Nikon F3 Serial Number Production Date
Rosalie Checca
I have always wanted to know the last standard F3 serial number produced on the assembly line before top plates with serial numbers were produced for repair replacement needs. Has anyone come across a forum discussion about this topic? Curious to know the most advanced serial number known for a standard F3 model (i.e. not a special titanium or press model).
I had expected this serial number to have been produced after the year 2000, but the production code suggests an earlier camera body produced in March 1997. Supposedly, the last serial number block for the standard model F3 production is 200xxxx and the replacement top plates begin at 201xxxx. I doubt very much that Nikon produced a F3 camera as late as March 2007.
My theory is that this serial number is post production and possibly a replacement top plate. If not, a seller may have removed this top plate from a damaged late serial number body and installed it on a clean older body for a premium sale.
The FM3a had a short production run of only five years, from its presentation in February 2001 at the Orlando PMA until 2006, when it was discontinued. Five years may seem a long time for DSLRs, but as you're familiar with Nikon you'll remember the long production runs of the FM, FM2 and F3, to name just a few. With such a short production life, I don't really see why the serial number is that important to you. If it is in absolutely new condition, that is, still comes with the original box, instruction manual and blank warranty card, and hasn't been used before, it makes little difference if it left the Nikon manufacturing plants in 2004 or 2006. If you were to buy a used FM3a, more important than the serial number would be the condition the camera is in. If you buy unseen, make sure you can return the camera if you find it is not in the condition you expected it to be.
As for your other question, I can't really answer this, as I only use film cameras. The FM3a must be my favourite camera for its size and handling. My autofocus N8008s sees relatively little use since I got the FM3a. Will you be using the FM3a a lot if you also have DSLRs? It all depends on what you shoot and what you intend to do with your pictures. Ask yourself this question: am I going to carry the D70 and its lenses, together with the FM3a and another set of lenses? When are you going to use the DSLR and when are you going to use your film camera? If you carry both systems, you will constantly be going back and forth from one to the other. Or leave one system untouched. Are there any pictures you cannot take with the D70 that you think you could better with the FM3a?
As far as price is concerned, second hand FM3a's in good to excellent condition fetch prices that are almost as high as when the camera was still available new. So it's not going to be a reasonable purchase if you look at it from an economical point of view. If you only have DX lenses for your D70, you will have to add the cost of getting full frame lenses as well. But if you really want it and have the money to spend, why not? Welcome to the NAS club.
Its a great little camera if you want to shoot film and manual focus. You say you used some other all manual cameras. This has the added benefit of an nice Aperture priority exposure system if you want it, electronic shutter and what's great, all mechanical shutter in all speeds if the battery dies.
I have decided to opt out of buying the FM3a given its early manufacture + high cost + the fact that I do not have a return option. I think I will stick with my D70s's right now... am regretting selling my FM and then FM2n! The FM2n was a very late model (86xxxx) and was spotless...
In 2000, I discovered that my still excellent condition black Nikon F with 2 prisms (one plain) that I had been using for over 20 years was getting rather valuable, and I wanted to get something else new as a beater that might add some automation. At that time, I didn't feel good about buying used equipment. When Nikon introduced the FM3a in 2001, I knew almost immediately that it was what I wanted and needed, and I bought mine in August of 2001. It was perfect, and I have used the heck out of it since then.
Little did I know that enough other people would have appreciated what this camera was that now my FM3a is probably worth the same or more than my nice black plain prism F. That's not what I expected to happen. I take care of my equipment, but I am not a collector, and my stuff shows some wear over time, but I'm fine with that.
I appreciate that the FE2 is essentially similar except that it can not operate at all shutter speeds without batteries, and that makes the FE2 a great camera even still today and a good used value, but the FM3a is a perfection of the idea, and although it is more expensive, it offers this perfection in a much newer body that is likely to be better supported in the next years in all its electronics than the other older discontinued bodies.
