Topcon Super D

Topcon · Exakta mount · 24×36mm on 135 film · 1972

Also known as: Topcon Super D · Topcon Super-D · Topcon SuperD · Topcon Super D 1972 · Tokyo Kogaku Topcon Super D · Topcon Super D US Navy · トプコンスーパーD · トプコンスーパーD · トプコンスーパー D · トプコン SUPER D · TOPCON スーパーD · 東京光学スーパーD · 東京光学トプコンスーパーD

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Topcon Super D, chrome	Exakta	1971–1973	71xxxxx (Maxifiche: 7100001–7130000)	—
Topcon Super D, black	Exakta	1972–1973	—	—
Beseler Topcon Super D, 1972 type (United States)	Exakta	1971–1973	—	—
Topcon Super D, U.S. Navy	Exakta	—	—	—

Production: about 13,000 by the Maxifiche, which also gives serial limits of 7100001 to 7130000. No other source gives a total.
No list price has been found for the Super D in Japan or the United States: none of the sources gives a period price for this camera, and the Beseler Super D prices of the 1960s belong to the RE Super.
Listings titled Beseler Topcon Super D are filed on the Topcon RE Super page, because the title alone cannot tell the two cameras apart and the 1963–71 line was made in far larger numbers (Maxifiche: about 90,000 against about 13,000 Super Ds). A Beseler body with a 71 serial and the lock-up dial is this camera, the 1972 type above.
Lenses that meter at full aperture: the RE Auto-Topcors from 20mm to 500mm, the RE Zoom Auto-Topcor 87–205mm and the RE Macro Auto-Topcor 58mm f/3.5, which were the Super D's own lenses (Maxifiche). The RE versions within the Auto-Topcor 35mm, 100mm and 135mm families are among them.
RE GN Topcor 50mm f/1.4 and f/1.8 (Super DM, 1973) and the RE Topcor 28mm, 35mm and 55mm of the RE200 line (1977): the same RE mount by Topcon Club's account, so they are expected to couple, but no source describes them on a Super D.
Lenses that meter only stopped down: the preset R-Topcors (28mm to 300mm), the Macro Topcors 30mm, 58mm and 135mm, whose diaphragms are worked by hand or by a double cable release (Maxifiche), and Exakta preset and manual lenses.
Auto-Topcor and F Auto-Topcor 5.8cm f/1.8, and the F Auto-Topcor versions in the 35mm, 100mm and 135mm families: the Maxifiche says the F Auto-Topcor coupling finger turns the opposite way to an RE lens's and that these lenses must not be used on the RE Super, RE-2, Super D or Super DM. Topcon Club (lens page 4) says an unmodified F Auto-Topcor meters stopped down on an RE Super. They mount; treat them as stop-down lenses at best. The Maxifiche describes no meter coupling on the semi-automatic Auto-Topcors of the Topcon R, whose external closing arm was made for the R.
Exakta lenses mount without an adapter, but the Maxifiche says the automatic Carl Zeiss Jena lenses of 1961–70 foul the outer ring of the Topcon bayonet, as other lenses with a bulky diaphragm drive may; manual and preset Exakta lenses and the automatic Angénieux lenses fit, and it photographs an Angénieux 24mm f/3.5 on a 1972 Super D. Chuck Fehl says Exakta lenses can be used but the meter coupling does not work.
UV Topcor and Hi-Topcor lenses of the leaf-shutter Topcons (Unirex, IC-1) fit only through the Topcon UV adapter, with stop-down metering (Maxifiche).
Medical versions: the Maxifiche says the FP-M and FP-M FL ophthalmic cameras are built on the Super D body, with a modified bayonet, a single shutter speed and a 22mm circular image. They take no ordinary lens and are not listed as versions here.
camera-wiki links an English Super D manual on Butkus, but that booklet appears to be the 1960s Beseler Super D's: its specification page describes a positive-stopping instant-return mirror and lists no lock-up.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Mirror lock-up dial low on the mount cover, at the lower right as you face the camera: absent on every RE Super and 1963–71 Beseler Super D; the Super DM has a lever there instead (Topcon Club; Maxifiche)
Lock lever on the shutter-release collar (Topcon Club; English Wikipedia)
No plate behind the front release and self-timer, leatherette on the prism top, plastic tip on the advance lever, black speed dial (Topcon Club; camera-wiki)
Ordinary prism with no aperture-readout window and no winder contact on the base: those mark the Super DM (Maxifiche; Topcon Club)
Serial beginning 71; RE Supers and the early Beseler Super D begin 46, Super DMs 72 (English Wikipedia; Maxifiche; camera-wiki)

