Macro Topcor 30mm f/3.5

Variants & identification

1. Mount. Paillard calls it a special screw mount that interchanges with a microscope objective, so a microscope can be used as the focusing connector; Maxifiche says the thread is identical to that of microscope objectives and the lens can go straight onto a microscope tube. Topcon Club's test report gives it as the 20.32 mm JIS/DIN microscope thread, 'what is now called RMS'. The lens reaches a camera only through Topcon's MT-1 (a flat disc) or MT-2 (a cone, shaped so that lights can reach the subject at close range), which carry the Topcon bayonet; neither has a helicoid. Paillard lists the lens with both adapters and a wooden case.
2. Magnification, as each source prints it. Paillard's lens entry: computed for 2× to 12×, best resolution at 3× to 5×, 2× to 3× on the Variable Extension Tube no. 83090 and 2× to 12× on the Model IV bellows no. 83010; the same catalogue's tube entry reads '1:2 to 1·7 for 30mm lens'. Maxifiche: 2× to 7× in its table, 2× to 10× in its text. Topcon Club's lens page: up to 9× with a bellows. Topcon Club's test report: 1× with MT-1 alone on the camera, 3× with MT-2, recommended 2× to 5×, and up to 9× with MT-2 and the bellows. The IC-1 instruction manual, for that camera through its RE Mount Adapter: 1.6× with MT-1 (0.18 m), 2.6–7.6× with MT-1 and the Model IV bellows, 3.6× with MT-2 (0.13 m) and 4.6–9.6× with MT-2 and the bellows; it gives MT-1 as 5.8 mm thick and MT-2 as 65 mm. No single figure is set on this page.
3. Diaphragm. Paillard calls it pre-set; Maxifiche calls it a click diaphragm (cranté); Topcon Club calls it a plain manual diaphragm (普通絞り), unlike the semi-automatic 58mm and 135mm bellows heads. The aperture runs f/3.5 to f/16 (Maxifiche, Topcon Club; the scale in Paillard's photograph). Metering is stopped down (Paillard; Maxifiche: diaphragme réel).
4. Construction and coverage. Six elements per Paillard and Maxifiche. Topcon Club's test report says Topcon first announced a five-element, four-group design, and that by the time it went on sale around 1967 it had become six elements in four groups; it is the only source for the groups. Angle of view: 70° (Paillard) or 20°30' at 3× (Maxifiche). Filter 22.5 mm and weight 52 g (1.8 oz) in both Paillard and Maxifiche; no thread pitch is given. Both weights are for the lens as listed, and Topcon Club says the black aluminium lens is much lighter than the brass one, so the 52 g is likely to be the chrome lens's.
5. Date. Topcon Club's test report says the lens went on sale around 1967 (67年頃の発売時), and in the same report that it appeared in the mid-1960s, a while after the RE Super; its Topcor lenses page says Topcon's macro line was complete by the mid-1960s. Beseler's US lens catalogue of 1966 lists the 58mm and 135mm Macro Topcors but not this lens. The page sets 1967. No end date found.
6. Finish dates. Topcon Club's two pages disagree. The Topcor lenses page pairs the finishes with the metals (chrome brass, black aluminium) and dates the black lens from 1972. The test report says the barrel changed to aluminium in the 1970s and that a few black lenses followed in the Super DM era, which leaves room for a chrome aluminium lens. No such lens has been photographed or described, so it is not a variant here.
7. Bodies. The lens has no diaphragm coupling, so it works the same on every Topcon focal-plane reflex through MT-1 or MT-2: focused and metered at the taking aperture. Paillard gives stop-down exposure measurement, and Topcon Club, which tested the lens on a Super DM, says a TTL meter removes the need to work out the effective aperture but that at high magnification the built-in CdS meter may often not cope. That fits the RE Super, Super D and Super DM. The RE-2 also has a TTL meter, but Topcon Club says it has no stop-down lever and couples its meter through a sliding resistor; the lens has a plain manual diaphragm, so the meter reads at whatever aperture is set, and the Maxifiche's lens table gives metering at the working aperture for all three Macro Topcors, though the RE-2's instruction book names only the 58mm and 135mm for that body. The R, RII, RIII and RS have no TTL metering, so exposure is found with a separate meter and the effective aperture: Topcon Club gives it as the set f-number times the magnification plus one (f/3.5 at 9× works as f/35). The RE200 and RE300 keep the RE mount (Topcon Club, FPslr5), and their own instruction book lists this lens in its table of Topcor lenses with a manual diaphragm and stop-down metering. All ten links are kept with those limits.
8. Focusing screens. Topcon Club says the split-image and microprism centres of the RE Super's standard screen black out at these magnifications with the lens stopped down by hand, and recommends an all-matte or cross-line matte screen. It also notes that at the highest magnifications the mirror vignettes the image, as with very long lenses.
9. Other cameras. Topcon Club says many users adapted the lens's adapters to fit other makers' cameras, because for some time no other Japanese maker offered such a lens. No source describes the MT-1 or MT-2 on an Ihagee Exakta; Topcon Club notes that Topcon's release sits on the opposite side to Exakta's, which matters only for lenses with a release arm, and this lens has none. The IC-1 instruction manual shows the lens on the IC-1, a camera outside this catalogue's scope, through Topcon's RE Mount Adapter.
10. ⁰ Price. Paillard Incorporated, Topcon's later US distributor, lists the lens with MT1 and MT2 adapters and wooden case as no. 80670 at US$111.00, against $105.35 for the Macro Topcor 58mm and $109.20 for the 135mm. It is a list price; the catalogue is undated but lists the Super DM of 1973. No Japanese list price has been found.

• Macro-Topcor 30mm f/3.5, chrome (brass barrel): The usual version, and the one Paillard photographs in its US catalogue. Topcon Club describes it as plated brass, and complains that the bright plated filter ring is large against the small front element, and that the crowded white lettering on the black name ring can cause reflections; it suggests fitting a matt black ring over the front. Topcon Club gives two accounts of when the barrel changed, set out in the table notes. No serial range or production figure has been found.
• Macro-Topcor 30mm f/3.5, black (aluminium barrel): A late version, which Topcon Club calls very rare. Its Topcor lenses page dates the black lens to 1972 or later (72年以降に作られたもの) and says it differs from the chrome one in material, not just colour: aluminium rather than brass. The coating was also changed, and Topcon Club suggests the greenish coating may be a multi-coating, which it does not confirm. Its macro test report instead says the barrel became aluminium in the 1970s and that a small number of black lenses were made in the Super DM era (from 1973). The only example traced is the one Topcon Club photographs.

Specifications

Formula

Six elements in four groups

Construction

6 elements / 4 groups

Aperture range

f/3.5–f/16

Weight

52 g

Filter

22.5 mm

Years manufactured

1967

Country

Japan

Original price

US$111.00 with MT1 and MT2 adapters and wooden case (Paillard Incorporated list price, catalogue no. 80670, undated; it lists the Super DM of 1973)

What reviewers say

• Topcon Club (blog) — Photographed a 2,000-yen note at f/5.6 with MT-2 and the Model IV bellows on a Super DM: sharp and contrasty, with good colour and almost no corner falloff or smearing, though some peripheral drift can appear with some subjects; needs a matte screen at high magnification. 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 Macro Topcor 30mm f/3.5? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

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