Heavy-V1 "Knurled"

The Ducati Sogno 60mm Lator Lens is the rough equivalent of a 70mm lens on a 'normal' full sized camera. This makes it a great choice for close-ups of your kids, portraits, or any situation when you need to be a little 'closer' without actually being intrusive.

Medium-Light Version

​*The Gelatin Filters were only mentioned in the earliest documentation, and no pricing was mentioned. They are in various “Bright” colors, more intense than the normal glass filters, and much rarer.


​Original text (in Yellow Color) and tables above by D. Consonni, with permission. Translated & Revised (in Blue Color) by MasterpieceCamera. © 2025

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The following table is a list of known Lator Lenses with the Serial Number and possible number produced in our estimate. Please help us in our efforts to expand this list by sending us any lens serial number/s not in our list so that it will be as accurate as possible, thank you! Latest UPDATE: Nov-25.


​NOTE: For the below table, work is ongoing to establish as clear as possible the variations and SN ranges for recent variant additions. Stay tuned!

Please contact us with your lens list so that we can expand the information available for these lenses. 
Thank you :-)  E-mail: admin@masterpiececamera.com

Heavy-V2

DUCATI - OD 6403.1 - LATOR 60mm / 2.8

The Lator lens was referred to in the Ducati documentation as a "Long-focal bright lens for remote photographs, for sports, for portraits, and photographs of children" and was already present in the early 1946 documentation.

It was of the non-retractable type with an optical scheme consisting of 4 coated elements, a field angle of 29 °, a minimum focusing distance of 1.2 meters on most of the first series (V1-Knurled) and 1.5 meters on all following series. It had an 8-blade iris diaphragm adjustable to between 7 possible openings. (2.8-4-5,6-8-11-16-22)

For focusing, it was directly coupled with the Sogno rangefinder, but the field of view field did not correspond to the view visible in the viewfinder. In the first documents an additional finder mask was already available that reduced the field of view in the viewfinder, or a blocked viewfinder view. A sports/view finder was available (OR 2401.1). Note: There were at least 3 different versions of finder 2401.1, and from our testing only the first 2 versions with screw threads worked on the Knurled-V1 series, and these will not work on the later lenses. The third 2401.1, as well as 2401.2, (as yet unseen by us) 2404.1 and 2404.2 could all be used on the later series lenses only. (Heavy-V2, Light or Med-Light)


In the 1948 catalog the Lator lens was shown at a price of 45,000 lire, and there were also some accessories (hood and filters) and the sports/view finder of the first type (OR 2401.1) suitable for use with both the Lator and Teletor lenses.

From 1949 the Lator lens had a greater number of accessories including a different lens hood and a newly designed sports/view finder (OR 2401.2) that was also suitable for the Eltor and Luxtor lenses, in addition to the Teletor.

The Lator lenses were made in four distinct series, with variations as follows:


A first series (Heavy-V1 "Knurled"), with serial numbers starting with the numbers 008xx.


A second series (Heavy-V2), with serial numbers between 008xx ~ 052xx.

A third series (Light), with serial numbers between 053xx ~ 054xx.


A fourth series (Medium Light) were slightly heavier than the normal "Light" version with the serial numbers between 054xx to 055xx. Note: As of this update, it is unknown if this is a true variation or whether the factory had used some old Brass parts from the Heavy versions on the third series (Light) Aluminum version. It is noted that there is not a clear separation in the serial numbers between the Light and Medium-Light versions. (More Data is required!) 

The four different series of the Lator had different weights: 375 grams (Brass) for the first two Heavy series (matr. 00838 & 00973) and 205 grams (Aluminum) for the Light series (matr. 05414) and 240~245 grams for the small Med.-Light series (matr. 05484 & 05529). Note: All weights are without caps and rounded to 0 or 5.


Observing the serial numbers of a number of these lenses from those that we have been able to find please refer to the table below for our estimate of the number which may have been produced.


Availability: This lens is seen for sale more than one time per year.

Note: The Lator lens was also produced in a different mount for use in the Ducati OE 6403 Slide Projector.

Light Version