Summilux 35mm f/1.4 (v1, steel rim)

Serial-range notes

the seven-digit number on the barrel

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 touching this lens are 1,717,001–1,827,000 for 1960, 2,015,701–2,077,500 for 1964 and 2,156,301–2,236,500 for 1966. Where a number falls inside one of the allocated blocks below, that block is the finer answer — but for this lens the blocks come with an unusually large caveat, set out in the next note.

1730001–1731100, 1765001–1766200, 1777001–1780000

The three blocks the Leica Wiki dates 1960 are not captioned as this lens. All three read "Summilux f= 5 cm 1:1.4" — the 50mm Summilux — and the page's footnote then names eight individual numbers inside them that are 35mm f/1.4 lenses instead. So 5,300 of the 7,500 numbers on this lens's own page belong on paper to a different lens, and a 35mm example is identified as such only by inspection, not by its number.

1730209, 1765448, 1765626, 1765829, 1766098, 1777005, 1777457, 1778749

The eight numbers the Leica Wiki names as 35mm f/1.4 Summilux lenses sitting inside those 1960 blocks, credited to Westlicht, Schouten and Rahn. They are the only individually attested serials for the steel rim on the page.

1765780

A ninth dated example, from an archived auction result rather than the wiki: Leitz Photographica catalogued this lens as a 1960 steel-rim Summilux in the M3 goggled version, condition A−, Auction 44 lot 140, sold at €6,600 including buyer's premium against a €4,000–5,000 estimate. It falls inside 1765001–1766200, which the Leica Wiki also dates 1960, so auction record and factory block agree.

2060501–2061500, 2166501–2167700

The only two blocks the table actually captions as the 35mm f/1.4 Summilux, dated 1964 and 1966. Together they hold 2,200 numbers, which is close to the 2,371 the page's own black and chrome split comes to — the nearest thing to a reconciliation anywhere on the page, and still not an equality.

1730001–1731100

The one block whose annotation names no black finish — M3 and M versions in chrome only. Every other block mixes finishes, so no published range can be read as exclusively black, and the 1,155 black lenses cannot be checked against a number.

the M3 goggled version

All five blocks carry M3 in their annotation. The goggled version was made throughout, was never given a range of its own, and cannot be identified from a serial number at all.

2060501–2061500

The 1964 block's annotation includes S-black, the page's shorthand elsewhere for a screw-mount lens, while the same page gives this lens's mount as Leica M bayonet alone. The annotation and the specification contradict each other and neither is explained.

0000030

A warning about the modern reissue. Leitz Photographica sold a steel-rim Summilux prototype carrying serial 0000030 and catalogued as made in 2023, from a small testing batch with four screws visible on the front rim that the production version does not have; Auction 44 lot 129, a charity lot, €33,600 including buyer's premium against a €6,000–7,000 estimate. A seven-digit number beginning 000 is not in the 1931 sequence and does not date from the 1960s. Anything offered as a steel rim should be dated from its number before anything else.