I recently made some big changes to my camera collection including selling some of my least used systems in an effort to cut down on the amount of equipment in my dry cabinet. I sold my Bronica ETRS and Canon F1n, replacing them both with a Nikon F100 for 35mm work. I found the beautiful F100 above on eBay and I couldn’t believe it - the camera looked unused! Excited to see what it could do with my new FX lenses, I shot two rolls of Ferrania P30 during a day trip to Albany. Everything worked flawlessly except for one feature: the “Metering System Selector”. Located on the righthand side of the OFV, this selector is supposed to let you swap between spot, matrix, and center weighted metering. Mine was stuck on matrix, and I figured this out about 1/2 way through my first roll when I needed to spot meter for a backlit shot but didn’t see any movement when I changed modes. I have a pretty good feel for how over/under my meter readings are and made exposure compensation adjustments when necessary, but I spent the rest of the day frantically trying to figure why the F100 was stuck in matrix mode.
Turns out the “Metering System Selector” is the Achilles heel of an otherwise excellent camera. Over time, the contacts behind the selector oxidize and the metering system gets stuck at whatever mode the selector was left in. I did some research and found a few different solutions including sending the camera back to a Nikon service center (probably wouldn’t work in 2021), exercising the selector until it starts responding, and shooting some contact cleaner into the selector. I started with the least invasive option, moving the selector back and forth around 50 times without any signs of improvement. I always keep a can of contact cleaner on hand for general repairs but I was nervous to use it given the selector’s proximity to the pentaprism. Having exhausted my other options, I decided to give it a go.
I stuck some gaffers tape over the LCD screen and viewfinder, flipped the camera upside down, and shot some contact cleaner into the selector. After two rounds of applying contact cleaner and exercising the selector, I could finally get the camera out of matrix mode! I repeated this process six or seven times before all the modes worked reliably. I’ve found it helps to be decisive when changing metering modes because sometimes the camera will default back to matrix. Simply nudge the selector and it should jump back into the mode you selected. A word of warning – a bit of rubber came out from behind the metering system selector lock release button on the fourth shot of contact cleaner. I used some sharp tweezers to remove it. The rubber was clearly perished (another weak spot in the design?) but it hasn’t affected the camera operation thus far. I imagine it had something to do with the weather sealing, so it might not be wise to attempt this fix if you plan on taking your F100 into extreme environments. I’m not one to be hard on my equipment, so this wasn’t a concern for me.
And there you have it – how to fix an unresponsive Nikon F100 Metering System Selector!