Determining manufacturing location and date of most Canon lenses

[markta]

Thought this may be of some use:-

http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/digital-photography/66491-how-old-my-canon-lens.html

The reference is on the black grommet around the rear element in fairly small letters and numbers..

 

[stylgeo]

Cool, my trusty old 35-105 was made in Utsunomiya, Japan in 1988! No luck for my nifty fifty, no such detail.
I wonder about my sigmas though!

 

[Jimmy_Lemon]

Think this has been posted before, but god knows where

Seems my 17-40 is Utsunomiya Sept 2007
and my 70-200 was built in November 2007 - so it could be its birthday!

 

[Gofer]

Have a look here : http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Canon-Lenses/Canon-Lens-Aging.aspx

I think that the was the site shown in the earlier post Jimmy is referring to. Unfortunately it's only mostly 'L' lenses that have the information on them now

 

[Oakey22]

my 100-400 L is from 1999, so 9 years old
My 70-200 f/4 is 2008 but i only got it this year.

 

[puddleduck]

Why does this matter?

Is it more of a point of interest, or trying figure around "bad" batches etc?

 

[andrewc]

I think its of more use to the secondhand market, and is a way of verifying when a seller claims their 100-400L is 7 months old when in fact its 7 years old.

 

[puddleduck]

I think its of more use to the secondhand market, and is a way of verifying when a seller claims their 100-400L is 7 months old when in fact its 7 years old.

Make sense. Does age actually matter that much? Once the warranty has gone don't suppose it matters.

For example I bought a 50mm f/1.4 from Kev in the Classified here, and it was probably at least 20 years old. Lens was great.

 

[Uneducated_Rick]

I think its of more use to the secondhand market, and is a way of verifying when a seller claims their 100-400L is 7 months old when in fact its 7 years old.

Could be only 7 months old, but having sat on a shelf in a now bankrupt shop, then bought by another business only for it to have to wait to cycle through their warehouse could mean its been sitting around for a long long time

 

[BLZeebub]

It could help when there are later 'fixed' variants of a lens especially with the older large primes that are not always easy to tell if its the original or a Mk2 or later as some of them can be difficult to get replacement parts - such as the early USM motors and the like.

Cheers
Nat

B->

 

[crt-d]

thanks