the EV number.</p>

<p>For example say I'm shooting inside and I know that EV5 is typical indoor lighting. I know I need at least 1/30s to keep subject motion under control. How much ISO do I need to be able to shoot with my f4 lens wide open? Maybe I need to bring a prime instead? Let's find out.</p>

<p>EV5 is the light level we have. If we add the numbers from the aperture and shutter speed and subtract the ISO we should get zero. So 1/30s is 5 stops down and f4 is 4 stops down. To end up at EV5 we need to increase the sensitivity 4 stops (5+4=9 stops down, 9-4=5EV). 4 stops is the same as ISO1600. So ISO1600, f4 and 1/30s is our exposure.</p>

<p>It can of course also be used in other ways. For instance say you have a lens that is f5.6 at the long end, say 200mm. You want to stick to 1/250s or faster and don't want to go higher than ISO3200 on your camera. How dark can it be for you to shoot? Well, f5.6 is 5, 1/250s is 8, that's 13 stops. ISO3200 is 5 so that's 13-5=8 stops left. So EV8 is the minimum light level. Basically this end up being a outdoor shooting scenario and you can forget bring that f5.6 zoom to anything indoors.</p>

<p>This is an ISO100 based variation of the APEX system. The APEX system was once proposed to replace the aperture and shutter speed with more human numbers to aid in figuring out the correct exposure and simplify exposure calculations. So the lens should be marked 5 on the aperture instead of f/5.6.</p>

<p>This was of course a long time ago and it never took off as we eventually got cameras that could be used by anyone without even knowing what the aperture is or how a camera works. It's however used to in the EXIF tags in each image file.</p>

<p>With digital cameras you could find the correct exposure by trial and error if you don't have an in-camera metering system. Or use an external light meter.</p>

<p>Still, it's a useful skill if you can do it. It saves time. I use it when shooting film as the cameras I have don't meter with AI lenses or don't have meters at all. And I have some dSLRs that don't meter with AI lenses. It's also useful when you're contemplating different shooting scenarios. Is also useful because it forces you to actually start looking at the light and think about the light.</p>

<p> </p><div>00dSwc-558253784.jpg.bf68b113a01af0cfeb882e45216eb431.jpg</div>

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<p>To do it in your head you need to learn the table above. Or actually not the entire thing.</p>

<p>You see, ISO setting are not some random numbers. They are an exponential series, for instance starting 1 and then doubling the number each time you get: 1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024,2048,4096,8192 etc. Looking again at the numbers and add 2 zeros you get 100,200,400,800,1600 etc. So that's the ISO numbers.</p>

<p>It's the same series with the shutter speed. 1s, 1/2s 1/4s, 1/8s etc. You see the 1,2,4,8 series? What happens next is just rounding. The shutter speed are really 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, 1/128, 1/256 etc. but they are rounded to more human numbers 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250 etc.</p>

<p>Finally we have the f-stop series. It's more tricky because the f-stop number is related to the diameter of the aperture opening. If we double the diameter we quadruple the amount of light we let in. That's the same as two stops. But each f-stop should be only one stop so the f-stops are not going f1, f2, f4, f8, f16 (1,2,4,8 series) but are making steps in between so we get f1, f1.4, f2, f2.8, f4, f5.6, f8, f11, f16 etc. That's why the f-stops are funky looking.</p>

<p>If you want to be able to do this fast in your head you need to learn the 1,2,4,8 series by heart and know that 16 is the same as 4 and 256 is 8. That covers the ISO and shutter speeds. F-stops are probably easier to just learn for themselves. For example f1.4 is 1, f2 is 2 and f2.8 is 3, f4 is 4 and f5.6 is 5. That's almost like rounding of the f-stop number for the first ones. And then you just need to remember the others.</p>

<p>To me this is the purist approach of shooting. No meter, no nothing, Just what the eye sees and the hand does.</p>

<p>Next step is to estimate the focusing distance and dial it on on the scale on the lens. That takes replaces the AF.<br /> And finally you learn the coverage of your lens based on the focal length and that takes care of the viewfinder. Shooting without exposure meter, without autofocus and without looking through a viewfinder. That's puts us in the 1930s or so. It's how I imagine press photographers shooting Speed Graphics worked.</p>

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<p>Good luck on that, BeBu! </p>

<p>I use a few old MF lenses on my D3200, and the distance scale is truly helpful in second-guessing the poor viewfinder with wider angle lenses, but I must say that I'd rather have a better viewfinder and abandon purity. I just don't want to have to pay for it. </p>

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<p>Cine lenses have real distance markings because they use distance to get the focus right when making movies and high end video production. No autofocus in sight for that kind of shooting.</p>