Topcon Super D, chrome:

A small, gear-like mirror lock-up dial at the lower right of the mount cover as you face the camera; turned upward, it raises the mirror. Topcon Club notes that only the edge of it shows, so it is hard to grip
No metal plate behind the front shutter release and self-timer lever (Topcon Club; Maxifiche; camera-wiki): the RE Super has a flat plate there, and its late type of about 1968 and the Beseler bodies a ribbed washboard plate (Topcon Club)
Black self-timer base, shutter-lock surround, shutter-speed dial and stop-down lever on a chrome body, and a plastic cap on the tip of the advance lever (Topcon Club; camera-wiki)
A panel of textured leatherette let into the top of the prism housing (Topcon Club; camera-wiki)
A lock lever on the collar of the front shutter release (Topcon Club; English Wikipedia)
Serial beginning 71 (camera-wiki; English Wikipedia type 71A; Maxifiche)

Topcon Super D, black:

Black enamel body with the same controls as the chrome camera: lock-up dial beside the mount, no plate behind the release, leatherette on the prism top (Topcon Club photograph)
Topcon Club describes it with the all-black lenses of 1972 on, whose front edges and hood-bayonet corners are cut back to show bare aluminium; earlier black Topcors have a silver-plated hood bayonet at the front (Topcon Club)

Beseler Topcon Super D, 1972 type (United States):

Beseler in script above TOPCON in capitals on the prism front, and SUPER D on the front of the top plate to the left of the prism as you face the camera (Topcon Club and Maxifiche photographs); the Beseler RE Super has had the same layout since about 1968 (Topcon Club)
Same new parts as the Topcon-badged camera: mirror lock-up dial beside the mount, no plate behind the release and self-timer, plastic-tipped advance lever (Topcon Club; camera-wiki)
Serial beginning 71; a Beseler Topcon Super D with a 46 serial and no lock-up dial is the 1963–71 RE Super (English Wikipedia; Maxifiche)

Topcon Super D, U.S. Navy:

U.S. NAVY engraved on the bottom plate, between the rewind button and the tripod socket, on the example the Maxifiche photographs; that camera is chrome
Otherwise a standard body: the Maxifiche says the Navy cameras have no special features and are identified only by the engraving

Topcon Super D, chrome: The ordinary Japanese-market and export body, sold with the RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.4 or f/1.8 (Maxifiche). Topcon Club illustrates a chrome body fitted with a black RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.8: from this model the lenses went black even on the chrome camera, and the small chrome parts round the release, self-timer and speed dial were also blackened, which Topcon Club reads as Tokyo Kogaku standardising parts between the chrome and black bodies to save cost.
Topcon Super D, black: Topcon Club says the black Super D came out in 1972 at the same time as the chrome one, with no delay, and that the RE Auto-Topcor 85mm f/1.8 was introduced with it, while other prototype lenses were shelved. Its own lens page instead places the 85mm around the launch of the Super DM. The Maxifiche confirms the Super D was made in chrome or black.
Beseler Topcon Super D, 1972 type (United States): Beseler, the American importer, had sold the RE Super as the Beseler Topcon Super D since 1963, and Tokyo Kogaku took that name for the revised camera (Topcon Club). The export body kept the Beseler name unchanged but has the new mechanism (Topcon Club, which shows one with a black RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.4). The Maxifiche illustrates its Super D page with a chrome Beseler body and warns that it is easily confused with the earlier Beseler camera. camera-wiki calls it the Beseler second-version Super D.
Topcon Super D, U.S. Navy: The Maxifiche says that from 1963 Tokyo Kogaku supplied many cameras to the U.S. Navy and that RE Supers, Super Ds and Super DMs are found with the marking, and it captions its photograph of an engraved base plate Topcon Super D US Navy. A base plate alone does not show whether a body is this camera or a 1963–71 Beseler Super D, so check for the 71 serial and the lock-up dial. Chuck Fehl says the Navy bought several thousand black Super Ds for the Marine Corps in the Vietnam years, but he treats the 1963 and 1971 cameras as one, and no source gives a Navy serial range or a count for this model.

