APO Ronar 300/9 age (and generally Rodenstock's)?

[Michael M.]

Hi all,
(I've searched through the archive, but the answer is nowhere...)
Found an APO Ronar 300mm f/9 in a used gear web shop. It has no shutter, obviously being a reproduction lens. I was said it's SN is 10,334,xxx. How old could it be, or where can I find any age chart of Rodenstock lenses?
Thanks for your quick help, Michael

[Frank Petronio]

Call the US distributor HP Marketing's Bob Salomon. He rather talk to you directly than to post serial number information on a website. And the parent company in Germany hasn't made much of an investment in its website either. I guess they assume that by forcing you to contact them, it gives them an opportunity to sell you something else? Or it is just too much trouble to post a table of serial numbers and lens info for this new fangled internet thing...

[Kerry L. Thalmann]

Michael,
The lens was made in the early 1980s (around 1983, give or take). I have a table of Rodenstock serial numbers vs. date of manufacture on my web site at:

http://www.thalmann.com/largeformat/agevs.htm

The same table was also published with an article I wrote on Rodenstock lenses that ran in the Sep/Oct 2002 issue of View Camera magazine.

Kerry

[Bob Salomon]

10,xxx,xxx = 1979 10,500,000=1984