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

Macro Topcor 5.8cm (58mm) f/3.5

Topcon · Exakta · 1966

via machine translation — corrections welcome our own finding

Also known as: Macro Topcor 58mm f/3.5 · Macro Topcor 58mm f3.5 · Macro Topcor 58mm F3.5 · Macro-Topcor 58mm f3.5 · Macro-Topcor 58mm f/3.5 · Macro Topcor 5.8cm f3.5 · Macro Topcor 5.8cm f/3.5 · Macro-Topcor 5.8cm f3.5 · Macro-Topcor 5.8cm F3.5 · Macro Topcor 1:3.5 f=58mm · Macro-Topcor 1:3.5 f=5.8cm · Macro Topcor 3.5/58 · Macro Topcor 58mm 1:3.5 · Topcon Macro Topcor 58mm f3.5 · Topcon Macro Topcor 58mm f/3.5 · Topcon Macro-Topcor 58mm f3.5 · Topcon Macro Topcor 5.8cm f3.5 · Topcon 5.8cm f3.5 Macro-Topcor · Topcon 5.8cm f3.5 Macro Topcor · Topcon 58mm f3.5 Macro Topcor · Topcon 58mm f/3.5 Macro Topcor · Topcon 58mm f3.5 Macro-Topcor · Topcor Macro 58mm f/3.5 · Topcor Macro 58mm F3.5 · Topcon Topcor Macro 58mm f3.5 · 58mm f/3.5 Topcor Macro · 58mm f3.5 Topcor Macro · 58mm F3.5 Macro Topcor · 5.8cm f3.5 Macro-Topcor · 5.8cm F3.5 Macro Topcor · Tokyo Kogaku Macro Topcor 58mm f3.5 · Tokyo Kogaku Macro-Topcor 5.8cm f3.5 · Beseler Topcon Macro 58mm f3.5 · Beseler Topcor Macro 58mm f3.5 · マクロトプコール 58mm F3.5 · マクロトプコール 5.8cm F3.5 · マクロ トプコール 58mm F3.5 · マクロ トプコール 5.8cm F3.5 · トプコン マクロトプコール 58mm F3.5 · トプコン マクロトプコール 5.8cm F3.5 · トプコン Macro-Topcor 5.8cm F3.5 · トプコン Macro Topcor 58mm F3.5

