I understand Kodak's serial number code on Commercial Ektar lenses can be used to determine what year the lens was manufactured. Can anyone share how the serial number code works?

-- Ron Lawrence (leica@interpath.com), April 05, 2000

Answers

Ron, I think this may be what you were thinking of: Starting in 1939 or 1940 the serial numaber has a two letter prefix. These stand for the last two digits of the year. The code word is: C A M E R O S I T Y 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 For example, a lens with the letters ES was made in 1947, one marked RC in 1951. roger

-- Roger Rouch (rrouch@msn.com), April 06, 2000.

Ron... there is a good discussion of the numbering system that Roger describes available on the web. The website also has a lot of good information on many classic and modern lenses. Info such as coatings, coverage, image quality, etc. The website is at www.cs.berkeley.edu/~qtluong/photography/lf/lf.html Many other topics pertaining to large format photography are also discussed...- Dave

-- Dave Richhart (pritprat@erinet.com), April 06, 2000.