Topcon R
Topcon · Exakta mount · 24×36mm on 135 film · 1957
Also known as: Topcon R · Tokyo Kogaku Topcon R · Tokyo Optical Topcon R · Beseler Topcon B · Beseler B Topcon · Beseler-Topcon B · トプコンR · トプコン R · 東京光学 トプコンR · 東京光学 トプコン R
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Topcon R, chrome | Exakta | 1957–1960 | 150001–160000 (Maxifiche); six digits beginning 15 (Topcon Club) | — |
| Beseler Topcon B (United States) | Exakta | 1958 | — | — |
| Topcon R, black | Exakta | 1958 | — | — |
- TOPCOR R engraving: Topcon Club says that in some European countries the TOPCON name was objected to (クレームの対象になり), so some bodies were engraved TOPCOR R, the name of the lenses. No photograph or serial of one is on record, so it is not listed as a version until one is seen.
- The R's own lenses are the semi-automatic Auto-Topcors (3.5cm f/2.8, 5.8cm f/1.8, 10cm f/2.8) and the preset R Topcors of 90mm, 135mm, 200mm and 300mm, which Topcon Club says appeared with the camera, the 135mm and 300mm each in a fast and a slow version; Maxifiche's table gives these as 90mm f/3.5, 135mm f/2 and f/3.5, 200mm f/4, 300mm f/5.6 and f/2.8. Topcon Club adds that a semi-automatic Auto-Topcor 13.5cm, a converted R Topcor, appears to have existed in very small numbers for North America; Maxifiche lists an Auto Topcor 13.5cm f/3.5. The R Topcor 28mm is in Maxifiche's table of R Topcors.
- Semi-automatic Auto-Topcors: cocked with a lever on the barrel, then closed by the button on the lens arm, which presses the body release; the diaphragm stays closed after the exposure until it is cocked again (Topcon Club; Eckman). The body has no diaphragm mechanism of its own: Topcon Club says nothing for the automatic diaphragm is built into the body, and Maxifiche describes the bayonet as without any coupling.
- Autokinon Auto-Topcors: late in the R's life (1959, Topcon Club), mainly for sale abroad and at American request, the 3.5cm, 5.8cm and 10cm were made in a pressure type like Steinheil's Autokinon, with no cocking lever, closing as the button is pressed and opening as it is released (Topcon Club; Maxifiche calls them AUTO TOPCOR AUTOKINON). They were sold for the R and are fired the same way, by the lens button pressing the body release; Hugo Ruys likewise describes a fully automatic Topcon lens rear that looks like the semi-automatic one and can be used on the R.
- F Auto-Topcors (RII, RIII, RS) and every RE lens: their diaphragm is closed by a lever in the camera's bayonet, which the R does not have (Maxifiche; Hugo Ruys). The links stay because the lenses mount on the Exakta inner bayonet, but nothing on an R stops them down and no source describes using one on an R; expect them to shoot at full aperture. There is no metering of any kind on the R.
- Macro Topcors: Topcon Club describes the Macro Topcor 58mm f/3.5 and 135mm f/4 as semi-automatic presetting and the 30mm f/3.5 as manual. All date from the 1960s, after the R, and no source says how the semi-automatic ones are worked on an R; the manual 30mm works stopped down.
- Exakta lenses: the bayonet takes them without an adapter, and Maxifiche says all older Exakta lenses with plain or manual preset diaphragms fit Topcon bodies. Exakta automatic lenses with a release arm do not line up, because the R's release is on the opposite side, so each loses its function on the other's camera (Topcon Club); Eckman says they mount and can be fired with two fingers, Ruys that they can be used only clumsily. Maxifiche warns that the automatic Carl Zeiss Jena lenses of 1961–70 foul the outer ring of the Topcon bayonet and will not mount. Eckman reports a Schneider Xenon in Exakta mount hitting the mirror at infinity, on his RE Super.
- Mirror: Topcon Club says the R's instant-return mirror is Tokyo Kogaku's own design, registered as a utility model in the early 1950s but not granted a patent, and that Nippon Kogaku cited it in its defence when Asahi Optical protested that the Nikon F infringed Asahi's patent.
- Shape: Topcon Club thinks the body was modelled on Wirgin's Edixa-Reflex, especially from the mirror box to the prism; Maxifiche compares its polygonal body to the Praktiflex, the first Praktica and the Contax S.
