Nikon has changed its design and marketing playbook a bit with the announcement of the new Df D-SLR.

The company has been releasing short video clips on a daily basis to tease the camera prior to its official announcement, a different strategy from a company that generally tries to keep new products under wraps until they are unveiled.

The design of the Df is also a change for Nikon. The camera is styled like a classic 35mm SLR; some have compared it it to the FE, others to the F3. It doesn’t have the red stripe that adorned the black F3, and it has a hot shoe on top of the angled prism, another cosmetic feature that the F3 doesn’t share. But there is a modest handgrip—it’s deeper than that of the F3, but shallower than you’ll find on the D800.

The body was designed with manual control and backwards compatibility in mind. On the top plate there are physical dials to adjust the ISO, shooting mode, shutter speed, and exposure compensation. The on/off switch, shutter release, and a modest monochrome information LCD are also located up top. A switch around the shutter speed dial sets the drive mode, and the shutter release features a threaded design so that it can accommodate a soft release or remote cable release.

There are dual control dials—one on the front and one on the rear, as well as two control buttons next to the lens mount on the front. You’ll also find the PC Sync socket on the front of the camera, a toggle switch to change between manual and autofocus, and a button to enable exposure bracketing.

It’s easy to mistake the Df for a film camera from the front—the magnesium body is wrapped in a black leatherette and the Nikon logo is the older, non-italicized version. But one look at the rear reveals its digital orientation. There’s a 3.2-inch 921k-dot LCD—it doesn’t tilt—and controls to navigate through image playback, adjust the white balance, lock focus and exposure, change the metering mode, and switch to Live View.

And even though the camera supports Live View, don’t expect to record any video. Nikon opted not to include video-recording functionality with this camera, and one of the quoted reasons is battery life. The camera is the smallest full-frame D-SLR in Nikon’s catalog, and in order to maintain that form factor it uses the same battery as the D5300. That lacks the size and capacity of the bigger batteries in the D800 and D4($4,499.95 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window). The Df features a single SD card slot; there’s no support for CompactFlash or XQD memory cards as there is in the company’s more expensive FX bodies.

The image sensor is the same 16-megapixel chip found in the D4, and the Df uses the D4’s EXPEED 3 image-processing engine. The sensor supports a native ISO range of 100 through 12800, and can go as high as ISO 20480 in extended mode. It’s rated to shoot at 5.5 frames per second, boasts a 2,016-pixel RGB metering sensor, and utilizes a 39-point autofocus system.

It’s the first Nikon D-SLR to be compatible with non-AI lenses. These lenses, produced prior to 1978, would interfere with the autoindexing lever that became standard as the Nikon system evolved. The Df features this lever, but it’s collapsible; you’ll just need to remember to disable it before mounting a lens that doesn’t support AI coupling.

To aid in manual focus, the Df allows you to disable AF-point illumination in the viewfinder. We’re going to reserve judgment as to just how useful the Df is with manual focus lenses until it comes in for review. Modern focusing screens are designed for autofocus, and don’t nearly do as good a job as the split-image and microprism collar screens that are found in manual focus SLRs. According to Nikon, the Df doesn’t have a user-changeable focusing screen, which is a shame. But the company has the same official take on the D800, and there are after-market solutions available that allow you to install the focusing screen of your choice.

There’s also no Wi-Fi built into the camera, but you can attach the WU-1a($149.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) adapter in order to add it. We were unimpressed with the WU-1a when it came in for review, and suggest that an Eye-Fi Mobi( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) card is a better solution if you want to transfer images from the camera to your phone for instant use on the Web and social networks.

The Df is set to go on sale on Nov. 28. You have your choice of an all-black version, or a silver body with black leatherette. The body only price is $2,749.95, and it will also be made available in a kit with a lens for $2,999.95. The lens is optically identical to the current AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G($216.95 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), but is cosmetically a bit different so that it better matches the Df. The lens will be available on its own for $279.95, a $60 premium over the standard version.