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

Xenon 5cm f/1.5

Ernst Leitz Β· LTM Β· 1936 Β· Double Gauss

our own finding

Also known as: Leitz Xenon 50mm f/1.5 Β· Xenon 5cm f1.5 Β· Taylor-Hobson Xenon Β· γ‚―γ‚»γƒŽγƒ³ 50mm F1.5

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Two ring LTM 1935–1936 No block on the Leica Wiki's table is marked 2-ring. The only unmarked batch is 270001–270004, four lenses in 1935, and nothing identifies those as two-ring either. Rare; the Leica Wiki gives no figure
Three ring LTM 1936–1939 288001–290000 (1936) β€” marked 3-ring alone, and Taylor-Hobson; the only block three-ring lenses have to themselves
375501–377000 (1937), 426001–427000 (1938), 490001–492000 (1939) β€” marked 3+4-ring, shared with the four-ring barrel 		The 1936 block of 2,000 is three-ring
Four ring LTM 1937–1939 375501–377000 (1937), 426001–427000 (1938), 490001–492000 (1939) β€” every block marked 3+4-ring; no block below 375501 names a four-ring lens Shares blocks with the three-ring from 1937
Taylor-Hobson marked LTM 1936–1937 288001–290000 (1936) β€” 3-ring, Taylor-Hobson
375501–377000 (1937) β€” 3+4-ring, Taylor-Hobson, and the last block to carry the marking 		The 1936 and 1937 blocks, 3,500 lenses
  1. Two production figures, 314 apart: the model page says 6,190 lenses and its own serial list totals 6,504 assigned numbers β€” a 5% discrepancy on a small run. The list's final block also overlaps the Summarit's first, so some of those numbers may have left the factory as Summarits.
  2. Casual Photophile gives the patents the lens cites as Taylor-Hobson British patent 373950 and US patent 2019985, and a Leitz Photographica lot describes the barrel engraving as carrying the British and US patents rather than the D.R.P. mark recorded here.
  3. Leitz code XEMOO. A three-ring Taylor-Hobson-marked example, serial 289581 and dated 1936, made €2,640 including buyer's premium at Leitz Photographica auction 40; plain Leitz-marked Xenons in auctions 44, 46 and 47 made between €720 and €1,800.
  4. Two sources file the lens under Schneider rather than Taylor-Hobson: Overgaard's compendium lists it as "Xenon (Schneider)" and Casual Photophile says Leitz engaged Schneider-Kreuznach to build it, against the Taylor-Hobson licence recorded here.
  5. Each of the five blocks on the Leica Wiki's table matches its own start and end numbers, and each falls in the year the general Leitz lens year list assigns to its start number. The discrepancy in this entry is between the table's 6,504 and the 6,190 at the head of the same page, not inside the table or between the two independent lists.
  6. The table's date span runs 1935–1939 while the production era at the head of the page runs 1936–1950. Both ends disagree: the serials begin a year earlier and end eleven years sooner than the era printed above them.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved Leitz Xenon f 5cm 1:1,5 with D.R.P. β€” Deutsches Reichspatent
  • 40 degree diagonal angle of view, narrower than the 45 degrees Leitz gives for its own fifties

Two ring:

  • Two rings on the barrel

Three ring:

  • Three rings on the barrel

Four ring:

  • Four rings on the barrel

Taylor-Hobson marked:

