Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/04/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Daniel, after all it looks like collecting russian lenses is nevertheless more interesting than collecting toasters! :-) I don't doubt a second that Marc is right. Maybe I should have said "MANY russian cameras and lenses do have the production year in the first two digits of...". I do not have KMZ lenses, but at least the (newly aquired black and CLA'd) Kiev 4-AM (82) and Fed-2 (68) bodies, several Industars and Helios lenses from 58 to 89, all have the year in the first two digits. But I'm shure with a zero in the first digit, the bokeh is even smoother ;-) Didier >I have only one lens with that convention, starting with zero, a >rather late Jupiter-8. So I know it does exist. If you recall, Didier >qualified his remark with "older" or "earlier" lenses. >All of my KMZ lenses, with the one exception of the Jupiter-8, follow >the convention of using the year as the first two numbers (I have more >lenses than I really want to admit). It seems it is a convention they >introduced around the 80'ies, like you say. >Daniel > > >> >As far as I know only the modern lenses begin with 00. Didier's >> >description is correct. >> >Daniel >> >> The usage of serial numbers beginning with "0"is pretty well standard on >> lenses actually made at Krasnagorsk, though lenses made at satellite >> facilities following the year-of-production custom. For instance, my KMZ >> 2/50 Jupiter-8 (LTM) is 0239406. From internal evidence, it is pretty >> certain that this lenses dates from the early 1980's. >> >> Very early ZK/BK production and early Jupiter lenses from KMZ did start >> their serial numbers with the year of production. I suspect the >> changeover >> occurred in the later 1950's. >> >> Marc