How to tell them apart
- No 'Automatic' on the prism front and no self-timer: the R. 'Automatic' on the prism with a self-timer = RII; add a single speed dial and a meter shoe above the release = RIII (Topcon Club; Eckman). Hugo Ruys instead says the RII had no self-timer and the RIII was the first with one, so the speed dial and the meter shoe are the surer test
- Two-part speed dial, 1–1/30 on a collar below the main dial (Eckman; Maxifiche)
- Lens mount with no lever or coupling inside the bayonet; the RII added an internal stop-down lever and a depth-of-field preview (Maxifiche)
- TOPCON alone on the apron = Japanese and export camera; BESELER B TOPCON = the American Beseler Topcon B (Topcon Club)
Topcon R, chrome:
- TOPCON in large capitals on the apron below the prism and the Tokyo Kogaku logo, a triangle device over TO KO, on the prism front; no 'Automatic' on the prism, which marks the RII and RIII (Topcon Club photographs; Eckman)
- Separate slow-speed collar (1–1/30) under the main speed dial, which carries B, 1/30–1/1000 and X; the RIII has a single dial with a meter shoe on the front above the release (Maxifiche; Topcon Club)
- Release button on the front of the body, on the left as you face the camera (on the right from the photographer's side, as Maxifiche and Eckman put it), the mirror image of an Exakta; no self-timer lever beside the mount (Topcon Club; Eckman; Maxifiche)
- Usually with the semi-automatic Auto-Topcor 5.8cm f/1.8, whose arm reaches across to cover the body release with a threaded button of its own, and a cocking lever on the barrel, which camera-wiki places on top (Eckman; camera-wiki; Topcon Club photograph)
Beseler Topcon B (United States):
- BESELER on the left of the apron, a large outlined B under the prism and TOPCON on the right, where the Japanese camera has TOPCON alone; the prism logo is unchanged (Topcon Club photograph; Commons photograph by s58y)
- Mechanically the same as the Topcon R, with the same semi-automatic Auto-Topcor 5.8cm f/1.8 (Topcon Club)
Topcon R, black:
- Everything black: top plate, base, prism cover, advance lever surround, the whole rewind crank, back-release lever and prism lock button, with TOPCON and the speed engravings in white (Topcon Club photograph)
- Sold with an Auto-Topcor 5.8cm f/1.8 black to the front of the barrel, including the cover round the lens's release button, which on chrome lenses is colour-coded by focal length (Topcon Club)
- Body serials in the same six-digit 15 range and lens serials in the same 28 range as chrome cameras (Topcon Club)
- Topcon R, chrome: The standard camera. Maxifiche gives about 10,000 made between serials 150001 and 160000; Topcon Club says body serials are six digits beginning 15 and lens serials begin 28 on black and chrome alike. The serial is engraved on the top plate under the advance lever (Maxifiche).
- Beseler Topcon B (United States): Charles Beseler Co. handled nearly all American sales from a contract of 1958. The leaf-shutter Topcon PR was its Beseler Topcon A, which carried no Beseler engraving, while the focal-plane camera had its apron engraving changed from the start (Topcon Club). camera-wiki cites an advertisement in Popular Photography of April 1959. The Automatic R (RII) and the RIII that followed were both sold as the Beseler Topcon C. The Commons example is serial 155xxx with an Auto-Topcor 285xxx.
- Topcon R, black: Topcon Club's Japanese text says production started around the end of 1958 in very small numbers and that in Japan the cameras apparently went mainly to the police (警視庁など, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and others); its English text says the National Police Agency, that most were exported, and that probably only hundreds of sets were made. No production figure is published, and Topcon Club says it hardly ever appears on the market. Maxifiche lists chrome or black for the R. Mechanically the same as the chrome camera.
Serial-range notes
- 150001–160000
- Maxifiche's range for the R, about 10,000 bodies. Topcon Club gives six digits beginning 15 for chrome and black alike. The RII begins at 300001 (Maxifiche).
