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

Elmarit-M 135mm f/2.8 (v1, with spectacles)

Ernst Leitz · Leica M · 1963 · Five elements in three groups

Also known as: Elmarit-M 135mm f/2.8 first version · 135 Elmarit with eyes · エルマリート 135mm F2.8 · Elmarit-M 135mm f/2.8 (first version) · Elmarit-M 135mm f/2.8 (first version) · Elmarit 135 v1

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
With spectacles (11827) Leica M 1963–1964 1957001–1958000 (1962)
2011001–2011700 (1963)
2038001–2038700 (1964) 		About 2,400 lenses
  1. A Leitz Canada Elmarit 135mm f/2.8 with goggles, serial 1957683, made £106 including buyer's premium at Flints Auctions' Fine Photographica sale of 2 June 2026. The catalogue does not say which version it is, and both the 11827 and the model that replaced it wear spectacles, so the figure describes what a goggled 135 Elmarit fetches rather than this variant alone.
  2. Dick Gilcreast, writing for the Leica Society International, records carrying the goggled 135mm f/2.8 Elmarit for a summer in Europe and calls it very heavy — an independent user's confirmation of the weight recorded here.
  3. The three blocks sum to exactly 2,400 — 1,000 plus 700 plus 700 — which is the production figure quoted for the model. That exactness is rare among the Leica Wiki's lens tables, where the totals column and the serial spans usually part company somewhere, and it makes this the most trustworthy of the three 135mm Elmarit tables.
  4. Read against the serial table, the Flints lot resolves itself. Its catalogue does not say which version the lens is, and spectacles are no help because the model that replaced this one wears them too; but 1957683 sits inside the first version's own 1962 block, and no other 135mm Elmarit table claims that number. The £106 it made therefore prices this variant rather than the goggled 135 Elmarit in general.
  5. The 135mm f/2.8 Elmarits are numbered v1 (1963, with spectacles), v2 (1964, the E55 fitting) and v3 (1976). This entry uses that numbering; the other pages carry the rest.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • 730 grams and 120mm long — the heaviest M lens in this catalog
  • The optical cell unscrews for the Visoflex through adapter 16464
  • Series VII or A63.7 filters

With spectacles (11827):

  • Spectacles over the finder windows, magnifying the rangefinder image
  • Lower portion 14129 carries the M bayonet and the eyes

Serial-range notes

1957001–2038700
The rule, and an unusually easy one: this version has only three serial blocks, so a number either falls inside 1957001–1958000, 2011001–2011700 or 2038001–2038700 and the lens is a first version, or it does not and the lens is not. The general Leitz year list agrees with all three: its bands are 1913001–1967100 (1962), 1967101–2015700 (1963) and 2015701–2077500 (1964), which is the year each block carries.
1957001–1958000
1,000 lenses dated 1962 — the earliest and largest of the three blocks, and the one that identifies the goggled Leitz Canada lens sold at Flints Auctions in June 2026. Serial 1957683 falls inside it, which makes that lens a first version of 1962 rather than one of the spectacled models that followed.
Between 2038700 and 2063501
Where this version ends. 2038700 closes its last block; the earliest serials the Leica Wiki records for the second version are 2064146, 2064302 and 2064679, footnoted inside a block its table otherwise labels 35mm f/2.8 Elmarit-R. Nothing has been published for the 25,000 numbers in between.
1957001–1958000
The dating of this block is also the model's oldest discrepancy. The Leica Wiki's header gives the production era as 1963–1964, and this entry follows it, but the table's own TOTAL row reads 1962–1964 and puts 1,000 of the 2,400 lenses — five lenses in every twelve — in 1962.

Specifications

Formula
Five elements in three groups
Construction
5 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/32
Min. focus
1.55 m
Dimensions
66 × 120 mm
Weight
730 g
Years manufactured
1963–1964
Country
Canada
Material
Black anodised aluminium

What reviewers say

History

The 135mm Elmarit is the heaviest lens in this catalog at 730 grams, and it comes with spectacles for a reason opposite to the Summaron’s. Where the 35mm lens wore goggles to shrink the M3’s finder image, this one wears them to magnify the rangefinder — turning the camera’s 0.72× view into something nearer 0.9× for this lens alone, so that a 135 can actually be focused.

That is a real solution to a real problem. Everything else at this focal length in the M system, from the Hektor to the APO-Telyt, is limited by the rangefinder’s precision rather than by its own optics. The Elmarit is the one lens that changes the camera to suit itself.

Only about 2,400 were made, in two years, before the second version replaced it. Like nearly every Leitz long lens of the period its optical cell unscrews for the Visoflex, so the same glass serves the rangefinder and the reflex housing.

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 — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Elmarit-M 135mm f/2.8 (v1, with spectacles)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $450 across 40 fixed-price listings on 2026-10-19 (middle half $300–$560). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 11 days: down 18% from $550.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-10-19$450$300–$56040
2026-10-18$450$300–$56040
2026-10-17$450$300–$56040
2026-10-16$430$300–$56039
2026-10-15$430$300–$58041
2026-09-21$470$340–$75044
2026-09-19$500$350–$76044
2026-09-18$500$350–$76044
2026-09-11$550$380–$76053
2026-09-10$550$380–$76052
2026-09-06$550$380–$76053

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 74 more listings

Listings updated 2026-10-19. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Elmarit-M 135mm f/2.8 (v2, 1964) · Elmarit-M 135mm f/2.8 (v3, 1976)

Sources (5)

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.