Auto-Topcor / RE Auto-Topcor 10cm (100mm) f/2.8

Variants & identification

1. Specifications. Maxifiche: Auto-Topcor and F Auto-Topcor 5 elements, 24.5°, f/2.8–22, 1.1 m, 49 mm; RE Auto-Topcor 5 elements, 24°, 1.2 m, bayonet hood, 49 mm, 265 g. Beseler (1966): 5 elements, 24.5°, 4 ft, f/22, 10 oz. Paillard: 5 elements, 24.5°, 4 ft, 10 oz (280 g). Three groups and six blades are the figures of Kamerastore, a dealer; AllPhotoLenses also gives six blades and 280 g. stevemark and cbass, in the same MFlenses thread, give 265 g. No source gives the optical type.
2. One design throughout. Topcon Club says the Auto-Topcors kept their basic construction, with new coatings, barrels, diaphragms and mounts, until the RE Topcor N series of the mid-1970s, that the F Auto lens design is unchanged from the 1957 Auto-Topcor, and that the 100mm in particular is a long-lived lens descended from the 1957 Auto-Topcor for the R. Maxifiche gives every version 5 elements. Close focus differs: 1.1 m on the pre-RE lenses, 1.2 m on the RE lens.
3. The RE Super, RE-2 (Beseler D-1), Super D and Super DM: the RE Auto-Topcor meters at full aperture on all of them. For the F Auto-Topcor the sources disagree: Maxifiche says it must not be used on these four bodies because its coupling finger turns the opposite way; Topcon Club says that unmodified on an RE Super it meters stopped down, and believes that the chrome-barrelled F Autos it has seen were converted to RE by the factory for a fee. The semi-automatic and Autokinon lenses were made for the plunger release of the R; Hugo Ruys says they work on the later Topcons only with a shutter-button extension rod.
4. The RE200 and RE300 (1977–78): their instruction book's table of Topcor lenses does not list the 100mm f/2.8, so it was probably no longer in the catalogue. Hugo Ruys puts these bodies on the same final version of the Topcon bayonet as the RE Super, so the RE lens fits and should meter at full aperture; no source describes the combination. The earlier versions carry the cautions in note ³.
5. The Topcon R: its body has no diaphragm mechanism (Topcon Club: the stop-down lever came into the body with the RII of 1960), so only the semi-automatic and Autokinon lenses work their diaphragm on it. No source says whether an F Auto, H-F or RE lens fits the R; if one does, nothing in the body closes its diaphragm, so it can be used only at full aperture. Hugo Ruys notes that just one of the fully automatic Topcon rear mounts he found can be used on the R. The RII, RIII and RS: the F Auto and H-F lenses are theirs. No source describes an RE lens on the RII or RIII, or the semi-automatic lens on the RII–RS. The links stay with these limits.
6. Exakta bodies: Maxifiche calls the R's bayonet the Exakta's. Topcon Club says that because Topcon put its release on the other side, a lens with an external preset arm loses that function when moved between Topcon and Exakta bodies. Hugo Ruys says the semi-automatic Topcon lenses can be used on an Exakta, and Exakta lenses on a Topcon, 'in a clumsy way only'. No source describes the fully automatic F Auto or RE lenses on an Exakta.
7. Dates. The R was announced in December 1957 (Topcon Club). Maxifiche dates the F Autos 1960–62; the RS was sold until the RE Super of 1963. For the RE lens, Topcon Club's English text says it spanned the first RE Super to the last Super DM, while Wikipedia's Topcon RE Super article and Kamerastore give 1965; the Beseler catalogue of 1966 is the earliest dated listing found. Topcon Club's page on the H-F lenses puts the RE Auto-Topcor on sale in mid-1963. Topcon Club's Japanese text dates the RII to July 1960; its English summaries give 1959 for the RII and the F Autos. Topcon Club says production of the RE300, the last of the line, ended in 1980.
8. Prices: no Japanese list price for the lens has been found. The only figure is Paillard's US list price of US$167.25 with hood and leather case (no. 80580), in an undated catalogue that lists the Super DM of 1973, so it is not a launch price.

