diff --git a/docs/api-guide/fields.md b/docs/api-guide/fields.md
index 576e4e92e..edc6cf0ce 100644
--- a/docs/api-guide/fields.md
+++ b/docs/api-guide/fields.md
@@ -290,9 +290,11 @@ A date and time representation.
 
 Corresponds to `django.db.models.fields.DateTimeField`.
 
-**Signature:** `DateTimeField(format=empty, input_formats=None)`
+**Signature:** `DateTimeField(format=DATETIME_FORMAT, input_formats=None)`
 
-* `format` - A string representing the output format.  If not specified, this defaults to the same value as the `DATETIME_FORMAT` settings key, which will be `'iso-8601'` unless set. Setting to a format string indicates that `to_representation` return values should be coerced to string output. Format strings are described below. Setting this value to `None` indicates that Python `datetime` objects should be returned by `to_representation`. In this case the datetime encoding will be determined by the renderer. The default value is [`empty`](https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/blob/master/rest_framework/fields.py#L42), not `None`. You need to explicitly set `format=None` in order to get Python `datetime` object.
+* `format` - A string representing the output format.  If not specified, this defaults to the same value as the `DATETIME_FORMAT` settings key, which will be `'iso-8601'` unless set.
+  * Setting to a format string indicates that `to_representation` return values should be coerced to string output. Format strings are described below.
+  * Setting this value to `None` indicates that Python `datetime` objects should be returned by `to_representation`. In this case the datetime encoding will be determined by the renderer.
 * `input_formats` - A list of strings representing the input formats which may be used to parse the date.  If not specified, the `DATETIME_INPUT_FORMATS` setting will be used, which defaults to `['iso-8601']`.
 
 #### `DateTimeField` format strings.