Originally posted by Collinb How did the serial numbers work on these?
Mine is 1435019
Does that make it #5019 of the run?
Pentax is notorious for the lack of meaning to their numbering series. It seems they would use any open block of numbers for any item based on the size of the planned production run and the size of the open block of numbers. There doesn't seem to be any (available) corporate production record, either. However, by looking at the
pattern of numbers in the Serial Number Database for the
SMC Pentax 50mm f/1.2 one can roughly infer an estimate of the size of one (or more) runs of the lens.
First set is 1200335 - 1207263, so I infer 7500
Second set is 1430235 - 1471027, but there are large gaps in the 143xxxx set, the 144xxxx set, and several others, so one could infer repeated small batches. The 1460xxx set seems to be 2000, then a 14638xx 1464xxx set, etc.
Look for yourself - on reflection, 30,000 pieces is probably way high. Maybe half that number is better.