Topcon RE200

Topcon · Exakta mount · 24×36mm (Topcon instruction book) · 1977

via machine translation — corrections welcome

Also known as: Topcon RE200 · Topcon RE 200 · Topcon RE-200 · Tokyo Kogaku Topcon RE200 · Exakta EDX 2 · Exakta EDX2 · Exakta EDX-2 · トプコン RE200 · トプコンRE200 · トプコン RE-200 · トプコン RE 200 · エキザクタ EDX2 · エクサクタ EDX2

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Topcon RE200, chrome	Exakta	1977	—	—
Topcon RE200, black	Exakta	—	—	—
Exakta EDX 2 (Ihagee West)	Exakta	—	—	—

Maker: designed by Tokyo Kogaku and built by its subcontractor Sima Kogaku (シマ光学), which set up Cima, the maker of Cimko cameras, after Tokyo Kogaku left the business (Topcon Club; Japanese Wikipedia says everything but the design was entrusted to Sima). Maxifiche says only that these late bodies were probably built by third parties such as Cimko; Cima did not exist under that name when the RE200 was made.
Carena KS1: camera-wiki's list of Topcon models and Japanese Wikipedia pair the RE200 with a Carena KS1, but no photograph or example of one is on record. Topcon Club shows only a Carena KSM 1, and a near-identical KSM 2, as renamed Pentax K-mount RM300s, and notes Korean-made Carenar lenses in the RE mount. The KS1 is not listed as a version until one is seen.
Lenses, from the camera's own instruction book (shared with the RE300): its table of Topcor lenses runs from the RE Auto-Topcor 20mm f/4 to the 500mm f/5.6, with the new RE Topcor 28mm, 35mm, 55mm f/1.7, 135mm f/2.8 and 200mm f/3.3, the RE GN Topcor M 50mm f/1.4 and RE GN Topcor 50mm f/1.8, the RE Macro Auto-Topcor 58mm f/3.5 and the RE Zoom Auto-Topcor 87–205mm f/4.7, all with automatic diaphragm and full-aperture metering. The RE Auto-Topcor 100mm f/2.8 is not in the table; it has the same RE coupling, so full-aperture metering is expected but not stated. Its specification page offers the 55mm f/1.7 and both GN 50mm lenses as standard lenses.
Preset and manual lenses meter stopped down: the same table lists the preset R Topcor 300mm f/2.8, the manual Macro Topcor 30mm f/3.5 and the semi-automatic Macro Topcor 135mm f/4 with stop-down metering. The other preset R Topcors (28mm, 90mm, 135mm f/2 and f/3.5, 200mm f/4, 300mm f/5.6) are not in the table; they have the same preset diaphragm, so stop-down use is expected but not stated. The Macro Topcor 58mm f/3.5 bellows head is not in the table either; the book's accessory list includes the auto bellows.
The semi-automatic Auto-Topcors of the Topcon R (35mm, 58mm, 100mm, 135mm) cock and fire their diaphragm from a plunger made for the front-mounted release of the early bodies; Hugo Ruys says these lenses work on later Topcons only with a shutter-button extension rod, and no source describes one for the RE200, whose release is on the top plate. Expect to use them stopped down by hand.
F Auto-Topcors (the RII, RIII and RS lenses, part of the Auto-Topcor 35mm, 58mm, 100mm and 135mm families): Maxifiche says their meter-coupling finger turns the opposite way to an RE lens's and that they must not be used on the RE Super, RE-2, Super D and Super DM. It does not name the RE200, but Hugo Ruys puts the RE200 on the same bayonet version (his mount six) as the RE Super, Super D and Super DM, so the same caution applies. Topcon Club says instead that an unmodified F Auto-Topcor on an RE Super simply meters stopped down, because its aperture ring turns the other way (Topcor lenses page 4). The links stay because the RE versions of those families work on the RE200.
UV Topcor and Hi-Topcor lenses of the UV-mount Topcons fit through the UV mount adapter, with manual diaphragm and stop-down metering (instruction book).
No production figures, serial tables or launch prices are published. Topcon Club says the RE200 was made in reasonable numbers, far more for export than for Japan.

