Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Nikon F2

Nippon Kogaku · Nikon F mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film, hinged back · 1971

Also known as: Nikon F2 Photomic · Nikon F2A · Nikon F2AS · Nippon Kogaku Nikon F2 · ニコンF2

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
F2 (DE-1 eye-level prism) Nikon F 1971–1980 — No separate figure published
F2 Photomic (DP-1) Nikon F 1971–1977 — No separate figure published
F2S Photomic (DP-2) Nikon F 1973–1977 — No separate figure published
F2SB Photomic (DP-3) Nikon F 1976–1977 — No separate figure published
F2A Photomic (DP-11) Nikon F 1977–1980 — No separate figure published
F2AS Photomic (DP-12) Nikon F 1977–1980 — No separate figure published
F2 Titan (F2T) Nikon F 1978–1980 — No figure published
F2H (high speed) Nikon F 1978 — About 400 units, per English Wikipedia. Nikon has published no figure
F2 Data Nikon F — — About 5,000 units, per English Wikipedia. Nikon has published no figure
  1. 816,000 bodies between September 1971 and 1980 — the figure Brian Long gives in Nikon: A Celebration, and the only total in print. Nikon's own history of the camera publishes none, and no breakdown by finder, finish or year exists anywhere consulted.
  2. Nine years of production against the F's fourteen and a half, for 94% of the F's output. The F2 was built faster than the camera it replaced.
  3. Mike Eckman gives a US list of $330 for the body alone and $550 with a Photomic finder and a 50mm lens, against the $660 recorded here for the Photomic with the f/1.4. The three figures are for different packages and different years and do not conflict, but no single price list covering the whole run has been found.
  4. The mirror can be locked up at any time on the F2, where the F's mirror could only be raised after the shutter had fired — a point Mike Eckman singles out as the more useful arrangement.
  5. Film speed on the Ai-coupled heads is set from ISO 12 to 1600 (Jim Grey, shooting a DP-11 and a DP-12). Nikon publishes no single range covering all six Photomic finders.
  6. Jim Grey describes the F2's shutter as horizontal cloth. Nikon's own specification, and every other source consulted here, gives titanium foil — Mike Eckman puts it as the improved shutter retaining "the titanium curtains of the original". Recorded because it is the only description of the shutter material found that disagrees, and it disagrees with the manufacturer. It is not treated as a competing claim: one reviewer's passing word against the maker's own specification is an error, not a dispute, and the field above is left as Nikon wrote it.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A titanium foil shutter timed to 1/2000, mechanical throughout — the battery runs the meter and nothing else
  • A hinged back. The F's back lifted off entirely; the F2's swings open
  • Exposures of 2 to 10 seconds are set on the self-timer lever, not the shutter dial, and Nikon lists them among the shutter speeds
  • The shutter release moved forward, onto the front of the top plate, where a finger falls on it during a long burst

F2 (DE-1 eye-level prism):

  • A plain unmetered pentaprism. The body carries no meter of its own and never did

F2 Photomic (DP-1):

  • CdS cells and a swinging galvanometer needle, read against a notch in the finder
  • Prong indexing: the finder's coupling fork must be set to the lens aperture ring by hand

F2S Photomic (DP-2):

  • Two red LEDs in place of the needle — the first Nikon meter readout with no moving part
  • Reads two stops further down than the DP-1

F2SB Photomic (DP-3):

  • Silicon photodiode instead of CdS, and a three-LED plus/circle/minus readout
  • An eyepiece blind, which the earlier heads lack

F2A Photomic (DP-11):

  • The DP-1's needle metering rebuilt for Ai lenses: an indexing ridge, no prong to set

F2AS Photomic (DP-12):

  • The DP-3's silicon cell and LED readout with Ai coupling — the last and most sensitive head

F2 Titan (F2T):

  • Titanium top, bottom and back covers, and a titanium DE-1 finder

F2H (high speed):

  • A fixed pellicle mirror in place of the reflex mirror, so the finder never blacks out

F2 Data:

  • Built to take the MF-10 or MF-11 data back, which prints on the frame

Serial-range notes

7100001
The first F2. Richard de Stoutz records it as the start of the run; the last numbers reported in the literature are in the 796xxxx range for black bodies and 806xxxx for chrome.
710xxxx – 749xxxx
1971–1975. Black and chrome bodies share these blocks.
750xxxx – 759xxxx and 770xxxx – 779xxxx and 790xxxx – 796xxxx
Black bodies only, 1975–1980. From 1975 the two finishes were numbered apart.
760xxxx – 769xxxx and 780xxxx – 789xxxx and 800xxxx – 806xxxx
Chrome bodies only, 1975–1980.
807xxxx
Nico van Dijk's table carries a 807xxxx block with the date left as a query. De Stoutz stops at 806xxxx. Where the run actually ends is not settled.

