The Df will accept the widest variety of Nikkor lenses. It has the little flip up lever to accommodate both non-Ai and Ai/Ai-S lenses. There is also a menu selection for non-Ai lenses. The Df is getting a bit old and being based of the D600 they do suffer from the same problem with excess oil but it would be easiest one to use with older lenses.
The Df doesn't have the the oil problem. The Df is much newer than the D600 and thus doesn't have the same shutter.
I owned one and had it serviced. The technician commented on the oil.
The Df was the one time I put some serious effort into moving to digital. Sold it, bought a Leica M4 and a Sony for scanning negatives. If I was to ever get another Nikon digital, it would be the ZFc.I didn't have the oil problem. I did have the exposure meter failed. Any way if the OP's friend has the AI lenses then it would be easier.
Operationally, using film camera lenses on digital body means that there is not body-control of aperture selection or automatic stop-down to shooting aperture when the shutter is pressed to take a photo...you need to focus wide open, stop down to shooting aperture, and view thru stopped-down lens to compose and shoot. Any lens with stop-down control on the lens barrel would be more convenient to use...press the stop-down button, press the shutter button, then let go of the stop-down button to refocus. (But some mount adapter rings force the lens to always have the set aperture in use.)
Wilt, please read the Ken Rockwell article on Nikon lens compatibility linked above. Your information is not correct.
1. Virtually all Nikon digital SLRs have mechanical control of the aperture so you can view at full aperture and the camera stops the lens down when the shutter is fired. That is, they all have the mechanical stop down lever inside the mount, even the cheap entry level DSLRs. However, the lower-end DSLRs do not have an AI indexing tab, so you don't get metering, and in general you should not mount a non-AI lens on a DSLR body, because it might foul some of the body mechanics (just like you shouldn't mount a non-AI lens on an Nikon AF film SLR).
2. There are Nikon digital SLRs that have the AI indexing tab around the edge of the lens mount so they can meter with a manual focus AI lens. Not only the Df. These are generally the "pro" (D2, D3, ...) and semi-pro level bodies (D200, D300, D700, ...). This is actually really useful, and the older D200, D300, etc bodies are fairly inexpensive on the used market.
He is 84. Does he really want to carry around a bag full of old lenses?
Use M or A mode and set the aperture manually. If he’s used to an F2, this will be familiar to him. The camera recognizes the aperture setting and stops down when the shutter is released just like an F2.
The main reason that a 'film lens' will not work well with a 'digital sensor' regards Wide Angle FL lenses, in which the assorted wavelengths of light fall at slightly different angles from each other, and the divergence of different colors can result in Chromatic Abberations, or what is ofeten referred to as 'purple fringing' seen most prominently in things like tree limbs against the bright sky behind, in which the edges of the limbs have a purplish outline. WA lenses designed 'for digital' attempt to made the light fall more perpendicularly to the sensor surface, rather than at an angle to the surface, so that purple fringing is less visible.
An example https://focus-review.com/en/what-is-chromatic-aberration/
Operationally, using film camera lenses on digital body means that there is not body-control of aperture selection or automatic stop-down to shooting aperture when the shutter is pressed to take a photo...you need to focus wide open, stop down to shooting aperture, and view thru stopped-down lens to compose and shoot. Any lens with stop-down control on the lens barrel would be more convenient to use...press the stop-down button, press the shutter button, then let go of the stop-down button to refocus. (But some mount adapter rings force the lens to always have the set aperture in use.)
I use my ai lenses on my D200 all the time. Work better than Nikon's DX lenses
2. There are Nikon digital SLRs that have the AI indexing tab around the edge of the lens mount so they can meter with a manual focus AI lens. Not only the Df. These are generally the "pro" (D2, D3, ...) and semi-pro level bodies (D200, D300, D700, ...). This is actually really useful, and the older D200, D300, etc bodies are fairly inexpensive on the used market.
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