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

Macro Topcor 13.5cm (135mm) f/4

Topcon · Exakta · 1966

via machine translation — corrections welcome our own finding

Also known as: Macro Topcor 135mm f/4 · Macro Topcor 135mm f4 · Macro Topcor 135mm F4 · Macro-Topcor 135mm f4 · Macro-Topcor 135mm f/4 · Macro Topcor 13.5cm f4 · Macro Topcor 13.5cm f/4 · Macro-Topcor 13.5cm f4 · Macro-Topcor 13.5cm F4 · Macro Topcor 1:4 f=135mm · Macro-Topcor 1:4 f=13.5cm · Macro Topcor 4/135 · Macro Topcor 135mm 1:4 · Topcon Macro Topcor 135mm f4 · Topcon Macro Topcor 135mm f/4 · Topcon Macro-Topcor 135mm f4 · Topcon Macro Topcor 13.5cm f4 · Topcon 13.5cm f4 Macro-Topcor · Topcon 13.5cm f4 Macro Topcor · Topcon 135mm f4 Macro Topcor · Topcon 135mm f/4 Macro Topcor · Topcon 135mm f4 Macro · Topcon 135mm f/4 Macro · Topcon Macro 135mm f4 · Topcor Macro 135mm f/4 · Topcor Macro 135mm F4 · Topcon Topcor Macro 135mm f4 · 135mm f/4 Topcor Macro · 135mm f4 Topcor Macro · 135mm F4 Macro Topcor · 13.5cm f4 Macro-Topcor · 13.5cm F4 Macro Topcor · Tokyo Kogaku Macro Topcor 135mm f4 · Tokyo Kogaku Macro-Topcor 13.5cm f4 · Beseler Topcon Macro 135mm f4 · Beseler Topcor Macro 135mm f4 · マクロトプコール 135mm F4 · マクロトプコール 13.5cm F4 · マクロ トプコール 135mm F4 · マクロ トプコール 13.5cm F4 · トプコン マクロトプコール 135mm F4 · トプコン マクロトプコール 13.5cm F4 · トプコン Macro-Topcor 13.5cm F4 · トプコン Macro Topcor 135mm F4

