This Can't Be a Fossil Already, Can It?

The "fossil" cutoff here at Digital Fossils is ten years old and, while it feels like the Nikon Df is still a fairly new camera, it was actually released in time for Christmas of 2013, so it's a dozen years old.

I wanted one but they were $2,750 for just the body when they came out. By early 2020 used ones had dropped down to a grand or so, but between inflation and the fact that they started getting desirable, the price kinda hovered right around that spot. In fact, nicer ones are back up in the $1100-1200 range last I checked.

Finally one with a low shutter count (under 12,000 actuations) and enough cosmetic wear to make the price bearable came out on the shelf at Used Photo Pro downtown, so... happy early birthday to me!

It's an interesting combination of parts bin stuff from the cheaper consumer full-frame Nikons, the 16MP FX sensor from the pro D4, and those retro controls. Thom Hogan's review I think does it justice.

.

Digicam Pics: A VW Beetle with the Nikon Coolpix A

A 35mm equivalent focal length isn't normally my choice for shooting vehicle photos, but when you're driving along on a fine summer day in Indianapolis and spot a pristine vintage VW Beetle and all you have with you is the Nikon Coolpix A, well... needs must when the devil drives, as they say.

Getting an old fave some exercise.

One problem with being an inveterate hoarder of old cameras is sometimes they fall out of use for a bit.

Love those Peak Design Slide straps.

Yesterday I realized hadn’t had the D7100 out to play for some time.

I could tell this was so because when I turned it on to check the battery, it was quite low. Swapped it out for a fresh EN-EL15 and, sure enough, the most recent pics on the card were of Halloween decorations in the neighborhood.

I have three cameras that use EN-EL15 batteries (this one, plus the Nikon 1 V1 and the D800) and four batteries, so every now and again a little battery rotation dance happens.

Anyway, I got it charged up and headed out to lunch.

I was glad I brought it!

A 24MP APS-C DSLR still feels pretty modern to me. It's hard to believe these things came out a dozen years ago now.

Mirrorless Pics: Around downtown Indy with the Olympus PEN E-P5

These were all snapped with an Olympus PEN E-P5 wearing Panasonic's little 20mm f/1.7 pancake standard prime lens.

The Devouring Device

I wrote earlier on this blog about the Sony MYLO, a clever little palmtop internet device that had the misfortune of getting launched about the same time as the iPhone.

The smartphone went on to kill whole categories of portable electronica. Standalone GPS devices? Mostly gone. Handheld games? A shadow of their former selves. Various little digital assistants, like the Palms and Handsprings? Vanished.

And of course, cameras.

An inexpensive little pocket camera like my Nikon Coolpix S6500 is a vanished breed now. Most people are happy with the photographs they can get with their phones.

Now, the S6500 has a true 12X optical zoom, the equivalent of a 300mm telephoto on a full-frame digicam. Walking to lunch the other day, I heard the unmistakeable noise of a squirrel gnawing away at a nut overhead. He was so far up in the tree that it took me a minute to locate him, but the Coolpix had enough reach to get a snapshot...

Thing is, most people don't feel the need to take pictures of squirrels up in trees, at least not enough to carry a separate device, so sic transit gloria digicam...

.

The Pentax Q7: A Review

The summer of 2013 saw the third iteration of Pentax's Q-series of subcompact mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras. In the form of the Q7, the littlest MILC had arguably finally come of age.

Externally, the Q7 was identical to its predecessor, the Q10. It had the same "tiny SLR"-shaped polymer body shell and was available in black, classic panda, and the whole array of kawaii color combos that the Q10 came in.

From a controls standpoint, it was completely the same as both preceding models, so you can refer to my Pentax Q review for a rundown of the buttons and knobs.

The big change was an increase in sensor size from 1/2.3" to 1/1.7", while maintaining the same 12 megapixel resolution. The larger sensor was the size most commonly found in enthusiast compacts, and by spreading the same number of photosites over an area one and three quarters times the size, low light performance was increased while noise was reduced.

Interestingly, looking at the crop factors and the focal lengths of the lenses, one is forced to assume that Pentax had intended to use the bigger sensor all along. For instance, the 5-15mm standard zoom and 15-45mm telephoto have fields of view equivalent to 27.5-83mm and 83-249mm on the older cameras. On the new Q7 with its larger sensor, however, they are 23-69mm and 69-207mm. That's so close to the classic pairing of a 24-70 and 70-200 zoom as to make no nevermind.

Despite the larger sensor, the Q7 held the price point of the Q10, with an MSRP of $499, with the 02 kit zoom included.

2013 also saw two more additions to the Q-mount lens library: The adorable little 07 Mount Shield fixed focus 11.5mm f/9 lens which was basically a body cap with a lens element, and a new 08 Wide Zoom. The latter was a 3.8-5.9mm f/3.7-4 that gave a field of view equivalent to a 17.5-27mm lens on a 35mm camera.

All of the above photos were shot with the 5-15mm 02 Standard Zoom on my Q7. 

