Serial numbers

This is a work in progress.

Manufacturers commonly use serial numbers to uniquely identify a camera lens or a camera body. Knowledge of these numbers allows, in many cases, to date the specific camera in hand. This page provides known serial number and date sequences for cameras, lenses and shutters.

Serial numbers of camera bodies

Production Code 'YRIS' in a Kodak Brownie II 110 image by Dirk HR Spennemann (Image rights)

Kodak

Many of the Kodak bodies also use the CAMEROSITY encoding used for the lenses. A number of the 1970s and 1980s bodies have a four letter code, where the last two letters stand for the year and the first two letters stand for the Kodak production cycle in that year. Note that Kodak breaks the year into thirteen four-week cycles. This the CAMEROSITY code 'YRIS', ie. 0687, indicates that the cameras was produced in the 6th four-week unit of 1987 (ie aprox late May to mid June).

Serial numbers of lenses

Kodak lenses

From 19¶¶ onwards, Kodak encoded its lenses, and in many instances, also camera bodies, using a two letter combination, encoded with the word 'CAMEROSITY,' which resolves as follows:

C	A	M	E	R	O	S	I	T	Y
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0

The letters represent the last two digits of the year. Thus a lens with the serial number EA12345 would have been produced in 1942

Serial numbers of shutters

Compur shutters

Sourced from A Lens Collector's Vade Mecum.

Serial nº	Year
214,000	1912
250,000	1914
450,000	1920
500,000	1922
600,000	1925
750,000	1926
850,000	1927
950,000	1928
1,000,000	1929
1,150,000	1930
1,500,000	1931
1,800,000	1932
2,250,000	1933
2,700,000	1934
3,200,000	1935
3,750,000	1936
4,250,000	1937
4,850,000	1938
5,400,000	1939
6,000,000	1947
6,200,000	1948
6,500,000	1949
7,000,000	1950
7,700,000	1951
8,500,000	1952