Nikkormat EL

Nippon Kogaku · Nikon F mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film, hinged back · 1972

Also known as: Nikomat EL · Nikkormat E.L. · ニコマートEL

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Nikkormat EL	Nikon F	1972–1976	—	No figure published

No production figure has been published. A claim that 500,000 were built over five years circulates on collector blogs; John Margetts, repeating it at oldcamera.blog, attributes it only to "the Interweb" and uses it to date his own camera, so it should not be treated as a figure at all.
No serial-date table has been published. The same source records a body numbered 5208996 and reports, again without attribution, that Nikkormat serials begin at 5000000.
Sold in two finishes, chrome-and-black and all black. Neither is a variant.
The EL had a reputation for eating batteries, which is why the advance lever doubles as the power switch: Nikon's own account explains that an electronically controlled body draws milliamps whatever the light, and would flatten a cell in days if left on. Richard Haw, who strips these cameras for a living, adds that the 4SR44 is now hard to find and goes flat quickly, and that the 1/90 mechanical speed is what is left when it does.
Common faults, from Richard Haw's teardown: the meter needle jams for no obvious reason, the light seals rot, and the mirror-box battery chamber corrodes. He rates the EL tough — fewer parts than an F, so less to go wrong — but will not recommend a beginner open one, and says every Nikkormat finder is painful to clean because so much has to come off first.
The screen fitted is not consistent across surviving cameras: Clive Williams reports a microprism-only screen in his and regrets the absence of a split-image, while Jim Grey describes a split-image with a microprism collar in his. Both are consistent with Nikon's statement that more than one screen was in production and the choice was made at purchase.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Shutter speed dial on the top plate, unlike the mechanical Nikkormats
A wide unmarked gap between B and 4 on that dial, which sets an 8-second exposure Nikon deleted from the engraving but left in the circuit
Rabbit-ear prong coupling: the aperture ring must be twisted to both stops after mounting to index the lens
Pentaprism housing shaped around a horseshoe of printed circuit board laid over the prism
Match-needle readout with a black needle for the metered speed and a translucent green needle for the set speed

Nikkormat EL:

Shutter speed dial on the top plate — the EL series moved it there, while the mechanical Nikkormats kept the ring around the mount
Battery hatch inside the mirror box: the lens comes off and the mirror goes up before it can be reached

Nikkormat EL: One model, in chrome-and-black or all black. The prism is fixed and the screen is not user changeable, so there is no family of finder or meter variants of the kind the Nikon F and F2 carry. Nikon states that microprism and split-image screen versions were both in production; the choice was made at purchase or by a service centre, not by the photographer.

Specifications

Format: 24×36mm on 35mm film, hinged back
Finder: Fixed pentaprism, non-interchangeable; fixed screen, supplied with either a microprism (Type J) or a split-image (Type A) centre, both with a 12mm circle marking the meter's centre weighting · no rangefinder image
Shutter: Copal Square SE, metal blade, vertical travel, focal plane, electronically timed · 4s – 1/1000 stepless on automatic; B and 1s – 1/1000 set manually; 1/90 mechanically with a dead battery. An unmarked 8s position sits between B and 4 · flash sync X at 1/125 · self-timer
Film advance: single-stroke lever, which switches the meter and shutter on when swung out to about 30°
Back: hinged
Meter: TTL 60/40 centre-weighted CdS, match-needle, film speed set from ISO 25 to 1600, driven by one 6V cell (4G13, now 4SR44 or PX28) housed in the mirror box
Motor drive: Not compatible — None. Nikon says automatic film advance had been in the EL's project plan from the start, but the coupling was not fitted until the ELW of 1976.
Weight: 780 g
Dimensions: 145 × 93.5 × 54.5 (width × height × depth) mm
Country: Japan
Accessories: Type J microprism and Type A split-image focusing screens (fitted, not user-changeable)

