The year 2013 saw the camera market being flooded by retro-styled cameras of all shapes, sizes and types. Fuji and Olympus dominated that scene by adding the retro styling to almost all of their cameras, from simple point-and-shoots to mirrorless and compact-system-cameras (CSCs).

Somehow, the big guns, Canon and Nikon, had stayed away from the whole blast-from-the-past trend. Until now, that is – Nikon has now added the new Df to its portfolio, which harks back to its own F-series of cameras. For those who don’t know what the F-series was all about, it was one of the most ‘serious’ cameras of its time. Those cameras offered all the manual functions, with complete mechanical dials and made sure that they were never bulky.

The new Nikon Df follows the same philosophy, and brings the retro styling and functionality in a full-frame DSLR body. It has clearly been purpose-built for those who love photography as an art, and as a science. The obvious question, then, that arose was this - the pricing, of course, is a bit steep, so does it deliver performance worth that kind of money?

What is it? By all means, it is a DSLR. But as mentioned before, it’s got that retro twist to it. It’s got the whole metal and leatherette styling, with two colour options available – silver and black, and black and black. Sure, it’s thicker, taller and wider than FM2 or FM10, even heavier, but by DSLR standards it is actually compact.

Considering the kind of still image technology that the Df packs, it is quite comfortably sized. For comparison, it has the tech from the Nikon D4, the flagship DSLR, and is sized roughly around the D600, a prosumer model. That, in our opinion is quite desirable.

The craftsmanship on the Df is simply remarkable. The mechanical dials are all metal, and crafted with extreme precision. There’s just a tiny digital window on top which gives only the most basic details. The P, S, A and M mode dial has to be lifted to be turned, just like retro cameras. They have a nicely audible and tactile feedback when they slot into place. The numbers and letters on the dials are neither too big, nor too small, and the paint looks like it’ll last for a long time to come.

That said, there are a few basic problems with the dials. The dials on the left side, the ISO and exposure compensation, which are stacked on top of each other, have locks that make quick movement impossible. The dials are crafted so well, that there is no question of moving them accidentally, so the locks are not just redundant but also cumbersome. Also, the front function dial is a bit too stiff, and moving it around to change the f-number is bit of a pain.

At the rear is a standard DSLR layout that runs common in almost all Nikon cameras. You get a 3.2-inch LCD screen and standard function buttons for Menu, White Balance, Live View Mode etc. On the whole, the camera feels quite good to hold, has a solid build, and has the right dimensions and weight for quick shooting.

How does it shoot? Once you get the hang of all the controls, which is fairly easy, you can start shooting on the Df as you would with any other camera. Yes, if you are new to the kind of photography where all parameters have to be set by the users themselves, it might take some getting used to.

Inside the body is a 16.2-megapixel full-frame FX CMOS sensor and the reliable EXPEED 3 image processing engine with an ISO range of 100 – 12800. The sensor is straight out of the flagship D4, and delivers stunning image quality. Sure, it’s no pixel packer like that of the D600, but the images produced were extremely sharp and rich in details. The JPEGs had typical Nikon colour reproduction, with a little bias towards yellow.

We used the AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G (Special Edition), along with the 39-point AF system. We found the AF system to be reasonably good. It struggled in low light conditions, but it is very fast in good to moderate ambient light conditions, even with a lot of different contrasting shades of subjects in the frame. There is good noise suppression, and we found that even images taken at ISO 12800 were quite usable.

Verdict The Nikon Df is a truly remarkable camera for anyone who loves the purest form of photography. The image quality is straight out of the flagship D4 model, and the body is compact. It’s a killer combination. There’s s good deal of reverse compatibility in terms of lenses, and even a few of the film SLR lenses can be used. But it doesn’t have movie modes, and Nikon says that it has been omitted keeping in mind that the body needs to be simple and small. Considering the fact that it is a FX format camera, it was going to be expensive, but the nearly Rs 2 lakh price point (with the Special Edition 50mm lens) is a bit too steep for just retro styling.

Rs 1,83,950 (Body only)

Love – Retro styling and functionality; brilliant image quality

Hate – No video; pricey considering features