Serial-range notes

7100001–7130000: The Maxifiche's serial limits, beside its production figure of about 13,000; the range itself would allow 30,000, and the Maxifiche does not explain the gap. camera-wiki and English Wikipedia (type 71A) give the 71 prefix.

Specifications

Format: 24×36mm on 135 film
Finder: interchangeable eye-level pentaprism (Maxifiche type 2, shared with the RE Super); waist-level hood and 6.5× high-magnification finder as accessories
Shutter: cloth focal plane, horizontal travel · 1s–1/1000, B (Maxifiche) · flash sync X at 1/60 (Maxifiche); flash contact in the separate accessory shoe (Maxifiche), which sits at the base of the rewind knob with a PC contact beside it (English Wikipedia) · self-timer
Film advance: single-stroke lever, 135° throw against the RE Super's 180°; it can still be worked in several short strokes, and a ratchet click was added (Topcon Club; Maxifiche; camera-wiki)
Meter: CdS, through the lens, behind the reflex mirror, read at full aperture with RE lenses and coupled to shutter speed and aperture, match-needle; ASA 25–1600; one 1.35V cell (Maxifiche). The mechanism is the RE Super's: Topcon Club notes a slightly different, cyan-tinged coating on the mirror slits, whose pattern is unchanged and still came in several versions, and a simplified meter switch.
Motor drive: Topcon Electric Motor Drive — The Maxifiche lists the electric motor drive, with its 250-exposure back, for the RE Super, Super D and Super DM, at 1 to 3 frames per second. The Super DM's Auto Winder is for the DM only (Maxifiche); Topcon Club says the Super D has no electrical contact for it, but that Tokyo Kogaku apparently added the winder contact to Super D bodies for a fee after the DM came out.
Weight: 820 g
Dimensions: 157 × 56 × 100, body only (Maxifiche) mm
Country: Japan
Accessories: Waist-level hood and 6.5× high-magnification finder, interchangeable screens (Maxifiche) · Topcon Electric Motor Drive with battery pack and 250-exposure back; a test voltmeter for the motor batteries is listed for the Super D and DM (Maxifiche) · Accessory shoe for the rewind-crank base, carrying the flash contact; meter-needle illuminator for the shoe (Maxifiche) · UV mount adapter for UV Topcor and Hi-Topcor lenses (Maxifiche)

Every prism from the RE Super on relays an image of the meter needle into the eyepiece; the Super D's prism and hood are the RE Super's, and only the Super DM's prism adds an aperture readout (Maxifiche). Standard screen fine ground glass with a central split image, interchangeable (Maxifiche). Because the meter cell is behind the mirror, metering works with any finder or screen fitted.

Where sources disagree

Year

Export from the end of 1971, on sale in Japan in 1972 — Topcon Club
1971 — camera-wiki; Chuck Fehl
1972 — Maxifiche; English Wikipedia's model list (its text says 1971)
1971 — Digital Camera World

Better supported: 1972

The 1971 dates are consistent with Topcon Club's export start; 1972 is the Japanese release.

Last

1973 — Maxifiche model table; camera-wiki's Tokyo Kogaku list
1972 only — English Wikipedia

Production

About 13,000 — Maxifiche
Serial limits 7100001–7130000, room for 30,000 — the same Maxifiche page

Weight (grams)

820g body only — Maxifiche
26 oz (about 740g) with lens — Chuck Fehl

Better supported: 820g body

Fehl's figure, repeated by Digital Camera World as 735g with lens, is lighter than the Maxifiche's body-only weight and is probably an error.

What reviewers say

Chuck Fehl, The Photogram (Michigan Photographic Historical Society), via PHSNE (blog) — A collector's tribute to the Super D line, one of his all-time favourite SLRs, which the headline calls the best camera never to make it. He separates the 1963 original from the improved 1971 camera with mirror lock-up and a plastic-tipped lever, praises the rugged build and the 5.8cm f/1.4, and blames weak promotion by Beseler, a darkroom-equipment firm, and a system that never matched Nikon's and Canon's for professionals, for its obscurity.

