Lens Serial Number Lookup & Verification
Type in the serial number (or date code) engraved on a lens and find out what it reveals: the factory and production date for Canon date codes, the production year for Leica serials, and for every other brand an honest summary of what the manufacturer does — or does not — encode. Then verify the SN against a real photo's EXIF before you buy.
Everything is computed locally in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere. Dates are the year the serial batch was allocated — treat them as ±1 year.
Buying a used lens? Ask the seller for an unedited photo taken with that lens and drop it below. The tool reads the serial number embedded in EXIF (tag 0xA435 LensSerialNumber, plus 0xA431 BodySerialNumber) and compares it with the SN engraved on the lens barrel. A match confirms the photo really was taken with the advertised lens — a present but different SN is a red flag.
This is also the only reliable way to answer “which lens is this SN from?”: manufacturers don't encode the model into the serial, but EXIF of any photo taken with the lens carries the exact model name.
Comparison ignores case, spaces and dashes. ⚠️ Not every camera/lens combination writes the lens SN into EXIF: most modern mirrorless systems (Nikon Z, Sony E, Fujifilm X, Canon RF) do, while older DSLR bodies, third-party and manual-focus lenses often don't. A missing SN is therefore not proof of anything — but a present, mismatching SN is a strong warning.
A common misconception is that a serial number identifies the lens. It doesn't: with the partial exception of Leica, no manufacturer encodes the model, and only a few encode the production date. Here is the honest per-brand picture:
Lenses made until ~2012 carry a separate letter date code (e.g. UT0511) — fully decodable: factory, month, year. The newer 10-digit serials contain an internal date prefix that Canon never published.
Serials were allocated in published yearly blocks from 1933 to 1996 — the serial dates the lens to ±1 year, and batch lists often identify the exact model.
No date encoding. F-mount Nikkors can be dated approximately from per-model serial ranges collected in Roland Vink's Nikkor database. Z-mount serials are undocumented.
No date encoding and no public lookup. Sony support can check warranty/registration status for a serial.
No public scheme. Fujifilm support can verify a serial for warranty and recall status.
Batch-based serials with no public scheme — but Sigma customer support will look up the production date of a specific serial on request.
No published scheme; the leading digits identify the production series, not a date.
No published date schemes. Leica DG lenses are numbered by Panasonic — the Leica chart does not apply to them.
Until roughly 2012, Canon engraved a date code next to the serial number, usually near the rear mount: UT0511 means U = Utsunomiya factory, T = year letter, 05 = May, 11 = internal batch.
Leitz/Leica allocated lens serial numbers in yearly blocks and published the allocations up to 1996. The year is when the block was allocated; assembly can trail it, hence ±1 year. Serials above 3,770,929 are newer than 1996 and not publicly documented.
| Serial from | Year | Serial from | Year |
|---|
Generally no — manufacturers do not encode the model into the serial. The reliable way to identify a lens is a photo taken with it: EXIF carries the exact model name (use the verification tool above). Leica is a partial exception — batch-allocation lists (the l-camera-forum Leica wiki, Red Dot Camera's serial tool) map many serial ranges to specific models.
Two practical routes: EXIF metadata of the seller's photos (the DateTimeOriginal of the earliest photos brackets the purchase date), or the manufacturer's support — Sigma, for example, will look up the production date of a serial on request.
No. Older DSLR bodies, third-party lenses and manual-focus glass often don't report a serial to the camera. A missing SN proves nothing either way — but a present, mismatching SN is a strong warning.
No. Both the decoder and the EXIF verification run entirely in your browser — files and serial numbers never leave your device.