What reviewers say

Clive Williams (35mmc) (blog) — Calls the black-needle-against-green-needle readout the best meter display he has used on any camera, and got 37 usable frames from a 38-exposure roll of Provia — but calls the prong indexing ritual baroque and clunky by even 1970s standards, and misses both a split-image screen and any exposure-compensation dial, so backlit frames mean re-setting the film speed.
Jim Grey (Down the Road) (blog) — Sturdy and sure and easy to read, but only good rather than special among 1970s SLRs — and he lost two entire rolls to a black band across the frames that he first blamed on shutter capping and eventually traced to the mirror-box battery door working loose in use.
Richard Haw (Classic Nikon Repair and Review) (blog) — From the repair bench: as tough as the F-series and tougher in one sense, because there is less in it to go wrong, which is why professionals carried them as backups — but the finder is smaller than a professional body's and hard to use at night, the prong coupling is cumbersome, the 4SR44 is scarce and short-lived, and he says flatly that he always hated cleaning Nikkormat finders because of how much must come off to reach them.

History

The problem the Nikomat EL solved took eight years. Automatic exposure on a leaf-shutter camera was routine by the mid-1960s, and Nippon Kogaku had already built one — the Nikon Auto 35 of 1964. On a single-lens reflex with a focal-plane shutter it was much harder, because the through-the-lens meter goes blind at precisely the moment the shutter needs its reading: the mirror rises, the light is cut off, and only then does the exposure begin. The answer was to memorise the reading in a capacitor and let the stored voltage time the shutter, and Nikon’s own account of the period says the patent fights over how to do that were fierce. The first prototype, a compact-looking thing called 5B built around an electronic version of the Copal Square shutter, was finished in 1969. Its control circuit used logarithmic compression, which looked like someone else’s patent, and had to be rebuilt around a bi-logarithmic scheme before the camera could ship.

What shipped at the end of 1972 has its electronics in a place no designer would choose. The integrated circuit — 74 transistors and 27 resistors on a two-millimetre square — was still too big to sit under the shutter dial with the galvanometer, so the top cover was reshaped and a horseshoe of printed circuit board was laid over the pentaprism. The battery went somewhere worse. A 6.2-volt silver cell was needed, and the shutter-charging rack runs across the bottom of the body, so the battery hatch ended up inside the mirror box: the lens comes off, the mirror is flipped up, and the cover is down there. Nikon’s historian describes finding it as a puzzle and notes, in mitigation, that Zeiss Ikon had done the same thing on the Contarex.

The camera also has a shutter speed it does not admit to. The dial is marked to 4 seconds, but there is a wide gap between B and 4, and setting the dial into that gap gives 8 seconds. The specification had allowed for it; late in development the controlling capacitor turned out not to hold its charge reliably that long under some conditions, so the engraving was deleted and the resistor was left in place. It works. Whether it works accurately, Nikon declined to say.

Externally the EL broke with the mechanical Nikkormats in one visible way: the shutter speed dial went to the top plate, where the rest of the industry kept it, instead of the ring around the lens mount that the FT and FTN had used since 1965. Everything else stayed Nikkormat — 780 grams of aluminium casting with brass plates, a fixed prism, a fixed screen, no motor drive, and the rabbit-ear prong that had to be twisted to both stops after mounting before the meter knew the lens.

The record on how many were made is empty. No figure has been published by Nikon or by anyone with access to Nikon’s records; a round 500,000 circulates on collector sites attributed to nothing more than the internet, and the serial blocks that would test it have never been tabulated for any Nikkormat. Roland Vink’s database, which does exactly this work for Nikkor lenses, has not reached the manual-focus bodies. Until it does, the commercial size of Nippon Kogaku’s first electronic camera is a guess.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Photographs

Nikkormat EL — Dolapeart, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $80 across 44 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $41–$140). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $80.

