Has anyone compiled a list of M lens serial numbers that might help me find the date a lens was built? I've looked around, and (obviously) not found anything out there.

Tnx - /r

-- Randy Samos (paddleboy@yahoo.com), May 31, 2002

Answers

http://www.for loren.dk/lbf/leica_lens_serial.htm

-- Niels H. S. Nielsen (nhsn@ruc.dk), May 31, 2002.

My! That was quick.

Thanks Niels - /r

-- Randy Samos (paddleboy@yahoo.com), May 31, 2002.

Brian Bower has a list of lens # ranges in his Leica book. Chester Sartorious has serial # in his Identifying Leica Lenses book along with pictures and pretty good descriptions of individual features. Erwin Puts wrote a newsletter recently describing some of the chaos and confusion surrounding Leica serial #. Cheers. G

-- Gil Pruitt (wgpinc@yahoo.com), May 31, 2002.

Leica issues blocks of numbers for given lenses on a given date - but may not actually USE all the numbers for several years.

I have a 90 f/2 with a serial number 'from' 1977 - even though the lens design wasn't actually introduced until 1980.

The number lists will tell you (roughly) the EARLIEST date a lens could have been made - maybe.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), May 31, 2002.

Andy-

Yeah, like my yellowing collapsible SM 50 Summicron #921,654 = 1951 for a lens not introduced until 1953.

-- adam g. lang (aglang@hotmail.com), May 31, 2002.