History

The Super D is the RE Super with a handful of changes and a new name. Tokyo Kogaku began exporting it at the end of 1971 and put it on sale in Japan in 1972, calling it Super D after the Beseler Topcon Super D, the name its American importer had used for the RE Super since 1963. Topcon Club stresses that there was no major mechanical change. The body is the RE Super’s at 820g, with the same Exakta-derived RE bayonet and the same cloth shutter from 1 second to 1/1000. The CdS cells still sit behind a mirror ruled with fine slits and read at full aperture with RE lenses. Prisms, screens and the electric motor drive are the same. The standard lens was the RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.4 or f/1.8. The Super DM replaced it in 1973. The Maxifiche puts production at about 13,000, though its own serial limits of 7100001 to 7130000 would allow more than twice that.

The new features are few. There is mirror lock-up, set by a small toothed dial at the lower right of the mount cover as you face the camera. Turned upward, it raises the mirror, though Topcon Club says so little of it shows that it is hard to grip. There is a lock on the shutter release. The advance lever’s throw drops from 180° to 135°, can still be worked in short strokes, and now clicks on a ratchet. The styling changes are what identify one in a photograph. The advance lever has a plastic tip, and a panel of leatherette is let into the top of the prism housing. The plate behind the front release and self-timer is gone. The speed dial, stop-down lever and self-timer base are black even on a chrome body. Topcon Club adds a slightly different mirror-slit coating, and simplified parts such as the shoe contact and the meter switch, which it reads as cost-cutting by redesign with no loss of performance. The lenses changed too. During the Super D years the RE Auto-Topcors went black one by one, all except the 20mm and 25mm, and the plated front rings of the earlier black lenses gave way to black ones cut back to show aluminium at the edges.

There are four versions to look for. The chrome and black bodies came out together in 1972. Topcon Club says the RE Auto-Topcor 85mm f/1.8 was introduced alongside the black body, though its lens pages place that lens around the Super DM launch. The export body kept the Beseler script and TOPCON on the prism and SUPER D on the left front of the top plate, exactly as on the late Beseler RE Super. That makes a listing titled Beseler Topcon Super D ambiguous: this camera has a 71 serial and the lock-up dial, while the 1963–71 camera has a 46 serial and no dial. Navy cameras carry U.S. NAVY engraved on the bottom plate. The Maxifiche photographs a chrome one and says the Navy bodies are otherwise standard. Chuck Fehl says the Navy bought several thousand black Super Ds for the Marine Corps in the Vietnam years, and Digital Camera World that the Super D won a Navy camera test of about 1965. That test can only have involved the earlier camera, Fehl treats the two as one, and no source gives Navy serials for this model.

When buying, confirm the model before anything else: the 71 serial, the lock-up dial and the missing release plate together. A lever in place of the dial, an aperture window in the finder and a winder contact on the base mean a Super DM. Topcon Club reports that Tokyo Kogaku apparently fitted the winder contact to some Super Ds for a fee, so a Super D with one may be a factory conversion. The meter takes a 1.35V cell. The RE Auto-Topcors meter at full aperture. Preset R-Topcors, Macro Topcors and Exakta preset lenses meter stopped down. The Maxifiche warns that the F Auto-Topcors of the RII, RIII and RS must not be used on this body because their coupling finger turns the wrong way; Topcon Club says that unmodified they simply meter stopped down on the RE Super. Exakta lenses mount without an adapter, but the Maxifiche says the Zeiss Jena automatics of 1961–70 foul the bayonet’s outer ring. It shows an automatic Angénieux 24mm on a Super D. No list price for this camera has been found in Japan or the United States.

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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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Live listings

トプコン TOPCON SUPER D #2191@a RO5933 — ¥20,300 · Rakuten Rakuma
【返品保証】トプコン Topcon SUPER D TOKYO KOGAKU JAPAN RE Auto-Topcor 25mm F3.5 ボディレンズセット e13874 — from ¥37,560 · Yahoo! Auctions Japan · auction 2026-11-12

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