Noctilux mystery: New lens is marked "Made in Canada"

[Guest darkstar2004]

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After much much scraping, having a photographic garage sale and much hunting, I received a box from FedEx yesterday which contained my minty new Noctilux, the last of the last normal (not the $20,000 1/100) version Noctiluxes. My God, WHAT a lens!!

 

One thing puzzles me though. Noctilux production was moved from Ontario back to Solms in 1998, ten yeasr ago; my new Noctilux is marked "Lens Made In Canada."

 

Huh??

 

I cannot imagine that this lens has been sitting unsold in Leica USA's facility for ten years. It is obviously a new lens, not a demo or a traded in lens that has been refurbished and sold as new (as best as I can tell, anyway).

 

I don't know if this will shed any light on the location of manufacture of this lens, but the S/N is 39856xx.

 

Could it be that there were a large surplus of Noctilux lens bodies thet were made in Canada that were sent to Solms in 1998 and then used there to build lenses? If the lens was actually made in Germany, it seems that it would have to be makred as such...

 

How is it that this lens came to be marked "Lens Made In Canada" when Canadian production of the Noctilux stopped in 1998??

[rosuna]

The production of the Noctilux never was moved to Germany. All lenses were produced in Canada, including the last ones.

 

The production of the Summilux 75mm was moved from Canada to Germany in 1998.

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[razerx]

Production of the Noctilux ended in Canada 10 years ago. Elcan no longer exists so your new Noctilux couldn't have been made last year, right? Leica indeed has been releasing the stock to dealers these past ten years and apparently just run out, save the last 100 pieces. This is also true for Nikon Ais manual lenses which are still available new but they haven't been made for many years.

[Guest volkerm]

Elcan no longer exists

 

ELCAN | About ELCAN |

[lct]

...the S/N is 39856xx...

So the lens could have been assembled circa 2005 in Germany with glass moulded / polished in Canada some years ago. Just a guess.

[veraikon]

in Germany with glass moulded / polished

There was a [very] small team at ELCAN Midland Ontario who produced the Nocti (rumour 2 persons - one retired).

[Guest darkstar2004]

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Production of the Noctilux ended in Canada 10 years ago. Elcan no longer exists so your new Noctilux couldn't have been made last year, right? Leica indeed has been releasing the stock to dealers these past ten years and apparently just run out, save the last 100 pieces. This is also true for Nikon Ais manual lenses which are still available new but they haven't been made for many years.

 

Hmmm, interesting.

 

So this lens was probably made in Canada 10+ years ago? Next question: Since it has sat idle for so long, do I need to be concerned about lubrication?

 

Does it need to be cleaned & relubricated,seeing how it is a 10 year old "new" lens?

 

It sounds as if the folks in Ontario must have made up a huge supply of Noctiluxes; it has lasted 10 years. This is certainly at odds with the story that Noctiluxes are made when ordered (which I read here, IIRC).

 

I also read somewhere (either here or on Erwin Puts' website, IIRC) that Noctilux production was moved to Germany after the Ontario facility was bought out from under Leica in 1998.

 

Apparently Noctilux legend & lore is not easily kept straight...

 

Your thoughts on lubrication after having sat idle for so long would be appreciated.

[lct]

The serial number of your lens suggests it has been assembled around 2005 so no lubricating problems before at least 10 years i guess

[treeplanter]

Another guess is that they had a bunch of old barrels laying around saying "Made in Canada" and just engraved a new number.

 

Jim B.

[razerx]

ELCAN | About ELCAN |

 

Thanks for the link. I should have said ElCAN no longer exists as part of Leica Camera operations.

[razerx]

Another guess is that they had a bunch of old barrels laying around saying "Made in Canada" and just engraved a new number.

 

Jim B.

 

The rim with the serial number is held on with a few screws and some cement. They can make that piece anytime as with the focusing barrel; the main part or the heart of the lens can be in storage for a long time. If I look into my dry cabinet I am sure I can find a lens I haven't used in ten years and it would be perfectly fine when I do so Besides I think about ten years ago lens manufacturers had to stop using lead and arsenic in the glass and I don't think current Nocts have modern glass.