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Macro-Topcor 1:4 f=13.5cm (bellows head) Exakta — — —
  1. Specifications. Three elements and an 18° field (Paillard, Maxifiche; the 1966 Beseler catalogue draws three separate elements, positive, negative, positive). Aperture f/4 to f/32 (Maxifiche; the scale on Kamerastore's example). 49 mm screw-in filter (Paillard, Maxifiche, Kamerastore); no source gives the thread pitch. No source gives the number of blades or the dimensions.
  2. Weight. Paillard prints 9 oz (268 g) and Beseler 9½ oz (about 270 g); Maxifiche gives 260 g, as does the RE300/RE200 instruction book's lens table. The page sets Paillard's 268 g.
  3. Magnification, as each source prints it. On Topcon's focusing (variable) extension tube: infinity to 0.2× (Paillard, which repeats it in the tube's own entry as infinity to '1:0.2'; Beseler, 'Inf. to 0.2X (1:1/5)'). On the Model IV bellows: infinity to '1 1x' in Paillard's text, which Maxifiche prints as infinity to 1.1× and Beseler's text as infinity to 1.1:1, while the table beside Beseler's text says 'Inf. to 1.2X (1:1 1/5)'. Paillard also says the lens 'gives best results when used at magnification of 1x to 8x', a range its own figures for the tube and bellows do not reach; the page repeats it only as printed.
  4. Diaphragm. Maxifiche: the diaphragm closes automatically and is re-cocked by hand; with the special focusing tube and a double cable release it works semi-automatically; exposure is measured stopped down (diaphragme réel). Paillard: stop-down exposure measurement, the diaphragm semi-automatic with the double cable release no. 83070. Beseler: accepts the double cable release BT-16. Topcon Club calls the 58mm and 135mm bellows heads automatic-preset (semi-automatic). Maxifiche says the variable extension tube passes no diaphragm coupling.
  5. Date. No source gives an introduction year. 1966 is the date of the earliest dated source that lists the lens, the Beseler Topcon catalogue (©CBC 1966). Topcon Club says Topcon's macro line was complete by the mid-1960s. Paillard's US catalogue, undated but listing the Super DM of 1973, still offers it.
  6. Bodies. The lens has no focusing mount and no body coupling: on every Topcon focal-plane body it is used on the variable extension tube or a bellows, and the diaphragm is worked by the lens's own button or a double cable release, not by the body. On the RE Super, Super D, Super DM and RE-2 the TTL meter reads it stopped down only (Paillard, Maxifiche). The R, RII (Automatic R), RIII and RS have no TTL metering, so exposure is measured with a hand-held or clip-on meter. The RE200 and RE300 of 1977–78 use the RE mount of the RE Super line (Topcon Club, FPslr5), and their own instruction book lists this lens in its table of Topcor lenses with a semi-automatic diaphragm and stop-down metering, for use with the variable extension tube or the Auto Bellows. All ten links are kept with those limits.
  7. Other bodies. Maxifiche says Exakta lenses with plain or manual-preset diaphragms mount on Topcon bodies without difficulty, but some Exakta automatic lenses with a bulky diaphragm mechanism, notably the Carl Zeiss Jena series of 1961–70, foul the outer ring of the Topcon bayonet; Angénieux automatics for Exakta fit. Topcon Club says the Topcon shutter button sits on the opposite side to the Exakta's, so lenses with a protruding preset arm lose that function when swapped between the two makes. No source describes this lens, or Topcon's tube and bellows, on an Ihagee Exakta; an owner on the MFlenses forum guesses it would work on any Exakta-mount bellows. Paillard's RE Macro Mount Adapter no. 83734 put 'RE Macro Topcor lenses' on the UV-mount IC-1, without infinity focus; it does not say whether that includes this lens.
  8. Price. Paillard Incorporated, Topcon's later US distributor, lists the lens with leather case as no. 80690 at US$109.20, against $105.35 for the Macro Topcor 58mm and $56.75 for the variable extension tube. The catalogue is undated; it lists the Super DM of 1973. These are list prices. The 1966 Beseler catalogue gives no prices, and no Japanese list price has been found. Kamerastore's €229 is a dealer's reference price for a used copy.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • No focusing ring and no distance scale: a long chrome head that focuses only on Topcon's variable extension tube or a bellows (Paillard; Maxifiche; Beseler; Topcon Club)
  • Named Macro-Topcor with no RE and no Auto, and an aperture scale that runs to f/32. The RE Auto-Topcor 135mm f/3.5 has its own helicoid, a built-in telescoping hood and an automatic diaphragm (Paillard, Beseler)
  • Not the UV Topcor 135mm f/4, a five-element telephoto that focuses on its own, with a built-in telescoping hood, made for the UV-mount IC-1 system (Paillard), and not the Leica-thread Topcor 13.5cm f/3.5
  • Exakta-type Topcon bayonet. Takes a bayonet hood, the same one as the RE Auto-Topcor 100mm f/2.8 (Topcon Club)

Macro-Topcor 1:4 f=13.5cm (bellows head):

  • Chrome barrel; the front ring is engraved Macro-Topcor 1:4 f=13.5cm, with Japan and the serial number on the same ring (Paillard's and Kamerastore's photographs)
  • Chrome aperture collar scaled 32, 22, 16, 11, 8, 5.6, 4, with dots between the stops from 16 to 4, a green index dot, a red mounting dot at the rear and a small push button on the side of the collar (Kamerastore's photograph)
  • A knurled ring above the aperture collar and a long plain tube in front of it; no focusing ring and no distance scale. The rear of the collar is engraved Lens made in Japan (Paillard's photograph)

Specifications

Formula
Triplet, three elements in three groups (+ − +), as Beseler's 1966 section drawing shows it
Construction
3 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/4–f/32
Weight
268 g
Filter
49 mm
Country
Japan
Original price
US$109.20 with leather case (Paillard Incorporated list price, catalogue no. 80690, undated; it lists the Super DM of 1973)

What reviewers say

Optical formula — Triplet, three elements in three groups (+ − +), as Beseler's 1966 section drawing shows it

