Leica Elmar 50mm Serial Numbers
Update: A reader just sent me another way of determining the production year of Leica cameras and lenses: just got to this website, and type the serial number. And another update on the serial numbers after 2004: 4 000 000-4 010 600: 2004 4 010 601-4 025 900: 2005 4 025 901-4 034 900: 2006 4 034 901-4 057 000: 2007 4 057 001-4 080 000: 2008. Another 300 sets Leica M9-P Hermes Limited Edition with the Leica 50mm Summilux-M ASPH Hermes Limited Edition was released as well, price € 20,000 / 25,000$. 28mm (100 pcs) 50mm (100 pcs) 50mm (400 pcs) 2.0 0.95 1.4. Strictly limited to 1,640 pcs, made in 1994 to commemorate 40 years of leica m. The set combines the beautiful m3 design with the advantages of m6 features including the internal light meter, film loading and angled rewind knob, with a special 50mm f/2.8 elmar in a beautiful presentation box. I've shot my late 1940s coated Elmar, perfect glass, against a collapsible Industar-50. The Industar-50 is a fine performer, and costs about 1/10th the price that these lenses go for today. No complaints on my Black-Scale coated Elmar. I got it in a $50 brown grab bag with a Leica IIIf (A converted post-war IIIc) at a camera store.
S/N Links
Stephen Gandymaintains a excellent www site with Leica serial numbers ofcameras & lenses sorted into models and dates:
<cameraquest.com/classics.htm>
After this long page has loaded, do a search (or scroll down half way) tofind the 'Leica Serial Numbers' heading in red. There you will find 5 separatelinks to serial number pages. Eg., this is the particular link tothe M & R SLR camera bodies S/N page:
<cameraquest.com/leicanum.htm>
Leica leitz iiif black dial bd #417023 camera + elmar 50mm f/3.5 ltm lens, case. Au $722.31 + au $17.06 shipping.
While the following shows a list of the exact date of manufacture(to the month) for each batch of Ms (until 1999):
<cameraquest.com/mtype.htm>
If you are just looking for lens serial numbers / date of manufacture, then you may find it faster to look at this page:
<forloren.dk/lbf/leica_lens_serial.htm>
S/N are a guide only
Please note: you should always take these serial number lists to be only a rough guide to the year of manufacture, especially for cameras andlenses made after 1993. As noted by Jerry Pfilein May 2002:
[…] Leica does not make production in 'blocks' of bodies or lenses. Rather they allocate blocks of serial numbers to certain items e.g. the M7. As an example they may have allocated a block of 10,000 serial numbers for the first M7s. At the same time they may have allocated the next 3,000 numbers to R8s. But they may be producing both the R8 and the M7 at the same time. Whichever body runs out of serial numbers first just gets a new allocation of serial numbers and production may or may not continue based on demand.
The practical effect is that the next body out the door is not necessarily one serial number higher than the next as multiple items are produced at the same time. Sometimes blocks allocated to one item are not used wholly for that item and instances of an entirely different item than the block was initially allocated to are discovered.
The system works the same way with lenses although the lack of any serial number/time of production sequence is even more pronounced due to the greater number of individual lens types.
As an example of this I have a 100mm Macro APO-Elmarit R with aserial number which, according the # lists, predates the first actual year of production!
Years of manufacture
If you are wondering about how many years each model was made, the have a lookat the following threads at the Leica Forum at greenspun.com:
- <Greenspun.com: #006wqm> - M models, years of manufacture
- <Greenspun.com: #006wrM> - R models (ditto)
For the record, the M6 (and its variants) were the longest camera in productionat seventeen years, while the R6(.2) is the longest life-span R at thirteen years.
Leica Elmar 50mm Serial Numbers For Sale
Yes, but they weren’t oversights, but rare artifacts of a transitional era
Since E. Leitz Wetzlar was almost fanatically fastidious about engraving serial numbers on its cameras and lenses (even accessories!) and in keeping meticulous records that have proven to be of immense value to historians and collectors it’s kind of astonishing that there are a fair number of vintage Elmar lenses floating around that are utterly devoid of serial numbers in the usual places. The most common ones are nickel finished 50mm f/3.5 collapsible Elmars with no tiny numerals on the front of the black aperture setting ring. There are also a number of early black finished 90mm f/4 Elmars (affectionately known as Fat Elmars), and a much smaller number of exquisitely petite early 35mm f/3.5 Elmars, neither of which have the usual serial numbers engraved on their front lens I.D rings.
How did it happen? Well, the period between 1930-1932 was a an intensely active time of rapid transition at Leitz. The foundational fixed-lens Leica I model A was being replaced by the new Leica C which accepted interchangeable non-standardized screw-mount lenses, each of which had to be individually matched to a specific body and weren’t rangefinder coupled. Shortly afterward the standardized mount version of the Leica C arrived, which utilized standardized screw-mound (LTM) lenses. And finally, in 1932 Leitz unveiled landmark Leica II or D with standardized interchangeable lenses that were coupled to the camera’s ingenious built-in rangefinder. Understandably, many Leica I owners wanted to upgrade their old cameras to Leica II specs, and E, Leitz Wetzlar was only too happy to oblige, not only to serve and maintain their loyal customer base but also to expand the market for its new line of interchangeable Leica lenses!
Leica Elmar 50mm Serial Numbers List
If a model A was returned to Leitz for an upgrade the original 50mm lens unit (which had no separate serial number) was removed and remounted, and if it was destined for a Leica D, it was remounted in a standardized rangefinder coupled focusing mount. The nickel 50mm Elmar (no external number) shown here may be such a lens, removed from a Leica A and upgraded. The fact that the lens is marked in mm rather than cm is a practice that extended well into late 1931. However, the 9cm f/4 “Fat Elmar” in the accompanying photo, which is marked in cm probably dates circa early 1932. Note: Some of the very earliest 9cm Elmars were not rangefinder coupled and the lowest that have external numbers, which date from very early 1932, begin at about at about serial number 94XXX.