Tri-Elmar-M 28–35–50mm f/4 ASPH (MATE)

Serial-range notes

3753126–3949133

THE RULE. Leica 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; twelve counted blocks cover the MATE between 3753126 and 3949133, and they add up to exactly the 8,575 the page prints. Failing that, the general Leica lens year list maps the whole sequence to years regardless of model — and here the two agree on every block, which is not true of every lens in this catalog.

3920101

THE VERSION LINE, and the one number a buyer needs. The head of the wiki page defines the "Improved Mount Redesign" as the version after serial 3920101, and the first block the table labels Redesign begins at exactly 3920101. A MATE numbered 3920101 or above has the redesigned mount; one below it does not. The wiki dates that block 2001, a year before the 2002 this entry gives the redesign.

3753126–3813124

Four blocks — 3753126–3754125, 3771930–3772929, 3799910–3800909 and 3812125–3813124 — dated 1996 and 1997, one and two years before the 1998 first year given at the head of the same page and throughout this entry. The general Leica lens year list agrees with all four. Both dates are recorded rather than one chosen.

1998

The one year with no numbers is the model's own first year. The table runs 1996, 1997, 1997, 1997 and then jumps to 1999; not one block is dated 1998. The 1999 block that follows, 3857850–3858849, begins on the exact first serial the general Leica lens year list assigns to 1999, so the gap is real in both sources rather than an artifact of one.

3891001–3891074, 3891150–3891150

Two blocks of almost nothing, both 2000: seventy-four numbers, then a single number with SN Start and SN End identical and a total of 1. Neither is an error — they are counted into the 8,575 — and they are the smallest rows on the page.

3896051–3897500

1,450 numbers the total leaves out. The wiki brackets the row and notes above the table that "batch 3896051-3897500 is missing on Puts list", then names two lenses inside it, 3896507 and 3896636, as Tri-Elmar 28-35-50s. So a MATE in this range is a genuine lens with no published batch behind it, and the 8,575 understates the run by up to 1,450.

3948204

Flagged on the Leica Wiki as stolen — "please report if found on sale" — inside the 2002 block 3948134–3949133. Recorded here because a serial worth checking against a lens offered for sale is exactly what a serial list is for.

3948134–3949133

The last dated block, 2002. The row beneath it reads "unknown / unknown / ASPH Tri-Elmar-M Redesign / 2005-2007 / unknown" — the wiki recording the absence rather than guessing — so no serial numbers have been published for the final five years of a lens made until 2007. The total is headed 1996–2005 although its own last dated row is 2002.