<p>But one way to get around it is to put white tape on the lens (the kind that is made for writing on it) and make your own distance markings. White background with black markings is actually a lot easier to see than a black background with white markings. This works fine for manual focus lenses.</p>

<p>Modern AF lenses have barely any marking at all and I think that is on purpose. I think it's because the back focus needs to be absolutely perfect (or adjustable) for the distance markings to be right on. And they are not and that is why we have AF fine tune to compensate for imperfections in the manufacturing process. That's also why the cameras don't show focus distance in the viewfinder.</p>

<p>Focusing by distance is great when your shooting from odd positions with manual focus lenses. Also good when it's to freaking dark to focus through the viewfinder.</p>

<p>There is also a relationship between framing and distance when the focal length is constant. So for instance if you shoot 3/4 length portraits on the fly and you frame them the same, then the distance and focus is also the same.</p>

<p>Good way to take photos of people really fast because you preset the focus and of course the exposure and then when you are at the right distance you just raise your camera to your eye and shoot immediately when you framed the picture. I'm not familiar with how streetphotographer Bruce Gilden work but that would be one way to take the pictures he does.</p>

<p> </p>

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<p>"In time, I will learn how to meter naturally beyond Sunny 16."</p>

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<p>Christian, do you mean by that, that you hope to be able to judge exposures by eye? If so, that's a vain hope. The human eye is a very poor judge of absolute brightness levels, no matter how you try to train it. Besides, there's a saying - "No point in owning a dog and barking yourself." Meaning that you've bought a camera with a light meter built in, so you might as well make use of it. Or buy a separate handheld meter if you want a bit more flexibility.</p>

<p>Train your eye by all means, but train it in the art of composition and of seeing and anticipating a good picture.</p>

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<p>"This day of age, I would expect a retro digital camera to read the Non-AI lens aperture as I change it manually........"</p>

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<p>Why would you expect the camera to do that? When you've made the deliberate choice to use an antiquated lens that <em>can't</em> communicate the aperture to the camera. That's what non-AI means - a lens with no Auto Indexing for the aperture.</p>

<p>After having lived through an era when there was almost no camera automation, my advice is to embrace all the modern facilities we've been given. Not fight against them with a Luddite mentality. Use the technology you've bought to simplify picture-making, not as an obstacle to be overcome or as some nerdy mental exercise. There's no great merit in making the mechanics of exposure and camera use difficult for yourself. It really won't show in the pictures you make.</p>

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<p>Well, Rodeo Joe, I can easily embrace automation. I have already embraced the Df main command dial - so prevalent in today's digital cameras (not the high torque vertical sub command dial), so in time that will happen. What I take with me is Pete's meter-less concepts when I feel like going back to my Nikon F for a change. </p>

<p>Do take into consideration that some of us may admire lenses and cameras more than taking pictures for a while, then get back into a mood with images for a while. There is something unique about classic cameras and quality build (I grew up in 60's, so there was plenty of old stuff around). When I a find an interesting theme again and take pictures, I could easily use an AF lens in manual mode to embrace more of the Df automation.</p>

<p>Sometimes Nikon does the funniest things when they make a retro camera. The Nikon S3 2000 still has a razor-sharp focus wheel! I may have had a bad sample at the time, but the VF flare was surprisingly strong and the RF patch was barely recognizable. In comparison, my heavy chrome Nikon S has a very stable focus mechanism despite its pinhole VF. If I can only find a magnifying diopter for it.<br>

</p>

<p> </p>

<p> </p>

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<p>I don't think you can train your eyes to judge exposure but you can train your brain to judge exposure. Exposure judging is not looking to see how bright the light is but rather the condition of the light. With sunlight, judge by determine how it's blocked or reflected. </p>
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<p>This day of age, I would expect a retro digital camera to read the Non-AI lens aperture</p>

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<p><br /><br />AI or the pre AI coupling does not tell the camera the actual aperture, it's position just tells the camera's meter how many stops it is set away from wide open to compensate for the fact that it is wide open for viewing and metering but will stop down on pressing the shutter.</p>

<p>e.g. an f1.4 lens stopped down to f2.8 will indicate the same as an f4 lens stopped down to f8. In both cases it's a two stop difference which is all the meter needs to know.</p>

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<p>At the latitude where I live, there's a full stop of difference between the brightness of full, unobscured midday sunlight in midwinter and midsummer (measured at anywhere between ~650 to 1400 Lux). So just looking to see if the sun's out doesn't get me anywhere close to an accurate exposure. When the atmosphere is hazy or cloudy it's even more variable. So I would have to remember a whole range of lighting conditions and match them to a time of year and day, or carry a table of variables around with me that'd take around 2 minutes to fish out and correlate. By which time the light may well have changed. For £25 (about $40 US) I can buy a perfectly serviceable used lightmeter that'll slip in my pocket. Or just use the meter that's built into the camera and save my brain space for something else.</p>

