The Steinheil Story

For over a century the Steinheil name was synonymous with elite German optical engineering but it’s probably unfamiliar those whose interest in photography extends no further than recent decades.

Steinheil’s American advertising of the 1950s and 1960s claimed ‘a century and a quarter’ of experience for the company – and it’s true that in 1826 the Münich-based physicist and astronomer Carl August von Steinheil established a small workshop in his home for repairs, but it wasn’t until 1854/5 that he founded the Steinheil Optical Institute for the purpose of manufacturing refractors and astronomical telescopes. In 1866, in collaboration with Ludwig von Seidel, the company pioneered the aplanat lens and was immediately embroiled in a dispute over patent primacy with John Henry Dallmeyer of London. Aplanats dominated the world of photography for many decades. Carl bequeathed the business to his son Hugo after his death in 1870, when it was renamed C. A. Steinheil Söhne. Fittingly, Carl’s other son Rudolph took control of the company in 1893 and by 1930 the brand was known as Steinheil or Stenheil München rather than C. A. Steinheil Töchter which might have better fitted the new owners: Rudolph’s five daughters and son-in-law, L. Franz.

During World War II, Steinheil employed 800 workers – a significant reduction from the 2,000 the factory was said to have employed pre-war. In the immediate post-war period, there was great co-operation between the major Münich makers (particularly Zeiss, Rodenstock and Steinheil) that birthed not only a new generation of Gauss lenses but also rival manufacturers, such as the one established in Münich in 1948 by Dr. A. Schacht: a former employee of Steinheil. That year, Steinheil launched a ground-breaking interchangeable lens camera called Casca (C.A.Steinheil CAmera) with a range of excellent bayonet-mount lenses. Some of these retained their names when they were reformulated as enlarger lenses.

Between 1930 and 1960, Steinheil was involved in the manufacture of lenses branded Agfa, Braun Nürnberg, Heliostar, and others. In the early 1960s, Steinheil lenses were distributed in America by Ponder & Best. However, in 1962 the New York-based manufacturer then known as Elgeet (now Navitar) purchased a controlling 80% interest in Steinheil München, who in turn sold it to the aviation conglomerate Lear Siegler in 1964 – at which point the company’s business was largely diverted into aerospace and military applications rather than the production of commercial lenses, which dwindled into the tail end of the 1960s. By 1987 the company had been acquired by British Aerospace, who rebranded the optical division Steinheil Optronic in 1988. For fifteen years the company traded off-radar from its origins in the photographic trade, and when that company was broken up in 1995, its expertise – which by then consisted of tank sights, pumps, actuators and gyroscopes – was diffused into a variety of companies.

Although you can still find traces of Steinheil DNA in Jenoptik’s industrial optics portfolio (who purchased the last vestige of Steinheil Optronic), the Steinheil brand vanished in 1994 when the trademark lapsed.

Steinheil Serial Numbers

The number sequences previously offered by online sources, gathered from Steve Cushing’s website and Patrice Hervé-Pont’s Les Chiffres Cles, and repeated on CameraWiki, have proven to be inaccurate by comparison with Steinheil’s own lens books held by Deutsche Museum. The pre-1930 dates are particularly erroneous. We have therefore published here, for the first time in digital form, a complete serial number guide based on a fresh examination of the comprehensive material preserved by Steinheil.

Although advance batch allocation of serials was undertaken, Steinheil’s numbering scheme has a rigorous chronology that enables us to date lenses with a high degree of confidence. Gaps due to missing publications (eg for 1929-1931) have been filled in with rounded estimates based on known daily production volume for that period.

