Have a Black Nikon S2 Rangefinder? It May Be Worth a Pretty Penny
First introduced back in December 1954, the Nikon S2 is Nikon’s most common rangefinder camera with more than 56,000 produced. The highly-regarded camera still sells for $300 and up these days through sites like eBay — well, the silver version, at least.
Over on eBay, there’s currently a listing for an all-black Nikon S2 with a hefty Buy it Now price of $15,900.
Why is the price so high, you ask? Well, the black Nikon S2 is among the rarest of all Nikon cameras. It was the first Nikon camera that was “professionally designated,” meaning only professional photographers could buy it. Credentialed photographers could order the cameras directly from the Nikon factory.
“This camera also has black dials and black range dial, which makes it even more scare,” the seller writes. CameraQuest writes that four versions of the black S2 were made:
The later black S2 Black Dial seems much harder to find than the Chrome Dial version […] How can you tell the difference ? Notice the focusing scale is in black and chrome instead of all chrome, and shutter speed dial has a chrome rim around the edge, instead of no rim on the Chrome Dials. Another point is the serial number: Black Dials started at about 6180000.
The serial number of the camera on eBay is 6180630, which seems to confirm that this is a very rare Nikon camera indeed. Here are some photos of the eBay unit:
Head over to the eBay listing if you have $15,900 to drop on this rare Nikon camera.
Image credits: Photographs by absolutelyeverything2012/eBay