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film, hinged back
Finder
Interchangeable pentaprism: the unmetered DE-1, or one of five Photomic meter heads (DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, DP-11, DP-12). Twenty focusing screens were catalogued. · no rangefinder image
Shutter
titanium foil, focal plane, horizontal, mechanical · 1s – 1/2000, B and T, with intermediate speeds settable; 2 to 10s on the self-timer · flash sync X at 1/80 or slower · self-timer
Film advance
single-stroke lever; motor drive by MD-1, MD-2 or MD-3
Back
hinged, where the F's was fully removable; MF-10 and MF-11 data backs offered
Meter
None in the body. The meter lives in the finder, as on the F — CdS in the DP-1, DP-2 and DP-11, silicon photodiode in the DP-3 and DP-12.
Motor drive
MD-1, MD-2, MD-3 — The MD-1 of 1971 and the MD-2 of 1973 run to about 5 frames a second; the MD-3 is the slower 2.5-frame unit.
Weight
840 g
Dimensions
152.5 × 65 × 102 mm
Country
Japan
Original price
US$660 for the F2 Photomic with the Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4, 1972; US$1,278 for the F2AS in 1978. No Japanese list price has been found. (today $4,950)
Accessories
DE-1 eye-level prism · DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, DP-11 and DP-12 Photomic finders · MD-1, MD-2 and MD-3 motor drives · MF-10 and MF-11 data backs

Where sources disagree

F2 Titan production years
  • 1978–1980 (English Wikipedia)
  • 1976–1980 (camera-wiki.org)

Better supported: Unresolved

Two years apart on a body that was sold in parallel with the ordinary F2 throughout. Neither source cites a serial block for the Titan, so a camera in hand does not settle it.

Total production
  • 816,000 bodies, September 1971 to 1980 — Brian Long, Nikon: A Celebration
  • 862,600 bodies, 1971 to 1980 — Mike Eckman

Better supported: Unresolved

Two figures 46,600 apart for the same nine years. Neither is sourced to Nikon, which has published no total, and neither is broken down by year, finish or finder head. The serial blocks recorded here run from 7100001 to somewhere in the 806xxxx–807xxxx range, which is consistent with either figure once the gaps between blocks are allowed for, so the numbering does not choose between them. What separates the two is provenance rather than arithmetic: Long's figure appears in a researched book, Eckman states his as a bare fact — "862,600 Nikon F2s were produced" — and attributes it to nothing. That is a reason to prefer Long, not a reason to call the matter closed, because a book without a footnote is still a figure nobody can check.

What reviewers say

History

The Nikon F2 was shown to the press in August 1971 and went on sale on 21 September. Nikon began designing it in September 1965, six years after the F reached the market and while the F was still selling everything it could make. The first pre-production body was finished in July 1970. Five years of engineering went into a camera that, from six feet away, is the one it replaced.

That is the point of it. The F2 keeps the F bayonet, the interchangeable prisms, the interchangeable screens and the arrangement by which the body has no meter at all and the finder does the measuring. A photographer with an F could pick one up and work. What arrived underneath was a shutter that runs to 1/2000 instead of 1/1000, a back on a hinge instead of one that comes away in the hand, a mirror with an air damper, and a motor drive that bolts on without unscrewing the baseplate first. The self-timer was made to do double duty: exposures from two to ten seconds are set on the lever, not the speed dial, and Nikon’s specification lists them among the shutter speeds.

The metering ran through six heads in nine years, and they are the whole of the model naming. The DP-1 of 1971 is a CdS cell and a needle. The DP-2 of 1973 replaces the needle with two red LEDs and gives the F2S. The DP-3 of 1976 swaps CdS for a silicon photodiode and adds a third LED, giving the F2SB. Then Ai arrived in 1977 and the last two heads are the first two rebuilt for it: the DP-11 is the DP-1 with an indexing ridge instead of a prong, and the DP-12 is the DP-3 the same way, making the F2A and the F2AS. Six finders, one body, no change to the camera underneath — the same trick the F had run with the Photomic, T, Tn and FTn.

Brian Long puts the total at 816,000 bodies; Mike Eckman gives 862,600 for the same nine years, and the two have never been reconciled. Nikon publishes no figure at all, and no source consulted breaks the run down by finder head, by finish or by year. Serial numbers start at 7100001 and share blocks between black and chrome until 1975, after which the two finishes were numbered separately — black in 750xxxx, 770xxxx and 790xxxx, chrome in 760xxxx, 780xxxx and 800xxxx. De Stoutz ends the run at 796xxxx black and 806xxxx chrome; van Dijk’s table carries an 807xxxx block with the date left as a question mark.

Three variants sit outside the finder scheme, and all three are thinly documented. The F2 Titan has titanium covers and a titanium prism; Wikipedia dates its run 1978–1980, camera-wiki 1976–1980, and neither gives a serial block that would settle it. The F2H replaces the reflex mirror with a fixed pellicle so the finder never blacks out, and about 400 are said to have been made. The F2 Data, built for the MF-10 and MF-11 imprinting backs, is put at roughly 5,000. All three figures come from the same single source, none from Nikon, and none has a serial range attached — which means that for the rarest F2s there is at present no way to check a claim against a camera.

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

Nikon F2
Nikon F2 with the DE-1 eye-level prism — Runner1616, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Nikon F2
Nikon F2 Photomic, black — Mike, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Nikon F2
Nikon F2 Uemura Special, 1977, at the Nikon Museum — Doricono, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $300 across 242 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $230–$420). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 4 days: unchanged from $300.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$300$230–$420242
2026-09-10$300$230–$430243
2026-09-08$300$230–$430243
2026-09-06$300$230–$430243

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

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Related: Nikon F3 · Nikon F4 · Nikon F5

Lenses for this body: Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 · Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 · Nikkor 135mm f/2.8 · Nikkor 200mm f/2 IF-ED · Nikkor 24mm f/2 · Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 · Nikkor 28mm f/2 · Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 ED · Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 · Nikkor 35mm f/2 · Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 (F mount) · Nikkor 50mm f/2 (F mount) · Nikkor 55mm f/1.2 · Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 · Noct-Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 · PC-Nikkor 35mm f/2.8 · Reflex-Nikkor 1000mm f/11 · Reflex-Nikkor 500mm f/8

Sources (10)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.