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

Elor 5cm f/2.8 (Leica screw mount)

Fritz Kuhnert · LTM · 1942

our own finding

Also known as: Kuhnert Elor 5cm f/2.8 · Kuhnert Elor 5cm f2.8 · Kuhnert Elor 50mm f/2.8 · Kuhnert Elor 50mm f2.8 · Kuhnert Elor 2.8/5cm · Kuhnert Elor 2.8/50 · Fritz Kuhnert Elor 2.8/5.0cm · Fritz Kuhnert Elor 2.8/5cm · Fritz Kuhnert Elor 50mm f/2.8 · Fritz Kuhnert Elor f/2.8 50mm · Elor 2.8/5.0cm · Elor 2.8/5cm · Elor 5cm f/2.8 · Elor 5cm f2.8 · Elor 50mm f/2.8 Leica · Elor 1:2.8 f=5.0 cm · Elor 1:2,8 f=5,0 cm · Elor 1:2,8 f=5 cm

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Elor 1:2.8 f=5.0 cm, nickel, Leica thread Leica 39 mm screw mount, rangefinder-coupled (Leitz Auction; Flints) — 10281–10330 (the four numbers seen at sale: 10281, 10286, 10308, 10330) —
  1. Date. The year on this page, 1942, is the founding of Kuhnert's 'Optische Anstalt' in Freiburg as given by ozcamera and Dan Cuny, the earliest the lens can be, not a known launch year. Leitz dates every example to the 1940s and no source dates the lens more closely. Camera-wiki says the Freiburg works made optics for the Luftwaffe and was destroyed in the bombing of 27 November 1944, after which Kuhnert rebuilt in Gundelfingen (1946, Dan Cuny). Whether the Leica-thread Elor was made before the raid or after the war is not recorded.
  2. Name. Camera-wiki and Dan Cuny say Kuhnert named his lenses after his family: Elor after his wife, spelled 'Eleonore' by camera-wiki and 'Elenore' by Cuny, and Evar and Petar after his children Eva and Peter.
  3. Optics. No source gives the element count or design of the Leica-thread Elor. Camera-wiki lists an Elor 2.8/50 among the lenses of the 1950s Futura system and credits the Futura lens calculations to Werner Giesbrecht of Schneider; whether the Futura Elor is the same optical design as this one, and who computed the Leica-thread lens, is not recorded. The Futura-mount lens is therefore not listed here as a variant.
  4. Prices. The Leitz estimates for this lens have fallen at each appearance, from €8,000–10,000 (Auction 38, June 2021) through €6,000–7,000 (39, November 2021), €5,000–6,000 (42, June 2023) and €4,000–5,000 (45, November 2024) to €2,400–2,800 (49, November 2026), and none of the four Leitz offers before Auction 49 sold. Leitz's Auction 49 text, unlike the earlier four, does not call the lens uncoated. The one recorded sale is £1,125 with premium at Flints in 2024, for an example lacking its focusing tab. No period price is known.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Signed 'Fritz Kuhnert Freiburg / Br.', not 'Futura'. ozcamera says lenses were marked 'Fritz Kuhnert' until 1951 and 'Futura' after, when the firm became Futura Kamerawerk (camera-wiki; Dan Cuny)
  • Not the Elor 5cm f/2.8 of the Futura rangefinder cameras, which screws into Futura's own thread (33.8 mm, Dan Cuny) and does not fit a Leica, and not the f/2.8 Elor fitted to some Efka 24 cameras (camera-wiki, which gives no focal length for it)
  • Not the Leitz Elmar 5cm f/2.8 of 1957, a different lens with a similar name and the same speed

Elor 1:2.8 f=5.0 cm, nickel, Leica thread:

