What is the new Date Code for 2012 L lenses

BUMP - Well I found this thread because I wanted to make sure. Just bought a new 35 f/1.4 and can confirm that mine has UA0811.

I agree that date codes are a good thing. Otherwise why does Canon even bother putting serial numbers on their product? The answer would be to track that product. I am into firearms, and some firearms due to age, or build location are very collectible and/or expensive. I don't think that is the case for most lenses, Bbut you still want to know what you are buying on the used market. -rick

larrycumba wrote in post #14062780
Date codes for me, thank you. Some think they do not matter, which is fine. Put two of the same lens together for sale, one ten years old and the other one year old, which would you buy?

Billginthekeys wrote in post #14061347
Why? Lenses last decades and decades and decades, if they are well cared for 10 years is nothing at all. I own a 20 year old EF lens (not to mention a set of FD gear much older), and I don't think it is worn out at all.
Now $1,000 sounds a little high for a 300 F4 (IS I assume) in general, more like $900 would be fair, but that is another story irregardless of age.

alazgr8 wrote in post #15160563
I don't think that is the case for most lenses, Bbut you still want to know what you are buying on the used market. -rick

But in reality, you don't.

ISO-9001 requires you to have tracking of your production. So somewhere there needs to be at least some batch information. Doesn't need to be a serial number. But this information is mostly interesting to the manufacturer just in case they happen to get an issue with a specific batch.

But end users would normally not have access to the required information to know which batch or which specific serial numbers that are affected. For low-end gear, the batches could be huge. For high-end gear, the batches could be so small that whatever tracking people try on the net will not manage to detect/bracket the issue in relation to any serial number.

pwm2,

Why do you think that information is not released? I am into guns, guitars, as well as vintage dirtbikes from the 60's and 70's. They are all numbered. The firearm serial numbers of some manufacturers, Sig Sauer for example have readily accessible codes to figure out the country and date of manufacture. Some manufacturers (Colt) require a phone call. Some guitar manufacturers require a request by email, and will supply the country, and date of manufacture as well as the MSR price at time of shipping. 60 year old vintage dirtbikes are a little harder as most of the manufacturers are out of business. But the records for the most part were saved. -rick

pwm2 wrote in post #15162203
But end users would normally not have access to the required information to know which batch or which specific serial numbers that are affected. For low-end gear, the batches could be huge. For high-end gear, the batches could be so small that whatever tracking people try on the net will not manage to detect/bracket the issue in relation to any serial number.

For vehicles, it has been a long tradition to let people know about serial numbers etc. To some part because of collectors. To some part because customers needs to buy replacement parts.

For weapons and similar, there have often been safety issues, permits etc, requiring end-users to get information relevant to serial numbers.

But for electronics and many other areas of products, the meaning of serial numbers are often seen as trade secrets. You can tell your hard disk manufacturer what serial number or production week your disk has, and he may say you get a new on warranty. But except for critical recalls, you don't get them to tell you more than what is written on that hard disk.

I work for a company who produces own electronics. The serial numbers allows us to correlate individual units with production test protocols, batches etc. This helps our customer support. And it is required by our ISO 9001 certification to have all manufactured materials traceable. But the only information available to the customer is the serial number and production week visible on the label of the units. If the customer calls us, he would not get to know the actual meaning of a serial number. If we would find a significant issue with a specific range of units, we would be able to contact specific customers (we sell to companies and not end users, so customers buy hundreds or thousands units).

But the general case for products with serial numbers, is that they are normally there because the quality system requires trackability. But without the buyers being able to match serial numbers to batches or differences.

If there are important functionality differences, then the products would normally have revision information on them, like R1, R2, R1.01 or similar. So people can know that motherboard R1.01 have a fixed chipset that doesn't lock up the real-time-clock sometimes on power-up.

I don't think even the lens rentals companies gets any feedback from Canon/Nikon/... about serial number ranges and production quality/model differences unless the manufacturer have goofed very badly and know they need to do a full recall. Like Canons "blue dot".

larrycumba wrote in post #14062780
Date codes for me, thank you. Some think they do not matter, which is fine. Put two of the same lens together for sale, one ten years old and the other one year old, which would you buy?

In this case if I wanted the newer one I'd pick the one with the highest serial number, but realistically I'd pick the one in the best condition.