Elmar 3.5cm f/4.5
Ernst Leitz · LTM · 1935 · Four elements in three groups
Also known as: Leitz Elmar 35mm f/4.5 · ELROO
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ELROO | LTM | 1935–1937 | — | Never in commercial production; the Leica Wiki says only a few were made |
- The Leica Wiki's data for this lens comes from à Rebours and a Westlicht auction lot of May 2014 rather than from Leitz records, and most of its specification fields are filled with question marks. This entry is correspondingly short.
- Leitz Photographica has offered the same example twice and failed to sell it both times. At Leitz Auction 40 it was lot 26 — a Snapshot Leica, camera no. 214546, "with prototype 'Snapshot' Elmar 4.5/3.5cm — this special lens shows several unique features, like focusing with click stops, no coupling and no serial number engraved, it is the only known example of this prototype lens in chrome finish", complete with the special prototype hood — estimated at €100,000–120,000 against a €50,000 start, and unsold. It came back as lot 22 of Auction 44 at a reduced €70,000–80,000 estimate and a €40,000 start, and was unsold again.
- The auction record dates the lens earlier than this entry's 1935–1937. Leitz Photographica catalogues the lot to 1933, and Macfilos's report of Auction 40 puts the ELROO at 1933 on a 1936 Leica Standard body. The same report states that Leitz advertised the Snapshot Leica in its 1935 UK catalogue at £13 although the camera was never actually sold, which is as close to a period price as this lens has.
- No serial list has been published for this lens. The Leica Wiki page carries no serial-number section whatever — the one field of its lens template that every other Leitz lens page fills with a block table of SN Start, SN End, Product and Year is simply absent here. Nor could such a table be built: the lens was never in commercial production, and the only example on record carries no number.
- The general Leitz year list is no help either. It runs continuously from 100000 in 1931 across every model, and would place a 1933 lens between 156001 and 195000 and a 1935 lens between 236001 and 284600 — but an unnumbered prototype falls outside it by definition. The 1933 and 1935–1937 dates this entry records both come from prose attribution, not from a number.
- The Leica Wiki (read in the browser, 2026-09-10): code ELROO, 'not in commercial production and only a few were made, 1935–1937'; four elements in three groups; focus click-stopped at 1.75 m, 3 m, 10 m and infinity rather than continuous; 105 g; nickel; its data taken from a Westlicht lot of May 2014 and the à Rebours site. A prototype-grade lens, which is why nothing about it is settled.
How to tell them apart
- Four click-stopped focus positions instead of a focusing helicoid
- Engraved Ernst Leitz Wetzlar
ELROO:
- Focus is CLICK-STOPPED at 1.75 m, 3 m, 10 m and infinity — there is no continuous scale
- 105 grams
- ELROO: A lens that cannot be focused to an arbitrary distance: four detents and nothing between them, which is a design for speed of use rather than precision.
Serial-range notes
- None engraved
- There is no serial to read. Leitz Photographica's catalogue for the only documented example lists among its unique features "no coupling and no serial number engraved", so the standard method for dating a Leitz lens — reading the number against the general year list, then against the model's own block table — cannot be applied to this lens at all. Its date rests entirely on the auction catalogue's attribution.
Specifications
- Formula
- Four elements in three groups
- Construction
- 4 elements / 3 groups
- Aperture range
- f/4.5–f/18
- Weight
- 105 g
- Years manufactured
- 1935–1937
- Country
- Germany
- Material
- Nickel-plated brass
What reviewers say
No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.
History
The f/4.5 Elmar is included here because it exists, not because anyone can buy one. It was never in commercial production; the Leica Wiki says only a few were made between 1935 and 1937, and its knowledge of the lens comes from à Rebours and a Westlicht auction lot of May 2014 rather than from any factory record. Most of the fields on its page are question marks.
What is known is peculiar enough to be worth recording. It has no focusing scale. Instead there are click stops at 1.75 m, 3 m, 10 m and infinity, and nothing between them — a lens designed to be set by touch, quickly, for a photographer who wanted one less thing to think about. At 105 grams it is also the lightest lens in this catalog.
This entry is deliberately thin. Where the sources are an auction catalogue and a reference book this site has not consulted, saying so is more useful than filling the gaps.
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 3.5cm f/4.5? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
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