My Q7, as you can see in the photo that opens this post, is black and it came packaged with a matching black kit zoom. The only other Pentax Q lens you can get in black is the 01 Standard Prime, but they bring blood money on the 'Bay, so I've held off so far.

So far...

(If you want to play with a Pentax Q7, Roberts Camera here in Indy has a classic-looking black-on-silver "panda" Q7 with three matching lenses: 01 Standard Prime, 02 Standard Zoom, and 06 Telephoto Zoom for sale at the time this post was written. The whole shebang is $549.99. I have no affiliate relationship with them, but I'm a very satisfied frequent customer.)

.

Mirrorless Pics: Mustangs with the Pentax Q7

The Q7 was the third iteration of Pentax's subcompact mirrorless line, after the Q and Q10. It used a sensor with the same 12MP resolution as its predecessors. However rather than a 1/2.3" sensor like the previous cameras, the Q7 used a larger 1/1.7" backside-illuminated CMOS unit.

1/1.7" is the size that was most commonly used in higher-end enthusiast pocket cameras and boasts a surface area nearly 1.75 times greater than the smaller 1/2.3" sensor. All else being equal, the same number of photo sites on a larger chip will mean better low light performance and less noise at higher ISO numbers.

The Pacific Green SN95 Mustang GT convertible and Velocity Blue S550 Mustang GT were snapped using the 5-15mm f/2.8-4.5 02 Standard Zoom on the Q7.

.

DSLR Pics: Squirrels with Nikon D2X and D7100

The leaves are off the trees and the squirrels are plump and active, foraging for acorns to bulk up for winter. It's too cold to sit outside at Fat Dan's and wait for neat cars to drive by, but primo squirrel-spotting season, and that means it's time for longer zoom lenses on my walkabout cameras.

The upper photo was shot with a ten year old Nikon D7100, wearing a 16-80mm f/2.8-4E VR zoom. The 120mm equivalent long end on this lens makes it a little short for optimum squirrel spotting. The little dude upside down on the tree trunk was only a dozen or so feet away, but only the 24MP resolution of the D7100's sensor allowed me to crop it down to something useful.

The photo below was shot with the 2004-vintage Nikon D2X & 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II combo. That extra focal length helps, as this photo didn't need near as much cropping, even though the squirrel was twice as far away.

Digicam Pics: 1967 Imperial with the Nikon Coolpix A

With its fixed focal length 28mm-equivalent lens, the Nikon Coolpix A isn't my ideal of the perfect choice for car spotting pics, but when this Haze Green 1967 Imperial Crown hardtop sedan rolled past... well, needs must when the devil drives.

The Coolpix A was Nikon's entry in the large sensor compact hipster street photography category, back in 2013. It basically packs the 16MP APS-C sensor from the D7000 DSLR into a shirt-pocket size point & shoot with a crisp, fast Nikkor 18.5mm f/2.8 wide-angle lens. It has the full array of PASM shooting modes, a hot shoe, and the ability to shoot RAW, of course. On the downside, it takes a sec to deploy its lens when initially powered up, and lacks any sort of viewfinder, either optical or electronic. While it stacked up well against the Ricoh GR, the downchecks kept it from really challenging the Fujifilm X100 series, which remain the dominant digicams in that niche.

.

Mirrorless Pics: Huck the Cat with the Sony a7 & vintage Nikon lens

It's hard to believe that it's been a whole decade since Sony's a7 rocked the camera market by introducing full-frame mirrorless to the world of serious photography.

They were the first mirrorless cameras to really dent the pro market, which had previously shunned them due to viewfinder lag, focus speed issues, and battery life. The a7 and its successor, the a7 II, solved the first two issues, but it wasn't until the a7 III that you could go through the day without a pocketful of spare batteries. (The problem was the original a7 used Sony's NP-FW50, which was originally intended for crop-sensor cameras with lower power requirements.)

I used the a7 & a7 II for a while before going back to Canon DSLRs for work because I was too poor to afford a new a7 III and the pandemic delayed the launch of the a7 IV for over a year, which kept used III's uncommon and spendy.

What I miss most about the a7 and a7 II was something fairly unique to full-frame mirrorless: The ability to use almost any old 35mm film lens at their native focal length with a simple dumb adaptor. Sure, you can put them on an APS-C camera like my Fuji X-T2, but then they get that 1.5X focal length multiplier.

These shots of my roommate's cat, Huck, were taken with the original a7 and a Nikkor 105mm f/2.5, one of the all-time classic portrait lenses.

While Responsible Tam would save her pennies until she can afford a nice used EOS R or even something newer, Impulsive Tam is always in danger of jumping on the first reasonably-priced used EOS RP that I can find just so I can play around with old lenses like this again.

.

Fujifilm XQ1 review: Thumbs Down

So there was this time I fell in love with a pocket digicam, only for it to break my heart.

On paper, the Fujifilm XQ1 was my perfect pocket camera: The lens collapsed flat and the whole thing was the size of a deck of cards. It had a ginormous (for a pocket cam) 2/3" sensor. It had a 24-105mm equivalent zoom lens with a bright f/1.8-4.9 maximum aperture. It had those lovely Fuji colors and could shoot RAW with the full array of PASM modes.

