Nikon Df review

Nikon Df Sensor and Autofocus

Inside, there’s the same 16.2-megapixel full-frame sensor that appears in Nikon’s flagship D4. The D4 – and its sensor – are a couple of years old now, but the moderate resolution on such a large sensor bodes well for noise levels. The pentaprism viewfinder is the same as in its full-frame peers with a 0.7x magnification and 100% field of view, giving a big, bright view of the scene in front of the lens.

It’s accompanied by the same 39-point autofocus sensor as the D610, with nine cross-type sensors for increased sensitivity. This is essentially the same autofocus sensor that appears on the consumer-grade Nikon D5300. While it’s a good fit for a cropped-sensor SLR, on a full-frame model the autofocus points are bunched together in the centre of the frame too much for our liking. It’s probably the D610’s weakest feature, and a big disappointment on the pricier Df.

We also found that this autofocus sensor struggled to lock onto subjects in low light, not least because there’s no autofocus assist lamp. It coped reasonably well with high-contrast subjects under household artificial light, but vague and moving subjects proved trickier. Autofocus sensitivity is quoted at -1 EV, which falls short of the -2 EV sensitivity of other cameras at this price, such as the Nikon D800 and Canon 5D Mark III, and the cheaper Canon EOS 6D‘s -3 EV sensitivity.

Focusing issues aside, shot-to-shot performance was excellent at 0.3 seconds. The 5.4fps continuous performance is a tad disappointing, though; the cheaper, higher-resolution D610 managed 6fps. At least there’s a decent-sized buffer, lasting for 30 JPEGs or 22 RAW frames before slowing to the speed of the card.