How to tell them apart (expand)

RE 200 on the front of the top plate, left of the prism; RE 300 = the same body with a winder coupling and split-image screen (Topcon Club photographs; instruction book)
Shutter release on the top plate with a cable socket in it, beside the speed dial (instruction book); Hugo Ruys notes that the earlier Topcons have their release on the right side of the body front, though the RE-2 of 1965 already had it on the top plate (Topcon Club)
Plastic top cover, CdS meter by the eyepiece rather than the RE Super's cells behind a slit mirror, three LEDs in the finder (Topcon Club)
TOPCON on the prism = Topcon RE200; EXAKTA on the prism with an EDX 2 plate = Exakta EDX 2 (Topcon Club)

Topcon RE200, chrome:

Satin-chrome top plate and prism with TOPCON in black on the prism front, black body covering, and RE 200 in black on a chrome plate on the front of the top plate to the left of the prism (Topcon Club photograph)
Plain base with no winder coupling, and a microprism spot alone in the finder; the RE300 has a coupling disc and contacts on the base, a split-image spot in a microprism ring, and an RE 300 plate (instruction book; Topcon Club)
Usually with the RE Topcor 55mm f/1.7, engraved RE TOPCOR on the front ring and carrying no N marking (Topcon Club)

Topcon RE200, black:

Black top plate and prism with TOPCON in white on the prism front and RE 200 in white on the front of the top plate; the release button and accessory shoe stay chrome (Topcon Club photograph)
Otherwise the same as the chrome body: microprism spot, plain base, RE 200 marking rather than RE 300 (Topcon Club; camera-wiki photograph by Vagn Sloth-Madsen)

Exakta EDX 2 (Ihagee West):

EXAKTA in spaced capitals on a black plate across the chrome prism front, and EDX 2 in white on a black plate where the Topcon carries RE 200 (Topcon Club photograph)
Chrome top plate and prism, as on the chrome RE200 (Topcon Club photograph); the same microprism spot (Topcon Club; Exakta instruction book)
Usually with an EXAKTAR 55mm f/1.7 standard lens, engraved EXAKTAR on the front ring (Exakta instruction book; Topcon Club photograph)

Topcon RE200, chrome: The original finish, and by Topcon Club's account the only one sold in Japan at first. The 1981 Camera Annual still listed the RE200 as chrome only, which Topcon Club reads as a sign that the black body hardly circulated in Japan.
Topcon RE200, black: Topcon Club says the black RE200 was in the export catalogues from early on, and appeared in Japan, as far as the author knows, from the product survey of the 1978 Japan Camera Show, after the black RE300 went on sale. No mechanical difference from the chrome body is recorded. camera-wiki gives both finishes.
Exakta EDX 2 (Ihagee West): The RE200 renamed for Ihagee West, sold beside the EDX 3, the renamed RE300; the lenses were renamed EXAKTAR at the same time (Topcon Club). The Exakta instruction book covers both cameras and gives the mount as the "TOPCON RE bayonet mount", the standard lens as the EXAKTAR 55mm f/1.7 and the EDX 2's weight as 565g body only, the RE200's figure. Topcon Club suggests Ihagee West turned to Tokyo Kogaku after Petri, which had built M42 bodies for it, failed in 1977. Topcon Club shows a chrome EDX 2 and describes no black one.

Specifications

Format: 24×36mm (Topcon instruction book)
Finder: fixed eye-level pentaprism · 91% coverage
Shutter: Copal Square (Topcon Club), vertical-travel metal focal plane (instruction book) · 1s–1/1000, B · flash sync X at 1/125 and slower for electronic flash, 1/30 and slower for bulbs; hot shoe on the prism and a PC socket (instruction book) · self-timer
Film advance: single-stroke lever, 120° throw with 20° stand-off; no winder coupling (instruction book)
Back: hinged, opened by pulling up the rewind knob (instruction book; Topcon Club)
Meter: CdS, through the lens, centre-weighted, at full aperture with RE lenses; switched on by half-pressing the release; EV 3.5–18 at ASA 100 with the 55mm f/1.7; ASA 25–1600; two 1.5V G13 silver-oxide cells (instruction book; camera-wiki). No automatic exposure. The instruction book and camera-wiki give two CdS cells; Topcon Club describes a single cell above the eyepiece.
Motor drive: Not compatible — The winder coupling is the one change that makes the RE300; the Auto Winder II does not fit the RE200 (instruction book).
Weight: 565 g
Dimensions: 141 × 91.5 × 50, body only; 141 × 91.5 × 87 and 770g with the 55mm f/1.7 (instruction book, the RE200 figures). weight_g is the body only. mm
Country: Japan
Accessories: Eyepiece adapter with magnifier, angle finder, large rubber eyecup Model III and correction lenses (instruction book) · Auto bellows, macro stand, slide copier, extension tube set, variable and automatic extension tubes, RE Auto-Ring, reverse adapter, microscope attachment Model III (instruction book) · UV mount adapter for UV Topcor and Hi-Topcor lenses of the UV-mount Topcons (instruction book) · Topcon Club says many accessories are shared with the RE Super and RE-2 line

Microprism focusing spot, 91% of the frame, 0.89× with the 55mm f/1.7 (instruction book). Three LEDs on the right of the field: red at the top for overexposure, green in the middle for correct, red at the bottom for under (camera-wiki; instruction book). Topcon Club finds the green band generous, close to a stop wide.

