Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH (v5 · v6)

Serial-range notes

the whole Leica lens sequence

THE RULE. Leica numbers every lens it makes in one continuous run, whatever the model, so this Summicron is dated from the company-wide lens serial/year list. Read the number following the E39 marking and find its bracket: 1996 = 3730291–3770920, 1997 = 3770930–3818624, 1998 = 3818625–3857849, 1999 = 3857850–3882996, 2000 = 3882997–3912247, 2001 = 3912248–3941497, 2002 = 3941498–3970748, 2003 = 3970748–3999999, 2004 = 4000000–4010600, 2005 = 4010601–4025900, 2006 = 4025901–4034900, 2008 = 4057001–4080000, 2009 = 4080001–4100000, 2010 = 4100001–4115000, 2011 = 4115001–4130000, 2012 = 4130001–4210000, 2013 = 4210001–4280000, 2014 = 4280001–4400000, 2015 = 4400001 upward (Leica Wiki, Leica Lens Serial Numbers).

3912126–3913125, 3962511–3963510, 3966511–3967510, 3978539–3979538, 3994221–3997001, 4000001–4010985

Where the two Leica Wiki lists disagree, and they disagree by exactly one year each time. The model page dates these rows 2001, 2003, 2003, 2004, 2004 and 2005; the company-wide year list puts their opening numbers in 2000, 2002, 2002, 2003, 2003 and 2004. The same offset appears on the 28mm f/2 ASPH page, so it runs through the model pages of this period rather than being a slip on one of them. Both readings are recorded. Rows before 2001 and after 2005 agree on both lists.

3731291–3731300 and 3767100–3768099

Two blocks dated 1996 — a year before the 1997 introduction the same page gives, and the company-wide list puts both in 1996 as well, so the two lists agree against the stated date. The first is only ten numbers, which is the shape of a pre-production or press run; the second is a full thousand black lenses. An ASPH Summicron numbered below 3770930 is therefore a 1996 lens on the evidence of both lists.

3867717–3868266, 3879377–3880376, 3880747–3880946

The screw-mount limited edition, and all of it is 1999: 550, 1,000 and 200 numbers, 1,750 in all. Two of the three rows are printed under the older "Summicron-M 3.5 cm 1:2 (S-silver)" designation rather than the ASPH name, and footnotes identify 3867918 and 3880850 as screw-mount ASPH lenses carrying order number 11 608, with 3868265 named as screw mount as well. This is the last new screw-thread glass Leica has numbered.

3886207–3887206

The titanium version's own block: 1,000 lenses of 2000, the only titanium marking on the list and the only clean figure for a variant the entry's table gives as unpublished.

3966511–3967510 and 3972486–3973485

The two blocks the list marks LHSA, both 2003 and both mixed — the first printed "LHSA + silver", the second "LHSAchrom + black". The page's order numbers distinguish 11 616 LHSA chrome from 11 696 grey, but the serial table never says which finish is in which block, so neither can be assigned to the hammertone grey. That is why this entry's hammertone variant carries no range.

3934014–3935013, 3938514–3939513, 4000001–4010985, 4044112–4047561

The blocks that name order numbers, which is how the black lens's renumbering can be dated: 11 879 alone in 2002, then 11 882 with 879 later that year, then 11 879 with 611 in the 2005 row and 11 882 with 611 in 2006. The 11 611 black order number the entry records appears against no block before 2005.

3994221 onward

How to read the rest of the table. From 2004 the Leica Wiki stops printing assigned blocks and starts printing the lowest and highest number actually seen in a year, marked with a leading or trailing dash and sometimes an "unknown"; the totals carrying a plus sign are the arithmetic span between those two numbers, not a count of lenses. The 2012 row's "28,348+" is the distance from 4148018 to 4176365, not twenty-eight thousand Summicrons. The page's own footer gives the assigned total for 1997–2015 as unknown.

4100261

A lens inside the 2009 row that the Leica Wiki marks with a tilde, its symbol for a stolen lens, asking that it be reported if noticed on sale. The page was last edited in 2015; the flag is repeated here as the source has it.