  • Front ring engraved 'Fritz Kuhnert Freiburg / Br.' around a knurled edge; the inner bezel reads 'Elor', '1:2.8', 'f=5.0 cm' and 'Nr.' with the serial (Leitz Auction 49, lot 311 photographs)
  • Collapsible: the optical tube slides into a separate focusing mount, as on an Elmar. Leitz describes lot 311 as having a setting screw added to hold it in the extended position. The photographs show a knurled thumbscrew on the side of the focusing mount; Leitz does not say whether this is the added screw
  • Aperture scale on the front of the tube, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, read against a dot (lot 311 photographs)
  • Distance scale in metres, marked 'mtr.', from ∞ through 12, 6, 4, 3 down to 1.7, 1.5, 1.2 and 1.0, with a depth-of-field scale from 2.8 to 16 either side of the index (lot 311 photographs)
  • Flints describe no. 10286 as 'lacking focusing tab', which suggests the focusing mount was made with one; no tab is visible in the lot 311 photographs

Serial-range notes

10281
Offered twice by Leitz, both times unsold: Auction 39 (November 2021), lot 255, graded B/A, estimate €6,000–7,000, starting price €3,000; and Auction 45 (November 2024), lot 279, graded B/A, estimate €4,000–5,000, starting price €2,000. Leitz calls it 'a very rare standard uncoated lens … in excellent condition with good optics'.
10286
Flints, Fine Photographica, 21 November 2024, lot 130: 'Leica 39mm rangefinder coupled mount, nickel', body G-VG, 'lacking focusing tab', elements VG. Sold for £1,125 including buyer's premium, the only recorded sale of this lens found.
10308
Offered by Leitz with a Leica II (Model D) no. 153197 of 1935, twice, both times unsold: Auction 38 (June 2021), lot 250, graded A-, estimate €8,000–10,000, starting price €4,000; and Auction 42 (June 2023), lot 273, graded A/B, estimate €5,000–6,000, starting price €2,600.
10330
Leitz Auction 49, lot 311, sale 28 November 2026: graded B+, 1940s, estimate €2,400–2,800, starting price €1,200 (lot page as of 9 November 2026, no bids). An estimate and starting price, not a sale price. Leitz notes a 'setting screw added in order to stabilize the lens in uncollapsed position' and 'minimal cleaning marks on the front element'.

Specifications

Aperture range
f/2.8–f/16
Min. focus
1 m
Country
Germany
Coating
Uncoated (Leitz Auction, lots of 2021–24: 'standard uncoated lens')
Material
Nickel-plated (Leitz Auction; Flints). The rear mount thread looks unplated brass in the lot 311 photographs

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 Elor is a 5cm f/2.8 standard lens in Leica thread made by Fritz Kuhnert, whose Optische Anstalt in Freiburg im Breisgau was founded in 1942 and made optics for the Luftwaffe during the war. It is built like an Elmar: a nickel-plated optical tube that collapses into a separate focusing mount, an aperture scale running from 2.8 to 16 on the front of the tube, and a distance scale in metres from infinity down to 1 m. Leitz Auction describes every example it has handled as rangefinder-coupled and dates them to the 1940s; its catalogues of 2021–24 also call the lens uncoated. The name honours Kuhnert’s wife; his later Evar and Petar were named after his children.

Kuhnert is better known for what came next. After the Freiburg works was destroyed in the raid of November 1944 he rebuilt nearby in Gundelfingen, launched the 24×24mm Efka 24 in 1947 and the Futura rangefinder in 1950, and in 1951 sold the firm to the Hamburg shipowners Ernst and Eduard Komorowski, who renamed it Futura Kamerawerk. From then on the lenses were signed Futura. The Leica-thread Elor carries Kuhnert’s own name and the Freiburg address, which by ozcamera’s account of the markings places it before that change. The Futura system had an Elor 2.8/50 of its own, in Futura’s 33.8 mm thread, which does not fit a Leica, and some Efka 24 cameras carried an f/2.8 Elor; no source says whether either shares this one’s optics.

Leitz calls it very rare. The four that have appeared at auction since 2021 are numbered between 10281 and 10330, and two of them have been offered twice. No. 10308 was offered by Leitz together with a 1935 Leica II and was twice left unsold. The only recorded sale is no. 10286, without its focusing tab, at £1,125 including premium at Flints in 2024. No. 10330, Leitz Auction 49 lot 311, has a later setting screw, added to hold the tube in its extended position.

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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

More sample photos elsewhere

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Elor 5cm f/2.8 (Leica screw mount)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

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

Sources (15)

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.