Canon Lens Serial Numbers - Lower = Newer??

J Peters wrote:

Has anyone else noticed that newer EF-M lenses have lower serial numbers than older ones?

I have some going back to 2013 which start 9, newer ones start with 1 (all are 12 digits long). This concerned me recently when I bought a new lens and it had a very low serial number. I thought maybe I'd been duped with used, refurbished or new-old-stock, but this numbering system appears consistent with others I've bought. Is there some logic in this?

The first two digits of the serial number are a code for the month and year of manufacture. This is an old article about it, http://www.myphotocentral.com/tutorials/determine-age-of-a-canon-lens/#:~:text=To%20determine%20the%20age%20of%20a%20Canon%20lens,It%20starts%20in%20January%202008%20with%20number%2038. There are some anomalies, you might be able to find a newer version, but it gives you some idea.

Sittatunga wrote:

J Peters wrote:

Has anyone else noticed that newer EF-M lenses have lower serial numbers than older ones?

I have some going back to 2013 which start 9, newer ones start with 1 (all are 12 digits long). This concerned me recently when I bought a new lens and it had a very low serial number. I thought maybe I'd been duped with used, refurbished or new-old-stock, but this numbering system appears consistent with others I've bought. Is there some logic in this?

The first two digits of the serial number are a code for the month and year of manufacture. This is an old article about it, http://www.myphotocentral.com/tutorials/determine-age-of-a-canon-lens/#:~:text=To%20determine%20the%20age%20of%20a%20Canon%20lens,It%20starts%20in%20January%202008%20with%20number%2038. There are some anomalies, you might be able to find a newer version, but it gives you some idea.

Thank you. This is probably exactly what is going on. However there must be a different system for EF-M. For a start the numbers are 12 digits, not 10 as in the article. Secondly my 18-150 number starts with 90 - corresponding to May 2012 - which is before that lens was even a glimmer in the eye of the designer.

So, there is probably some sort of date code being used, just not the exact one documented in the article. Thanks, this has put my mind at rest. My new lenses are new lenses!

J Peters wrote:

Sittatunga wrote:

J Peters wrote:

Has anyone else noticed that newer EF-M lenses have lower serial numbers than older ones?

I have some going back to 2013 which start 9, newer ones start with 1 (all are 12 digits long). This concerned me recently when I bought a new lens and it had a very low serial number. I thought maybe I'd been duped with used, refurbished or new-old-stock, but this numbering system appears consistent with others I've bought. Is there some logic in this?

The first two digits of the serial number are a code for the month and year of manufacture. This is an old article about it, http://www.myphotocentral.com/tutorials/determine-age-of-a-canon-lens/#:~:text=To%20determine%20the%20age%20of%20a%20Canon%20lens,It%20starts%20in%20January%202008%20with%20number%2038. There are some anomalies, you might be able to find a newer version, but it gives you some idea.

Thank you. This is probably exactly what is going on. However there must be a different system for EF-M. For a start the numbers are 12 digits, not 10 as in the article. Secondly my 18-150 number starts with 90 - corresponding to May 2012 - which is before that lens was even a glimmer in the eye of the designer.

So, there is probably some sort of date code being used, just not the exact one documented in the article. Thanks, this has put my mind at rest. My new lenses are new lenses!

All my EOS M stuff and my EOS R body have 12 digit serial numbers apart from the bundled 90EX flashguns which have 10 digits. At first I thought them more-or-less consistent with the date code being common to the 10- and 12-digit serial numbers. A two-number monthly date code will repeat on a cycle of just over 8 years - I think 01 could be either January 2013 or January 2021, which would put your 18-150mm into June 2020. Does this sound plausible?

Having said that, my M100, serial number starting 81 (Sept 2019?) was bundled with a 71##########15-45mm (Nov 2018?) and a 73########## 22mm (Jan 2019?) My EOS R that I bought in November 2018 has a 30########## serial number, but can't be June 2015 or 2023 and was bundled with a 67 code mount adapter (July 2018 for a camera mount first marketed Oct 2018?).

That's muddied the waters a bit.

Thanks everyone for the replies.

I have two 18-150mm lenses. The older one is 96..... (2020-12) and the newer 14..... (2022-02). My concern when raising this question was that the newer one (purchased just recently) was actually older. However these fit the dates perfectly. Thank you for pointing out all of this.

I don't think it works for bodies though. Different system I guess.

In case anyone's interested, I have now owned 3 copies of the 18-150. I wasn't impressed with the first one and went back for replacement. That serial started 69..... (2018-09) which also fits.     I kept a record of the serial number in case the supplier tried to fob me off by sending the faulty one back to me      The other two are now in use across two M5 bodies (wife uses one some of the time).