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Show HN: Nikon F100 Film Camera Repair Notes
I repaired a Nikon F100 film camera sold for-parts.
For my camera, an internal cleaning was all that was actually needed to get it working.
Unfortunately, for lack of documentation and knowledge I created a lot more work for myself than was necessary.
Here is what I wish I knew before starting.
The Nikon F100 repair manual and parts list are necessary but not sufficient. They are terse, vague and narrow in scope. Copies circulating online are low-quality scans.
Afotandovy has some useful disassembly photographs and comments: https://afotandovoy.blogspot.com/2013/02/reparacion-nikon-f100.html
If I could go back in time I would urge several points to past-me:
A lot of for-parts F100s on sale already have some essential components gutted.
This makes the economics of repairing them pretty bad.
Here are common missing parts I noticed, together with replacement status:
My broken F100 came without the eyepiece and its battery cartridge was shattered.
The seller said this camera died from battery corrosion.
By the time they cleaned the battery compartment the corrosion had already corrupted the inside of the camera.
Its behavior was erratic:
The batteries would sometimes heat up quickly. Scary.
As soon as I noticed this I stopped testing.
Corrosion was visible at the seams around the battery compartment/grip.
The top cover, baseplate and grip had to be removed to expose the contaminants that had leaked into the body.
I followed the “Disassembly 1. Exterior" section of the F100 repair manual.
Also helpful are the afotandovy photographs up to and not including removal of the LCD screen’s screws.
Corrosion cleanup for all the electronics followed the same pattern:
Much of the contamination was almost-completely invisible:
Separately, removing the metal grip revealed rust-red corrosion that I cleaned off with white vinegar, rinsing thoroughly with water afterwards.