Specifications
- Format
- 24×36mm on 135 film
- Finder
- interchangeable eye-level pentaprism, sliding off to the rear; waist-level hood as the alternative
- Shutter
- cloth focal plane, horizontal travel (Maxifiche; cameracollector.net calls it a vertical cloth shutter) · 1s–1/1000, B; 1/30–1/1000 on the main dial and 1s–1/30 on a separate collar below it; the main dial turns when the shutter runs (Eckman; Maxifiche) · flash sync F and X selected by a lever on the top plate; X at 1/40 (Maxifiche; the dial's X mark, per cameracollector.net); PC socket on the left end; no accessory shoe (Eckman) · no self-timer
- Film advance
- single-stroke lever with an additive frame counter reset by hand (Eckman; cameracollector.net)
- Back
- hinged door, released by a vertical slide catch on the left end (Maxifiche; Eckman)
- Meter
- none; the RIII (October 1961 in Topcon Club, 1960 in Maxifiche) was the first R-series body to take a clip-on meter
- Motor drive
- Not compatible — Maxifiche says a motor fits Topcon bodies only from the RS of 1962.
- Weight
- 765 g
- Dimensions
- 155 × 100 × 95 (Topcon Club); Maxifiche gives 158 × 56 × 103. weight_g is the body without lens, as given in Eckman's specification list; see disputed. mm
- Country
- Japan
- Original price
- ¥56,000 in Japan (Topcon Club, a list price, given when it explains that the RII of 1960 was cut to ¥43,000; it does not say whether a lens was included). In the United States the Beseler Topcon B sold at $295 with the Auto-Topcor f/1.8 standard lens (which he writes as 50mm) or the 3.5cm f/2.8 (Eckman, a retail price; he does not cite the advertisement). camera-wiki says the 35mm could be chosen at the same cost. (today ¥350,000)
- Accessories
- Waist-level finder hood in place of the pentaprism (Topcon Club; Maxifiche) · Flash bracket fixed under the ring round the film-reminder dial on the rewind knob, in place of a shoe (Eckman) · First Topcon bellows unit, made for the R (Maxifiche) · Lens hoods for the Auto-Topcors, held by teeth that engage slits cut in the front of the barrel (unlike the later bayonet hoods), and made to fit reversed over the lens with the cap on (Topcon Club); Maxifiche calls the 35, 58 and 100mm hoods bayonet hoods
The prism is released by a button on the top plate and slides off backwards, the Praktina-type fitting rather than the lift-off of the Exakta and Nikon F (Topcon Club; Eckman). The screen stays in the body and is not user-changeable: a fine ground glass with a central split-image rangefinder, held by four screws and changed only in a workshop (Maxifiche). Topcon Club says this was the first Japanese camera with a split-image screen. Eckman finds the screen bright in the centre with visible darkening in the corners, and no information at all in the finder.
Where sources disagree
- Year
- 1957, announced in December — Topcon Club; 1957 on sale — Japanese Wikipedia's company history; 1957 — Maxifiche, Eckman
- 1958 — camera-wiki, from an October 1958 Modern Photography advertisement calling it new
Better supported: 1957 for the announcement; 1958 for American sales
- Last
- 1960, replaced by the RII in July 1960 — Topcon Club; Eckman and retinarescue.com give 1957–1960
- 1959 — Maxifiche
- Weight (grams)
- 765g body, 1035g with lens — Eckman's specification list
- 1055g with lens, on his own scale — Eckman
- 790g without lens — Maxifiche
- 760g body only in his specification table, and 1,050g for the camera in his text, apparently with lens — cameracollector.net
- 768g body with finder — the s58y Commons photograph of a Beseler Topcon B
- 935g with the 5.8cm f/1.8 — Chris's camera pages (retinarescue.com)
- Dimensions (mm)
- 155 × 100 × 95 — Topcon Club
- 158 × 56 × 103 — Maxifiche
- Variants (black finish, recipient)
- Apparently mainly the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and others (警視庁など) in Japan — Topcon Club, Japanese text
- The National Police Agency, with most exported — Topcon Club, English text
What reviewers say
- Mike Eckman (blog) — A huge, heavy, very solidly built camera with one of the smoothest advance levers he has used and a bright split-image screen. His example's shutter capped, but the Auto-Topcor's results were sharp corner to corner, and in good order he rates the R as good as the later RE Super; the aperture-ring lock is his only complaint.
