What is the most produced slr lens?

[kansalliskala]

Saw a topic about Tamron 103A, that are still everywhere.

Primes: Nikkor 1.8/50 or Helios 44 all incarnations combined are millions?

What others?

[55]

When browsing online auctions in the U.S., I see many Canon FD 50mm f/1.8 lenses.
And most of those are new FD.

[Alun Thomas]

At a rough guess I would imagine the Helios-44 (in all its many versions) would take some beating. It depends on what rules you formulate to decide the winner.

Are we talking manual focus only? If not then the Nikon and Canon 50/1.8 lenses would be up there due to the number sold in AF versions.

Do slight optical changes matter? If not then the Canon 50/1.8 was the SLR normal lens they started out with in 1959.

Nikon started out with a 7 element 50/2, which later changed to a conventional 6 element, then went to 1.8 at a later date.

Minolta started out with 55 and 58mm lenses, then in 1973 went to 50mm lenses.

The Pentax 55/1.8 must have sold a bunch. as did their 50/1.4, and later, their 50/2 as the kit lens for the long lived K1000 camera.

Mamiya started with a 58mm lens, then a 55/1.4 or 1.8 or 50/2, before settling on all 50mm normal lenses later on. They do win the prize for most mount changes by a manufacturer.

Topcon started out with 58mm lenses, but later went to 50mm lenses from external manufacturers.

The Meyer Optik Oreston was another quite long lived lens, surviving as the Pentacon 50/1.8

The Zeiss Tessar 50/2.8 was sold for many, many years, in many mounts, for many camera makers.

Another big selling lens would be the Schneider Kreuznach Xenar 50/2.8. I don't know if the rangefinder versions and the SLR versions are identical, but (most) German DKL leaf shutter cameras could be fitted with one, and a large percentage of rangefinders had it at one point as well.

Also another very prolific design was the 55/1.4 said to be a Tomioka lens, and later found as a Cosina lens. I have versions badged as Mamiya, Ricoh, Rexatar, Chinon, Cosinon, Exaktar, and there are others out there.

[Doc Sharptail]

The nikkor 50m f1.8 did not appear until 1978.
The most common nikkor would be the 50mm f2.
It is the lens that passes through my hands the most.
Oddly enough, the f2 and f1.8 were made side by side for a few years.
The rendering of the f2 is my preference, with the "H" variant being the current personal favorite.
The "K" variant is technically a superior lens, but the "H" produces interesting images in a style of all it's own.
When I require precise contrast, I switch back to the "K" f2.

I think the Pentax 50mm would give the nikkor a good run for it's money numbers wise, at least.

-D.S.

[D1N0]

Domiplan 50/2.8 was also sold a lot as the cheapest option for Praktica. Next would be the Oreston/Pentacon 50/1.8

In the eighties a lot of Cosina 50/2 lenses in various brands.

In the digital age the rebel kitlens.

[visualopsins]

Canon 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM AF lens introduced 2/1998, still in today's Canon EF lineup!

Yrs, Asahi produced about 1,000,000 1:1.8/55 (all versions)

[eggplant]

It was me who claimed that Tamron 80-210mm and it's predecessor were most produced.

Likely because they can be adapted to any platform, which the lenses described above cannot, despite them being produced in mass quantities. Made in an era where adaptability was valued because noone knew which lens mounts would survive, also when zooms were just coming about (although Tamron had a *lot* of third party competitors).

It's not just that short reasoning but also from experience. However, I think I filed this experience away too soon-

Biases. For example, part of the reason I note the 80-210mm is for its somewhat decent quality whilst at the same time being very common. It and many of the Adaptall-2 line have aged well and are nice to notice compared to some Sirius lenses.

It's now more obvious that people just went with a variety of the very cheap zoom lenses from Hanimex, Sirius etc. I can't even say the Tamron is more common amongst these- it isn't, really. Just I notice it.


As a lot of the primes described above were replaced with new versions etc, it might be hard to call them the most populous. Although having multiple versions/replacements of a certain lens doesn't stop it from being produced in large numbers.

The Helios 44-2 is a hard one to judge, as it did have (slight) optical iterations just like Pentax/Nikon/Canon/Minolta etc, but was the original put out of production because of this? What was it's shelf life?

These and other questions are needed to better understand this idea of "produced for decades nonstop" given the 44-4M etc exists.

The Pentacon 50mm 1.8 was actually an example of no optical changes between versions, just coating changes, but whilst in high numbers I don't think it was as much as Helios 44-2.

[calvin83]

[D1N0]

[calvin83]

Oh, I forget the YN 50mm F1.8.

[michelb]

I counted about 2,011,000 + for Minolta MD 50mm F 1.7 (MD-III for purists) by collecting serial numbers.

This lens was sold/produced from 1981 to about 1990 so this number does not include previous versions like MC-X, MD-I or MD-II in which case this would account for a grand total of about 4,456,000 lenses with a start of production in 1972 for the MC-X version.

This was the preferred standard lens on Minolta's ubiquitous X-700, X-570 ( X-500) and X-370 (X-300) from 1981 until it was phased out in favor of AF bodies and lenses.
#1

[kypfer]

The Helios-44 and it's various incarnations has already been mentioned, but when I bought my first slr in '69 the Helios-44 was the "de-luxe" option and the (probably more common) "basic" was the both reviled and revered Industar-50, which has been fitted to untold quantities of Zenit cameras in both "Zenit-39" and the more recent M42 fitting.
Slightly off topic, but the Industar-50 was also available in both a fixed and extending mount for the USSR r/f cameras, so if the spec was stretched to include all interchangeable-lens cameras I suspect the Industar-50 could come out tops
Other potential candidates might also include the ubiquitous 50mm f/2.8 Carl Zeiss Tessar and possibly even the Meyer Optic 50mm f/2.8 Domiplan.

[stevemark]

Apart from the Soviet lenses (which probably were manufactured in larger numbers than those in the west ... no diversity ...!!), the Minolta MC 1.7/55mm must have been produced in very large numbers as well: About 3'000'000 SLRs of the SR-T family, most of them delivered with the 1.7/55mm standard lens!

S

[michelb]

[Lloydy]

Vivitar. Close Focus Auto Zoom. ( TX Mount ) 90-230 / 4.5

I've read somewhere that this is the best selling zoom of all time. And it's not that bad, so it could be right?

[D1N0]

[cooltouch]

The Vivitar 90-230 is certainly a ubiquitous optic, at least over here on this side of the pond. But my vote for the most mass produced lens of all time, including both breechlock and New FD, is the Canon 50mm f/1.8. And while some AF models may have been produced for a longer period of time, were more actually made?

Back in the heyday of MF lenses, 50/1.8's were practically body caps for every SLR sold. These days, there's a bit more variety for the body cap, and most of them are zooms, which tend to go through more iterations than a simple 50/1.8 did.

[Alsatian2017]

[Alsatian2017]

[Pancolart]

Tessar 2.8/50 in all variants surely.

[Alun Thomas]

In terms of the most made zoom lens, another contender would be the Sun Optical 85-210 / 4.5 which started out as an F/4.8. This lens was sold by minor camera makers (Topcon, Petri), and at some point virtually every single rebadger would have sold copies of that lens, for over a decade at least.

[visualopsins]

Canon Celebrates Significant Milestone with Production of 150 Million Interchangeable RF And EF Lenses
https://www.usa.canon.com/newsroom/2021/20210203-lens

https://shuttermuse.com/complete-list-of-canon-ef-lenses/#canon-ef-lens-annual-release-rate

[SkedAddled]