Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Topcon Super DM

Topcon · Exakta mount · 24×36mm on 135 film · 1973

Also known as: Topcon Super DM · Topcon Super-DM · Topcon SuperDM · Topcon Super D M · Topcon Super DM-1 · Topcon Super DM-2 · Topcon Super DM1 · Topcon Super DM2 · Topcon Supreme I · Topcon Supreme II · Tokyo Kogaku Topcon Super DM · Super DM Topcon · トプコン スーパーDM · トプコンスーパーDM · トプコン スーパー DM · トプコン スーパー ＤＭ · トプコン SUPER DM · TOPCON スーパーDM · 東京光学 スーパーDM · 東京光学 トプコン スーパーDM

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Super DM, early type (Auto Winder with alignment button) Exakta 1973 72xxxxx (Maxifiche: 7200001–7220000) —
Super DM, late type (Auto Winder S coupler) Exakta — — —
  1. Production: about 22,000 by the Maxifiche, which gives serial limits of 7200001 to 7220000 and dates the camera 1973–1976. Topcon Club's late type and final lot, and its statement that Topcon's SLRs left the general market in 1981, suggest production ran later than 1976, so the figure may be short.
  2. U.S. Navy cameras: the Maxifiche says Tokyo Kogaku supplied many cameras to the U.S. Navy from 1963, identified only by a U.S. NAVY engraving, and that RE Supers, Super Ds and Super DMs are found with it. No engraved Super DM is documented in a photograph or listing, so it is not given as a version here. Modern Photography (1974) and Chuck Fehl speak of several thousand Super Ds for the Navy, not DMs.
  3. Medical versions: the Maxifiche says the Topcon AM ophthalmic camera is built on the Super DM body, and the AM-FL and AMW-FL on the Super DM with motor, 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.
  4. Finish: black only (Maxifiche; Modern Photography, March 1974, 'all-black only (at present)'). A chrome Super-line body with a lock-up dial instead of a lever is a Super D.
  5. Lenses that meter at full aperture: the RE Auto-Topcors from 20mm to 500mm, the RE Zoom Auto-Topcor 87–205mm, the RE Macro Auto-Topcor 58mm f/3.5 and the RE GN Topcors 50mm f/1.4 and f/1.8 made for this camera (Maxifiche; Paillard). The RE versions within the Auto-Topcor 35mm, 100mm and 135mm families are among them. The aperture window of the CC prism reads the figures off the lens's aperture ring (Modern Photography).
  6. RE Topcor 28mm, 35mm and 55mm of the RE200 line (1977): the same RE mount by Topcon Club's account, and a Japanese listing offers a DM with the RE Topcor 55mm f/1.7, but no source describes how they couple on a DM.
  7. Lenses that meter only stopped down: the preset R-Topcors (28mm to 300mm, the 300mm f/2.8 still in Paillard's DM-era catalogue), the Macro Topcors 30mm, 58mm and 135mm, whose diaphragms are worked by hand or by a double cable release (Maxifiche; Paillard), and Exakta preset and manual lenses.
  8. 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 (Topcor lenses 4) says that because the aperture ring turns the other way, an unmodified F Auto-Topcor meters stopped down on an RE Super. The sources disagree; treat them as stop-down lenses at best. The original Auto-Topcors of the Topcon R (1957) have a semi-automatic diaphragm with an external cocking mechanism and no meter coupling (Maxifiche).
  9. 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; manual and preset Exakta lenses fit. Raphael Stradiot (Mori Film Lab) writes that most Exakta lenses are compatible with the DM but that Topcor lenses are not compatible with Exakta bodies, as the flanges differ slightly.
  10. UV Topcor lenses of the leaf-shutter IC-1 and Unirex fit only through the UV Mount Adapter (Paillard #83530, $18.75), with stop-down metering (Maxifiche; Paillard).
  11. Topcon Club says Tokyo Kogaku reportedly fitted the winder contact to Super D bodies for a fee once the DM was out, and Modern Photography (March 1974) puts the conversion, a switch and an electrical contact, at about $50. Modern Photography calls the result a conversion into a DM, and says most of the DM's other innovations had appeared on late-model Super Ds. A Super D with a winder contact is still a Super D: check for the SUPER D engraving and the 71 serial.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • SUPER DM engraved on the front of the top plate to the left of the prism as you face the camera (Paillard catalogue photographs)
  • Mirror lock-up lever below the lens (Topcon Club; Topcon brochure); Modern Photography (March 1974) calls it a combined mirror lock-up and stop-down lever, while the brochure also lists a separate depth-of-field preview lever. The Super D has a small toothed dial at the lower right of the mount cover as you face the camera instead (Topcon Club), but Modern Photography says most of the DM's new features had appeared on late-model Super Ds, so check the engraving too
  • Electrical contact for the Auto Winder beside the rewind button on the base: absent on the RE Super and on most Super Ds (Topcon Club)
  • Usually the CC prism, with its overhanging front and an aperture window under the TOPCON nameplate; a DM sold with the standard prism lacks it, so check the top-plate engraving and the base (Paillard; Maxifiche)
  • Black finish only; serial beginning 72; RE Supers and the early Beseler Super D begin 46, Super Ds 71 (Maxifiche; camera-wiki; English Wikipedia)

