Nikon Serial Numbers

[snegron]

For years I have heard many opinions regarding the serial numbers on a Nikon body and how the first two numbers indicated the year of production. Many have said that this is a myth. I recently purchased an F2A (which I am madly in love with by the way) and I would like to know if I could tell if it was an early or late production model through the serial number. The serial number starts with F2 789....

 

[tony lockerbie]

The best that I can gather is that the serial numbers do not idicate the age but sometimes coincide. I have an F2 with the no. 72xxx and I would say that's about when it was made. Going by your number you have a late model but not necessarily a 78 model (or maybe it is!) Either way just enjoy your F2.

Here is a timeline of all Nikon cameras

 

[resummerfield]

Sover Wong is an excellent source of info on the Nikon F2. The chart on his site dates your camera from January to March 1978.

 

[snegron]

Thanks for the links! Another reason I was curious to find out the year of production on my F2A was because I was concerned that I might have gotten an older production F2 body with a newer production DP 11 prism. Judging by the chart on the link it appears as though both parts might have been produced at the same time, hopefully late production models.

 

[goros]

Sorry to find this thread so late. I have just bought a F2 and had the same question. This is what I have found:

http://www.destoutz.ch/typ_production_data_f2.html

Cheers

 

[Photo Engineer]

My early F is totally out of sequence from what I have been told. It merits a special entry of caution in the Blue Book.

PE

 

[goros]

The link I posted is for F2. For F is this one:

http://www.destoutz.ch/typ_production_data_f.html

Cheers

 

[HerrBremerhaven]

It might have been that way at one time, but my Nikon F4S does not follow a year correlation in the number. Quite likely as they produced more cameras and lenses, they had to just use series runs for numbers. Depending upon what Nikon bodies or lenses you own, there are a few websites that list serial numbers, and at least give you a rough idea of the age of a Nikon item.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat Photography

 

[marcog]

Hello and best regards to everybody, new poster here. I´ve just seen an F body with its original serial number erased and a new number (170xxx) engraved in the rear top plate, very close to the location of the original number. All very professionally done and clearly factory made.
Have any of you seen anything similar and/or know what would have been the purpose of this? Coul this in any way be related to the red dot numbering?
Many thanks in advance for your valuable comments!

 

[cooltouch]

As most of you probably already know, the original F first saw the light of day in 1959, but its serial numbering started with 64. I have a somewhat early F, with a S/N of 648xxxx. I think the rumor first got started with the F since, by later in its production run, the first two digits began to approximate the year of manufacture. And then Nikon continued this with the F2. It was first released in 1971 and its serial numbering began with 71. I have an F2 with a S/N that has 71 as its first two digits. I also have an F2 with 74 as its first two digits. It almost seems to me that, while the S/N did not necessarily coincide with a manufacturing date, that Nikon was at least paying some attention to this "coincidence." Else, why start the F2's S/N at 71?

Another F2 S/N tidbit that I'm sure some of you already know. Odd numbered S/N "dates" are found on chrome bodies and even numbered "dates" are found on black ones. E.g., my '71' is chrome and my '74' is black. This one characteristic tends to reject the notion that an F2's S/N's first two digits correspond to a year of manufacture, unless Nikon was in the habit of building only chrome bodies for one year and then black ones the next. That just doesn't make sense.

 

[John_Nikon_F]

^It's actually the opposite. And, prior to the 75xxxxx serial block, they were intertwined, just like F bodies and Nikkormat/Nikomat FS, FT, and FTn bodies. Nikon used that practice on FM bodies above the 21xxxxx block, FT2/FT3 bodies, the EL series, and everything else through the lower 8xxxxxx serial ranges of the FM2/FM2n bodies. When Nikon switched to the 85xxxxx serial, Nikon started using even/odd serial numbers for both black and chrome bodies again. F3, F4, and F5 bodies didn't follow the even/odd second digit convention, nor did the EM, or the N-series bodies, since they were 99% of the time black.

After the 74xxxxx serial block, Nikon F2 bodies beginning with 75, 77, and 79 are all black. Bodies beginning with 76, 78, or 80 are chrome.

My original F2 was a body in the 713xxxx serial range. Black. I owned another 713xxxx serial body that came from BradleyK. Chrome. I've owned six 72 serial F2 bodies. Three were chrome, three were black. I've owned one 74xxxxx body. It was black. But, I've seen a few chrome 74 bodies in person. If I go above the 74xxxxx range, I've owned one 75 serial black body (now belongs to Ralph Javins), 10 77 serial black bodies, a 78 serial chrome, 5 79 serial black bodies, the latest one being a body built in January 1980 and being the one I own today, and one 80xxxxx serial chrome.

My bodies, by breakdown of month/year, as per Sover's site:

F2 by period of year:

1972 (period unknown): 7131xxx; 7134xxx; 715xxxx
1972/11-1972/12: 7208xxx; 7217xxx
1972/12-1973/1: 7221xxx
1973/2-1973/4: 7244xxx; 7249xxx
1973/5-1973/8: 7280xxx
1974/6-1974/8: 7424xxx
1975/12-1976/5: 7556xxx
1976/11-1977/2: 7715xxx
1977/2-1977/5: 7729xxx; 7730xxx; 7731xxx
1977/4-1977/7: 7745xxx; 7747xxx
1977/8-1977/12: 7874xxx
1977/10: 7760xxx; 7766xxx; 7768xxx
1978/4-1978/7: 7792xxx
1978/7-1978/10: 7902xxx
1978/9-1978/12: 7910xxx; 7915xxx
1979/6-1979/9: 7941xxx
1979/7-1979/12: 8050xxx
1979/12-1980/1: 7960xxx

Yes, I've owned a few F2 bodies.

F3 and FA/FE/FM series bodies made after early 1980 have a four digit code inside the film back area. On the F3 bodies, it's behind the hinge, on the other bodies, it's in the film chamber. First number is usually the month (1-9, O, N, D), second number is the last digit of the year, third is a letter signifying what version a camera is, and the final digit is the revision. Newer bodies, like the F4, F5, etc, require some calculations to be made to figure out when they were made.

-J