By day

Date	Median	Middle half	Listings
2026-09-11	$80	$41–$140	44
2026-09-06	$80	$41–$140	44

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Nikon (Nikkormat) EL und EM - Gebrauchsanweisung und Fotoführer — €4.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikomat EL 35mm SLR Analogkamera Body Silber Japan ungeprüft — €15.50 · eBay · likely EL
Nikkormat EL Käyttöohje #E5 — €16.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL Gebrauchsanweisung #P6 — €22.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikomat EL 35mm SLR Spiegelreflexkamera Body Vintage Japan Schwarz — €25.50 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat/EL Original Case Bereitschaftstasche — €35.00 · eBay · likely EL
nikon nikkormat EL film 35mm body slr — €40.00 · eBay · likely EL
NIKON NIKKORMAT-EL-Kleinbild-Spiegelreflexkamera — €55.00 · eBay · likely EL
NIKKORMAT EL cámara SLR — €55.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL SLR 35mm Spiegelreflexkamera analog Body Gehäuse (Nikon F) — €60.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon NIKKORMAT EL 35mm SLR mit Nikon NIKKOR 28mm 1:3,5 — €70.00 · eBay · likely EL
nikon nikkormat EL 35mm film camera — €70.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL (Gehäuse 5243686) — €79.00 · eBay · likely EL
Kamera Nikon Nikkormat EL silber — €80.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL (Gehäuse) — €82.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikkormat EL mit 28mm Super-Danubia — €89.00 · eBay · likely EL
(3214) Spiegelreflexkamera Nikon Nikkormat EL (Body) - 35mm analog Zust: gut 👍 — €89.00 · eBay · likely EL
black paint NIKKORMAT EL - tested & working — €89.73 · eBay · likely EL
NIKKORMAT EL Reflex Analogica 35mm con Nikon F/2.0 — €90.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL SLR Filmkamera Body Gehäuse Silber/Schwarz mit Deckel — €91.00 · eBay · likely EL

