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

Hektor 13.5cm f/4.5

Ernst Leitz Β· LTM + Leica M Β· 1933 Β· Four elements in three groups

Also known as: Leitz Hektor 135mm f/4.5 Β· Hektor 13.5cm f4.5 Β· HEFAR Β· γƒ˜γ‚―γƒˆγƒΌγƒ« 135mm F4.5

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Screw mount (HEFAR) LTM 1933–1959 196001–197000
241001–242000
370001–372000
440001–442000
485001–487000
538501–540000
558001–559000
575201–576200
590201–591000
600001–601000
608001–609000
655001–657000
715001–718000
984101–987100
1073001–1076000
1083001–1086000
1127001–1130000
1206001–1209000
1268001–1271000
1345001–1348000
1406001–1409000
1642001–1643000 		The larger part of 108,088 lenses
M bayonet (HEFAR-M, 11135) Leica M 1954–1960 1311001–1315000
1383001–1386000
1506001–1510000
1559101–1562000
1659001–1660000
1689501–1690500 		No separate figure published
Coated, from 1946 LTM 1946–1960 590550 and above From serial 590550
Short focusing mount (OHEBO) LTM 1935–1960 β€” No figure published
Military marked LTM 1939–1945 558001–559000 No figures published
  1. The Hektor was lightened in 1949, from 550 g to 440 g. Dick Gilcreast records that the lightweight lens appeared first in black paint and changed to chrome in 1950, so the only black lightweight Hektors are of 1949; all lightweight examples carry a black vulcanite band round the base, and on the 1949 black lenses that band is sharkskin, the same covering Leitz was using on cameras that year. His example, number 700154, is from the middle of 1949.
  2. The fifty-one rows of the Leica Wiki's serial table sum to exactly 108,088, the total printed at their foot and the same figure the page's summary line gives for the whole production. The arithmetic closes, which is rare among these tables.
  3. The table lists no M-bayonet block before 1955, though the summary line gives the M version as 1954–1960. The earliest row tagged M is 1311001–1315000, dated 1955.
  4. Year-by-year production, from the Leica Pocket Book (8th edition, Bower and Clark) as reported by Gilcreast: 1,786 lenses in 1948, doubling to 3,109 in 1949, above 5,000 by 1952, and over 10,000 a year by 1955 β€” a rate held close to that until the f/4 Elmar arrived in 1960.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved Hektor f = 13.5 cm 1:4.5
  • Finishes ranging from all black through black with a chrome band to grey, chrome and clear anodised aluminium β€” 27 years of changing fashion on one lens
  • The optical cell unscrews for reflex use

Screw mount (HEFAR):

  • 39mm thread

Coated, from 1946:

  • A visible bloom on the front surface

Short focusing mount (OHEBO):

  • A short mount for the Ploot reflex housing, or the Visoflex through the OUBIO adapter

Military marked:

  • Luftwaffen-Eigentum, MF 690, M, or a Reichsadler stamp

Serial-range notes

the six- or 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 β€” 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. This lens runs the length of that sequence β€” from 172001, in the 156,001–195,000 band for 1933, to 1740000, in the 1,717,001–1,827,000 band for 1960 β€” and every year between carries its own band on the same list, twenty-eight of them in all.
590550
Coating begins here, in 1946 β€” the clearest single dating mark on the lens.
590201–591000
The block that straddles the coating threshold, and a date the page argues with itself about. The summary line gives the lens as coated after serial 590,550 and puts that in 1946; the serial table dates 590201–591000 to 1942; and the general year list puts 590550 in its 582,295–593,000 band, also 1942. The threshold and the year attached to it cannot both stand. Both are recorded.
172001–172500
The first block, 500 lenses in 1933, and the earliest numbers the record ties to this lens. The general year list puts both ends in 1933, agreeing with the table.
538501–540000
The one row on the table that dates against the general year list. The table gives it 1939; 538501 is the first number of 1940 on the general list, whose 1939 band closes at 538500. Every other one of the fifty-one rows agrees.
1413501–1418000, 1608001–1611000, 1717001–1720000, 1737001–1740000
Four blocks tagged M+S β€” screw and bayonet lenses numbered together in a single allocation, 13,500 numbers between them. A serial inside these cannot say which mount the lens carries; the flange is the only evidence. They include both 1960 blocks, the last on the page.
1506001–1510000 and 1559101–1562000
The only two blocks tagged oliv, 6,900 numbers across 1957 and 1958, both of them M bayonet in chrome and olive together. No olive version is described anywhere else on the page and no block is olive alone.
558001–559000
The only block on the table tied to a marking rather than a finish: 1,000 lenses of 1940 tagged S-black plus Luftwaffen. The other military engravings the summary line lists β€” MF 690, the bare M, the Reichsadler β€” have no block behind them anywhere on the page.
1659348
A single lens the table footnotes as Bundeseigentum for Visoflex β€” West German federal property, two decades after the wartime marks. It sits inside 1659001–1660000, an M-chrome block of 1959.

Specifications

Formula
Four elements in three groups
Construction
4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/4.5–f/32
Min. focus
1.5 m
Weight
369 g
Years manufactured
1933–1960
Country
Germany
Coating
Uncoated until 1946; coated from serial 590550

What reviewers say

History

At 108,088 lenses the Hektor 135 is the most-produced Leitz lens in this catalog, and it stayed in production for twenty-seven years β€” from 1933, when the Leica III was new, to 1960, when the M3 had been out for six. Four elements in three groups at f/4.5, slow and long and cheap enough that a great many Leica owners had one whether or not they used it often.

Its finishes are a record of changing taste rather than of engineering: all black, black with a chrome band, grey, chrome, and finally clear anodised aluminium. The one change that matters optically is coating, which begins at serial 590550 in 1946 and is the clearest dating mark the lens has. An uncoated Hektor against the light behaves like the pre-war lens it is.

Like the 90mm Summicron, its optical cell unscrews. Leitz sold it in a short focusing mount, the OHEBO, for the Ploot reflex housing and later for the Visoflex through an adapter β€” so the same glass is a rangefinder lens or a reflex lens depending on what it is screwed into.

Wartime examples carry the familiar markings: Luftwaffen-Eigentum, a Reichsadler stamp, MF 690. As with the bodies, an engraving is easy to add and hard to verify.

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 β€” but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted β€” shot with a Hektor 13.5cm f/4.5? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $79 across 43 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $50–$100). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $79.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$79$50–$10043
2026-09-06$79$50–$13044

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

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

Related: Elmar 13.5cm f/4.5 Β· Hektor 7.3cm f/1.9 Β· Tele-Elmar 135mm f/4

Sources (5)

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 β€” corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.