School me on the Nikon F100 back

[Horatio]

How prone to breaking is it?

 

[dmtnkl]

The latches are very likely to break. It is a very well documented problem.

I bought one some years ago and they broke the second day so i returned it promptly. I have many nikons but i wouldn't bother buying an F100 nowadays as it is expensive and replacement backs are very scarce to non existent.

If you are looking for an AF camera i would recommend an F801s, F90x, F4, F5 or F6 depending on what kind of lenses you want to use, what size of camera you are comfortable using and of course your budget. All of these cameras have proper metal latches om their backs.

If you would like to go for something more economical, the F80 and F75 are quite modern and their backs seem to fare much better than the F100's despite also having plastic latches.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Do not use the Nikon F100 back to hammer nails or as a wheel chock when changing tires. Reasonable care should give you years of good service, but then I treat all my cameras and lenses with care.

 

[Horatio]

The latches are very likely to break. It is a very well documented problem.

So, it's typically the latch that fails, and not the entire back?

If you are looking for an AF camera i would recommend an F801s, F90x, F4, F5 or F6 depending on what kind of lenses you want to use, what size of camera you are comfortable using and of course your budget. All of these cameras have proper metal latches om their backs.

I have several AF bodies, including a pristine F4.

 

[Horatio]

Do not use the Nikon F100 back to hammer nails or as a wheel chock when changing tires. Reasonable care should give you years of good service, but then I treat all my cameras and lenses with care.

That's great advice for any camera!

 

[Chan Tran]

Do not use the Nikon F100 back to hammer nails or as a wheel chock when changing tires. Reasonable care should give you years of good service, but then I treat all my cameras and lenses with care.

Who did that? I don't know anyone who use a camera to hammer nails. People talked about it but I don't of anyone who actually did it.

 

[ic-racer]

F100 purchased new? Broke on its own?

 

[Pitotshock]

I have 2 good condition F100 bodies that I use regularly and they have survived to this point without breaking their back door latches, so they are not likely to break out of the box.
I do, however, take every precaution not to break them in the future. At every single roll change, I close the door while holding the lock latch open, squeeze the door shut, then release the lock. This way, the tiny plastic latches don't have to push against the lock springs and shouldn't break off down the road sometime.

Slamming the back door shut like I do on the Canon AE-1 and its all metal back door, while it does feel satisfying, isn't really necessary just to load film. If one can't resist oneself, then maybe the F100 is not for you!

 

[pentaxuser]

I presume the real problem stems from buying a F100 secondhand when there is no way of knowing how much care the previous owner or owners exercised when closing the back. If you can be sure of how much care a previous owner exercised such as Pitotshock describes then as he says there is no reason to believe that the hinges would not be fine.

My guess is that if it were bought from the likes of Grays of Westminster or any other dealer with a similar glowing record of inspection of its wares then this problem is unlikely to arise. You get what you pay for and Grays prices tend to reflect the effort it puts into ensuring its secondhand good are top notch

pentaxuser

 

[ChristopherCoy]

I’ve had two and never had an issue. But when I load film I don’t make a habit of abusing the doors on any model of camera I own. I support them when I open them and don’t slam them shut. Even the F2 doors are only held on by very small pieces.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Who did that? I don't know anyone who use a camera to hammer nails. People talked about it but I don't of anyone who actually did it.

I do not slam the doors of any cameras.

 

[Chan Tran]

I do not slam the doors of any cameras.

Cameras are not as tough as people like to talk about. "built like a tank", "Hockey Puck", "Can be used to hammer nails". They are fragile and people do take care of them but some of them break even with tender loving care.

 

[Huss]

I do, however, take every precaution not to break them in the future. At every single roll change, I close the door while holding the lock latch open, squeeze the door shut, then release the lock. This way, the tiny plastic latches don't have to push against the lock springs and shouldn't break off down the road sometime.!

That's how I treated my F100 when I had it.

For those who claim the broken backs are from abuse, then it seems that only F100s are being abused as that is pretty much the only camera on ebay that I see all the time with broken backs...

It's obviously a design flaw on an otherwise very nice camera.

 

[Huss]

My guess is that if it were bought from the likes of Grays of Westminster or any other dealer with a similar glowing record of inspection of its wares then this problem is unlikely to arise. You get what you pay for and Grays prices tend to reflect the effort it puts into ensuring its secondhand good are top notch

pentaxuser

You can't inspect/check for microscopic stress fractures. Not within reason.

 

[pentaxuser]

You can't inspect/check for microscopic stress fractures. Not within reason.

Are these stress factors the result of a deliberate change to the way the door hinge was designed? By deliberate I mean a conscious change away from all other door designs on other Nikon doors. I presume that if this is the case it was done with the best of intentions but was a wrong decision.

