The Retro-Styled Nikon Df DSLR Was Both Behind and Ahead of the Times

While Nikon’s vintage-inspired Zf and Zfc mirrorless cameras have proven exceptionally popular with photographers, they are not Nikon’s first foray into a retro-styled digital camera. No, that was 2013’s Nikon Df, arguably the most bizarre DSLR Nikon ever released. 12 years later, people are returning to the Df and appreciating all its novel charms.

The motivation to write this story comes from Digital Camera World‘s Mike Harris, who noted that the Df, despite its limited features by modern standards, remains a coveted camera on the used market.

The Nikon Df is nearly $1,400 at KEH right now, for example, which is almost twice as much as the Nikon D4, the once-flagship DSLR whose guts drive the Df. This is one of the few instances when, between two cameras with the same basic imaging pipeline, the “worse” one is far more expensive and appealing. A quick look on eBay tells the same story, although admittedly the price gap is a little less there in most cases.

So, what’s the deal? Why do photographers in 2025 care about the 16-megapixel Nikon Df? It’s a DSLR that was expensive at the time of its launch ($2,750 body only), oddly sluggish, made using too much plastic, couldn’t shoot video, and had just a single card slot years before Nikon’s first two full-frame mirrorless cameras, the Z6 and Z7, would stumble out of the gate in large part because of their lack of dual card slots.

Aside from the great image quality — yes, the 16.3-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor that debuted in the Nikon D4 is good, even now — the Df’s lasting appeal is primarily because it’s weird and retro, at a time when weird and retro are trendy.

The Nikon Df Was Both Behind and Ahead of the Times

Back when the Nikon Df launched in 2013, I was in college, armed with my trusty Nikon D3 and my still-new Nikon D800E. My first digital camera was a Nikon D80, and I had slowly worked my way up Nikon’s DSLR pyramid ever since. I was a Nikon guy through and through, and always yearned for the latest and greatest Nikon DSLRs and lenses.

The Nikon Df was decidedly not the “greatest,” even if it was, for a spell, the “latest.” Nonetheless, I coveted that camera. I wanted it so badly.

Regretfully, I never ended up getting one, because it was too difficult to justify the expense when my D800E was my primary camera. The Df promised to scratch a certain aesthetic itch, but offered little (nothing, really) by way of better performance. I didn’t want to sacrifice imaging for style, a modus operandi I have continued to stick by, even as camera companies have increasingly thrown beautiful retro cameras at the market.

That retro styling is what makes the Nikon Df such an interesting camera to consider in 2025. The Nikon Df stuck out like a sore thumb when it arrived in late 2013. While Sony had just launched its first Sony a7 and a7R mirrorless cameras, the big dogs in the DSLR space were focused on advancing technology as far and as fast as possible. Retro was decidedly not “in.”

Sure, Fujifilm’s cameras, like the X100S, X-M1, and X-E2, launched in 2013, all sported retro styling and many dedicated physical controls, but the Df stuck out like a sore thumb in the DSLR space, especially in the full-frame one. It’s one thing to launch a relatively affordable vintage-inspired camera at a beginner-friendly price point — form over function is easier to justify in that tier — but it’s another thing altogether to launch a camera for nearly $3,000 that was in almost every way more challenging to use and a worse choice for demanding photographers.

Nikon agreed, by the way, since its next vintage-styled camera would be the APS-C Zfc launched in 2021 for just under $1,000. Its popularity would motivate the Zf in 2023, a mid-range full-frame camera that has also been a commercial success.

But in 2013, the Nikon Df was weird. It’s hard, if not impossible, to know precisely how many Nikon sold, but the sentiment then and now is that the Df did not sell very well. It may have met Nikon’s expectations if they were rather pessimistic about the endeavor from the start, but the Df is niche. It’s not Nikon D810A niche, but its sales numbers absolutely trailed most of Nikon’s full-frame cameras, even considerably pricier professional ones.

In 2013, photographers weren’t ready to embrace a chunky, angular $2,750 DSLR styled after classic Nikon film SLRs like the FM and FE. The camera’s incredible ability to accept old Ai and non-Ai lenses from as far back as 1959, thanks to a new metering coupling lever on the bayonet, didn’t tickle the fancy of many then, but makes the Df a dream for photographers now who like to scour yard sales and vintage lens sales. Speaking of vintage lenses, those are super popular these days, too. The Df’s dedicated exposure compensation, ISO, and shutter speed dials felt out of place in Nikon’s digital camera lineup. The little info panel that looked ripped from a point-and-shoot film camera seemed less charming and more like an antiquity.

Then, of course, there are the strange omissions and shortcomings. The Df’s lack of a second card slot, its inability to shoot video even though the D4 certainly could, the bizarrely handcuffed continuous shooting speeds (5.5 frames per second is insulting when the D4 can do 11), and its surprisingly bad autofocus all contributed to it landing with a bit more of a thud than a bang.

However, with the benefit of hindsight, photographers today are seeing the Nikon Df more for what it is, rather than what it isn’t. It is beautiful in a strange, unconventional way. Its controls, which force you to slow down, feel inviting now when they may have felt limiting then. The world has changed a lot since 2013, and people’s sensibilities have followed suit. Many photographers today want something different from what they did over a decade ago. The success of vintage-inspired cameras in the years since the Df’s launch shows that people are not just willing to slow down and take a beat, but many are desperately seeking that experience.

The Nikon Df was the absolute best retro-styled DSLR camera when Nikon unleashed it upon the world. People weren’t asking for it then. They are now, though, and the Df is carving out a fun little niche as the most expensive Nikon DSLR camera that isn’t the much newer D5 or D6.

Image credits: Nikon. Header image created using an asset licensed via Depositphotos.