I prefer the tactile approach to photography as developed in the manual focus film era while appreciating the benefit of some specialized automation such as aperture priority and TTL flash when you need it. The fact that I am able to shoot with equipment I bought new within just the last 6 years via my FM3a with a 20 2.8 and the great manual focus 85 1.4, all with my new boxes etc.., in the midst of this digital evolution, makes me feel that my resurgence of interest in photography occurred at precisely the right moment in time.
The only variation that I know of is the camera "leather" is a slightly different type on some 3xxxxx cameras - it feels more "grippy" making it easier to hold the camera. I have a 298xxx FM3A that has the regular non-grippy camera "leather" and a 307xxx FM3A that has the grippy camera "leather". The only way to tell the difference is to actually handle the cameras.
I'm looking at buying a 5000ED scanner advertised as a late production model. It has a serial number beginning with 22. Does that sound accurate? The serial numbers on most of the 5000EDs I see start with a 4. Thanks!
"Production" has a meaning in the US. Dating back to some of the earlier more consumer protection laws (e.g. 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act), there's been an ongoing dance between regulators and businesses. At present, the primary law where "production" has relevance is California's. Because California is in essence the fifth largest economy in the world, companies would have to make a decision to produce two different outcomes in the US: one for California, one for the other 49 states.
This happened for awhile, for instance, with the auto makers, where California's early emissions regulations produced one form of internal combustion engine for California, and different ones for the rest of the nation. Until, of course, other states started to have the same issues that California did with smog, and opted to endorse the California regulations themselves.
The operative California law that comes into play for cameras has been undergoing some change with the recent Right to Repair initiatives that have passed, but the basic tenant is that for any product over US$100, an electronics maker must provide repair parts for a period of seven years after the product's last manufacturing date. What we don't have is a law or regulation that requires companies to disclose when that date actually occurs, which makes it difficult to enforce the law.
Nikon is never going to announce that they've stopped producing a product, therefore. However, over the years of observing them, I've noticed a few patterns. An open database that was maintained by US Customs for awhile (now closed), allowed me to substantiate some of my observations until a few years ago.
First, that doesn't appear to work the way I've seen it hinted at or reported elsewhere: Nikon doesn't appear to build a "final inventory" and then sell from that until they have no more, then claim the product is discontinued. Back in the earlier days of DSLRs when volume growth was ratcheting quite rapidly, Nikon did make large "batches" of a particular camera or lens. But pretty much since they had to reconfigure all their manufacturing after the quake and tsunami in Japan plus the flood in Thailand, they've moved to a different strategy. Low demand products get moved off the main assembly lines and into something that is more "hand assembled" in low volume as needed. That appears to be absolutely true for cameras at the Thailand plant, and has been since Nikon started the shift away from DSLRs with the D500. I don't believe the last D500's were made in quantity on the main line, but rather in a low-volume queue as needed. Exactly when the last D500 was made is unclear, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was 2019 or 2020.
You have to also remember that NikonUSA attempts to get all the units coming into their warehouse sold to individual dealers, too. If there's just enough demand from dealers for a camera and Nikon has the parts, producing it occasionally in response to direct demand in low volume is the most efficient and profitable way to do that.
From this I'd say the D3400, D5600, D500, D610, D750, and D810 are no longer manufactured, and any gray market version that's still available new is coming from the SE Asia arbitragers. The D6 is probably on its last legs and kept at full price to encourage most people to go to the Z9 instead while keeping it available for government and agencies. Given the continued discounting, the D7500, D780, and D850 are likely still being manufactured.
I don't believe there are piles of finished D7500, D780, and D850 models sitting around Nikon corporate. There are likely piles of parts for those cameras that are sitting in inventory somewhere, otherwise those cameras would no longer be discounted. And more specifically, there are two parts that you just can't order up some new ones whenever needed: EXPEED6 and the image sensors. The D780, specifically, uses the same parts as the Z6 II, so is probably the camera least in danger of leaving production at the moment.
64591212e2