Super DM, early type (Auto Winder with alignment button):

  • Winder coupler on the base, beside the rewind button, is a plain disc with a square-cut notch at each end; the electrical contact for the winder is the small round button next to the rewind button (Topcon Club, photograph of the base of an early DM)
  • Paired with the first TOPCON AUTO WINDER, which by Topcon Club's account has a small red button on its back that runs the motor until its teeth find the notches. Topcon Club adds that some winders without the S name already lack the button, so the winder alone does not date the body. Modern Photography (March 1974) describes the red button on its winder as a battery test that lights a lamp on the back, and Topcon's brochure lists a red lamp and an auxiliary drive switch for clearing a jam
  • With the winder fitted the advance lever cannot be worked (Topcon Club). Modern Photography (March 1974 and December 1975) says the lever stays available as an auxiliary advance if the batteries run out
  • Serial beginning 72: Modern Photography's test camera of March 1974 was body No. 7205171

Super DM, late type (Auto Winder S coupler):

  • Winder coupler with one side of each notch cut away into a ramp, so that in profile it looks like a right-angled triangle; the driving side keeps a square edge (Topcon Club, side-by-side photographs of the early and late couplers)
  • Paired with the AUTO WINDER-S, engraved with that name and without the red alignment button: on this body the winder simply turns until its teeth drop into the notches (Topcon Club)
  • With an Auto Winder S fitted, the advance lever can still be worked, stiffly; Topcon Club does not recommend it
  • Final production lot only: a thinner TOPCON logo on the prism, and an apron above the mount cover that bulges forward in a soft curve from edge to edge instead of stepping out to the width of the prism (Topcon Club, photographs of an ordinary and a final-lot DM)

Serial-range notes

7200001–7220000
The Maxifiche's serial limits, with production of about 22,000. camera-wiki and English Wikipedia's Topcon RE Super article (type 72A) give the 72 prefix. Modern Photography's March 1974 test camera was No. 7205171.

