Commercial Ektar serial numbers

[ron_lawrence1]

I understand Kodak's serial number code on Commercial Ektar lenses can be used to determine what year the lens was manufactured. Can anyone share how the serial number code works?

[roger___3]

Ron, I think this may be what you were thinking of:

Starting in 1939 or 1940 the serial numaber has a two letter prefix.

These stand for the last two digits of the year. The code word is:

C A M E R O S I T Y

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

For example, a lens with the letters ES was made in 1947, one marked

RC in 1951.

roger

[david richhart]

Ron... there is a good discussion of the numbering system that Roger

describes available on the web. The website also has a lot of good

information on many classic and modern lenses. Info such as

coatings, coverage, image quality, etc. The website is at

www.cs.berkeley.edu/~qtluong/photography/lf/lf.html Many other

topics pertaining to large format photography are also discussed...-

Dave