Thanks for these great pictures!

Your finch is the American Goldfinch.

Wonderful photo!

Here in St. Louis, the sky has been even more threatening with dark but interesting cloud formations.

These are the best photos of the red-wing blackbird!

John made a great picture but I am surprised to see you don't like orchids. My only explanation is that they present us with so much variety and some of them may have an ugly shape. Yet orchids are generally beautiful and most of them are very fragrant as well. I just completed a two-month session of photographing the annual orchid show at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. I am attaching here three of the more beautiful ones. All orchids share one characteristic: if you draw a vertical line at the middle, the two halves are always mirror images. In case you don't know, orchids grow on double bulbs and their name derives from the Greek word for two very important male organs.
PS No tripods or props are allowed in the show.

I think they are mostly white in general and the ones with beautiful colors are mostly hybrid (crossing of whites with the few other natural colors, like this attached pink). You worry me a little with "the whites in your area", maybe you know something different, so please what is your area?

Thank you for this rare picture on this peaceful day. It's a great counterpoint to think that on this day every family in the Mediterranean celebrates the end of a 40-day fasting by roasting a spring lamb on the spit (they are born a month earlier). Their excuse is that they have an overpopulation of them, they only keep the females for milk and butter and a few males.
Happy Easter everyone :)

Great photos! It so happens that lilies present a unique opportunity to capture the same flower three times in the same picture: with proper sunlight, you may see both its shadow and its reflection. I have many such photos from the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis (I attach a sample)

This lens sees exactly like our eyes, meaning no distortion whatsoever. One of its great advantages for digital is the ability to shoot distortion-free panoramic images, i.e. about five consecutive ones that are easily merged either in-camera (a few cameras do it automatically) or in Photoshop where you must make needed adjustments before stitching them together. After you stitch them, you may crop as you wish.

There is nothing better than the Ai-S 105/2.8!

Nikon has made a 60mm equivalent for the DX cameras: it's the AF-S Micro Nikkor 40mm, 1:2.8G. You will be very happy with it.

You are right, photographers need to be practical and use the most advanced equipment in their work. Nikon recognizes this responsibility and has always produced the best professional equipment possible. At the same time, Nikon feels the need to maintain the artistic integrity of photography and inspire as many as possible to explore beauty in all its aspects. Think of the now scorched California without the gorgeous images that so many photographers have reverently produced in its green condition. Such artistic aspects complete the circle of photography and the Df addresses the need to preserve rather than discard all the gorgeous lenses made not so long ago. I say "Bravo Nikon!" for yet another milestone in your long history of successes.

The Popular Photography review of the DF (March 2014, pp. 67-71) includes the surprising news that "it's pretty easy to use older lenses on the Df" and that the camera is provided with a retractable coupling lever that makes it possible to engage and use non-Ai lenses. I believe this is the most amazing news, as it allows the use of almost all Nikkors from 1959 onward (few exceptions come into play like the early fish-eyes). It is, of course, understood that we only have manual control and focusing but even so it makes Nikon the only company capable of such incredible achievements. Some of those older lenses had unique qualities and their use on a DSLR will undoubtedly expand the horizon of digital photography. Think of the fabulous 58mm f/1.4 from 1959, the 55mm f/1.2 or the 20mm f/3.5 UD both from 1967, and so many others.

I have used older lenses on the D700 and D800 but the non-Ai lenses don't work with these cameras. I will try the D40, though as you already know digital cameras become obsolete very quickly.

Thanks very much, very interesting discussion. Both the Df and 800E produced impressive results under difficult lighting conditions. The 800E worked beautifully for me in the orchid indoor project where no tripods or monopods are allowed and there are two competing lighting sources (large skylight and ceiling incandescent lamps). I only went there on sunny days, used the 70-180mm micro most of the time to reach the flowers displayed high up on trees and the ISO set at 800 most of the time. I prefer Aperture priority at 16 but flower displays in shade required occasional changes.

I am new to this site and have been following the discussions for about a month. I have not seen anything about this revolutionary Nikon camera that allows the use of almost all Nikkor lenses of the F and DSLR systems, i.e. 1959-present. I don't own it yet, still enjoying the D800E and just completed another cycle of orchid photography at the fabulous show of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Has anyone used Non-Ai lenses on the Df?