[Rollei] Serial Number Data

[Marc James Small <msmall >]

At 11:55 AM 11/22/01 -0800, Richard Knoppow wrote:
>   The Zeiss serial number list which appears in McKeown's Guide goes back
>a little further than Prochnow's list, which dates from the first F&H
>cameras. Its helpful but obviously not complete.  It also stops at the
>early 1940's (I think without looking). Again obviously, Oberchoken had its
>own serial numbering system. I've never seen anything on this, or on the
>Jena system after WW-2. 

The Prewar Jena sequence in McKeown was generated by the noted optical
designer and theoretician, Ed Kaprelian.  We have only managed to improve
upon this in recent years with one more bit of data -- from some
information posted here on this List a few years back, we know believe that
1938 runs from 2266087 to 2527984.

The Postwar Jena numbers are a continuation of the Prewar numbers but our
understanding of them is quite soft.  I would guesstimate something along
the following lines:

late 1945	  3,000,000
1950		  4,000,000
1955		  5,000,000
1960		  6,000,000
1965		  7,000,000
1970		  8,000,000
1975		  9,000,000
1980		10,000,000
1985		       50,000 (Jena deleted "10,00" from the serial numbers at around
10,040,000)
1990		     750,000 (production ended in 1990)

The Postwar Oberkochen serial number run is vastly complicated by their
apparent custom of assigning number blocks to specific lenses, so that a
consecutive number run might take several years to see the light of day.
Further, there are several large blocks in the middle of the 2,000,000
range which should fall into the late 1950's but which clearly do not, as
these are on SL66 lenses introduced in 1966.  There is good data available
in Kuc's CONTAFLEX-CONTAREX and in Nordin's HASSELBLAD SYSTEM COMPENDIUM,
data obtained from Zeiss, but the two schemata do not agree for the period
1959 to 1966.  It is all most complex!

I have a rough table for Postwar Oberkochen lenses developed but it needs a
LOT more work!

Marc

msmall    FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!

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