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

Elcan-R 75mm f/2 (C-341)

Leica · Leica R · 1973

Also known as: Elcan-R 75mm f/2 · Elcan-R 2/75mm · Elcan-R 2/75 · Elcan-R 75mm · Elcan R 75mm f2 · Leitz Canada Elcan-R 75mm · Elcan 2/75mm US Navy

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
US Navy contract lens (formula C-341) Leica R (shown on a Leicaflex SL; cams not documented) 1973 341-0010 (with Leicaflex SL NAVY 1244670, Leitz Auction)
341-0013 (Leitz Auction 47, lot 290)
341-0015 (Leitz Auction 8, lot 202) 		About 20 (Leitz Auction, three lot descriptions); "only a few units", made in 1973 (English Wikipedia)
  1. Dating disagrees. English Wikipedia's list of Mandler's lenses says "only a few units were produced in 1973"; Leitz Auction gives "early 1970s" in its text and c.1975 as the manufacture year of the loose lenses 341-0013 and 341-0015, and 1972 for the Navy Leicaflex SL sold with 341-0010. A 1972 body does not date the lens fitted to it. This entry takes 1973 as the first year and gives no last year.
  2. Leitz Auction's Auction 47 lot description says only four examples of this lens had been recorded at auction in the previous twenty years. Three numbers are known here: 341-0010, 341-0013 and 341-0015.
  3. Not this lens: the "Leitz Canada Elcan 2/75mm 3″" that Leitz Auction sold in Auction 31 as no. 060-1086 is described as a 75mm f/2 "for up to 6x6cm image size", a different Elcan lens with a different number prefix.
  4. The cam configuration is not described in any source found. The lens is shown fitted to a Leicaflex SL, so it carries at least the SL's meter cam; whether it also has the first cam for the original Leicaflex or the third cam for the R bodies is not recorded. Only the Leicaflex SL is linked here for that reason; Leica's R9 instructions say a Leicaflex lens without the R cam must have it fitted before use on any R body from the R3.
  5. Lager (LSI, 2020) says the lenses are listed in the Proceedings of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, vol. 58, Small-Format Camera Systems (17–18 March 1975), p. 8; Leitz Auction cites Lager's Leica Illustrated History, vol. II (1994), pp. 307 and 309, and vol. III (1998), p. 319. Both references are given here as those two sources cite them.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • ELCAN-R, not Summicron-R or Summilux-R, on the front ring: the lens never reached commercial production (Lager, LSI) and no catalogue name is recorded for it
  • Serial in the formula-prefixed form 341-00xx, not a seven-digit Leitz number

US Navy contract lens (formula C-341):

  • Front ring engraved ELCAN-R f/2 75 MM, with no Leitz or Leica name on it, and the number in the form 341-00xx on the same ring
  • LENS MADE IN CANADA on the barrel below the focusing scale
  • Black barrel in the style of the Leitz R lenses of the time: knurled focusing ring, distance scale in feet (yellow) and metres (white), depth-of-field scale, red alignment dot, aperture ring f/2 to 16
  • Rear cap of 341-0015 carries a US Navy sticker reading FLAVCOMLANT MAIN DEPT. RFI 6 AUG.81 (Leitz Auction)

Specifications

Formula
Apochromatic eight-element lens based on the Double-Gauss, built from only two types of glass (English Wikipedia, Walter Mandler)
Designed by
Walter Mandler — optical design (Leitz Auction; Joseph A. Schantz of the Naval Photographic Center, as quoted by the LEICA Barnack Berek Blog; English Wikipedia)
Construction
8 elements
Aperture range
f/2–f/16
Years manufactured
1973
Country
Canada

What reviewers say

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History

The Elcan-R 75mm f/2 is a Leica R lens that Leitz never sold. Ernst Leitz Canada made it in Midland, Ontario, for the US Navy’s High Resolution Small Format Camera System. The Navy’s Naval Photographic Center and Naval Air Systems Command had been working since 1963 to raise the quality of 35mm photography, intelligence work included, and the camera chosen was the Leicaflex SL. Joseph A. Schantz of the Naval Photographic Center, quoted by the LEICA Barnack Berek Blog, names three apochromatic lenses that Walter Mandler designed for the system: this 75mm f/2, a 180mm f/3.4 and a 450mm f/5.6. Schantz says they were corrected from 400 to 900 nanometres, so that black-and-white, colour and infrared film could be exposed at the same focus setting. English Wikipedia’s list of Mandler’s designs gives the 75mm, formula C-341, as an eight-element lens based on the Double-Gauss, built from only two types of glass, of which “only a few units were produced in 1973”.

Of the three, the 180mm was declassified and became the APO-Telyt-R in 1975. Jim Lager, writing for Leica Society International in 2020, says the 75mm and 450mm “did not reach commercial production”. Leitz Auction puts the 75mm at about twenty lenses. The serials are formula numbers rather than Leitz catalogue serials: 341-0010, 341-0013 and 341-0015 have been through Leitz Auction. Leitz Auction dates the loose lenses to about 1975, against Wikipedia’s 1973; both dates are given here.

From the auction photographs, the lens looks like a black Leitz R lens of the early 1970s. The difference is the front ring, which reads ELCAN-R f/2 75 MM with the 341 number and no Leitz name, and LENS MADE IN CANADA on the barrel. The aperture runs to f/16. No source describes the cams, so no source says whether the lens fits the original Leicaflex or meters on the R bodies as well as on the SL it was made for; a lens without the third cam should not go on an R3 or later body until Leica has fitted one, by Leica’s R9 instructions. Anyone offered one should check the cams at the back of the mount and the formula-number serial. A “Leitz Canada Elcan 2/75mm” numbered 060-1086, sold by Leitz Auction as a lens for up to 6×6 cm, is a different lens. The Elcan 50mm f/2 and 66mm f/2 on these pages are M-mount Elcan lenses, made for US military contracts, and not related to this one beyond their maker.

The prices are auction results. Lens 341-0015, with both caps and a US Navy sticker on the rear cap, made €4,320 including buyer’s premium at Leitz Auction 8. Lens 341-0013 was offered at Leitz Auction 47 against a €60,000–70,000 estimate and did not sell. At Leitz Auction’s “100 years of Leica” sale, Leicaflex SL 1244670, engraved NAVY and sold with lens 341-0010, made €84,000 including buyer’s premium against a €20,000–25,000 estimate. That figure is for the camera and lens together.

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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

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Elcan-R 75mm f/2 (C-341)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

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Related: Summilux-R 80mm f/1.4 · Summicron-R 90mm f/2 · APO-Telyt-R 180mm f/3.4

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.