• Auto-Topcor 1:2.8 f=10cm, semi-automatic (Topcon R): One of the two interchangeable lenses with the semi-automatic diaphragm, with the 3.5cm, that Topcon Club says were sold from the debut of the Topcon R in 1957. It says the preset R Topcor 9cm f/3.5, out slightly later in 1957, was sold beside it as the cheaper choice. Maxifiche gives 5 elements, 24.5°, f/2.8 to f/22, focusing to 1.1 m and a 49 mm filter, the same figures it gives for the F Auto. The diaphragm stays closed after the exposure until the arm is pushed down again. No serial range is known.
• Auto-Topcor 10cm f/2.8, Autokinon type: Topcon Club says the Autokinon-type lenses were made in 1959 at the American side's request, because the semi-automatic lens left the finder dark after each exposure, and that they were sold in small numbers late in the R's life, mainly abroad. It photographs the 10cm with the 5.8cm and 3.5cm. Maxifiche gives the name as AUTO TOPCOR AUTOKINON and lists the same three focal lengths. No serial range is known.
• F.Auto-Topcor 10cm f/2.8 (Automatic R / RII, RIII, RS): The fully automatic version brought out with the Automatic Topcon R (RII) of July 1960 and kept for the RIII and RS. Topcon Club photographs the 10cm between the 3.5cm and 13.5cm, says the optics are unchanged from the 1957 lens and that the RE Auto-Topcor is essentially the same design with the aperture ring turning the other way. It ranks the F Autos near the top of all Topcors for rendering and says they are hard to find. Maxifiche gives 5 elements, 24.5°, 1.1 m and 49 mm. On whether an F Auto may be used on the RE bodies, see the table notes.
• H-F Auto-Topcor 10cm f/2.8 (RS, 1962–63): Topcon Club photographs one. It explains the H-F name, on the word of Hagiya, a former editor of Classic Camera Senka, as coming from a special order placed by Hitachi for the 5.8cm standard lens, which it believes was then used on the RS, so that the interchangeable lenses sold beside it had to carry the same name. Because the serials show no break from the F Auto-Topcor, Topcon Club thinks the factory did not treat these as different lenses.
• RE Auto-Topcor 10cm / 100mm f/2.8, chrome: The open-aperture metering version for the RE Super. Topcon Club's English text says the 100mm covered the whole span from the first RE Super to the last Super DM; Wikipedia's list and the dealer Kamerastore date it 1965 instead (see the table notes). Beseler's 1966 catalogue lists it as the 100mm f/2.8 Topcor Automatic, BT-365: 5 elements, 24.5°, infinity to 4 ft, click stops to f/22, bayonet hood, 49 mm, 10 oz. Maxifiche gives 5 elements, 24°, 1.2 m, 49 mm and 265 g. Topcon Club calls it a modest lens that is easy to overlook, but crisp in use, and says every lens test of the period gave it excellent figures.
• RE Auto-Topcor 100mm f/2.8, black: Maxifiche says the RE Auto-Topcors were generally chrome and more rarely black. Topcon Club shows a chrome lens of the RE Super era beside a black one of 1972 or later, and says there were black lenses in the RE Super years too, with the plated front ring. From the Super D of 1972 all Topcors except the 20mm and 25mm were made black. The capital-letter engraving recorded in the forum list belongs to the late black lens; how the early black lenses are engraved is not recorded. Paillard's list price for the lens with hood and case was US$167.25.
• RE Auto-Topcor N 100mm f/2.8 (U.S. Navy): Topcon Club photographs one beside an ordinary 100mm and says the two are otherwise the same. The forum list, compiled from Antonetto and Russo's Topcon Story with members' finds, gives the chrome N lens its own serial block and adds 7507485, a chrome lens with an infinity lock but no N, from an eBay listing. The Photographic Historical Society of New England says the U.S. Navy bought several thousand black Super Ds. Whether the black lenses with an infinity lock were all Navy issue is not recorded.

Specifications

Construction

5 elements / 3 groups

Aperture range

f/2.8–f/22

Diaphragm blades

6

Min. focus

1.2 m

Weight

265 g

Filter

49 mm

Years manufactured

1957

Country

Japan

Original price

US$167.25 for the RE Auto-Topcor 100mm f/2.8 with bayonet hood and leather case (Paillard Incorporated list price, catalogue no. 80580, undated; it lists the Super DM of 1973)

What reviewers say

• stevemark (MFlenses forum) (blog) — Tested with seven other RE Topcors on a full-frame Sony A7: excellent centre sharpness wide open with a trace of lost resolution in the extreme corners at f/2.8, excellent from corner to corner by f/5.6, and no chromatic aberration; small but dense for its 265 g.
• Topcon Club (topgabacho.jp) (blog) — An unassuming lens that is easy to overlook, but crisp in use; every lens test report of the period recorded excellent results for it. via machine translation — corrections welcome

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.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Auto-Topcor / RE Auto-Topcor 10cm (100mm) f/2.8? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

• Topcon 1:2.8 f=10cm RE. Auto-Topcor TOKYO KOGAKU Camera Lens & CAPS — $124.95 · eBay · likely auto-topcor
• Topcon Topcor RE Auto 10cm 100mm f2.8 Telephoto Lens Black — $275.00 · Cardinal Camera (Used)
• Topcon Topcor RE Auto 10cm 100mm f2.8 Telephoto Lens Black — $284.00 · eBay
• Topcon RE Auto-Topcor 10cm F2.8 Telephoto Prime Lens Tokyo Kogaku Japan — $288.00 · eBay
• Topcon RE Auto-Topcor 10cm F2.8 Telephoto Prime Lens Tokyo Kogaku Japan — €286.83 · eBay
• TOPCON RE, Auto-Topcor 100mm F2.8 *Topcon Topcor* 11489 — $648.70 · eBay
• US Navy Topcon Super D Body Chrome w/100mm f/2.8 RE Auto-Topcor N Tokyo Kogaku — $895.95 · eBay · likely auto-topcor
• TOPCON　H-F Auto-Topcor 10cm 1：2.8 東京光学 Tokyo Kogaku Japan topcor 100ｍｍ 2.8 — from ¥17,000 · Yahoo! Auctions Japan · auction 2026-11-14

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