There is a more troublesome lacuna between 1907 and 1917 for which records have been lost – further clouded by doubt about Steinheil’s poorly documented activity during the 1914-18 war. For the purpose of his chronology – based on Steinheil’s accelerated output post-1918 – that the period 1907-1913 was one of steady growth, with factory facilities increasing in capacity, then a mere trickle of commercial serial numbers during World War I – either because the factory was given over to military output outside the main number sequence, or because the factory was operating a skeleton staff. This scenario, mirroring Steinheil’s production of serial numbers in World War II, is nonetheless flimsy speculation: equally, it may be that Steinheil’s rapid postwar growth (in both conflicts) was fuelled by huge upskilling and upscaling for the production of optics undocumented in the lens books. Steinheil’s 1907-1918 period is currently obscure.

Delving further, prior to 1873 it’s also not possible to identify a date of manufacture with any certainty, although the date of sale of each lens is recorded – a fine asset for serious collectors. I have therefore extrapolated a likely serial range for each year between 1866-1872.

Year	Low Serial	High Serial
Pre-1866 (including prototypes)	1	2,598
1866	2,599	c.3,000
1867	c.3,000	c.3,500
1868	c.3,500	c.4,000
1869	c.4,000	c.4,600
1870	c.4,600	c.5,200
1871	c.5,200	c.5,800
1872	c.5,800	c.6,500
1873	c.6,500	7,251
1874	7,252	7,832
1875	7,833	8,348
1876	8,349	8,797
1877	8,798	9,150
1878	9,151	9,403
1879	9,404	9,805
1880	9,806	10,201
1881	10,202	10,704
1882	10,705	11,419
1883	11,420	12,351
1884	12,352	13,558
1885	13,559	15,074
1886	15,075	17,126
1887	17,127	19,333
1888	19,334	22,324
1889	22,325	26,579
1890	26,580	30,568
1891	30,569	33,909
1892	33,910	36,666
1893	36,667	38,828
1894	38,829	40,432
1895	40,433	41,370
1896	41,371	43,090
1897	43,091	44,587
1898	44,588	45,858
1899	45,859	48,391
1900	48,392	51,767
1901	51,768	53,999
1902	54,000	56,990
1903	56,991	59,510
1904	59,511	61,815
1905	61,816	63,186
1906	63,187	c.65,000
1907	c.65,000	c.66,500
1908	c.66,500	c.68,500
1909	c.68,500	c.70,600
1910	c.70,600	c.73,000
1911	c.73,000	c.76,000
1912	c.76,000	c.79,300
1913	c.79,300	c.83,000
1914	c.83,000	c.84,000
1915	c.84,000	c.84,150
1916	c.84,150	c.84,300
1917	c.84,450	c.84,600
1918	c.84,600	85,458
1919	85,459	95,500
1920	95,501	107,818
1921	107,819	120,615
1922	120,616	135,375
1923	135,376	148,480
1924	148,481	154,614
1925	154,615	163,340
1926	163,641	170,218
1927	170,219	183,114
1928	183,115	201,054
1929	201,055	215,700
1930	215,700	c.230,300
1931	c.230,300	245,520
1932	245,521	254,000
1933	254,000	263,715
1934	263,716	278,219
1935	278,220	299,097
1936	299,098	332,697
1937	332,698	359,567
1938	359,568	418,335
1939	418,336	478,084
1940	478,085	488,671
1941	488,672	500,632
1942	500,633	503,213
1943	503,214	503,329
1944	503,330	503,487
1945	503,488	504,721
1946	504,722	515,283
1947	515,284	526,336
1948	526,337	554,438
1949	554,439	594,101
1950	594,102	606,930
1951	606,931	686,527
1952	686,528	813,234
1953	813,235	968,247
1954	968,248	1,176,231
1955	1,176,232	1,424,016
1956	1,424,017	1,631,651
1957	1,631,652	1,833,056
1958	1,833,057	1,976,353
1959	1,976,354	2,085,500
1960	2,085,501	2,166,034
1961	2,166,035	2,222,776
1962	2,222,777	2,265,544
1963	2,265,545	2,301,046
1964	2,301,047	2,321,405
1965	2,321,653	2,333,152
1966	2,333,153	2,336,469
1967	2,336,470	2,351,346
1968	2,351,350	2,361,612
1969	2,361,613	2,372,171
1970	2,372,172	2,385,908
1971	2,385,909	2,391,486
1972	2,391,487	2,392,228
1973	2,392,229	2,396,197
1974	2,396,198	2,398,271
1975	2,398,272	2,398,802
1976	2,398,928	2,400,847
1977	2,400,848	2,401,293
1978	2,401,194	2,402,108
1979	2,402,109	2,403,406
1980	2,403,407	2,404,301
1981	2,404,302	2,405,699
1982	2,406,101	2,407,279
1983	2,407,280	2,407,320
1984	2,407,321	2,407,886
1985	2,407,887	2,408,218
1987	2,408,219	2,408,279
1989	2,408,280	2,408,328