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 135 film
Finder
interchangeable eye-level CC (control center) pentaprism, which shows the set aperture in a window above the screen as well as the meter needle below it; a standard pentaprism without the aperture window was also offered (Paillard); waist-level hood and 6.5× high-magnification finder as accessories · 95% coverage
Shutter
cloth focal plane, horizontal travel · 1s–1/1000, B (Maxifiche; Modern Photography; camera-wiki) · flash sync X at 1/60 and slower; FP bulbs at every speed except 1/60 and 1/30; M at 1/125, 1/15 and slower; one PC socket on the left side (Modern Photography, March 1974) · self-timer
Film advance
single-stroke lever, or the Topcon Auto Winder through the base coupler and an electrical contact in the base; with the winder fitted the lever is locked on early bodies and stiff on late ones (Topcon Club), though Modern Photography says the lever remains available as an auxiliary advance
Back
hinged, opened by a twist lock on the base, which stays reachable with the Auto Winder fitted (Modern Photography; Maxifiche)
Meter
CdS, through the lens, two cells in parallel behind fine slits etched into the reflex mirror, read at full aperture with RE lenses and coupled to shutter speed and aperture, match-needle in the finder and in a second window on the top plate; EV 2–16 at ASA 100 with an f/1.4 lens; ASA 25–1600; one 1.35V cell (Topcon brochure; Maxifiche; Modern Photography). Modern Photography measured a +1/4 stop deviation at low and medium light levels and a little over +1/2 stop at high light levels. The meter switch is on the base plate and is covered by the Auto Winder (Topcon Club; Modern Photography).
Motor drive
Topcon Auto Winder, Topcon Auto Winder S, Topcon Electric Motor Drive — The Auto Winder screws into the tripod socket, adds 25mm to the height, runs on four AA cells and advances one frame each time the release is let go; the camera's own release fires it, through an electrical contact that Topcon Club calls the first of its kind. Topcon Club says it introduced the idea of the auto winder. The back can be opened, the film rewound and a tripod fitted with it in place (Maxifiche). The Maxifiche says the winder is for the Super DM only; the older Electric Motor Drive, with its 250-exposure back and 1 to 3 frames per second, fits the RE Super, Super D and DM but cannot be used together with the winder. Topcon's brochure claims at least ten 36-exposure rolls per set of manganese cells; Modern Photography ran more than 30 rolls on four alkaline cells.
Weight
860 g
Dimensions
157 × 56 × 100 (Maxifiche, which gives the same figure for the RE Super and Super D); 153 × 124 × 94 with lens and Auto Winder (Topcon brochure) mm
Country
Japan
Original price
US$727.45 for the Topcon Supreme I outfit (Super DM with CC prism, RE GN Topcor M 50mm f/1.4, hood and Auto Winder): the catalogue price of Paillard, the US importer, given both in Paillard's undated catalogue and as the price in Modern Photography's test of March 1974. The same catalogue lists the Supreme II (with the 50mm f/1.8) at $632.45, the DM with CC prism and f/1.4 lens at $603.95, with standard prism and f/1.8 lens at $470.95, and the body alone at $369.50 with the CC prism or $331.50 with the standard prism. In France the Maxifiche quotes June 1974 prices, without saying whether list or dealer prices, of 2,920 francs with the GN 50mm f/1.8 and 3,408 francs with the f/1.4, against 4,000 francs for a Nikon F2 with 50mm f/1.4. None of these sources gives a Japanese list price. (today $4,630)
Accessories
Topcon Auto Winder, later Auto Winder S (US price $123.50 in March 1974, Modern Photography), with a hard case for the DM and winder (Paillard) · Topcon Electric Motor Drive ($456 in March 1974, Modern Photography) with battery pack, mains unit, remote and radio control, and 250-exposure back; a test voltmeter for the Super D and DM (Maxifiche) · CC prism and standard prism, waist-level hood, 6.5× high-magnification finder, angle finder, magnifier and eyepiece correction lenses (Topcon brochure; Maxifiche) · Accessory shoe that locks over the bayonet on the rewind knob and carries the flash contact; meter-needle illuminator for the shoe (Paillard; Maxifiche) · Microscope attachment Model III, telescope adapters, bellows, extension tubes, slide copier and macro stage (Maxifiche; Paillard) · UV Mount Adapter for IC-1 UV Topcor lenses (Paillard #83530)

The CC prism has an overhanging front with the TOPCON nameplate; under it a square window and mirror pick up the aperture figures from the lens ring and show them in a box above the finder image (Modern Photography, March 1974; Maxifiche). Modern Photography measured 99 percent of the frame vertically and 95 percent horizontally, with the unseen border shifted 0.4mm downwards, and complained that shutter speeds are not shown in the finder. The standard screen has a horizontal split image in a fine-focusing collar inside a fine Fresnel field. Screens are interchangeable: camera-wiki counts five types, while Paillard's catalogue lists nine screens and four finders for the system. Because the meter cells are behind the mirror, metering works with any finder or screen fitted (Modern Photography).