Show 94 more listings

Nikkormat EL Black Body — €94.99 · eBay · likely EL
NIKON Nikkormat EL Gehäuse - SNr: 5235152 — €99.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL 80-200mm f/4.5 Zoomobjektiv Nikon F manuell 62mm — €99.00 · eBay · likely EL
NIKON Nikkormat EL - SNr: 5517208 — €99.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL - Black - Working — €99.00 · eBay · likely EL
NIKON NIKKORMAT EL CHROME GEHÄUSE MADE IN JAPAN ZUSTAND GEBRAUCHT Nr.3143 — €99.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikkormat EL - Gebrauchter Zustand Perfekt für Fotografen — €99.90 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL Vintage Kamera SLR + Objektiv — €100.00 · eBay · likely EL
Spiegelreflexkamera, Nikon, Nikkormat EL, 3 Objektive, mit Tasche — €105.00 · eBay · likely EL
Appareil photo réflex Nikkormat EL noir #5276408 Boitier seul. — €110.00 · eBay · likely EL
NIKON Nikkormat EL Gehäuse - SNr: 5455199 — €129.00 · eBay · likely EL
NIKON Nikkormat EL mit 50mm f/2,0 - SNr: 5206075 — €139.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikkormat EL Gehäuse body black Top Zustand Nikon — €140.00 · eBay · likely EL
✮ Nikon Nikkormat EL Body #5129068 || vom Händler! — €149.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikomat EL schwarz analoge Spiegelreflexkamera 35 mm / 55 mm f3,5 Objek... — €155.19 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikomat EL analoge Spiegelreflexkamera 35 mm NIKKOR-S 50 mm F1.4... — €158.50 · eBay · likely EL
Nikkormat EL 35mm SLR + Nikkor 50mm f/2 | fully working | very good — €159.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL + Nikkor 50mm F2 — €169.00 · eBay · likely EL
[Fast neuwertig] Nikon Nikomat EL analoge Spiegelreflexkamera schwarz & Ai... — €177.75 · eBay · likely EL
NIKKORMAT EL-OBIETTIVO 55mm-FLASH — €190.00 · eBay · likely EL
Book DAS BUCH NIKON F2 NIKKORMAT EL CALYPSO NIKKOR II 1973 COFAS (RG20) — €201.50 · eBay · likely EL
✮ Nikon Nikkormat EL mit Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 #5521941 || vom Händler! — €249.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL +50mm Nikor + Tamron Zoom 60-300mm — €250.00 · eBay · likely EL
NIKON NIKKORMAT EL BODY DEFEKT / BASTLER — €29.99 · eBay · likely EL junk / for parts
Nikon Nikkormat EL Body, #975-1, - GUT, BELI DEFEKT - — €39.00 · eBay · likely EL junk / for parts
Nikon Nikkormat EL Photography Guide Reno — $7.99 · Retro Photo Reading · likely EL
Authentic NIKKORMAT EL 35mm film camera Viewfinder ring glass OEM parts. — $12.00 · eBay · likely EL
Authentic NIKKORMAT EL 35mm film camera Self timer lever with screw. OEM — $12.00 · eBay · likely EL
1974 Nikon Nikkormat EL Photography Guide Manual for Film SLR, MPN 8035-02 KEG — $12.99 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL (Non AI) 35mm single Lens Reflex Camera Body, Chrome — $23.25 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL Black 35mm SLR Film Camera Body Japan Parts/Repair. w/case — $25.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL Film Camera Body Untested — $29.99 · eBay · likely EL
NIKON 28MM F3.5 LENS & NIKKORMAT EL CAMERA — $34.95 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL (Non AI) 35mm Camera Body, Chrome (Made In Japan) — $37.99 · eBay · likely EL
NIKON NIKKORMAT EL 35mm FILM CAMERA, BODY ONLY (see description) — $38.94 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm SLR Film Camera Body Silver Black Japan 5269134 TESTED — $40.56 · eBay · likely EL
Nikkormat EL Chrome SLR Manual Focus Camera Body — $46.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm SLR Film Camera Non-AI Pre-AI Nikomat Japan *READ* — $49.95 · eBay · likely EL
Nikkormat EL with 2 lenses and flash - untested — $50.00 · eBay · likely EL
-Nikon Nikkormat EL film camera w/ 43-86mm f3.5 F Mount lens(0013) — $54.44 · eBay · likely EL
Black Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm SLR Film Camera Body - Tested — $54.99 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL Black 35mm SLR Film Camera w/ Lens UNTESTED — $65.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat Nikomat EL SLR Camera w/ Nikkor-H.C Auto 50mm f2 Tested 2884107 — $69.59 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm SLR Film Camera Body Only - JAPAN — $69.95 · eBay · likely EL
Nikkormat EL Body B#5324624 — $69.99 · Retro Photo Reading · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL with non ai 50mm f1.4 — $79.95 · eBay · likely EL
Black Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm SLR Film Camera Body - Tested — $80.00 · eBay · likely EL
Vintage Nikkormat EL Camera Nikon AW-1 Winder SB-16 Flash Sima 100mm Lens Lot — $84.98 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm SLR Film Camera w/ 50mm Lens — $89.00 · eBay · likely EL