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Macro-Topcor 1:3.5 f=5.8cm (bellows head) Exakta — — —
  1. Specifications. Five elements and a 41° field (Maxifiche, Paillard; the 1966 Beseler catalogue draws five elements). Aperture f/3.5 to f/22 (Maxifiche; the scale on Kamerastore's example). 49 mm screw-in filter (Maxifiche, Paillard, Beseler); no source gives the thread pitch. Eight blades and 54 × 62 mm are Kamerastore's listed figures, the only source found for either.
  2. Weight conflict. Paillard prints 4 oz (120 g) and Beseler 4¼ oz (about 120 g); Maxifiche gives 140 g and Kamerastore lists 142 g. The page sets the two period catalogues' 120 g. No source explains the 20 g difference.
  3. Magnification, as each source prints it. Paillard: best results at 0.1×; infinity to '1:0.5' on the Variable Extension Tube no. 83090 (whose own entry gives infinity to 0.5× for the 58mm lens, at 29–59 mm extension) and infinity to '1:2.5' on the Model IV bellows. Beseler: infinity to 0.5:1 in the Focusing Extension Tube (BT-82); in bellows the text says infinity to 2.5:1 but the table beside it says Inf. to 3.0X (1:3). Maxifiche: infinity to 2.5×, to be used on the focusing extension tube or the Model III and IV bellows, with infinity reached on the tube. The page keeps 0.5× on the tube and 2.5× to 3× on the bellows open.
  4. Diaphragm. Maxifiche calls it semi-automatic: the diaphragm closes automatically and is re-cocked by hand, and with the special focusing tube and a double cable release it works semi-automatically; exposure is measured stopped down (diaphragme réel). Paillard: semi-automatic with the double cable release no. 83070, with a release button on the lens for aperture control when it is not coupled to the camera. Beseler calls it pre-set. Topcon Club calls the 58mm and 135mm bellows heads automatic-preset (semi-automatic). Maxifiche says the Variable Extension Tube passes no diaphragm coupling, and Paillard describes the double cable release as screwing into the shutter button and into the diaphragm release socket of the Macro Topcor lens.
  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), and is only a catalogue date: Topcon Club puts this lens before the RE Macro Auto-Topcor, whose instruction booklet names the RE-2 of 1965, so it may well be older. Topcon Club says Topcon's macro line was complete by the mid-1960s and that the RE Macro Auto-Topcor 58mm f/3.5 came out a little after this lens; it says both were sold side by side in the mid-1960s and the late-1960s Japanese catalogue kept only the RE Macro. Paillard's US catalogue, undated but listing the Super DM of 1973, still offers both.
  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 (Maxifiche: stop-down measurement). 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 instruction book lists the Macro Topcor 30mm f/3.5 and 135mm f/4, worked the same way, with stop-down metering, but not this 58mm head, which Topcon Club says the late-1960s Japanese catalogue had already dropped; stop-down use is expected but not stated. All ten links are kept with those limits. The lens does not mount directly on the UV-mount IC-1; Paillard says that with its RE Macro Mount Adapter (no. 83734) the IC-1 takes 'RE Auto Topcor, RE Macro Auto Topcor and RE Macro Topcor lenses' with the Variable Extension Tube, the Model IV bellows and the double cable release, but does not name this lens; it adds that the adapter's slight extension stops RE lenses focusing at infinity.
  7. Ihagee Exakta bodies. Maxifiche says Exakta lenses with plain or manual-preset diaphragms mount on Topcon bodies without difficulty, but Exakta automatic lenses with a large diaphragm mechanism, notably the Carl Zeiss Jena lenses of 1961–70, foul the Topcon bayonet ring. Topcon Club says Topcon put its release on the opposite side to Exakta's, so lenses with an external release arm lose that function when swapped between the two makes. No source describes this lens, or Topcon's extension tube and bellows, on an Ihagee Exakta.
  8. Price. Paillard Incorporated, Topcon's later US distributor, lists the lens with leather case as no. 80680 at US$105.35, against $173.80 for the RE Macro Auto-Topcor 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 €259 is a dealer's asking price for a used copy (the listing now shows it sold out).
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • No focusing ring and no distance scale: a short head that focuses only on Topcon's Variable Extension Tube or a bellows (Paillard; Maxifiche; Kamerastore)
  • Named Macro-Topcor with no RE and no Auto. The RE Macro Auto-Topcor 58mm f/3.5 has its own focusing mount (infinity to 0.5× without accessories), a fully automatic diaphragm and full-aperture metering, and weighs 260 g by Paillard's figure or 250 g by Maxifiche's (Paillard, Maxifiche)
  • Not the Macro Topcor 30mm f/3.5 (a tiny microscope-thread lens in a wooden case with MT-1 and MT-2 adapters) or the Macro Topcor 135mm f/4 (Kamerastore titles it 13.5cm f4 Macro Topcor)
  • Exakta-type Topcon bayonet. Not a UV-mount lens for the leaf-shutter Topcons and not a Leica-thread Topcor

Macro-Topcor 1:3.5 f=5.8cm (bellows head):

  • Black front ring engraved Macro-Topcor 1:3.5 f=5.8cm (Kamerastore's photograph); the 1966 Beseler catalogue's photograph shows Tokyo Kogaku Japan and a serial number (1010001) on the same ring
  • Chrome aperture ring scaled 3.5, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, with a ribbed tab on the ring, a green index dot and a red dot beside the scale, and a small push button on the side of the chrome collar (Kamerastore's photograph)
  • Behind the chrome collar, a narrow black rear tube and no focusing ring or distance scale at all

Specifications

Construction
5 elements
Aperture range
f/3.5–f/22
Diaphragm blades
8
Weight
120 g
Filter
49 mm
Country
Japan
Original price
US$105.35 with leather case (Paillard Incorporated list price, catalogue no. 80680, undated; it lists the Super DM of 1973)

What reviewers say

No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.

