asiafish
All-Pro
Hello all. I live mostly on the sister forum Leicaplace and call the Leica M Monochrom my primary camera. Well, like some here (and there) I recognize an occasional need for a DSLR, and of course my wife actually expects color pictures when we travel and for me to be in some of those pictures. Whats a poor guy to do?
I though about a Leica M, but then it would mean having to teach someone how to focus a rangefinder every time I wanted to be in the picture or setting hyper focal and hoping whoever I hand it to didn't bump the focus ring or worse yet, run off with my Leica. So an SLR or something else color and serious was in order.
I tried to like the Sony A7 series, but found them just uncomfortable to hold and shoot. I have a Sony RX100m2 and the results are great, but its just not fun to shoot with. Finally settled last year on a Canon 6D with the 24-105L. Results were more than acceptable, but it felt more like a computer than a camera.
Well, I think I'm there. The Canon is gone and in its place a Nikon Df (silver). I bought it used with both the 50mm f/1.8G (not so) special edition and the 24-120mm f/4 Nikon zoom, which is too heavy and bulky to be a good travel lens on the Df (on account of the Df's tiny grip). I'm not a zoom guy anyway, so the 24-120 will either be for events that don't require a lot of walking or get eBayed. Ditto the 50/1.8SE, which looks nice, but just isn't for me. Yes, its very sharp and light weight, but a 50mm lens should have some magic and the Nikon 50/1.8, good as it is, is just too sterile. The Df does look and feel great in the hand with the 50/1.8, and while the modern Nikon primes don't have that semi-vintage style, they also balance well and generally match the camera far better than a heavy zoom.
So prime lens and bokeh fanatic that I am, I bought a set of primes to go with my new-to-me Df. The newish Nikon AF-S 58mm f/1.4G is a very expensive lens, but it has bokeh that (in my opinion) is even smooth than the Leica Summilux. Like my vintage Zeiss Sonnar on the Leica, this lens just makes people better looking when you point it at them (too bad the effect is temporary). This is a lens that has some magic, and I can see it being my primary lens on the Df.
For travel, I like to divide an SLR outfit into lens sets, going smaller and lighter the farther I expect to walk. For most trips, I can get by with just the 58 and either a 24 or 28, with the 24 winning if I expect to shoot a lot of impressive land or cityscapes, and the 28 winning for more generic urban shooting. Nikon's 24mm f/2.8D is a very old design and a raging bargain, but it still has terrific image quality (much better than the Nikon 24-120 or Canon 24-105), and of course it is VERY small and light. It also has a real aperture ring, so I can use it on my ancient Nikon FM if I want to shoot some Tri-X. The new Nikon 28mm f/1.8G is an even better lens, scary sharp at most apertures and also quite lightweight, but it is bulky, almost as bulky as the 58mm. These are my light two lens kits (24+58 or 28+58 and so equipped I can cover about 85% if anything I'm likely to encounter.
For even lighter travel, I go down to one lens and invariably its a 35mm. Nikon has an excellent new 35mm f/1.8G (FX format) that I just ordered. This lens is just as sharp as the 28mm and when focused on something close and opened to f/1.8 or f/2 gives a very nice and smooth bokeh. No, its not a cream machine like the 58, but its entirely pleasant in both defocused foreground and background where most semi-wides and wide angles are ugly.
One aspect of the Df I really enjoy is its compatibility with vintage lenses and this was probably my biggest complaint with the Canon 6D. The Df works great with even very old lenses, and will give full matrix metering and while program and shutter priority AE modes don't work, aperture priority with full-aperture metering does and that is my favorite shooting mode anyway. For my vintage lens fix I bought a 105mm f/2.5 Nikkor P (Sonnar type) from the mid to late 1960s from a gentleman on Leicaplace and that Sonnar pattern lens on the Df is every bit as beautiful in its rendering as my genuine 1937 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm f/1.5 Sonnar (converted by Brian Sweeney to Leica Thread Mount) is on the Leica Monochrom. It pairs well with a 35mm f/2 Nikkor O of similar vintage, while the trusty Nikon FM can go in the bag with a few rolls of Tri-X and shoot with the same lenses. Those two lenses form an adequate 2-lens travel kit in themselves, only really missing the wife end as anything needed between 35 and 105mm can usually be reached by zooming with my feet.
The only holes are really at 85mm and 135mm. I like 135mm lenses and long used them in the film days. This is a focal length I would prefer with autofocus and currently Nikon just doesn't have a compact 135mm. They have the f/2 DC model that is supposed to be a stunning portrait lens, but at 815 grams I'm sure it would never leave the house. Hell, the 24-120 zoom rarely leaves at 670 grams (the 58mm f/1.4 is only 385 grams). I guess I'll look for an old Nikkor 135mm f/3.5 (last of the Sonnars) or the series E 135mm f/2.8, which was very light weight. I'll probably skip 85mm as the vintage 105mm and modern 58mm lenses are close enough, and I just don't see myself going out without one or the other.
