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Curious about production and design change of Elmarit M 28mm v.III


GreenRiverBoy

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Evening,

 

I posted earlier about some aperture screws that I'm looking for but am also curious about something in regards to this lens. I know that my lens is the 3rd version of the Elmarit 28mm but I've seen two different styles of this version; one with a more straight barrel shape and the other that is more tapered or having a bit more of a waist (like mine). Also, the focus tab, I think, has been described as a claw type instead of the smooth thumb type (forgive my lack of Leica terminology). My lens appears to be an early example with SN 29777xx made in 1979. From info on the net this model of lens was manufactured from 79 to 91 with a SN range from 2977551 to 3576533. 

 

Does anyone know the approximate date or sn range that the body style would have changed and if so why? Not really important, I'm just interested.

 

Thanks for any insight!

tim

 

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Here's what I know. (and "Welcome" - BTW)

 

Following the brief demise of the M System altogether (for ~1 year late 1976-1978), Walter Mandler at Leitz Canada did a fairly substantial overhaul of many of the M lenses. 21 Elmarit, 28 v.3, 35 v.4, 50 v.4, 75 f/1.4, 90 f/2 all were new optical designs issued 1979-1980, to go with the revived/simplified Canadian M4-2.

 

Basically the whole M system got dumped in the lap of Leitz Canada, while Wetzlar focused on the R system. (ELCAN had produced a handful of M cameras prior to then, and designed and produced quite a few of the lenses, but suddenly the whole thing was their baby.)

 

I get the impression that the external designs for those "1980-generation" lenses were "rushed" in getting 6 totally new lenses out the door in two years. Because the 21, 28, 75, and 90 all had major revisions to their "build" almost immediately (less than 3 years at most). The 21 even before full production started (changed filter ring to 60mm from 49mm); the 28 lost its "waistline"; the 75's separate clip-on lens shade was revised to a built-in telescoping one, and the filter size changed from 58mm to 60mm (no doubt to "rationalize" with the 21mm; and the 90's telescoping hood (which in the original, covered the aperture ring when retracted) was made shorter to avoid blocking the aperture control (filter size also changed from 49mm to 55mm).

 

The convex tiger-claw focus tabs came and went approximately in sync with those other reworkings of the externals. Earlier and later lenses all had the concave tabs notched for the focusing finger.

 

Why the rapid redesign across all those lenses was done, more or less at once, I don't really know. Could be they were simply seen as kludgy, or as too "cheap-looking," or in reality were too expensive to make that way. I rather favor the first two possibilities, since the redesigns are cleaner and somewhat more modern-looking, and probably more expensive. Some customer feed-back may have been involved, for all I know.

 

The only thing I can add on the dating of the changes is that 1) my M4-P brochure dated "VIII/80/LY/w" (presumably 1980 - for photokina 1980?) shows all those lenses in their "original" form (including tiger-claw tabs on the 21, 28, 35, and 50), while 2) most lenses I have used with serial numbers late 32xxxxx or 33xxxxx have had the reworked designs and concave tabs. Which tends to indicate the changes were made no later than 1983.

 

NB - it's been said here before, but since you're new: Leica serial numbers are not a perfect dating resource, because Leica assigns the numbers in blocks. More or less - "The next 2000 28mm Elmarits we build will have serial numbers from 2977551 to 2979550." For a lower sales lens that may mean the block may cover 2-3 years of production, while for a fast-selling lens (35/50 Summicron) it may cover 6 months worth. Additionally, if a whole new version of the 28mm Elmarit comes out, Leica just keeps on using the pre-assigned numbers until they are used up.

 

I've had a couple of copies of the "new" very early 90mm f/2 (with the silly hood that covers the aperture ring) - produced starting in 1980, but with serial numbers that date to 1976 (277xxxx). 90 f/2's were slow sellers in that era.

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Adding a bit of infos to Adan's excellent essay, it's easy to hint that the Elmarit 28 with "tiger claw" tab and pinched profile had a rather short life, probably limited to the first batch which is even not well clear how many items did provide (easy to check in our Wiki section, which does report Erwin Puts tables… maybe some other source do exist… but Canadian factory records are someway less easy to track than Wetzlars). 

 

By sure, Lager displays item 2.978.050 with the original design (like yours), and item 3.041.980 with the new profile and concave tab… and my 3.168.145 is identical (and the tab, not a fine design, went broken…), and there is no reason to think that "old" design items were made intermixed with the new ones (the toolings are different, no reason toswitch at factory level) : so the "divide" in terms of s/n can be rather surely defined : the batch started from 3.041.001 is probably all of the new design… let's try to find and look  some s/n 3,037.401 to 3.038.400... B) ; in term of year…. "around 1980" is the only sure answer… :rolleyes:

Edited by luigi bertolotti
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