Help dating an Elmar please

[john neal]

I just snagged a lovely 1932 Leica II, complete with an 11 o'clock "bell-push" Elmar 50mm f3.5 collapsible (uncoated).

Having checked all the sites I can find, it looks as though the body was made in 1932 (all agree on this), but I cannot get an accurate date on the lens.

Everyone I have asked says that the bell-push release means it is early, but none of the sites on t'interweb have data that goes back far enough. The serial is 126667 (ooer - it contains the number of the beast!), while all the sites show numbers that start around 15xxxx in 1933.

I take this to show that the lens is probably contemporary with the body, but does anyone know for sure?

Look forward to your comments (and getting out and using my new baby over the weekend!).

 

[john neal]

Odd - I got an email notification of a reply here from Jerevan, but I don't see it?

Anyway - the serial above is the lens, the body serial is 83296

Does that help?

 

[bob cole]

Help dating an Elmar

Help dating an Elmar

As you've already discovered, available information on Leica SM lenses begins around # 150,000 in 1933, so you have to assume that your roughly #126,000 Elmar lens is most likely from 1932...

 

[rbiemer]

I deleted my earlier post as I miscounted how many digits in John's ser. #:bang:
So my reply was useless.
Sorry, John!
Rob

 

[CK Dexter Haven]

Dinner and a movie?
Just remember - "no" means "no."

 

[Trius]

Sigh. Dexter stole my lines. Yet I can't resist...

Be careful ... I hear after one date they can be "clingy". They stick like glue. (non-North Americans may not get it...)

 

[Bike Tourist]

I think sincerity works with Elmars.

 

[colyn]

Dinner and a walk on the beach...

 

[john neal]

OK Guys! This is getting too surreal for me - I swaer I just saw a fish on a bicycle ....... 😉

Guess I will just have to live with the knowledge that the lens is pre-1933, which is close enough.

 

[Jerevan]

Odd - I got an email notification of a reply here from Jerevan, but I don't see it?

Anyway - the serial above is the lens, the body serial is 83296

Does that help?

Aah, sorry, John... I deleted my post. My sources didn't have any more information than the ones you already had checked, i.e the Elmar is pre-1933. So my (too hurried) reply was not very useful. Thus, I took it down.

And yes, I saw the angle on "dating" a lens, but I resisted this time around. 😀

 

[NickTrop]

Help dating an Elmar please
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Compliment its looks and buy it flowers? Read it poetry, perhaps?