I'm taking a 4 day family trip this winter to Vancouver, BC Canada and then a two week trip in the spring to Korea, and will get try this stuff out at that time.
I though about a Leica M, but then it would mean having to teach someone how to focus a rangefinder every time I wanted to be in the picture or setting hyper focal and hoping whoever I hand it to didn't bump the focus ring or worse yet, run off with my Leica. So an SLR or something else color and serious was in order.
I tried to like the Sony A7 series, but found them just uncomfortable to hold and shoot. I have a Sony RX100m2 and the results are great, but its just not fun to shoot with. Finally settled last year on a Canon 6D with the 24-105L. Results were more than acceptable, but it felt more like a computer than a camera.
Well, I think I'm there. The Canon is gone and in its place a Nikon Df (silver). I bought it used with both the 50mm f/1.8G (not so) special edition and the 24-120mm f/4 Nikon zoom, which is too heavy and bulky to be a good travel lens on the Df (on account of the Df's tiny grip). I'm not a zoom guy anyway, so the 24-120 will either be for events that don't require a lot of walking or get eBayed. Ditto the 50/1.8SE, which looks nice, but just isn't for me. Yes, its very sharp and light weight, but a 50mm lens should have some magic and the Nikon 50/1.8, good as it is, is just too sterile. The Df does look and feel great in the hand with the 50/1.8, and while the modern Nikon primes don't have that semi-vintage style, they also balance well and generally match the camera far better than a heavy zoom.
So prime lens and bokeh fanatic that I am, I bought a set of primes to go with my new-to-me Df. The newish Nikon AF-S 58mm f/1.4G is a very expensive lens, but it has bokeh that (in my opinion) is even smooth than the Leica Summilux. Like my vintage Zeiss Sonnar on the Leica, this lens just makes people better looking when you point it at them (too bad the effect is temporary). This is a lens that has some magic, and I can see it being my primary lens on the Df.
For travel, I like to divide an SLR outfit into lens sets, going smaller and lighter the farther I expect to walk. For most trips, I can get by with just the 58 and either a 24 or 28, with the 24 winning if I expect to shoot a lot of impressive land or cityscapes, and the 28 winning for more generic urban shooting. Nikon's 24mm f/2.8D is a very old design and a raging bargain, but it still has terrific image quality (much better than the Nikon 24-120 or Canon 24-105), and of course it is VERY small and light. It also has a real aperture ring, so I can use it on my ancient Nikon FM if I want to shoot some Tri-X. The new Nikon 28mm f/1.8G is an even better lens, scary sharp at most apertures and also quite lightweight, but it is bulky, almost as bulky as the 58mm. These are my light two lens kits (24+58 or 28+58 and so equipped I can cover about 85% if anything I'm likely to encounter.
For even lighter travel, I go down to one lens and invariably its a 35mm. Nikon has an excellent new 35mm f/1.8G (FX format) that I just ordered. This lens is just as sharp as the 28mm and when focused on something close and opened to f/1.8 or f/2 gives a very nice and smooth bokeh. No, its not a cream machine like the 58, but its entirely pleasant in both defocused foreground and background where most semi-wides and wide angles are ugly.
One aspect of the Df I really enjoy is its compatibility with vintage lenses and this was probably my biggest complaint with the Canon 6D. The Df works great with even very old lenses, and will give full matrix metering and while program and shutter priority AE modes don't work, aperture priority with full-aperture metering does and that is my favorite shooting mode anyway. For my vintage lens fix I bought a 105mm f/2.5 Nikkor P (Sonnar type) from the mid to late 1960s from a gentleman on Leicaplace and that Sonnar pattern lens on the Df is every bit as beautiful in its rendering as my genuine 1937 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm f/1.5 Sonnar (converted by Brian Sweeney to Leica Thread Mount) is on the Leica Monochrom. It pairs well with a 35mm f/2 Nikkor O of similar vintage, while the trusty Nikon FM can go in the bag with a few rolls of Tri-X and shoot with the same lenses. Those two lenses form an adequate 2-lens travel kit in themselves, only really missing the wife end as anything needed between 35 and 105mm can usually be reached by zooming with my feet.
The only holes are really at 85mm and 135mm. I like 135mm lenses and long used them in the film days. This is a focal length I would prefer with autofocus and currently Nikon just doesn't have a compact 135mm. They have the f/2 DC model that is supposed to be a stunning portrait lens, but at 815 grams I'm sure it would never leave the house. Hell, the 24-120 zoom rarely leaves at 670 grams (the 58mm f/1.4 is only 385 grams). I guess I'll look for an old Nikkor 135mm f/3.5 (last of the Sonnars) or the series E 135mm f/2.8, which was very light weight. I'll probably skip 85mm as the vintage 105mm and modern 58mm lenses are close enough, and I just don't see myself going out without one or the other.
I'm taking a 4 day family trip this winter to Vancouver, BC Canada and then a two week trip in the spring to Korea, and will get try this stuff out at that time.