History

The Macro Topcor 13.5cm f/4 is a long-focus lens head without a focusing mount, made by Tokyo Kogaku for close-up work with the Topcon focal-plane reflexes. It is the longest of the Macro Topcors, beside the 58mm f/3.5 bellows head, the RE Macro Auto-Topcor 58mm f/3.5 and the tiny 30mm f/3.5. It has no helicoid and no distance scale. On Topcon’s variable extension tube it focuses from infinity to 0.2×, and on the Model IV bellows from infinity to about life size. The catalogues give that figure as 1.1× (Paillard, Maxifiche and Beseler’s text) or 1.2× (the table in the same Beseler catalogue). The optics are a simple three-element triplet with an 18° field. Beseler’s 1966 catalogue draws the three separate elements. The aperture runs from f/4 to f/32, and the lens takes 49 mm filters. Paillard gives the weight as 9 oz (268 g), Beseler 9½ oz and Maxifiche, the French collectors’ sheet, 260 g.

Its date is not recorded. Topcon Club, the Japanese collectors’ site, says Topcon had completed its macro line by the mid-1960s. The earliest dated listing found is the Beseler Topcon lens catalogue of 1966, where it is the 135-mm. F/4 Topcor Macro, BT-396. In the United States, Paillard still listed it in the Super DM years (the catalogue is undated but includes the Super DM of 1973) as the Macro Topcor 135mm f/4.0 with leather case, at a list price of US$109.20. Paillard’s catalogue also says it gives its best results at “1x to 8x”, which its own figures for the tube and bellows do not reach. Topcon Club gives the most candid verdict. The longer focal length, against the 100mm and 105mm telephoto macros of other makers, is handy for insects and other subjects you cannot approach. But its rendering is a step behind the 58mm head: neither poor nor especially good for a macro lens. It takes a bayonet hood, the same one as the RE Auto-Topcor 100mm f/2.8. Topcon Club says no dedicated hood was offered for the other Macro Topcors.

The diaphragm is semi-automatic. Maxifiche describes it as closing automatically and being re-cocked by hand. With Topcon’s double cable release, one arm screwed into the camera’s shutter button and the other into the lens’s diaphragm release socket, Paillard says the diaphragm closes a brief instant before the shutter fires. Paillard describes a semi-automatic diaphragm release button on the 58mm head for working the aperture when the lens is not coupled to the camera; the small button on the side of this lens’s collar appears to be the same control. The variable extension tube passes no diaphragm coupling (Maxifiche) and the lens has no link to the body of its own, so it works the same way on every Topcon reflex. On the RE Super, Super D, Super DM and RE-2 the TTL meter reads it stopped down. On the R, RII, RIII and RS you need a hand-held or clip-on meter. The RE200 and RE300 keep the same mount, and their instruction book lists the lens with stop-down metering. Maxifiche says Exakta preset lenses fit Topcon bodies, and Topcon Club warns that the Topcon shutter button sits on the opposite side to the Exakta’s, so lenses with a protruding release arm do not work across the two makes. No source describes this lens or its tube on an Ihagee Exakta. The leaf-shutter Topcons (PR, Wink Mirror, Uni, Unirex, IC-1) take UV-mount lenses and do not take this one directly.

Only one version is known: a chrome lens engraved Macro-Topcor 1:4 f=13.5cm on the front ring, with an aperture collar scaled to f/32, a green index dot and a small button on the side. The known serial numbers begin 1130. Two other Topcon 135s are easily mistaken for it. The RE Auto-Topcor 135mm f/3.5 has a helicoid and a built-in telescoping hood. The UV Topcor 135mm f/4, despite the same aperture, is a five-element telephoto with its own focusing and a built-in hood for the IC-1 and the other UV-mount cameras (Paillard). Even Kamerastore’s specification table files this lens under Topcon UV, which the Beseler and Paillard catalogues contradict. On its own the lens focuses nowhere useful. One owner on the MFlenses forum found that stacked helicoids and extension tubes brought it only to about 4–5 m before the assembly became unsteady, so ask whether a variable extension tube or a bellows comes with it. Work the side button and check that the blades close to the set aperture and reopen when re-cocked. Check the glass for haze and the blades for oil.

Expand Collapse

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

More sample photos elsewhere

These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Macro Topcor 13.5cm (135mm) f/4? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

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

Sources (9)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, 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.