If I had a week, I still wouldn’t have enough time to elucidate why the Nikon Zf is the company’s most perfect camera to date. I could start with how it appeals to your emotional and sensory availability as a photographer and how the tool is an inherent part of it, but that’s not what we’re here to discuss. Of any Nikon camera made thus far, this is perhaps the one that photographers will want to use with manual focus lenses the most. The most iconic ones for Nikon Z mount so far come from Artralab — like their imagination of the 35mm f1.4 from the 1980s. So we took that lens and their 14mm f2.8 out for a few photo walks.
Ergonomically speaking, the Nikon Zf with manual focus lenses feels as perfect as your favorite coffee mug or tea cup. Wrapping your fingers around it makes it seem like it was designed just for you. At least, in my case, it feels like it was designed for me. I hate big grips, and if only more photographers knew about how to properly wrap their camera straps around their wrists when they complain about the grips on cameras.
Coupled with the metal exterior of the Nikon Zf, the Artralab lenses feel pretty nice. The 1980s reissue of the 35mm feels a bit cheap, but the 14mm f2.8 feels as solid as Zeiss Miluvs glass. But in this case, none of these lenses are weather-resistant. So, with that said, you should be careful when using the camera or switching lenses. The Nikon Zf doesn’t have a shutter shield, and the lack of sealing might mean that your sensor gets dirty at times.
Where this really becomes a fascinating experience is when using it in real life. For street photography, you should note that none of these lenses have focusing confirmation. So, with the 35mm f1.4, you have to rely on zone focusing, and you’re then hoping that your lens is perfectly aligned with the depth of field scale on the lens. But with the 14mm, there is no zone focusing scale. What you need to do then is magnify the area and hope that your scene is in focus.
Even when using the Nikon 40mm f2 with manual focus, you’ll find that there is no zone focusing or depth of field scale with the camera. So, this makes using it for street photography all that more difficult. And unfortunately, the autofocus isn’t there for fast-moving street shooting.
Still, though, holding the camera with the lenses attached brings a sense of joy that I haven’t experienced from most SLR-style cameras in a while. I typically only get this from rangefinder-style cameras. Most recently, I adored the Laowa 25mm f0.95 on the X Pro 3 and the Leica M11 Monochrom. But the focusing there worked perfectly fine. Here, it didn’t — partially because my 35mm lens isn’t calibrated totally in line with the distance scale.
So all of this brings up something bigger: I really wish that Nikon had a full lineup of lenses with a classical feeling and with a working depth of field scale. Alternatively, I wish that they had a working depth of field scale on their own screens. If that happened, this shooting street photography with the Nikon Zf would be an experience that fulfills the soul’s desires in a way that only deep love and empathy can heal all emotional wounds.
Nikon, you have some work to do. If you want to try one out for yourself, pick it up from Amazon.