<p>Of course a meter doesn't tell you how the indicated exposure needs to be adjusted to render the subject the way you want it to look. That's where the brain power and inner vision needs to be applied. Not in mechanically following a spurious table of exposure values.</p>

<p>Edited PS: FWIW a light haze across the sun will actually <em>brighten</em> the measured incident light by spreading the area of sunlight across the sky. This sort of irrational behaviour of light is what makes it so fascinating and simultaneously difficult to judge. A lightmeter is your friend - use it!</p>

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<p>Belatedly, but since it's a thread on my favourite camera ( :-) )... one of my big objections to the Df is that Nikon seemed to go out of their way to accommodate older lenses, but then did a half-baked job on pre-AI support.<br />

<br />

There are two ways they could have supported metering without requiring the aperture to be set in two places (and without requiring OCR, which I accept is an option):</p>

 

<ul>

<li>Use the F-mount lens "bunny ears" (and let the user do a metering shuffle, like on an original F with a Photomic prism, if you don't want to rely on the pre-set maximum in the menu). Other than that it would cost and weighed more to put the feeler in the finder and it might clash with tilt-shift lenses (I'm sure it could fold), I can't see a reason not to have included this.</li>

<li>Support stop-down (or even open-loop, if you want shutter priority) metering - with some loss in accuracy or matrix, but no reduction in functionality compared with the original F/F2.</li>

</ul>

 

<p>I've also always found it nonsensical that AI-S lenses can't use the in-camera control of the aperture (once the camera knows the lens's maximum aperture), because the distinction between AI and AI-S (other than extra knobs on the lens) is that the aperture is linear, like all AF lenses. Not that this is a specific limitation of the Df, but it would have been a nice camera for them to fix it on. Reading the maximum aperture indexing post on AI-S lenses so you don't have to enter the aperture manually would have been nice, too. And am I right in saying the Df (like other DSLRs) has no mechanical mirror lock-up for invasive fish-eyes?<br />

<br />

Anyway. I don't have a Df or any pre-AI lenses, but I also don't buy that - if the aim was a camera for use with historical lenses - it was impossible for Nikon to add more support.<br />

<br />

BeBu: Interesting idea about the distance scale. You'd only get what (AF-D) lenses told you were the distance, of course, which will be a bit temperature-dependent at best and not all that accurate at worst (I believe I've seen a thread on the granularity of distance encoders), but it would be interesting to have. I was always a little envious of the low-end Nikons that have a more informative digital rangefinder (by using the exposure display) than the high-end ones (with three dedicated segments) have. I'd really like focus bracketing as an in-camera option, too.<br />

<br />

For what it's worth, I just use sunny 16 and scale from there, on the rare occasions that I'm not using the meter. I tend to underexpose by default in the interests of not blowing highlights, since recent Nikons are really good at recovering shadows (another feature request: add exposure compensation in JPEG compared with whatever the raw file is recording). But usually, I trust the electronics. I was shooting at a falconry centre yesterday, and had wildly variable lighting conditions; mostly it did okay, but I'll be doing some raw recovery even so.</p>

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<p>It's based on the APEX system and using EV (exposure value).</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Never even heard of that - thanks for the education. Not that I will get much use out of it - I just use the meter that's in the camera. For some time, I was shooting with a D200 whose meter had failed - so I had to guess the "correct exposure". Whenever that didn't turn out right, there was always the option to use two items that are available with every DSLR: take a shot and look at the image and look at the histogram. Then adjust your parameters and shoot again. Those two options weren't available when shooting film - and they don't require memorizing tables, doing calculations, or carrying an external lightmeter.</p>

<p>Camera/OCR for ADR: cost factor aside - providing a "one-stop" resolution seems a bit coarse. And don't forget to add a "floodlight" so that contraption can work at low light levels.</p>

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<p>half-baked job on pre-AI support</p>

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<p>Enabling stop-down metering appears to be a quite sensible solution - wonder why Nikon didn't take that route?</p>

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<p>metering shuffle</p>

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<p>Oh yeah, the old "ritsch-ratsch" - true nostalgia. Though I have to admit that I am neither old enough nor nostalgic enough to have experienced it myself - my first camera purchase dates two years after the Ai introduction.</p>

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<blockquote>Camera/OCR for ADR: cost factor aside - providing a "one-stop" resolution seems a bit coarse. And don't forget to add a "floodlight" so that contraption can work at low light levels.</blockquote>

 