☆ NIKON Nikkormat EL - F Mount 35mm SLR - Nikon Nikkor f:1.8/50mm lens☆VIDEO☆444 — $90.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Black Nikkormat EL with Nikkor-S.C. Auto 50mm f1.4 Lens & Manual READ — $95.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL Black 35mm SLR Film Camera w/nikkor 300mm f/4.5 Lens — $100.00 · eBay · likely EL
Vintage Nikon Nikkormat EL Film Camera With Nikkor-S 50mm 1:1.4 Lens — $119.99 · eBay · likely EL
[ MINT ] Nikon Nikkormat EL Silver Film Camera + Zoom-Nikkor 43-86mm F3.5 Japan — $119.99 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikomat EL (Nikkormat EL) SLR Silver Chrome Body [Top MINT] From JAPAN — $120.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm SLR Film Camera w/ 50mm lens and 80-200mm lens NEAR MINT — $125.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL Black Body with 50MM f2 — $139.99 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat El 35mm SLR Film Camera Body and lens Tested Working — $140.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikomat EL Black SLR 35mm Film Camera /55mm f3.5 Lens *Excellent+5 #4770 — $143.99 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL Silver Film Camera Body Excellent Condition — $147.52 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm Film SLR Camera + Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 Lens Working — $150.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm SLR Film Camera + Nikkor-H.C 50mm f/2 Tested Clean — $150.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikkormat EL 35mm Film Camera With Vivitar 28- 70mm Auto Focus Lens — $150.00 · eBay · likely EL
Rare Nikon Nikomat Nikkormat EL Camera w/ NAI follower + optional 50mm 1.4 lens — $158.28 · eBay · likely EL
NIKON NIKKORMAT EL BLACK SLR CAMERA WITH 35MM F 1.35 micro -NIKKOR LENS (JAPAN) — $187.50 · eBay · likely EL
Rare Mint Nikomat EL 35mm Film Camera with 28mm Wide Angle Lens –Tested & Ready — $249.88 · eBay · likely EL
Nikkormat EL 35mm Film Camera w/ Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 Lens Nikon F Mount — $279.99 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm SLR Film Camera w/ Novoflex Noflexar 1:5.6 f=400mm Lens — $285.75 · eBay · likely EL
Vintage Nikon Nikkormat EL + 55mm f/1.2 Nikkor Lens – Excellent Condition — $468.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm Film Manual SLR Camera Body in Black — £26.70 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat Nikomat EL SLR Camera w/ Nikkor-H.C Auto 50mm f2 Tested 2884107 — £61.43 · eBay · likely EL
Nikkormat EL 35mm SLR Camera Body - No Lens — £63.10 · eBay · likely EL
Nikkormat EL 35mm SLR Camera Body - No Lens — £69.99 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm SLR Film Camera + Nikon 36-72mm Lens - Tested Working — £70.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL Superb Build Quality Tested and Working SLR Camera Body — £79.99 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL analoge Spiegelreflexkamera 35 mm c/w 50 mm f2,0 – neuer Akku — £80.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikkormat EL Body Only Tested Working (Please Read Description) — £80.26 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm Film Manual SLR Camera Body - Fully Working + BOOK 301 — £90.00 · eBay · likely EL
NIKON Nikkormat EL 35mm SLR Film Camera &Nikkor P 105mm F2.5 Lens — £94.30 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm Film Camera + 43-86mm Zoom Lens Kit Black SLR Vintage — £99.99 · eBay · likely EL
Nikkormat EL 35MM SLR camera 1:3.5-4.5 28-70MM Lens — £99.99 · eBay · likely EL
Nikkormat EL Camera Body — £104.70 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL analoge 35-mm-Spiegelreflexkamera manuell Gehäuse – voll funktionsfähig — £112.99 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm Film Camera Body Only- VM8696- BB — £129.00 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikomat EL 35mm film camera body No 5551279 and Nikkormat case 'New seals' — £130.52 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm Film Manual SLR Camera Body in Black - Fully Working — £139.95 · eBay · likely EL
Nikon Nikomat EL 35mm SLR Film Camera NIKKOR-S 50mm F1.4 Lens From JAPAN [Exc+5] — £140.08 · eBay · likely EL
[Near MINT] Nikon Nikomat EL Black SLR Film Camera & Ai 35mm f2 Lens From JAPAN — £152.62 · eBay · likely EL
Nikkormat EL Silver 35mm Film SLR Camera Exc++++ Tested See Test Images — £159.00 · eBay · likely EL
Job Lot of Vintage Camera Equipment Including Nikkormat EL in Original Case — £499.36 · eBay · likely EL
Nikkormat EL Black — DKK 650.00 · One Of Many Cameras · likely EL
Nikkormat EL - new light seals February 2026 — DKK 900.00 · One Of Many Cameras · likely EL
Nikkormat EL - new light seals August 2024 — DKK 1,000.00 · One Of Many Cameras · likely EL
[GOOD] Black Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm SLR - Nikkor 28mm F/2.8 — CA$229.00 · eBay · likely EL

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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.