Topcon RII (Automatic Topcon R)

Variants & identification

1. Black RII: Topcon Club says it has not confirmed that a black RII or RIII exists, though it would not be surprising. Maxifiche says every body from the R to the Super D exists in black or chrome, but shows no black RII. Not listed as a version until one is seen.
2. Self-timer: Topcon Club and Mike Eckman say the RII added a self-timer. Hugo Ruys writes that the R2 has none and that the R3 was the first with one; Topcon Club's photographs of both RII versions show the lever, so Ruys is not followed.
3. 'Automatic' engraving: Topcon Club says it is on the prism and that the official name is Automatic Topcon R, and its photographs of both the early and the late RII show it. camera-wiki says 'automatic' appears on some examples, and Hugo Ruys says the word is on the R3's prism but that 'the later R2 also had this viewfinder', which would leave early R2s without it. The Beseler C has none (Topcon Club), which may explain camera-wiki's wording; no source shows a Japanese-market RII without it.
4. F Auto-Topcors (3.5cm, 5.8cm, 10cm, 13.5cm): the lenses made for this body. The lever in the bayonet closes the diaphragm at the moment of exposure and it reopens at once. Their meter-coupling finger does nothing on the RII (Maxifiche).
5. Semi-automatic Auto-Topcors of the R (3.5cm, 5.8cm, 10cm, and a semi-automatic 13.5cm that Topcon Club says seems to have existed in very small numbers for North America): Eckman says the RII kept compatibility with the older lenses. Hugo Ruys says the semi-automatic lenses can be used on the later bodies, but the user then needs an extension rod for the shutter button. Neither says more. Topcon Club describes Autokinon-type pressure versions of the 3.5cm, 5.8cm and 10cm, sold mainly abroad late in the R's life, which close as the button is pressed and open as it is released; no source describes them on an RII.
6. R Topcors (28mm to 300mm): preset diaphragms, used as on any body (Maxifiche).
7. Macro Topcors: Maxifiche says the 58mm f/3.5 and 135mm f/4 close automatically and are re-cocked by hand, worked semi-automatically with a double cable release on the focusing extension tube; the 30mm f/3.5 has a click-stopped manual diaphragm. Neither source describes them on an RII specifically.
8. RE Auto-Topcors, RE GN Topcors and the RE Topcors of the RE200 era: these lenses close by the same kind of internal lever, so the diaphragm should work on the RII, but the RII has no meter to couple to. No source describes an RE lens on an RII. Topcon Club notes that many RS bodies are found with RE Auto-Topcors, but Hugo Ruys puts the RS on a different, larger mount ring from the RII and RIII, so that evidence does not carry over directly. The links stay because no source shows an RE lens failing to fit or work on the RII.
9. Going the other way, Maxifiche warns that the F Auto-Topcors of the RII must not be used on the RE Super, RE-2, Super D or Super DM, because their coupling finger turns the opposite way to the RE lenses' finger. Topcon Club puts it more mildly: because the aperture rings turn in opposite directions, an unmodified F Auto-Topcor on an RE Super gives stop-down metering.
10. Exakta lenses: Maxifiche says all older Exakta lenses with plain or manual preset diaphragms fit Topcon bodies without an adapter, as do Angénieux automatic lenses, but the automatic Carl Zeiss Jena lenses of 1961–70 foul the outer ring of the Topcon bayonet and will not mount. Exakta lenses worked by an external arm do not line up with the Topcon release, which is on the opposite side: Topcon Club says such lenses swapped between Topcon and Exakta bodies no longer do their job, Ruys that they can be used either way but only clumsily, and Eckman (writing of the R) that they mount and can be used without the automatic feature or worked with two fingers.
11. Beseler Topcon C in listing titles: Beseler kept the name for the RIII-based camera from 1961 (Topcon Club; Eckman), so a title that says only Beseler C may be either body. Such titles are filed on this page; a two-part speed dial and no shoe above the release make it an RII, a single dial and a front meter shoe an RIII, which belongs on the Topcon RIII page.
12. Diaphragm mechanism: Topcon Club says the RII's automatic diaphragm mechanism is Tokyo Kogaku's own and that some other makers used it. Its English summary calls it a patent.

• Automatic Topcon R, early (curved self-timer lever): Topcon Club shows two RII bodies and calls them the first-half and second-half models; the only difference it reports is the self-timer lever. It gives no serial or date for the change.
• Automatic Topcon R, late (straight self-timer lever): Topcon Club says the two RIIs are hardly different apart from the self-timer lever. Because the RIII has the same straight lever, tell a late RII from an RIII by the speed dial and the shoe: the RIII has a single non-rotating speed dial and a meter shoe above the release.
• Beseler C Topcon (United States): The export version of the RII for Charles Beseler Co., which sold nearly all Topcons in the United States under a contract of 1958 (A for the leaf-shutter PR, B for the R). camera-wiki says it was shown at the March 1960 MPDFA show, and it illustrates a 1961 Beseler advertisement from Popular Photography. Topcon Club says sales were poor, since buyers of system cameras had gone to the Nikon F, and that Beseler had to hold on with the C until the RE Super arrived. In Europe the camera was sold as the Automatic TOPCON R (Topcon Club).

Specifications

Format

24×36mm on 135 film

Finder

interchangeable eye-level pentaprism, as on the R (Maxifiche's type 1 prism); waist-level hood as the alternative

Shutter

cloth focal plane, horizontal travel, as on the R (Maxifiche describes the RII as the R with additions) · 1s–1/1000, B, on the R's two-part dial: fast speeds on the main dial, slow speeds on a separate collar (Maxifiche; camera-wiki calls it a bi-level dial split between fast and slow speeds) · flash sync F and X, X at 1/50 (Maxifiche, against 1/40 on the R and 1/60 on the R3) · self-timer

Film advance

single-stroke lever, as on the R; Topcon Club says the RIII changed its shape, with a larger finger rest

Meter

none; the RIII of 1961 was the first R-series body with a shoe for a clip-on meter coupled to the shutter speed (camera-wiki; Maxifiche; Topcon Club)

Motor drive

Not compatible — Maxifiche says a motor fits Topcon bodies only from the RS of 1962.

Country

Japan

Original price

¥43,000 in Japan, with the case ¥2,000 extra (Topcon Club, a list price; it does not say whether the standard lens was included). Topcon Club sets it against the R's ¥56,000 and puts the cut down to the price falls of the deflationary slump of the time rather than any cheapening of the camera. The RIII of 1961 listed at ¥48,000. No American price has been found for the Beseler C. (today ¥258,000)

Accessories

Waist-level finder hood in place of the pentaprism, as on the R (Maxifiche) · Accessory shoe shared by the R, RII and R3 (Maxifiche)

Maxifiche describes the screen of the R, RII and R3 together: a fixed glass held by four screws, removable only with a tool, with the finder release button on the left of the top plate. A user-changeable screen came only with the RS of 1962 (Maxifiche).

Figures we worked out rather than found: The single-stroke advance lever is taken from Eckman's description of the R. · Shutter type, the slow-speed collar and the finder are taken from the R, because Maxifiche describes the RII as 'Comme TOPCON R, plus' an internal stop-down lever, a depth-of-field preview and the F and X sync at 1/50.

What reviewers say

• Topcon Club (blog) — The RII was a minor change, but an important one: a fully automatic diaphragm, a body stop-down lever, a self-timer and a new lens, at a lower price than the R. The early R-series bodies were built very solidly and still work without trouble; check the 1/1000 slit, which on aged shutters can stay closed.

History

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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