<p>Agreed. I'd imagined an infrared LED shining down from the finder, so that you don't have a weird light shining out on your subject. But if it works with hand-written numbers (as seen on some conversions), I'll be impressed!</p>

 

<blockquote>Enabling stop-down metering appears to be a quite sensible solution - wonder why Nikon didn't take that route?</blockquote>

 

<p>I've no idea. The F5 and F6 can do it just fine, while still having a matrix meter. allegedly (I've never tried). I <i>have</i> used cameras with manual stop-down lenses (no aperture lever). Actually, I guess it might be an issue with driving the mirror and aperture lever separately, because you'd still want to waggle the aperture lever to do the stopping down, but you'd still want the mirror down so that you can meter. The D3 series, D4 series, D750 and D8x0 can move their aperture lever separately from the mirror - although I've only heard of it being done so that you can change aperture in live view/video, not move the aperture while the mirror is still down. Still, it shouldn't be rocket science. I vaguely suspect that it might be extra expense on the Df, which I believe saved most of the novelty for the outside. (That may be unfair - I thought the Df had essentially the D600's shutter, but dpreview claim a 1/250 flash sync, vs 1/200 from the D600.)</p>

 

<blockquote>Oh yeah, the old "ritsch-ratsch" - true nostalgia. Though I have to admit that I am neither old enough nor nostalgic enough to have experienced it myself - my first camera purchase dates two years after the Ai introduction.</blockquote>

 

<p>:-) I can't claim experience either. My first Nikon camera was a D700, with an F5 following shortly. My first Canon SLR was a 300D (digital Rebel), with an Eos 500 and an Eos 620 to follow. So for all I know the rabbit ears were horrible to use - but it's still not true that there's "no way to communicate with the camera". I'd still like to see Nikon make a body that can support absolutely everything that the F mount has ever been able to do, on a premium model. I'm sure some collectors would buy one. (I don't claim to be one, but - like the 6mm f/2.8 - I'd be glad that it exists.)</p>

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<blockquote>

<p>I'd imagined an infrared LED shining down from the finder</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Just realized two hurdles on the OCR/ADR path: 1) non-Ai lenses lack the second set of aperture numbers that enabled the optical ADR on the film bodies. The primary scale is quite far removed from the prism - so there could be issues with the angle of sight. 2) The rabbit ears block the view to most of that sole aperture scale anyway - so not only an angle issue but line-of-sight too. In light of this, I'd think it's a non-starter. Sure one could remove the rabbit ears - they have no functionality anyway - but I can imagine that purists shy away from "defacing" a lens like that (otherwise they may as well Ai it and dispose of the issue altogether).</p>

 

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<p>I <em>have</em> used cameras with manual stop-down lenses (no aperture lever)</p>

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<p>I do it all the time with my M-mount lenses adapted to the Sony A7. Losing the automatic diaphragm takes some getting used too - and requires some additional steps in the picture-making process. Set lens to wide open to focus, then set to working aperture for metering. Given the rather high vignetting of many M-mount lenses wide open, it appears that a meter reading at working aperture might actually be a bit more accurate than one that "extrapolates" from a reading with a wide-open aperture.</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>Actually, I guess it might be an issue with driving the mirror and aperture lever separately</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Not sure I can follow - on the film cameras, depressing the DOF preview stopped the lens down and the meter could read at working aperture - the mirror wasn't doing anything in that scenario. </p>

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<p>Those Lux figures I quoted earlier should have read "~65,000 to 140,000 Lux". I know the weather's been a bit dull lately, but not <em>that</em> dull. I was thinking of the figures I see on my digital Luxmeter on its x100 range without adding the extra zeroes. Sorry!</p>

<p>Andrew, I wouldn't worry about how Nikon could have made the Df backwardly compatible with pre-Ai lenses. They didn't, and that's that. The whole point is that they replaced the outmoded prong system with something more streamlined and flexible that's stood the test of over 40 years time. Plus they provided an at-cost upgrade service to convert lenses to AI for many years after its introduction. So tough luck on anyone that didn't take advantage of it. Admittedly the AI coupler doesn't actually transmit any more information than the old tine and prong system. Well, that's not quite true. The AI ring does tell the camera whether a non-G lens is stopped to its minimum aperture and provides the 'FEE' error if not. (I've just discovered that the same feature can be enabled on Dandelion chips, but it requires some obscurely documented programming.)</p>

<p>What I would worry about is Nikon's apparent recent volte-face on backward compatibility, with the replacement of a perfectly serviceable and reliable mechanical iris coupler by an electrical solenoid/motor that has an unproven history of reliability. My guess is that the miniaturised aperture actuator will be just one more delicate thing to go wrong, since the aperture still has to be physically moved to close it.</p>

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