To the owners of Macro Elmar 90 : curiosity

[luigi bertolotti]

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It has been some time that I thought to this lens : well accustomed by years of usage of Summicron 50 lenshead on SOMKY as "travelling quick-macro setup" , I had as target the "old" version with goggles and finally (as a LUF member knows well...  ) I got one. 

 

Now... a curiosity :

 

I whished and took a chrome one - my perennial taste... (the goggle unit is black... SOMKY was chrome...oh well, so is...)

To say, model # 11634 , as for Leica docs and as written on the box.

And the writing at base is 11633... code of the black...finely engraved as usual...

 

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Not an "unique"... surfing quickly on the net I spotted a pair like this... also them in the 3.969.xxx range as mine... but also several with the correct 11634. I'd be curios to know if some other has this anomaly on their lens...and in which s/n ... explication indeed could be simple : silver version just introduced... orders to fullfill... some batch of unfinished parts already machined and engraved... I think it's difficult it's a rough mistake : I won't be surprised if there are not items with this anomaly between numbers in the 4.1xx.xxx .

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[lct]

Just a mistake i suspect. My 11633 is black and my tariff from 2006 says black as well.

[UliWer]

My assumption was that they introduced the silver chrome version some times later than the black one and hadn‘t made up their minds for the number yet, so they used the 11633 for both versions and started later to make a distiction by numbering the chrome version 11634.

 

Unfortunately I don‘t find a list which only mentions the black version 11633. The later lists which apply to both versions mention the different versions with different numbers.

 

The Macro-Elmar was introduced during the worst period of Leica when they almost went bancrupt before Kaufmann saved them. During this time some standards may have suffered.

 

P.S.: I found the list of April 2003, which doesn‘t have the Macro-Elmar. My next list is from October 2004 which has both versions with different numbers. Serial number 3969xxx should be produced during this time span.

[luigi bertolotti]

My assumption was that they introduced the silver chrome version some times later than the black one and hadn‘t made up their minds for the number yet, so they used the 11633 for both versions and started later to make a distiction by numbering the chrome version 11634.

 

 

 

Yes, it was surely introduced a bit later... and, as you say, it took a little to make up their minds (indeed... difficult times for them) : but I think that when decided to introduce it, it was, in a certain sense "automatic" that it ought to have a product code of its own (isn't some odd "special edition") ... it's curios that the BOX (surely a part outsourced to some provider of cardboard items)  has the correct number and the body not...

[UliWer]

Next assumption: they first produced the silver version, didn't bother about the right number, so choose the number for the black. Due to very slow sales at this time, the lens was boxed much later (is it a white or already a black-silver box?), when the seperate number was established. So the box got the right number.  

[luigi bertolotti]

Next assumption: they first produced the silver version, didn't bother about the right number, so choose the number for the black. Due to very slow sales at this time, the lens was boxed much later (is it a white or already a black-silver box?), when the seperate number was established. So the box got the right number.  

 

question that FITS...  : it's of the black/silver breed, indeed...