It took great pictures!

Alas, the XQ1 has a known bug in that the aperture blades tend to get stuck wide open, and the camera's basically bricked when that happens, because it's long past the time when Fuji could repair it.

Get a Sony RX100 instead, the original one, used. Just as good a lens, same focal length range, bigger sensor.

.

Mirrorless Pics: Portraits with the 1 Nikkor 32mm f/1.2

Easily the best lens in the entire lineup for the CX-format Nikon 1 mirrorless system, the 1 Nikkor 32mm f/1.2 is the equivalent of an 85mm lens on a full frame camera.

Despite the tiny 1" sensor, the f/1.2 maximum aperture can even manage a bit of background separation.

85mm is a classic focal length for portraiture and when you shrink it down to match the Nikon 1 format and put it on a little camera like a 1 V1 or V2, it doesn't feel as intimidating for subjects as would getting up in their grille with a big full-frame 85mm f/1.4.

Which to buy: Nikon Df or Nikon D4s?

Jim Grey at Down the Road posted another batch of photos from his Nikon Df today.

I've had a low-key hankering for one since the first time I saw it. It used to be because I pined for classic dial & knob controls, but that was before I really learned to use the wheels on a modern DSLR. (There's a reason that pro cameras have used the dual wheel setup since the days of the Nikon F5 and Canon EOS-1 film cameras, and it's not because professional sports photographers can't figure out knobs and dials.)

My hankering for the Df, therefore, is purely nostalgic these days, but there's another reason for it.

I use Canons for work, so my old Nikons are purely for fun. Because of that, I'm not going to dump a ton of money into Nikon lenses. And because of that, there's only one lens I own that really works well on my Nikon D800: the 24-120mm f/4G VR. The D800 is a fantastic camera, but the 36MP sensor really reveals the weaknesses of cheaper lenses, especially non-stabilized ones.

The 16MP sensor in the Df would offer more resolution than my D3 or D700 while still working well with older/cheaper glass.

There was a time, not too many years ago, when prices on used Nikon Df bodies had slumped down around nine hundred bucks or so. I should have bought one then.

These days, prices on the collectible Df have crept up to the $1200-1300 mark. Meanwhile, prices on the Nikon D4 and D4s pro bodies have slipped below a grand. Heck, you can get a D4 for under $800 if you shop around.

The D4 has the same 16MP sensor as the Df.

The Df has those vintage looks and old-fashioned knobs. The D4 has everything else: Rugged pro body construction, twice the frame rate in burst mode, a monster battery, the vertical grip and shutter release, et cetera.

When I first started pricing them, it was the D4 that was way more expensive and the Df made sense. With the price tags swapped out, however, the D4 is looking like the no-brainer for me.

Plus I have a real weakness for pro bodies.

Which would you pick?

.

Digicam Pics: Around SoBro with the Nikon Coolpix S6500

Released in January of 2013, the Nikon Coolpix S6500 is right at the cutoff date for what is considered a "fossil" on this blog.

There are only six years separating it from the Panasonic DMC-TZ3 from the earlier post, yet the technological gulf between them feels far more vast than that.

The 2007-vintage Panasonic has a 28-200mm equivalent lens in front of a 7MP CCD sensor, while the 2013 Nikon packs a 25-300mm equivalent lens and a 16MP Backside Illuminated CMOS sensor into a package that is slimmer, lighter, and altogether more pocketable. It also has built-in WiFi & GPS, a host of optional automated portrait features to remove dark circles under eyes, add color to cheeks, and even whiten teeth.

Further, where the Panasonic had a $330 MSRP, suggested retail on the Nikon was only $220, and I picked up this one as an open box sample at Best Buy in 2014 for only eighty bucks.

This is because by 2013, the pocket camera market had entered freefall following the introduction of smartphones with truly usable cameras. With a Samsung Galaxy SII or an iPhone 4 in their pocket, most folks had their snapshot needs covered. Digital camera sales had peaked in 2010, with CIPA reporting over 120 million cameras sold, while just three years later had plummeted almost by half, to 62.8 million.

Here's the SoBrosaurus at the widest angle:

And here we are zoomed in on just his noggin:

Even at an equivalent focal length of  257mm, the Nikon vibration reduction in the lens works pretty darn good. That's 1/40th of a second at f/6.1, ISO 400.

It's pretty crisp and detailed in Photoshop. Of course, there's no shooting in RAW and no manual modes of any kind. You can futz with the white balance, the ISO, and the metering, but that's about it. There's no driving stick shift with this camera; you have a dizzying array of presets and special effects, but everything's processed to JPEGs right there in the machine.

"Look, Ma! I can shoot in old-timey sepia!"

This is a handy little camera if all you need is a fast 'n' friendly pocketable superzoom. That 300mm lens lets you do things you can't do with a cell phone, and the camera's smaller than a deck of cards, so it's not any real hassle to carry in pocket or purse.

.

.