Thanks to all who answered. > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Gary Fisher > Sent: Sunday, March 03, 2002 5:52 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: EOS 3 Question > > > How to determine the age of your EOS camera or lens > > Because they are chronological, serial numbers usually do > tell the approximate age of a Canon SLR or SLR lens, but Canon > Inc. has never put out any sort of public info about it. However, > there's another way to get the information: look inside the > body's film chamber for an alphanumeric code printed in black ink > on the black surface of the film chamber. You may have to hold > the camera under a strong light to see it. What you'll see is a > date code, possibly something like "U1140F." > > The first letter tells the year the camera was manufactured: > in this case, 1980. It's an alphabetic code; A = 1960, B = > 1961,....T = 1979, U = 1980, and so on up to Z = 1985. The next 2 > numbers tell you what month the camera was made, in this example, > November. (the leading zero for the month code is sometimes > omitted, so an A-1 with a code of "Y362" would have been > manufactured in March, 1984, for instance.) The following 2 > numbers are an internal code that is irrelevant for determining > age, but year and month is close enough anyway, IMO. (This > internal code is also occasionally omitted based on reports from > Canon owners.) The last letter stands for the name of the > factory. In this case, "F" stands for Fukushima which was the > main Canon SLR factory for about 20 years from the early 70s > until 1991. (The factory code is rarely omitted, if ever.) > > Starting in 1986, the year code was restarted with "A" again, > but the factory code was placed before it. Now that Canon SLRs > are no longer manufactured at Fukushima, you're more likely to > see a code starting with "O" for Oita. So, for SLRs manufactured > in 1994, you might see a code > > Starting with "OI" followed by the month code. > > Incidentally, the same type of code is printed on the back of > most EF lenses as well, typically in small white characters on a > black baffle in the rear lens mount. Since Canon's SLR lens > factory is in Utsonomiya, you might see a date code starting with > "UG" for a lens manufactured in 1992, for example. Previous to > 1986, though, the lens date codes did not include the factory letter. > > A * 1986 B * 1987 C * 1988 D * 1989 E * 1990 F * 1991 > > G * 1992 H * 1993 I * 1994 J * 1995 K * 1996 L * 1997 > -------------------------------- end copy > ------------------------------------ > > I hope this is some help - so ON1014 means made in Oita (O) in > 1999 (N) in October (10). The 14 apparently has no real meaning, > but the month is probably close enough. > > Regards > Gary
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