Where sources disagree

Last
  • 1973 only — English Wikipedia's Topcon RE Super article (type 72A, 'Prod. period: 1973 only')
  • Sold until Tokyo Kogaku left the photographic market in 1981 — English Wikipedia's Topcon article, citing Topcon Club
  • 1976 — Maxifiche; camera-wiki's Tokyo Kogaku list (1973–76)
  • 1978 — Chuck Fehl (1973–78)
  • 1980 — Topcon Club: a revised late type at the end of the 1970s and a final lot; Topcon left the general SLR market with the DM, RE200/300 and RM300 in 1981, production of its 35mm cameras ending in 1980

Better supported: 1980

Paillard's DM catalogue is of about 1974 and Hervic distributed the camera by December 1975; Eumig France sold it from 1974 to 1979 (Maxifiche). No source states the DM's own last production date.

Motor drive (winder speed)
  • About 3/4 second per frame — Modern Photography, March 1974
  • Up to 12 frames in 10 seconds — Maxifiche
  • A picture every 1/2 second — Paillard catalogue
  • A little under 0.5 second, average for its time, and among the quieter winders — Nippon Camera, September 1978, as reported by Topcon Club
Weight (grams)
  • 860g body only — Maxifiche
  • 1,500g with RE GN 50mm f/1.4 and Auto Winder; 1,440g with the f/1.8 — Topcon brochure
  • 3 lb 7 oz (about 1,560g) as tested, with the 50mm f/1.4 and Auto Winder — Modern Photography, March 1974
  • 2 lb 10¾ oz (about 1,210g) — Modern Photography, December 1975, configuration not stated
  • 36 oz (about 1,020g) with lens — Chuck Fehl

Better supported: 860g body

Variants (standard lens)
  • RE GN Topcor M 50mm f/1.4 or RE GN Topcor 50mm f/1.8 — Topcon Club; Topcon brochure; Paillard; Modern Photography; Maxifiche model table
  • RE GN Topcor f/1.4 or f/1.8 of 58mm — Maxifiche Super DM page

Better supported: 50mm

No other source gives an RE GN Topcor of 58mm, and the Maxifiche's own model table says 50mm; the DM page appears to repeat the Super D's focal length.

Auto Winder first year
  • 1972 — Topcon's Super DM brochure, which also dates the mirror meter to 1962
  • 1973, with the Super DM — Topcon Club; every model list

Better supported: 1973

Meter battery
  • 1.35V cell — Maxifiche
  • Mercury — Modern Photography, December 1975; camera-wiki and Raphael Stradiot (Mori Film Lab), both 1.3V
  • Silver oxide — Modern Photography, March 1974

What reviewers say

History

The Super DM is the last of the cameras Tokyo Kogaku built on the RE Super of 1963, and the most complete. It came out in 1973 as a black-only body. Like the Super D before it, it has the Exakta-derived RE bayonet, a cloth shutter from 1 second to 1/1000, and CdS cells behind fine slits etched into the reflex mirror, reading at full aperture with RE lenses. Three things are new. There is a CC prism that shows the set aperture in a window above the finder image. Mirror lock-up moves from the Super D’s awkward toothed dial to a lever below the lens, though Modern Photography says most of these refinements had already appeared on late Super Ds. Above all, there is an electrical contact and coupler in the base for the Topcon Auto Winder. The winder screws into the tripod socket, adds 25mm to the height, runs on four AA cells and advances one frame each time the front release is let go. Topcon Club credits the camera with introducing the auto winder. In the United States Paillard sold it as the Topcon Supreme, with the RE GN Topcor M 50mm f/1.4 or the GN 50mm f/1.8. These are guide-number lenses whose focusing cam sets the flash aperture as you focus. Modern Photography quoted the f/1.4 outfit with winder at $727.45 in March 1974.