- Topcon Club (blog) — Big enough that Asahi Camera called it a 'military camera', but built so solidly that almost every R still works without trouble; the R-series bodies have hardly any mechanical weak points. The Auto-Topcor 5.8cm f/1.8 held the best result in Asahi Camera's New Face tests until the test method changed.
- cameracollector.net (blog) — An elusive, large and heavy camera that looks more German than Japanese and was built to take on every SLR of its day; a sterling product, with a very bright split-image screen and a shutter still working as new on his example.
History
The Topcon R was Tokyo Kogaku’s first single-lens reflex. It was announced in December 1957, and Topcon Club counts it as the third Japanese focal-plane SLR with a pentaprism, after the Miranda T and the Asahi Pentax AP. It was a big professional camera built round the Exakta inner bayonet, which Topcon Club describes as widely used throughout the world at the time, with a cloth shutter from 1 second to 1/1000, an instant-return mirror of Tokyo Kogaku’s own design, a pentaprism that slides off the back in exchange for a waist-level hood, and a fixed split-image screen that Topcon Club believes was the first in a Japanese camera. Asahi Camera’s New Face test called it a “military camera”. Topcon Club reads that as a comment on its solidity as well as its size, and says nearly every R still works today. In Japan it cost ¥56,000. In the United States, Charles Beseler Co. sold it as the Beseler Topcon B, which Mike Eckman gives at $295 with a standard lens.
The mount is the R’s whole story. It takes Exakta lenses with plain or preset diaphragms without an adapter, and Tokyo Kogaku’s own preset R Topcors work on an Exakta. The release, though, is on the front of the body on the opposite side to the Exakta’s, on the left as you face the camera. Automatic lenses of either make, whose arm carries a button that presses the body release, therefore do not line up on the other camera. The body itself has nothing to work a diaphragm: the semi-automatic Auto-Topcor 5.8cm f/1.8, 3.5cm f/2.8 and 10cm f/2.8 are cocked open with a lever on the barrel and closed by the button on their own arm, and they stay closed after the exposure until cocked again. Late in the R’s life, in 1959 and at American request, Tokyo Kogaku made the same three as pressure-type Autokinon lenses that close as the button goes down and open as it comes up. The Automatic Topcon R (RII) of July 1960 moved the diaphragm lever into the bayonet, and the F Auto-Topcors and every RE lens after them depend on that lever. Nothing on an R closes them, so they can be mounted but no source describes using one there.
There are three versions, and all three are mechanically the same. The chrome Topcon R has TOPCON on the apron below the prism. The Beseler Topcon B reads BESELER, a large B and TOPCON across the apron. The black R, finished black down to the rewind crank and the prism lock, and sold with a black Auto-Topcor, was made from about the end of 1958 in very small numbers. Topcon Club’s Japanese text says it apparently went mainly to the police in Japan, its English text that most were exported. Topcon Club also says some European cameras were engraved TOPCOR R because the TOPCON name was disputed there, but none has been shown. Maxifiche gives about 10,000 cameras between serials 150001 and 160000. To tell an R from its successors, look at the prism and the speed dial: the RII has “Automatic” on the prism and a self-timer, and the RIII adds a single speed dial and a meter shoe above the release.
When buying, Topcon Club’s advice is to get the body and its standard lens together, since the two bought apart cost far more, and to be wary of a camera offered with only the waist-level hood, because the pentaprism is almost never sold on its own. Check the lens and prism for mould. The mechanism has few weak points, but check the shutter at 1/1000: the slit at that speed is very narrow on these slow-running shutters, and an aged one can stay closed and give blank frames. Eckman’s example capped, darkening one side of the frame. Topcon Club says this is easy to fix and that the camera should be stored with the shutter released. Do not touch the speed dial while the shutter runs, because it turns. The aperture ring on the Auto-Topcors is locked until you press a small button on the ring. Topcon Club noted in 2017 that bodies had fallen to around ¥10,000 in Japan, from ¥50,000–60,000 in the early 2000s, and that domestic private sales often turn out to have finder or lens faults.
This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.
Photographs
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More sample photos elsewhere
- Topcon Club: chrome and black Topcon R, cutaway drawing and Beseler Topcon B
- Mike Eckman: Topcon R in detail, top, base, back and finder views
- Topcon R on camera-wiki: with waist-level hood, and with the Auto-Topcor 3.5cm f/2.8 (Flickr photographs)
These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.
Live listings
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