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Serials of pre-war FED lenses and accessories

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[quote]I never paid much attention to the serial ranges of pre-war FED equipment until I had a conversation with Jacques about the connection of FED-S serials and the corresponding 50mm f/2 lenses.
http://ussrphoto.com/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2353

Interestingly, from the information we have, the pre-war FED lens serials do not start at zero for each type but they have certain ranges which may even overlap:

FED 50mm f/3.5 macro lens
10.000 - 15.xxx
20 serials in the wiki (some 2 and 3digit serials do exist but were excluded here)
[img]http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/3874/fedlensserialsm0613.jpg[/img]
Note thet the lower cluster of points belongs to the 1st version with pins, the points above the gap belong to the 2nd version without pins.

FED 50mm f/2 for FED-S
20.000 - 33.xxx
47 serials in the wiki
[img]http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/9937/fedlensserialss0613.jpg[/img]

FED 100mm f/6.3
30.000 - 39.xxx
61 serials in the wiki
[img]http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/912/fedlensserialst0613.jpg[/img]

FED 28mm f/4.5
40.000 - 46.xxx
29 serials in the wiki
[img]http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/7378/fedlensserialsw0613.jpg[/img]

Comparison of serials per lens type:
[img]http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/2039/fedlensserialsbar0613.jpg[/img]

The total serial range plotted together:
[img]http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/6091/fedlensserialsscatter06.jpg[/img]

Some interesting observations:

.)Within the range of found serials there are no great gaps, except between 1st and 2nd version of the 50mm f/3.5 macro lens. 
This may (!) mean that that indeed all serials were really used in production.

.)As Jacques pointed out, the serial range of the 50mm f/2 and 100mm f/6.3 lenses overlap.
Was this because the demand for the 50mm f/2 was greater than planned?
And if really only 2.000 FED-S cameras were produced, why do we seem to have 13.000+ 50mm f/2 lenses which are very rare to find singly?

.)There is a large gap between the last 50mm f/3.5 serial and the first 50mm f/2 serial. Generally only few macro lenses are known, by far less than the other lens types.
I guess the demand was smaller even though I believe it was the only macro lens available at this time.

Again, many questions, but that's what makes this stuff so interesting.

Regards,
Christian[/quote]

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