Nikon S3 Olympic

I looked at the slides on a light table and they looked great. Nothing out of the ordinary from the scratches at all, which is to be expected. Point the lens into the sun and then the craziness will probably start. I won't have scans back of this film for at least two weeks.
 
Olympic?

Olympic?

Please forgive my ignorance, but I am no Nikon RF expert. What makes this S3 "Olympic"? How is it differentiated for other varieties of S3?

Cheers,
Dez
 
Tom A said:
I wonder if this was the Olympic S3 at Sanpo Camera. I saw it last month - body only at Yen 129 000. Finder is quite beat up, but the camera seemed to work OK. The seller might have added the 35f1.8 to make it more attractive. They had a bunch of Nikon Rf's there, several S3's in the yen 70 000 - 90 000 range (most with 50f1.4's) some SP's in the Yen 125-130 000 range, also with either 50f1.4's or 50f2's on them and the beaten up Olympic S3. I was tempted, but Sanpo only takes cash, no cards so I got a S3 chrome with a 50f1.4 #50051037 (1 st version - usually on a Nikon M) for Yen 68 000. Oh, they also had a chrome 25f4 with finder for Yen 115 000 and a 21f4 with finder and the elusive back cap for Yen 290 000. They usually have some interesting stuff, mostly not mint - but good user pieces at decent prices.
Click to expand...

I wonder if this one for 173,250 yen is the one you saw at Sanpou Camera, Tom? If so, it was still there as of last Friday!

 
Dez said:
Please forgive my ignorance, but I am no Nikon RF expert. What makes this S3 "Olympic"? How is it differentiated for other varieties of S3?

Cheers,
Dez
Click to expand...

The Olympic S3s are a reissue batch of S3 cameras that went on sale in late 1965 (one year after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics). Unlike S3s from original production, they have F parts (self timer, advance lever, frame counter cover, titanium shutter curtains etc.) and are all painted black. Their serial numbers all start with 632xxxx, unlike the original production S3s whose serial numbers start with 630xxxx or 631xxxx.

This reissue S3 probably got the nickname Olympic S3 because most (but not all) were sold with the Olympic Nikkor-S 50mm f1.4 lens that was released in 1962 along with a batch of reissue SPs with serial numbers starting with 623xxxx.

This Japanese newspaper clipping dated 12th October 1965 (link to website here) states that Nikon started selling this reissue S3 from mid September 1965 and that the batch is a limited run of 2,000 cameras.
 
Olympic S3

Olympic S3

Thanks very much for the info. Short production runs tend to do crazy things to prices, but this is beyond my budget.

Cheers,

Dez
 
Jon. that looks like the one I saw there. I probably got the price wrong, 179000 rather than my optimistic 129000!!
It looked well seasoned too. Not that I need another S3 - but one cant have too many, can one?
 
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