Rodenstock Serial Number

[Ben Chase]

Bob,

Rodenstock 210mm f5.6 MC Sironar-N
The e-bay seller (therangefinder) would only give me the first few numbers of the serial...not sure why this is the case, but here it is:

10373xxx

Is this enough to tell whether or not I'll have trouble getting repairs done on this lens if necessary? Also - how old is this lens?

Ben C

[Eric James]

The e-bay seller...would only give me the first few numbers of the serial...not sure why this is the case...

This is common practice used to prevent fraudulent accusations such as "#12345678, that's my lens - I posted it as lost (or stolen) on photo.net!"

[Ben Chase]

Ahh yes - Makes sense now.

[Oren Grad]

Ben -

Until Bob has a chance to stop by with the official details, I'll hazard that this lens is early-80's vintage. It's the same optical design as the current 210 Apo-Sironar-N, though I'm sure Bob will point out that there may have been refinements in production of the glass, mountings, etc. since then.

I wouldn't worry too much about repairs. The likeliest component to cause trouble is the shutter, but the lens you're looking at comes in a late model Copal 1, so you'll have no problem at all getting repairs.

Assuming the description is accurate, the opening bid is a reasonable price. I wouldn't pay vastly more than that; this is a very common lens, and prices have been pretty soft recently.

[Ben Chase]

Thanks for the advice!

[jim kitchen]

Mr Thalmann has a list of serial numbers here: http://www.thalmann.com/largeformat/agevs.htm along with other great information...

jim k