How old is this F100?

I am thinking of buying a used F100 body. Is there a way to tell

what year it was manufactured? I'd guess its less than five years

old - but I'd like to know for sure...

Take it to a Nikon service centre, they will be able to tell you when it was made and how many shutter trips it's made from accessing it's firmware.

 

But it might cost you.

<<I'd guess its less than five years old>>

 

Safe guess. The model was introduced in 1998 so four years old is as old as they get. Perhaps Nikon USA can help you with a date of manufacture for a specific serial number.

I also think a Nikon service center can tell you how many times the shutter has been fired which may be more helpful than the age of the body.

Shutter fires is more important than age, as already noted. The camera you propose to buy could have been older but very lightly used or even one that sat on a store's shelf and didn't get rotated to the front and sold in a timely fashion. Depending on where the camera sat in retail, it could have been new and unused for a longer period of time.

 

I have had good luck e-mailing Nikon for information if you really just want to know the date of manufacture. Their return may not be instantaneous but you will get a return.

 

Conni

<p>Send an email to: webmaster@nikon.co.jp</P>

 

<p>I've had responses within 3-4 days. Sometimes they'd answer very coyly such as "We cannot give the exact date, but we can say it's been manufactured sometime in July 1992...", or something similar.</P>

 

<p>The "Contact Nikon" webpage is at:<br>

http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/eng/contact.htm</P>

 

<p>Good luck.</P>

Oh forgot to mention, you need the Serial Number to send to Nikon. But you know that...

If you don't provide any serial numbers, I can safely tell you that your F100 was produced between December, 1998 and October, 2002. :-)

(Replace October 2002 by the current date in the future.)

Nikon F100 made between 1998 and early 2000 features triangular prones on the plastic rewind fork. Those made afterwards have reinforced rectangular prones on the plastic rewind fork.

<Nikon F100 made between 1998 and early 2000 features triangular prones on the plastic rewind fork.> Triangular prones - Bingo! Chuck, you rock, thank you!

 

Amy

Check, I can't quite figure out what the "rewind fork" you mentioned is. Is it somthing inside and can only be seen after the camera back is open?

 

For whatever it is worth, I bought my F100 in January, 2000, about a year after it was first introduced. (I waited on purpose.) The serial number is US20768xx. Other than the fact that some early F100 samples had more problems, I agree that how heavily a particular camera is used is a more important issue.

The rewind fork engages with the film roll to turn the spool when rewinding. It should be easy to locate with the back open.

 

The early ones were improved because they were known to break. Why Nikon puts plastic rewind forks on a supposedly professional body is beyond me...

There are many reports on the Internet whereby the F100 was taken in for regular service or other repair and Nikon automatically replaced the rewind forks as part of the service. So there will be pre-2000 F100's out there with the new improved rewind forks. Not a good gauge for age unless you can be sure the F100 was never taken in for Nikon servicing.

Ed,

 

This one has the triangular ones, so I know its *older*.

 

Amy

Good stuff! If you ever need to pin down the month and year of manufacture, you know where to go ask! :)