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

Elmar 10.5cm f/6.3 (Mountain Elmar)

Ernst Leitz · LTM · 1932 · Four elements in three groups

Also known as: Mountain Elmar · Berg Elmar · Leitz Elmar 105mm f/6.3 · ELZEN

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
All black LTM 1932–1933 — Part of 3,975 lenses
Black and nickel LTM 1933–1935 — No separate figure published
Black and chrome LTM 1935–1937 251001–251500
300001–300500
315001–315100 		No separate figure published
  1. Marco Cavina gives the Leitz code names as ELZEN for the nickel-trimmed lens and ELZENCHROM for the chrome version offered from 1933, and prints the 1933 Italian list prices: 600 lire for the nickel finish, 610 lire for the chrome.
  2. Cavina's account of the design: the optical group was drawn to cover a 6.5×9 cm plate, and Leitz re-used it on the 24×36 frame by taking only the small central portion of that circle. The long-lens effect therefore comes from cropping a medium-format optic rather than from a telephoto construction.
  3. Auction result: a black-and-nickel ELZEN of the first year, serial 128678, delivered to Berlin on 12 August 1932 and offered with both caps and the FIZEN hood, sold for €720 including buyer's premium at the 44th Leitz Photographica Auction, lot 84, against an estimate of €800–900.
  4. Weight is not settled. 240 g is the published figure carried in this table; Agata Urbaniak, weighing her own example for 35mmc, records 208 g without caps or adapter and 223 g with an LTM-to-M adapter fitted, and reports the barrel's engraved minimum at 10 ft / 3 m.
  5. The table's own total, 4,606, is the sum of its seven rows and exceeds the 3,975 printed at the head of the same page by 631 — exactly the size of the 136218–136863 row, which is a bracket around five known lenses rather than an allocated block. Drop that row and the two figures agree. Both are recorded here; the arithmetic is not an argument for either.
  6. What the year list will not do. It begins at 100,000 in 1931 and cannot date anything below that. Leitz reserved blocks of numbers before building and did not always use them, so a number can run ahead of the finished lens — this lens's own auction record, a 1931-band number delivered in August 1932, is an instance. Cameras and lenses run in separate sequences, so the same number exists on one of each.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved Elmar f=10,5 1:6,3 — with commas, in the continental style
  • 240 grams for a 105mm lens: the point of it
  • Focuses no closer than 2.6 m

Serial-range notes

the six-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 are 100,000–135,000 for 1931, 135,001–156,000 for 1932, 156,001–195,000 for 1933, 195,001–236,000 for 1934, 236,001–284,600 for 1935 and 284,601–345,000 for 1936.
107222–108055, 113001–114000
The two earliest blocks, both tagged KUP, 1,875 lenses together. The wiki's model table dates them 1930 and 1931–1932, before the 1932 start of the production era printed at the head of the same page; the general year list puts both of them in 1931; and a footnote on the table records that Erwin Puts's list dates 113001–114000 to 1934. Three readings of one block, none of them reconciled.
128678
The black-and-nickel ELZEN sold as lot 84 of the 44th Leitz Photographica auction, with a recorded delivery to Berlin on 12 August 1932. It falls in no block the table lists — it sits in the gap between 114000 and 136218 — and the general year list puts it in 1931 although it was delivered in August 1932. One documented lens showing both that the table is incomplete and that a number can precede its delivery.
136218–136863
Not an allocated block but five individually known lenses: 136218 and 136863 in chrome, 136226, 136233 and 136317 in the KUP finish. The 631 numbers between the outer two are counted on the table as though all of them were Mountain Elmars.
251001–251500, 300001–300500, 315001–315100
The three blocks tagged CHROM alone, 1,100 lenses, all dated 1936 by the model table. The general year list puts 251001 in 1935 and the other two in 1936. These are the only blocks the record ties to a single finish.

Specifications

Formula
Four elements in three groups
Construction
4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/6.3–f/36
Min. focus
2.6 m
Weight
240 g
Filter
36 mm
Years manufactured
1932–1937
Country
Germany
Original price
600 lire (nickel) / 610 lire (chrome), Italy 1933

What reviewers say

History

Leitz called it the Bergelmar and collectors call it the mountain Elmar: a 105mm lens weighing 240 grams, made slow on purpose so that it could be light. At f/6.3 it is a lens for daylight and distance, which is exactly what someone climbing with a Leica in 1932 wanted, and 3,975 were made in five years.

Its engraving is worth a look for what it says about the period: Elmar f=10,5 1:6,3, with commas where an English-speaking maker would use points. And its minimum focus is 2.6 m — this is not a portrait lens, whatever the focal length suggests.

The finishes track the decade: all black to 1933, then black with nickel, then black with chrome. The Leica Wiki’s aperture range for it is printed backwards, as “f/36-f2.5”, which is either a typing slip for f/6.3 or a transposition of the two ends of the scale; f/6.3 to f/36 is what the lens actually offers.

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 wanted — shot with a Elmar 10.5cm f/6.3 (Mountain Elmar)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $1,000 across 10 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $740–$1,500). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $1,000.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$1,000$740–$1,50010
2026-09-06$1,000$740–$1,50010

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

Show 9 more listings

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

Related: Elmar 9cm f/4 · Elmar 13.5cm f/4.5

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.