Serial numbers

Danno

Senior Member
I think you can take the Serial Number to the Nikon USA site and enter the number. If it is gray market it will not be recognized, but I am not absolutist certain. Others here might be more sure.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
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:

  1. Not used
  2. Japan
  3. USA
  4. Europe (excluding UK)
  5. Canada
  6. Australia/New Zealand
  7. Asia (excluding Japan)
  8. United Kingdom
  9. Not used

If it ain’t a 3, it’s a Grey Market
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
I would speak with Nikon directly. That way you would know for sure.
 

arshuter

Senior Member
Well these answers put the kobush to "buy frrom an autherized dealer". My D7100 was bought from Berger Brothers in New York, it's serial number starts with a 2.
 

arshuter

Senior Member
Just got off the phone with Nikon. The only why they can give you an answer is to send your camera in to service. They have no set rule by serial number. With that said he told me 'chances are good it's for USA sales if it has GPS as most forgien countries do not allow or want GPS on the cameras".
 

carguy

Senior Member
This is an interesting discussion. I've read previously that people have called Nikon directly and they were told they are unable to determine or share that information?
 

nikonpup

Senior Member
Well these answers put the kobush to "buy frrom an autherized dealer". My D7100 was bought from Berger Brothers in New York, it's serial number starts with a 2.[/QUOTIf you read my link again, Nikon had a large run of D7100's in the USA and borrowed numbers from Japan. I have 3 D7100's, 2 have sn's starting with 2.
 

arshuter

Senior Member
Well these answers put the kobush to "buy frrom an autherized dealer". My D7100 was bought from Berger Brothers in New York, it's serial number starts with a 2.[/QUOTIf you read my link again, Nikon had a large run of D7100's in the USA and borrowed numbers from Japan. I have 3 D7100's, 2 have sn's starting with 2.
I didn't actually read it just skimmed over it and saw the 30-39 part. My bad, should have read it.
 

spb_stan

Senior Member
There used to be a first digit indicating the marketing region but when really popular cameras started running out of numbers they dropped that as an iron clad policy. Then the Z cameras came out and there is no sure indication with those bodies. So is it grey market? Asking Nikon is the only sure way but even they have been reluctant to say recently. IF your registration of the product after purchase went through ok on the web site, it is accepted as a camera covered by that region's warranty.

The person who replied that GPS means US is clearly uninformed and should not be answering since they are probably the janitor and not a customer service dept employee. The only restrictions on GPS are usually related to accuracy, banning highly accurate resolution as a security risk in the US. Other sat nav systems do not cripple their GPS accuracy.
GPS is allowed almost everywhere. What IS different in some countries are the WiFi frequency differences but almost all hardware can cover them all.
Regardless of documents in the box, your warranty registration on the Nikon web site establishes and extends the warranty so be sure to go to their site and register any new purchase.
 
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