|
Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-13-2010, 02:18 PM
|
| |
For those of you who have not run into my project on other photography forums: I am conducting a crowdsourced non-profit research to establish production volumes for the Cosina-made Voigtländer SL lenses. Production volumes can be quite easily estimated from the serial number ranges of each lens and mount.
You can contribute by posting to this topic or sending me a private message, including information like in this example:
75/2.5 in P/M42 mount serial 9032170
90/3.5 in P/K-A mount serial 9210047
125/2.5 in P/K-A mount serial 9150125
180/4 in P/M42 mount serial 9341167
etc. etc.
You can sensor out the last one or two digits if you feel so. Your privacy is respected, I delete all messages and only save collected serials in a database which is on an offline computer. I don't make any money from this, results are shared for free on the internet.
Location of serial on the lens barrel
Your small contribution greatly helps improve research findings, which I am sharing for free on multiple photography forums. I already have a database of hundreds of serials, which reveal the following:
Some lenses are engraved "Japan" while others "Lens made in Japan". Some serials are machine engraved in a precise fashion, others seem almost hand engraved with numbers not fully aligned. The serial number always starts with a 9 and is always 7 digits long. The 2nd digit is year of manufacture.
Year 2000
75/2.5 in N/Ai-S, O/OM and P/M42 mounts, 1500 or more (?)
90/3.5 in LTM mount, unknown batch size
Year 2001
125/2.5 in N/Ai-S mount, batch of 1000-1200
125/2.5 mostly in P/K-A mount (some M/MD), batch of 1000
125/2.5 in FD/EF mount, batch of 1000-1500
125/2.5 for all mounts (incl. Canon & Nikon), batch of 1000
90/3.5 for N/Ai-S and P/M42, batch of 2000 (?)
Year 2002
90/3.5 for P/K-A & P/M42 mount, batch of 1300-2000 (?)
125/2.5 in N/Ai-S mount, batch of 1000
Year 2003
180/4 in N/Ai-S and P/K-A mount, batch of 1000-1500 (?)
180/4 in O/OM, P/K-A and P/M42 mount, batch of 1000-1500 (?)
90/3.5 in LTM mount, 500-1000
Years 2004-2005
No SL lenses were manufactured during this time period. Cosina was evidently in pre-production stage for Zeiss glass.
Years 2006-2009
40/2 in several mounts, unknown batch size
58/1.4 in several mounts, unknown batch size
20/3.5 in several mounts, unknown batch size
Pentax users probably have special interest in the following (initial) findings. Please note that the more serials I receive I will update with more accurate numbers (possibly larger volumes as well).
75/2.5 in M42 mount is likely <500 lenses
75/2.5 in K-A mount requires more serials to define batch volume
90/3.5 in M42 mount is likely <1000 lenses
90/3.5 in K-A mount is likely <1000 lenses
125/2.5 in M42 mount is likely <500 lenses
125/2.5 in K-A mount is likely 500 to 1000 lenses
180/4 in M42 mount is likely 500 to 1000 lenses
180/4 in K-A mount is likely 1000 lenses
|
