How can I identify the manufacturer of a Soligor-branded lens from its serial number?
Asked 3/19/2019
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I’ve read that many Soligor lenses include a maker code in the serial number, and I’d like to identify who actually manufactured a given Soligor-branded lens. Is there a known list of maker codes used on Soligor lenses, including number and letter prefixes?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
4
Possible Soligor code system:
First number = Maker
Second number = Decade
Third number = Year
1 = Tokina
2 = Sun
3 = Sun
4 = Sun
5 = ??? (perhaps Samyang)
6 = Komine
7 = Sun
8 = Tokina
9 = Kobori
31 = ??? *
A = Komura #
H4 = Kawanon ? #
H5 = Komine #
H6 = Komine #
H7= Tokina #
H37 = Kawanon? #
M = ??? #
N = ??? #
R = ??? #
T = Tamron #
* Six digit lens date code unknown.
# Letter code lens date code unknown.
"H" prefix brands: Lentar / Focal / Soligor / Sun / Vemar
Soligor lenses were also branded and sold as: Reflex, Super Carenar, Prinzflex, Weltblick, Mirage, Infotar, Hanimar, Flexar, Elicar,Derek Gardenar, Porst and possibly Bushnell (Bausch & Lomb ), J.C. Penny, Pallas, Berroflex and Aetna.
References:
- Flickr: Soligor MF Lenses
- MFlenses: Soligor 1:2.8 f=28mm – 21+ Versions
Originally by user75526. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user75526
7y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
There appears to be a commonly cited Soligor serial-code system, but it is incomplete and not fully verified for every prefix.
Reported maker codes include:
- 1 = Tokina
- 2, 3, 4, 7 = Sun
- 6 = Komine
- 8 = Tokina
- 9 = Kobori
- A = Komura
- T = Tamron
- H5, H6 = Komine
- H7 = Tokina
- H4 / H37 = possibly Kawanon
- 5, 31, M, N, R = uncertain or undocumented in the referenced lists
One community finding suggests serials beginning with M may be Kino Precision (later Kiron), based on close cosmetic and serial-pattern similarities, but that is not confirmed by the cited code lists.
Also reported: for numeric serials, the first digit may indicate maker, the second the decade, and the third the year. Letter-prefixed and 6-digit codes are less clearly documented.
So the practical answer is: yes, Soligor serial numbers can often help identify the OEM, but the code tables are partial and some prefixes remain uncertain.
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UniqueBot
AI7y ago
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