Noctilux-M 50mm f/1

Serial-range notes

the seven-digit number on the front ring

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. This lens runs from 2749631, in the 2,731,901–2,761,100 band for 1975, to 3985747, in the 3,970,748–3,999,999 band for 2003; every year between carries its own band on the same list.

2919657

Ken Rockwell puts the change from E58 to E60 filters at this number. It falls inside 2918901–2919900, which is the one block on the Leica Wiki's table tagged 1st+2nd — the block the wiki says holds both versions. Two records made independently of each other put the end of the first version in the same thousand numbers.

3220709

Rockwell's second threshold, where the hood changes from 12 539 to 12 544. It falls inside 3220001–3221000, the one block tagged 2nd+3rd. His two thresholds and the wiki's two mixed blocks land in the same two places on the sequence.

2750503 and 3442659

Two numbers the Leica Wiki flags on this page as stolen, asking that they be reported if seen for sale. 2750503 sits inside the 1975 block 2749631–2750630 and 3442659 inside the 1987 block 3442401–3442900. Both are worth reading off the front ring before money changes hands.

2749631–2750630

The first block, 1,000 lenses dated 1975 — a year before the 1976 introduction the same page's summary line gives, and before the year this entry gives. Here the general year list backs the table: 2749631 falls in its 2,731,901–2,761,100 band for 1975.

3434501–3435000

Dated 1986 on the model table; the general year list puts both ends inside its 3,422,891–3,455,870 band for 1987. Its neighbour 3442401–3442900 is dated 1987 by both.

3940114–3940613, 3978039–3978538, 3984534–3985033

Three more rows that date against the general list. The first is given 2002 where the list says 2001; the other two are given 2004 where the list says 2003. Both readings are recorded and neither is preferred here.

3114001–3114700

700 lenses of 1981, tagged on the table with both order numbers at once — 11 821+822 — and with both of the first two versions. Rockwell dates 11 822 to 1993–2008, so an 11 822 tag on a 1981 block contradicts him, and the wiki does not explain it. Its neighbour 3153501–3154500 is unambiguous: 11 821, second version, 1981.

3617898–3617899

A block of two numbers, dated 1993 — the smallest allocation on the page, and the year both the fourth version and order number 11 822 begin on it.

3985143–3985747

The last row, and the only one tagged 11 603 — the third order number the page names and the one this entry does not otherwise carry. It is a bracket around observed lenses, printed with the wiki's dashes, and the 500+ against it is not the width of its span, which holds 605 numbers. Labelled 2006–2008, it falls in the general list's 3,970,748–3,999,999 band for 2003, while the table's own foot says its rows stop in 2005.

the first digit

The wiki prints two engravings against two number ranges: NOCTILUX 1:1/50 LEITZ CANADA on a seven-digit number beginning 2, and LEICA NOCTILUX-M 1:1/50 E 60 on one beginning 3. The boundary is not clean at the bottom — 2918901–2919900 is tagged 1st+2nd, so some E60 lenses carry 2-million numbers — but every block above 3,000,000 on the table is tagged 2nd, 3rd or 4th, and all of those are E60.

the wiki counts four versions, this entry three

The wiki and Puts separate the E60 lenses into a second and a third version by hood part number; both take a clip-on hood and neither has one built in. The blocks tagged 2nd and 3rd are therefore listed here together under the E60 separate-hood variant, and only the blocks tagged 4th, all of them 11 822, sit under the built-in hood.