Every Canon lens has a “date code” imprinted somewhere on the lens mount. This tells you where and when the lens was manufactured so that you can judge the age of a lens you might want to buy on the used market. The code table below breaks it all down.
Canon Lens Date Codes – The Breakdown
All (or virtually all) Canon lens date codes are a series of six alphanumeric characters. As an example, here’s the date code from my Canon 20-35mm f/2.8L lens: UH0903. Lets break down what each of the characters means.
The first character denotes the factory at which the lens was manufactured. Here are what the letters mean:
- F = Fukishima Plant
- U = Utsunomiya Plant
- O = Oita Plant
The second character is the year of manufacture. Canon wisely decided to reuse the lettes for multiple years. Here’s the list of letters and years:
| Letter | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1986 | 1960 | 2012 |
| B | 1987 | 1961 | 2013 |
| C | 1988 | 1962 | 2014 |
| D | 1989 | 1963 | 2015 |
| E | 1990 | 1964 | 2016 |
| F | 1991 | 1965 | 2017 |
| G | 1992 | 1966 | 2018 |
| H | 1993 | 1967 | 2019 |
| I | 1994 | 1968 | 2020 |
| J | 1995 | 1969 | 2021 |
| K | 1996 | 1970 | 2022 |
| L | 1997 | 1971 | 2023 |
| M | 1998 | 1972 | 2024 |
| N | 1999 | 1973 | 2025 |
| O | 2000 | 1973 | 2026 |
| P | 2001 | 1974 | 2027 |
| Q | 2002 | 1975 | 2028 |
| R | 2003 | 1976 | 2029 |
| S | 2004 | 1977 | 2030 |
| T | 2005 | 1978 | 2031 |
| U | 2006 | 1979 | 2032 |
| V | 2007 | 1980 | 2033 |
| W | 2008 | 1981 | 2034 |
| X | 2009 | 1982 | 2035 |
| Y | 2010 | 1983 | 2036 |
| Z | 2011 | 1984 | 2037 |
The next two characters are the month of manufacture. This is just the same a normal date, so 01 = January, 12 = December, and so on.
The last two characters are a mystery. They are an internal code that Canon uses, possibly for lot numbering or QC or whatever. Ignore those last two.
Canon Lens Date Codes – Summary
So my lens with the date code UH0903 was made at Utsunomiya Plant in September of 1993…way before many of you reading this were born. 🙂