The winder was judged harshly at first. Topcon Club quotes Asahi Camera, where one tester found it so slow that he took it off and wound by hand, and Modern Photography timed it at about 3/4 second a frame. Modern Photography still concluded that it beat a thumb in practice, because the camera stays at the eye. Nippon Camera’s 1978 comparison of winders found the Topcon’s speed average and its noise low. Topcon Club adds that it has no plastic gears. Its drawbacks are real. On early bodies, Topcon Club says, the winder locks the advance lever, although Modern Photography wrote that the lever stays available as a reserve. On every body it covers the meter switch on the base plate. The battery holder swings down open, leaving the cells exposed, and its tripod thread is shallow enough that a long tripod screw can mark the camera’s base. The big Topcon Electric Motor Drive with its 250-exposure back also fits, but not together with the winder.

There are two versions of the body. They are told apart mainly by the drive coupler in the base, which is easiest to check with the winder off. The early camera has a plain disc with square notches. By Topcon Club’s account its winder carries a small red button that runs the motor until the teeth engage, though Modern Photography found the lugs engaging by themselves on the first shot. At the end of the 1970s Tokyo Kogaku ramped one side of each notch so that the teeth find their own way in. The winder lost its button and became the AUTO WINDER-S, and with it the lever can be worked, stiffly. Topcon Club also shows a final lot with a thinner TOPCON logo on the prism and a front apron that curves out across its whole width. The DM1 and DM2 names of the announcement are the body with and without the winder, not two cameras. Paillard also sold the DM with a standard prism, so an aperture window is not essential. The SUPER DM engraving on the front of the top plate, the lock-up lever and the 72 serial identify the body. The Maxifiche puts production at about 22,000 within 7200001 to 7220000 and dates it 1973–1976. Topcon Club’s late changes point to production running on until Topcon left the 35mm market in 1980–81. The Maxifiche also says U.S. Navy-engraved DMs exist, though no example is documented in a photograph.

When buying, check that the body really is a DM: a Super D can carry a winder contact added by Tokyo Kogaku, and Modern Photography priced that conversion at about $50. The meter takes a 1.35V cell, mercury by most accounts (Modern Photography’s 1974 test says silver oxide), so confirm the needle moves in both the finder and the top window with a substitute. If a winder comes with the camera, try it on the body, and note whether it is the early type with the red button or an AUTO WINDER-S. RE lenses 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 RE bodies, because their coupling finger turns the other way (Topcon Club says they simply meter stopped down), and that Zeiss Jena automatics foul the bayonet’s outer ring. The leaf-shutter IC-1’s UV Topcors fit through Topcon’s UV Mount Adapter, stopped down.

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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

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Listings updated 2026-11-09. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Lenses for this body: Auto-Topcor / RE Auto-Topcor 10cm (100mm) f/2.8 · Topcor 13.5cm (135mm) f/3.5 (Leica screw mount, R Topcor, Auto-Topcor and RE Auto-Topcor) · Auto-Topcor / RE Auto-Topcor 3.5cm (35mm) f/2.8 · Auto-Topcor and F Auto-Topcor 5.8cm f/1.8 · Macro Topcor 13.5cm (135mm) f/4 · Macro Topcor 30mm f/3.5 · Macro Topcor 5.8cm (58mm) f/3.5 · R Topcor 13.5cm (135mm) f/2 · R Topcor 20cm (200mm) f/4 · R Topcor 28mm f/2.8 (preset) · R Topcor 300mm (30cm) f/2.8 · R Topcor and RE Auto-Topcor 300mm f/5.6 · RE Auto-Topcor 200mm f/5.6 · RE Auto-Topcor 20mm f/4 · RE Auto-Topcor 25mm f/3.5 · RE Auto-Topcor 28mm f/2.8 · RE Auto-Topcor 500mm f/5.6 · RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.4 · RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.8 · RE Auto-Topcor 85mm f/1.8 · RE GN Topcor 50mm f/1.8 · RE GN Topcor M 50mm f/1.4 · RE Macro Auto-Topcor 58mm f/3.5 · RE Topcor 28mm f/2.8 (RE Topcor N series, 1977) · RE Topcor 35mm f/2.8 (RE Topcor N series, 1977) · RE Topcor 55mm f/1.7 · RE Zoom Auto-Topcor 87-205mm f/4.7 · Topcor 9cm f/3.5 / R Topcor 9cm f/3.5

Sources (14)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.