Optical formula

History

The Macro Topcor 5.8cm f/3.5 is a lens head without a focusing mount, made by Tokyo Kogaku for close-up work with the Topcon focal-plane reflexes. It has no helicoid and no distance scale. It was meant to sit on Topcon’s Variable Extension Tube, which takes it from infinity to half life size, or on the Model III or IV bellows for greater magnification. Paillard’s US catalogue says it is designed for its best results at 0.1× and equals the standard lens at infinity, and suggests it for general shooting, enlarging and projection as well. The period catalogues give five elements, a 41° field, a 49 mm filter thread and f/3.5 to f/22. Paillard and Beseler give the weight as 4 oz and 4¼ oz (about 120 g), while Maxifiche, the French collectors’ sheet, gives 140 g and Kamerastore lists 142 g.

Its date is not recorded. Topcon Club, the Japanese collectors’ site, says Topcon had completed its macro line by the mid-1960s and that this lens came first, with the RE Macro Auto-Topcor 58mm f/3.5 following a little later. In its words the bellows head on the variable tube looks like a single lens, and the RE Macro is that combination made into one. The Beseler Topcon lens catalogue of 1966 lists this lens as the 58mm f/3.5 Topcor Macro but not the RE Macro. Topcon Club says the two were sold side by side in the mid-1960s and that the late-1960s Japanese catalogue kept only the RE Macro. In the United States, Paillard still listed both in a catalogue of 1973 or later, this one with leather case at US$105.35 against $173.80 for the RE Macro. Those are US list prices. The catalogues disagree on the reach with the bellows: Paillard and Beseler’s text say 2.5×, the table in the same Beseler catalogue says 3×, and Maxifiche says 2.5×.

The diaphragm is semi-automatic. Maxifiche describes it as closing automatically and being re-cocked by hand. Topcon’s double cable release screws into the camera’s shutter button and into a socket on the lens, so the lens stops down an instant before the shutter fires. Paillard adds a release button on the lens for working the aperture when it is not coupled to the camera. Maxifiche says the Variable Extension Tube passes no diaphragm coupling from the body, so the camera plays no part in working the diaphragm. 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 meter with a hand-held or clip-on meter. The RE200 and RE300 keep the same mount; their instruction book lists the 30mm and 135mm Macro Topcors with stop-down metering but not this lens. Maxifiche says Exakta preset lenses fit Topcon bodies, and Topcon Club warns that Topcon’s release sits on the opposite side to Exakta’s, but no source describes this lens or its tube on an Ihagee Exakta. It does not mount directly on the UV-mount Topcons (the leaf-shutter PR, Wink Mirror, Uni and Unirex, and the IC-1). Paillard offered an RE Macro Mount Adapter that let the IC-1 take RE lenses, ‘RE Macro Topcor lenses’, the Variable Extension Tube and the bellows, at the cost of infinity focus for RE lenses, but it does not name this lens.

Only one version is known: a chrome lens with a black front ring, which Topcon Club, Beseler and Kamerastore all photograph. Kamerastore’s example is engraved Macro-Topcor 1:3.5 f=5.8cm. It has a chrome aperture ring with a ribbed tab, a green index dot, a small button on the side of the collar, and a narrow black tube behind. Listings mix it up with its siblings. The RE Macro Auto-Topcor 58mm f/3.5 has its own focusing mount, focuses to half life size without accessories, and is about twice as heavy. The Macro Topcor 30mm f/3.5 is a tiny microscope-thread lens in a wooden case, and the Macro Topcor 135mm f/4 is the third bellows head. The lens is little use without a tube or bellows, so ask whether Topcon’s Variable Extension Tube (29–59 mm) 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, and check the glass for haze and the blades for oil.

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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.

Example photos

More sample photos elsewhere

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Macro Topcor 5.8cm (58mm) f/3.5? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $230 across 4 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-09 (middle half $200–$330). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

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

Sources (8)

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.