Where sources disagree

Meter

Two CdS cells — the Topcon and Exakta instruction books; camera-wiki
One CdS cell above the eyepiece — Topcon Club

Better supported: Two CdS cells

Variants (black finish in Japan)

Black sold in Japan from about 1978 — Topcon Club, from the 1978 Japan Camera Show product survey
Chrome only — the 1981 Camera Annual, as quoted by Topcon Club

Topcon Club concludes that black bodies were offered in Japan but hardly circulated there; abroad both finishes were catalogued from early on.

What reviewers say

Topcon Club (blog) — Blunt about the build: so simple and cheaply made that you doubt it is a Topcon, with a plastic top, toy-like parts, a battery cover with no lock and a self-timer lever that flops once run down. But it is light, compact and simple, and the author finds it pleasant to use and has a soft spot for it. The new RE Topcor lenses seem a step down from the RE Auto-Topcors, with ghosts and flare against the light, though used with that in mind they give the rich tonality of the older Topcors. via machine translation — corrections welcome

History

The RE200 is the budget camera with which Tokyo Kogaku ended its line of Exakta-bayonet SLRs. It came out in 1977 on the RE mount, the version of the Exakta inner bayonet that Topcon had extended with a meter coupling for the RE Super of 1963, and it was built to a price. Topcon Club, the fullest Japanese account of these cameras, says it is so simple and cheaply made that you wonder whether it is a Topcon at all. The top cover is plastic. There is no mirror meter like the RE Super’s: the CdS meter sits by the eyepiece as on most cameras of the time, and the readout is three LEDs, red over, green correct and red under, rather than a needle. The shutter is a Copal Square, 1 second to 1/1000. There is no automatic exposure, which the IC-1, a UV-mount Topcon with a cloth focal-plane shutter, had offered. Tokyo Kogaku designed the camera and its subcontractor Sima Kogaku built it. After Tokyo Kogaku left the camera business, Sima set up Cima, the company behind the Cimko cameras and lenses; Maxifiche’s suggestion that Cimko built these late bodies points the same way, under a later name.

What the RE200 keeps is the mount. Every RE lens meters at full aperture on it, and its instruction book lists Topcors from the RE Auto-Topcor 20mm f/4 to the 500mm f/5.6, with the RE GN Topcors of the Super DM offered as standard lenses beside the new RE Topcor 55mm f/1.7. That lens, and a new series from 28mm to 200mm that Topcon Club calls the N series, were redesigned for simpler assembly and carry no N on the barrel. Preset and manual lenses, such as the R Topcor 300mm f/2.8 and the Macro Topcors, meter stopped down. The F Auto-Topcors of the RII, RIII and RS have a coupling finger that turns the wrong way for RE bodies: Maxifiche says not to use them on one, Topcon Club that they simply meter stopped down. The semi-automatic lenses of the first Topcon R were made for a release on the right of the body front, where the RE200 has its release on top. The UV Topcors and Hi-Topcors of the UV-mount cameras fit through an adapter, stopped down.

There are three versions. The chrome Topcon was the only finish in Japan at first. A black body was in the export catalogues from early on, and Topcon Club finds it shown in Japan from the 1978 Japan Camera Show, once the black RE300 was on sale there, though the 1981 Camera Annual still lists the RE200 in chrome only and few black ones seem to have been sold in Japan. Ihagee West sold the camera as the Exakta EDX 2, in chrome, with EXAKTA on a black plate across the prism, an EDX 2 plate where the Topcon reads RE 200, and an EXAKTAR 55mm f/1.7. camera-wiki and Japanese Wikipedia also name a Carena KS1, but the Carenas Topcon Club shows are K-mount RM300s, and no KS1 has been documented. The RE300 of 1978 is the same camera with a coupling for the Auto Winder II and a split-image spot in a microprism ring, where the RE200 has a microprism spot alone; the two were sold side by side until production stopped in 1980. The body weighs 565g, 15g less than the RE300.

When buying, check the rewind crank first. It also releases the back, and Topcon Club says the plastic tube that carries its shaft inside the body is notched and often cracks when the crank is pulled up hard, so many cameras have a loose, wobbling crank. The repair is not difficult once the top cover is off. The battery cover opens at a touch and has no lock, so it can come open by accident, and the self-timer lever hangs loose once run down even though the timer still works. The meter wants two 1.5V G13 silver-oxide cells, and the LEDs light when the release is half-pressed. Topcon Club expects modest prices and warns against shops that ask a premium for rarity, since far more of these cameras were made for export than were sold in Japan, but the Exakta version is harder to find than the Topcon.

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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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