Canon has been putting a date code on its lenses since the 1960′s, but ever since 2008 the company has been transitioning to a 10-digit serial system, sans date code. At first this caused quite a stir, as many a conspiracy theory began popping up; but not to worry, the code is there, it’s just been incorporated into the new 10-digit system.
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Looking for a lost camera on the web by searching for its serial number in uploaded photos is nothing new (see Stolen Camera Finder), but GadgetTrak’s new CameraTrace service takes it one step further. For a fee of $10 per camera, the service will actively monitor the Internet for your camera’s serial number. If it ever pops up in a photo uploaded to popular photo sharing services, you’ll get an email notification. Back in August, GadgetTrak’s manual Serial Search helped a photographer recover $9000 in stolen gear.

CameraTrace (via TechCrunch)