Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

APO-Telyt-M 135mm f/3.4

Leica · Leica M · 1998 · Five elements in four groups, apochromatic

Also known as: APO-Telyt-M 135mm f/3.4 · APO-Telyt-M 135 f/3.4 · 135mm APO Telyt · アポテリート 135mm F3.4

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
APO-Telyt-M 135mm f/3.4 (11889) Leica M 1998 3838125–3838624
3842000–3842499
3853100–3853599
3874167–3875166
3910126–3911125
3956061–3956560
3985534–3986033 		4,500+ lenses
With 6-bit coding Leica M 2013 — No separate figure published
  1. The seven dated blocks sum to exactly 4,500, the total the wiki prints. The row is labelled 1998–2005 while the last dated block is 2004, and the table carries no block at all for 2001, 2003 or 2005 — the years are not a span but the years that happen to have blocks.
  2. What the year list will not do. Leica reserves a block of numbers before a batch is built and does not always use it, so an engraved number can run ahead of its lens by a year or more. Ken Rockwell's copy of the list states plainly that it is not exact and that numbers after 2000 are less accurate, and summilux.net — whose database took over the job after Leica withdrew its own serial lookup page in July 2006 — reports an Apo-Telyt-R 180mm carrying a number Leica assigns to a 50mm Summilux. Cameras and lenses also run in separate sequences, so the same number exists on one of each.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The longest lens Leica currently makes for the M mount
  • f/3.4 — an unusual aperture, inherited from the Super-Angulon's odd numbering rather than any round stop

APO-Telyt-M 135mm f/3.4 (11889):

  • Apochromatic correction; 18 degrees diagonal
  • Entrance pupil 68mm behind the front surface

With 6-bit coding:

  • 6-bit code on the bayonet flange

Serial-range notes

the seven-digit number on the front ring
The rule for every Leitz and Leica lens: the numbers run in one running sequence shared across models, so a serial normally gives an approximate date — but the sequence does NOT begin at 100,000 in 1931, and a serial usually identifies the model too. The register behind the published year list records reserved BLOCKS, each entered with a date, a range and a lens name, which is why per-model batch tables exist and why they are the better evidence where the two disagree. The date is when the block was reserved, not when the lens was finished. Date a copy by the year band it falls into. The bands covering this lens's blocks are 3,818,625–3,857,849 for 1998, 3,857,850–3,882,996 for 1999, 3,882,997–3,912,247 for 2000, 3,941,498–3,970,748 for 2002, 3,970,748–3,999,999 for 2003 and 4,057,001–4,080,000 for 2008.
3838125–3838624, 3842000–3842499, 3853100–3853599
Three blocks of 500 all dated 1998, the introduction year — a third of everything the table records for the lens, allocated before it had been on sale a year.
3985534–3986033
The last allocated block, 500 lenses. The model table dates it 2004; the general year list puts 3985534 in 2003. Its closing number is followed immediately by 3986034, where the 75mm APO-Summicron-M's 2004 block opens — consecutive numbers, different lenses, which is what a shared sequence looks like from inside.
3970748
A boundary in the general year list that is printed twice — 2002 closes on it and 2003 opens on it. A lens carrying that number belongs to both years.
4060649–4060788
The only row after 2004, and a bracket around observed examples rather than a block. It is labelled 2006–2010; 4060649 falls in the 2008 band of the general list.
the code on the flange, not the number
No serial threshold has been published for the 6-bit coded version. Coding arrived after the Photokina 2012 exchange and the wiki's table stops in 2004, so a coded lens can only be told from an uncoded one by looking at the bayonet flange.

Specifications

Formula
Five elements in four groups, apochromatic
Construction
5 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range
f/3.4–f/22
Min. focus
1.5 m
Weight
453 g
Filter
49 mm
Years manufactured
1998
Country
Germany

What reviewers say

History

The APO-Telyt-M is the last 135 for the M mount and the sharpest, which at this focal length is an argument about the camera rather than the lens. Five elements in four groups, apochromatic, f/3.4 — an aperture that reads oddly until you notice Leitz had used 3.4 before, on the Super-Angulon, and evidently liked it.

Apochromatic correction matters more here than anywhere else in the M system. Colour fringing scales with focal length, and a 135 at full aperture is where an ordinary achromat gives itself away on high-contrast edges. Corrected, the lens resolves more than the rangefinder can place — the same tension the Tele-Elmar had, one generation on.

Its most human detail is on the source page in quotation marks. At Photokina 2012, someone asked Leica’s Jesko von Oeynhausen whether the 135 would ever get the 6-bit coding that every other current M lens had. The answer: “Yes, we will repair this oversight.” It is the only instance in this catalog of a manufacturer’s representative calling a product decision an oversight on the record, and the Leica Wiki preserved the exchange rather than paraphrasing it.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo taken with the APO-Telyt-M 135mm f/3.4
Macro flower — shot on an APO-Telyt-M 135mm f/3.4 (Paolo Gamba) — Paolo Gamba from Paris, France, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a APO-Telyt-M 135mm f/3.4? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $3,900 across 15 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $3,700–$4,300). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $3,900.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$3,900$3,700–$4,30015
2026-09-06$3,900$3,700–$4,30015

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 26 more listings

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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Tele-Elmar 135mm f/4

Sources (7)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.