Tools

Serial numbers and date codes

Some makers stamped the date on the object. Some numbered in sequence and published the list. Some did neither — and where that is the answer, we say so. Pick a maker and this turns what is engraved on your camera or lens into a production date, with the source it came from so you can check it.

A number outside every known block returns “cannot date”, never a guessed year.

Camera makers

Lens makers

These date the lens. A camera cannot be older than the lens on it, but it can be a good deal younger — so a lens date is a floor and a cross-check, not the camera’s date.

Date code

Canon stamped a date code on the rear plate of the lens — not the serial number. A letter then 3–4 digits (V1015) up to 1986; two letters then digits (UR0902) after. It gives the year and the month.

Which lens? (recommended)

Canon reused the same year letters every 26 years — A means 1960, 1986 and 2012. Telling us the lens lets us rule the wrong ones out from its production dates. Without it, an ambiguous letter gets no answer rather than a guessed one.