[peter_n]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that they had a very small group that made the Noctilux lens. Towards the end of the run they apparently dragged some poor old bloke out of retirement on a temporary basis, lets hope he got well paid for his trouble!

[Guest darkstar2004]

So the lens could have been assembled circa 2005 in Germany with glass moulded / polished in Canada some years ago. Just a guess.

 

The more I thought about it, this seemed to be the most viable explanation - at least to my mind.

 

Thanks to one and all for your input (so far) on this question!

 

Please feel free to contibute any and all wisdom/information you may have on the Noctilux - it is simply an amazing lens. I'm currently working on finishing off my first roll of Velvia 50 with it. I'll post some images this coming week (if I can figger out how to post them!)

[Ivar B]

Production of the Noctilux has always been done in Canada by Elcan and quite rightly by a very small team. Secondly, you have a new lens.

 

When we visited Leica in June, the product manager for Leica M, Mr Stefan Daniel, told me directly that the Noctilux was indeed sold out and had been sold out for some time also. There was a waiting list of about 250 people waiting for the lens, and he hoped, but was not sure, that there would be another delivery from Canada.

 

The last batch of lenses dealers received was in March 2008. For example, I know that a dealer received two lenses with successive serial numbers 3985443 and 3985444. It therefore makes perfect sense that your lens is right out of the oven so to speak with serial numbers a little higher than the March Delivery.

 

One brand new Noctilux was also handed over to me in by Leica in Solms, with a serial number in the 384xxxx. This lens had already been delivered to a dealer (Meister Camera Hamburg) and I bought it from them but there was no problem sending it back to Leica as I was physically there.

 

Interestingly there is one of the last 100 with the cigar box now available on eBay (a bargain at USD 27 449) and serial number is 3985362. Yours appear to be made after the last 100 units.

[lct]

So Leica received lenses from Canada in 2008 with serial numbers engraved in 2005, right? Just curious.

[jlancasterd]

So Leica received lenses from Canada in 2008 with serial numbers engraved in 2005, right? Just curious.

 

Not necessarily engraved in 2005.

 

From what I read in the various collectors' reference books, Leitz/Leica has always tended to issue batches of numbers allocated to a particular product. In many cases these blocks of numbers can be roughly equated to a particular year of manufacture but this has not always the case when a product has been produced slowly, in small quantities, when numbers from a series allocated in year x can actually appear in years x+1, x+2, x+3 etc.

 

I suspect that this is what has happened with the last few examples of the Noctilux.

[lct]

I suspected that serial numbers cannot be used to retrieve the production year of lenses in all circumstances but not to that extent. Thanks fo this info.

[Ivar B]

Yes, the serial numbers are allocated in batches and does not necessarily reflect the exact year lenses were made. Sometimes serial numbers also get "vacant" and I have owned lenses with serial numbers allocated to a completely different lens.

 

We were also told during the factory visit that Leica has adopted a JIT or Just In Time production system, so in principle no lenses are produced without already have been ordered. When demand surged after the launch of the M8, there was a backorder list of 7000 lenses.

[leitz_not_leica]

A grain of salt for some of the explainations. AFAIK, 2000 numbers were allocated for the original 35/1.4 Aspherical, but fewer were produced. I have a 50/1.4 whose number, 1644XXX places it in 1958, a year before it was supposedly released. Please be careful with these numbers game.

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[wizard]

Please be careful with these numbers game.

 

That's what I have been saying more than once, but apparently nobody listens . Just as an example, the black paint lenses (2/35 asph and 1.4/50 non asph) produced for the millenium edition M6TTL camera all had serial numbers in excess of 4.000.000. Going by the number, these lenses should have been produced just recently (as regular serial numbers allocated to current production lenses just passed that barrier), they were, however, all manufactured in 1999 or 2000, roughly 8 years ago.

 

Another example: I own a 3-element 90mm Elmar lens, serial number 193xxxx, indicating a 1962 or 1963 production year. From what I know, the lens was only introduced in 1964.

 

Cheers,

 

Andy