LEICA Lens Serial Numbers & Dates1931-2012LEICA SUPER-ELMAR-M 21mm f/3.4 ASPH (2010 ~ today). This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Thanks for helping me help you! Ken. April 2012 LEICA Reviews LEICA Lenses
When Leitz decided to start making camera lenses, they did the right thing and used six digits for the serial number, and started at number 100,000. As serial numbers should be, they gave each lens its own serial number, and counted up. Leica made lens number 1,000,000, a 50mm f/1.5 Summarit, on 24 October 1952, at which time they already had over 100 years of optical experiance. Because of this orderly behavior, it it trivial to figure out when your lens was made. Sadly, Nikon and Canon are not as organized, and use completely unrelated serial numbers for every product. (Canon uses separate date codes, and Roland Vink is the world's guardian of Nikon's serial number data.) No two Leica lenses or cameras have the same serial number. If Leica ever almost duplicated a number, the second item had a star added after its otherwise identical serial number. Cameras and lenses each have their own run of serial numbers, so the same number may be found on one camera and on one lens.
Notes This is not exact. Serial number blocks are reserved, and then lenses may or may not be made with these numbers. Serial numbers after 2000 are less accurate. Leica loves to do crazy things like pull out an old, discontinued design and make twenty of them in Persian Pink as a special order for the Sultan of Brunei to hand out as party favors. When Leica does this, you will find serial numbers disconnected from the normal run of a product.
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11 August 2022, April 2012, 04 Nov 2009