Nikon Serial Number Location
So, I would like to ask for volunteers who know the year of manufacture (or purchase, if bought new) of their Nikon SLRs to post details of their Nikon SLR serial numbers (or at least the first 3 or 4 digits :wink, so that the rest of us can get an idea when our cameras were built.
Obviously, if (like me :redface you own Nikon SLRs but don't know the year of manufacture, there's not much point in posting just the serial number here. Still, if we can at least get some posts from those who do have a fairly good idea of the year that their camera hails from, then we could all benefit from that knowledge :smile:.
This thread is open to any Nikon SLRs (and RFs too, I guess). If we are lucky enough to get lots of posts, then it should be easy for forum members to simply put the model that they are interested in into the 'Search' function and bring up any entries for it that way :smile:. (Personally, I would love to hear from any FA owners who could help me find out what year a 5304XXX serial number belongs to :biggrin.
As I said, there appears to be no official source for this info (but please do correct me if I'm wrong), so please take part in the thread if you have anything at all to share . Thanks!
Andy
- Nikon D3400 Serial Number Location
- Nikon Camera Body Serial Numbers
- Nikon Z7 Serial Number Location
- Nikon D70 Serial Number Location
Nikon D3400 Serial Number Location
Nikon has long used the first digit of the serial number to indicate region for many of their products (all the way back into the film SLR era). Traditionally, that first digit was used by Nikon like this:
Sep 26, 2017 p.1 #5 p.1 #5 D850 Serial Number question. Different camera, but Nikon. I have a 3 year old D810 with a higher s/n than the new body I bought last month. The new body is in the gold box having the 100th year badge, so it's a recent build. Jan 06, 2017 1. Nikon varies the locations of the lens serial number over the years. The early manual AIS lenses have their SN engraved and white filled at the front end of the lens or the front of the zoom ring. Latter lenses have their SN number shadowed engraved on the aperture ring. Dec 11, 2013 Not really - the only way to know is to buy it new from an authorized dealer. I've never heard of a knock-off Nikon though. I have one for sale, but I see you're in Canada and mine is a US serial number. Dec 24, 2007 On the bottom, all Nikon gear has it there, cameras, lenses, and even accessories. The number is 6-8 digits.
- Not used
- Japan
- USA
- Europe (excluding UK)
- Canada
- Australia/New Zealand
- Asia (excluding Japan)
- United Kingdom
- Not used
Don’t get locked into those values (read on for recent exceptions).
Nikon Camera Body Serial Numbers
Initial production of a product was almost always a two-digit variant of that with the second digit being zero (e.g. 30xxxxx in the US). In a few cases, Nikon has used digits outside a region when production exceeds 999,999 units (see Note in next paragraph, though). That's why the second digit isn't just part of the serial number itself: it’s also reserved as a special region indicator, when needed. In other words, while US products normally would be 30, 31, 32…39 in initial numbers, Nikon has set things up so that they could make, say, a 25 region code that's US for a product (normally that would be Japan).
Note: it appears that Nikon hasn’t changed the number of digits in most serial numbers, which as product quantities increased in the digital age, caused Nikon to have to abandon the clear logic they formerly used and which the above table suggests.
It appears that Nikon has adjusted many of their previous serial numbers to give them plenty of room for US, Asian/Pacific, and European bodies. For example, with the D7100, Nikon started using the 25xxxxx code for the first US bodies. Since the US D7100 number comes after the initial number for the much smaller Japanese market, it makes some sense to 'steal' some of the Japan numbers. But also oddly, we’re now seeing that a lot of other country serial numbers don't tend to have a 0 as a second digit, which is another departure for Nikon. As I keep updating this article, Nikon keeps shifting to a very problematic (for customers) method of uniquely identifying region, especially in Europe, where they’re using previously Canadian and Australian numbers (e.g. 51xxxxx and 61xxxxx), and in Asia/Pacific, where they now use 6xxxxxx, 7xxxxxx, and 8xxxxxx numbers.
A few products, most notably the low volume top end pro cameras, use only the Japan-based serial numbers. Thus, you can have a D3 with a 20xxxxx serial number no matter where in the world you bought it (curiously, the D5 reverts back to the regional numbering system).
Nikon Z7 Serial Number Location
The same scheme often applies to lenses, though most US lenses are prefaced with the letters US these days and some recent lenses have longer serial numbers.
So where we stand is this: older gear clearly follows the original numbering practice in the table shown at the top of this page. The latest gear is much more complicated in how serial numbers are used. That said, a serial number with 0 as the second digit is almost always allocated according to the table, above.
Nikon D70 Serial Number Location
As I noted two decades ago, Nikon really just needs to abandon this serialization practice. The primary reason it’s done is to enable Nikon to identify gray market cameras and deny warranty and repairs on them. In essence, Nikon’s trying to act like as series of local companies in a global environment.