Given such a handsome data set, we naturally want to investigate the rise and fall of Steinheil’s fortunes over 133 years. From small beginnings, and impaired by two world wars, the company flourished between the wreckage. Mindful of the fact that we’re only tracking commercially-sold, serialled lenses – and therefore seeing nothing of Steinheil’s separate wartime production in the following graphs – here we observe the number of serialled lenses produced each year in the period 1866-1945:

However, the degree to which the first World War catalysed Steinheil’s growth – and the rapid expansion of production in 1933 – pales in comparison to the events following World War II . . .

Prior to 1946, Steinheil’s 60,000 unit peak in 1938/9 was impressive compared to the steady 12,000 or so average annual production between the wars, but the 1951-1961 period witnessed explosive growth – and equally rapid decline – exceeding 200,000 lenses per year between 1954-1957, yet crashing to 3,316 lenses in 1966. Steinheil remained active (technically) as a lens maker until 1985, but numbers were trivial. Prepare for a scale adjustment . . .

In 1983, Steinheil recorded an output of precisely forty lenses – an ignominous end for a powerhouse manufacturer capable of shifting a quarter of a million units a year three decades earlier. Placing these graphs on a single scale spanning the company’s entire history highlights the incongruity of Steinheil’s quartet of mid-50’s golden years:

Steinheil Lens Designations

Most of the Steinheil enlarger and process lenses on the market today date from 1948 to 1964. The name identifies their optical construction: in ascending order of quality, then, we find:

CASSAR – Available in pre-war (in enlarger lenses from at least 1935; from 1925 in taking lenses) and post-war optics: all classic triplets. Cine-Cassar movie camera lenses were also available in f2.9 and f2.5. There were also Cassar cine projection lenses and at least one Cassar P slide projection lens.

CASSARIT – Recomputed, improved triplets and Tessars designed for colour reproduction, made from 1955 onward (lowest serial recorded thus far is #1005248 (36mm f2.8 D-Mount) and #1071857 (45/2.8)). V-Cassarit (V for Vergrößerung) are the enlarging versions. In addition to conventional taking lenses there was a 50mm f3.5 Makro-Cassarit bellows lens.

CULMINAR – Fine 4-element lenses – all Tessars, with the exception of the reverse-Tessar 85/2.8. The VL designation signifies multicoating of post-war lenses. Indicating the regard in these were held in the 1960s, in one 1962 catalogue, the Primos Professional range of enlargers deployed Schneider Componar lenses as standard ($169.50), with the equivalent Componon a $20 optional upgrade. However, the top-of-the-line model ($359) was exclusively fitted with Culminars, with the 60mm lens a $40 extra.

CULMINON – Fast Planar taking lenses.

V-QUINON – Premium 6-element Gauss lenses. Steinheil’s Quinar, Quinon and Quinaron branding designates their high-end designs. The original (c.1926) Quinar was a five-element triplet cine lens unrelated to the mid-century lenses with such a strong reputation. There is also a 75/1.9 Oscillo-S-Quinon. As the Cassarits, V- designates enlarging variants.