  • Taylor-Hobson marking alongside the Leitz engraving

Serial-range notes

270001–492000
THE RULE. Leitz never numbered a model from one and never put a date inside the number. Serials were issued in blocks drawn from a single running sequence shared by every lens the company made, so a number dates a copy only against a block list. Find it in the SN Start / SN End table on this lens's Leica Wiki page and read the year off its row; five blocks cover the Xenon between 270001 and 492000, and a number falling between them belongs to some other Leitz lens. Failing that, the general Leitz lens year list maps the whole sequence to years regardless of model β€” and here the two agree on all five blocks, so the year a Xenon's number gives is firm even though the totals are not.
the ring count
THE SECOND TEST, and the one collectors actually sort by. The table marks 288001–290000 as 3-ring alone, and 375501–377000, 426001–427000 and 490001–492000 all as 3+4-ring. So a four-ring Xenon cannot be numbered below 375501 on the published evidence, three- and four-ring barrels shared every block from 1937 onward, and a number in the 288001–290000 block is a three-ring lens. Two-ring lenses are named nowhere on the table at all.
288001–290000, 375501–377000
The Taylor-Hobson marking, and where it stops. These are the only two blocks the table marks Taylor-Hobson β€” 3,500 numbers in 1936 and 1937 β€” and the two blocks that follow, 426001–427000 in 1938 and 490001–492000 in 1939, carry the ring count but not the licensor's name. A Xenon numbered above 377000 is not covered by any block that names Taylor-Hobson.
289581
An auction result and a factory block agreeing on three things at once. Leitz Photographica lot AI-40-40204, a three-ring Taylor-Hobson-marked Xenon catalogued as a 1936 lens, is serial 289581 β€” inside 288001–290000, which the wiki dates 1936 and marks 3-ring Taylor-Hobson. Year, ring count and marking all match. It is the firmest single dating anchor in this entry.
270001–270004
Four lenses in 1935, a year before the model's stated introduction. A pre-production batch.
490001–492000
The last Xenon block, 2,000 lenses in 1939 β€” and the Summarit's own serial list opens with 103 lenses at 491898–492000, inside it. The two lenses share the end of this block.
490001
The block above begins on the exact first number the general Leitz lens year list assigns to 1939 (490001–538500) β€” the last Xenon batch and the year start together. The 1938 block 426001–427000 sits inside that list's 1938 span, and the sample inscription at the head of the wiki page, "Leitz Xenon f 5cm 1:1,5 No426xxx D.R.P.", is a number from its first thousand.
492000
Nothing has been published above it. The head of the wiki page gives the production era as 1936–1950, but the last assigned block ends in 1939, and the general Leitz lens year list agrees that 492000 is a 1939 number. Eleven of the fifteen years this entry gives the model carry no serial numbers at all β€” the war, and a lens Leitz did not resume.
the two-ring version
No published block identifies one. The head of the wiki page calls the two-ring barrel rare and the serial table never names it; the only candidate is the four-number 1935 batch 270001–270004, which carries no ring marking of any kind. The two-ring Xenon is the one variant in this entry that cannot be dated from a serial number.

Specifications

Formula
Double Gauss
Designed by
Horace William Lee β€” optical design at Taylor, Taylor & Hobson β€” filed 26 December 1930
Construction
7 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/1.5–f/9
Min. focus
1 m
Weight
300 g
Years manufactured
1935–1950
Country
Germany
Material
Chrome-plated brass; a few in nickel in 1936

What reviewers say

History

The Xenon is the fastest lens Leitz sold before the war and the one it did not design. Horace William Lee, at Taylor, Taylor & Hobson in Leicester, had patented a seven-element double Gauss in December 1930; Leitz licensed it, built it in Wetzlar, and sold it from 1936 as the Xenon. Early lenses carry the Taylor-Hobson name alongside the Leitz engraving, which is not something Leitz did often, and after 1937 they stop doing it.

Only about 6,200 were made in four years, against 127,950 Summars in seven. An f/1.5 lens in 1936 was a specialist purchase β€” heavy at 300 grams, expensive, and difficult to focus accurately on a rangefinder with a 39mm baselength. Collectors sort them by the number of rings on the barrel: two, three or four, with the two-ring version the scarce one.

After the war Leitz replaced it with the Summarit, which is the same optical idea rebuilt as a Leitz design by Otto Zimmermann. The handover is visible in the serial numbers. The Xenon’s final block, 2,000 lenses in 1939, runs from 490001 to 492000 β€” and the Summarit’s own serial list opens with 103 lenses at 491898 to 492000, inside it. Whether those hundred-odd lenses left the factory as Xenons or Summarits, the tables do not agree, and it is a small illustration of how a lens becomes its successor.

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 Xenon 5cm f/1.5? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $1,700 across 11 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $1,400–$1,900). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $1,700.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$1,700$1,400–$1,90011
2026-09-06$1,700$1,400–$1,90011

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: Summarex 8.5cm f/1.5

Sources (6)

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.