I haven't heard much about other Nikon doors such as on their cheaper plastic backed cameras.

I wonder what the percentage of failed doors is on the F100 compared to what I assume to be similar doors on their cheaper cameras?

Could it be that in the case of the F100, this was considered to be one of their professional cameras and were thus bought in many cases by professional users and subject to the same kind of use as was the F5 whereas the cheaper cameras were bought by amateurs and subject to much less vigorous use

How much of a contributory factor might his have been?

I assume you had a bad experience with a F100 door as have several people who have made themselves known as is to be expected when this kind of a question is asked on a forum but in statistical terms is (a) the F100 door problem as bad as it seems to be from forum responses and (b) how much of the problem is due to the kind of professional misuse that such cameras have received?

pentaxuser

 

[Horatio]

One would think a camera that sold for $1500 new would be made to last. Perhaps there was a defect inherent in the fabrication process.

edit: I've checked my existing (growing) Nikon AF collection and the only body that has a plastic latch is the N70. I wonder if this model has had similar issues. It seems pretty robust when I close it.

 

[Huss]

I assume you had a bad experience with a F100 door as have several people who have made themselves known as is to be expected when this kind of a question is asked on a forum but in statistical terms is (a) the F100 door problem as bad as it seems to be from forum responses and (b) how much of the problem is due to the kind of professional misuse that such cameras have received?

pentaxuser

I didn't but did not plan on keeping the camera long enough to find out. When I used it I made sure to push the latch up and hold it there while closing it - as another poster mentioned - so that there would be less stress on it.
A little research shows this was a design flaw on Nikon's behalf. I'm not a fanboi, so I call it as I see it. I'll tell you about the issues with any camera I have, and this was one of them with the F100. Some owners are adamant that there is nothing wrong with it and it is the best thing ever since sliced jalapenos. I don't find that useful when you are looking for transparency.

All ya gotta do is look on ebay and see how many broken ones are floating around out there. That will give you a much better idea than a few complainers on a forum. And ask yourself why you don't see that same issue with any other camera out there, in such numbers.

 

[benjiboy]

I don't have an axe to grind in this matter, but received wisdom on this particular model is that it's one to be avoided, and if you need an A/F Nikon SLR buy as good condition F4 as you can afford.

 

[Bronson Dugnutt]

Both door latches snapped off my F80 (proper japanese model w/ QD & interframe exposure printing) after I put my first roll through it. Granted, I opened the back while the auto-rewind was still active in an effort to save the film cassette but I'd say backs of that design/era are hella fragile.

Otherwise the camera is fine, and its beastly enough that I just hold the back closed with tape so people think I'm shooting a Leica.

 

[Stephen Schoof]

edit: I've checked my existing (growing) Nikon AF collection and the only body that has a plastic latch is the N70. I wonder if this model has had similar issues. It seems pretty robust when I close it.

I used an F100 and several N70s for years. The N70 back latches were also prone to breaking. Eventually I started using the more careful method of opening/closing as described by Pitotshock instead of just slamming the backs shut in a hurry. That seemed to help.

I love both cameras and found them both able to withstand all sorts of abuse typical of outdoor/nature photography, EXCEPT for the door latches. It was not too big a problem back in the day when replacement doors were readily available and easy to swap out.

 

[Nodda Duma]

I hear either the F100 door breaks, or it survives years of abuse. This tells me either

a) There was a design change to fix or unknowingly create the problem partway through production
b) A tolerance issue with the feature that fails.

If the former is true, then a serial number survey would help identify which numbers are ok. If the latter is true, then it’s a pure luck of the draw.

My F100 door latches fall under the “survive abuse” category. #2045251

 

[Horatio]

I hear either the F100 door breaks, or it survives years of abuse. This tells me either

a) There was a design change to fix or unknowingly create the problem partway through production
b) A tolerance issue with the feature that fails.

If the former is true, then a serial number survey would help identify which numbers are ok. If the latter is true, then it’s a pure luck of the draw.

My F100 door latches fall under the “survive abuse” category. #2045251

Thanks. I'll make note of that number. Nikon fixed the fork in later models, so maybe the door latch as well.

 

[choiliefan]

The N6006 is the other Nikon with the weak back latch.
Other than that, a very capable camera.

 

[Horatio]

So, when the latch breaks, where does this occur? On the door itself, where the prongs are?

 

[Pitotshock]

If the former is true, then a serial number survey would help identify which numbers are ok.

Here are my two survivors
US2180943, and
2059257

Of course I have no knowledge if any previous owners had replaced the back doors though