Rittron / Noritar 160mm f/4

Norita Kogaku · Norita 66 · 1969

single source, unconfirmed our own finding

Also known as: Noritar 160mm f/4 · Noritar 160mm f4 · Noritar 160mm F4 · Noritar 160/4 · NORITAR 1:4 f=160mm · Norita Kogaku Noritar 160mm f/4 · Norita Kogaku Noritar 160mm f4 · Norita 160mm f4 Noritar · Norita 160mm f/4 · Norita 66 160mm f/4 · Norita 66 Noritar 160mm · Graflex/Noritar 160mm F/4 · Graflex Noritar 160mm f/4 · Graflex Norita 160mm f/4 · MC Noritar 160mm f/4 · Rittron 160mm f/4 · ノリタール 160mm F4 · ノリタール160mmF4 · ノリタール 160ミリ F4 · ノリタ 160mm F4 · リトロン 160mm

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Rittron 160mm (for the Rittreck 6×6)	Rittreck / Norita 66 breech-lock	—	—	—
Noritar 160mm f/4 (1970, single-coated, metal focusing ring)	Norita 66	1970	—	—
MC Noritar 160mm f/4 (late, multicoated)	Norita 66	—	—	—

Construction (6 elements in 5 groups), aperture range (f/4–22), closest focus (2 m / 7 ft), angle of view (28° diagonal, 20° horizontal and vertical), filter (62 mm, pitch 0.75) and weight (650 g, 23 oz) are identical in the Graflex brochure (form 11143/1070), the early Norita manual and Norita's May 1972 brochure, and agree with Japanese Wikipedia (5群6枚), Topcon Club and the pentaconsix.com table. The diameter is 75.5 mm in the early manual and 76 mm in the 1972 brochure and in Topcon Club; the Graflex brochure's 7.55φ is a misprint. These are the single-coated Noritar's figures; none are published for the Rittron or the MC lens. No blade count was found.
Kamerastore's product page for this lens repeats the description and figures of the 80mm f/2 ('Fast normal lens', 6 elements in 4 groups, 0.85 m, 6 blades, 440 g). None of them is used here.
Dates. No source dates the Rittron 160. The Rittreck 6×6 went on sale in March 1968 (Hayata Camera). The undated Revue manual lists a 55–300 mm programme as in preparation. Hagiya (via English Wikipedia) places a 160 in the Rittreck range, and camera-wiki, also citing Hagiya, dates Musashino's failure to 1969; Hayata Camera gives trouble with the lens maker as the reason the Rittreck ended, without a year. The family year 1969 is this page's reading of that evidence, and 1968 cannot be ruled out. The Noritar's 1970 rests on the Graflex brochure form 11143/1070 (October 1970 if the code is month and year, as the 0572 on Norita's ©1972 brochure appears to be) and on the foreword of the later Norita Operator's Manual, which says 1970 was the year Norita introduced the camera; camera-wiki (citing Hagiya) and Japanese Wikipedia instead date the first exports to 1971. Norita stopped making cameras and left the consumer camera and lens business in 1976 (Japanese Wikipedia; camera-wiki citing Hagiya; English Wikipedia); Topcon Club gives 1977 as the last year the Norita 66 was sold. The single-coated Noritar's end date is left open, since the MC version appeared at the end of production. The MC lens is undated.
Price. ¥34,000 list and ¥31,000 tax-free (免税) for 「ノリタール160ミリF4 フィルターサイズ62φネジ込」 on an undated Norita Kogaku price list (価格表), sold with a Japanese Norita 66 catalogue printed 0572 and read here from that Yahoo! Auctions lot's photographs. The list is photographed at an angle and its figures do not line up with their labels, so the rows were checked by order and by the tax-free ratio, which is the same for every lens (about 0.91). The TTL metering finder on the same list also happens to cost ¥34,000 / ¥31,000. The year 1972 is inferred from the catalogue and from the start of Japanese sales that year. No US price was found.
Two claims rest on one source each: the Rittron's f/4 aperture and RITTRON 1:4 f=160mm engraving (lens-db alone), and the MC 160's description (the pentaconsix.com author's own lens). The single-source flag on this page is for those claims.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Three names on one focal length: RITTRON (the Rittreck era, reported but not photographed), NORITAR 1:4 f=160mm (single-coated, metal focusing ring) and MC NORITAR (late, rubber focusing ring). The Noritar is an f/4–22 lens with a 62 mm × 0.75 filter thread; no figures are published for the Rittron or the MC version
Breech-lock mount with the locking collar on the lens. It fits the Norita 66, the Graflex Norita and the Rittreck 6×6
Closest focus 2 m (7 ft); 108 mm long and 650 g. The diaphragm is automatic, with manual stop-down through the depth-of-field preview ring and equidistant stops
Not the Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 that Norita also made, for Zenza Bronica: Topcon Club says Norita built the 160 separately from that 6-group, 6-element lens

Rittron 160mm (for the Rittreck 6×6):

Sold under the Rittron name, not Noritar (Topcon Club). lens-db gives the engraving as RITTRON 1:4 f=160mm, but no photograph of an example has been found to confirm how the barrel is engraved
Same breech-lock mount as the Norita 66: after listing small differences between the Rittreck 6×6 and the Norita 66, Topcon Club finds them functionally the same 「マウントも含めて」 (including the mount)
On the Rittron 80mm the depth-of-field preview ring sits behind the aperture ring and is turned slightly to stop down; on the Noritar it moved nearer the mount (Topcon Club). No source says whether the Rittron 160 had the same layout

Noritar 160mm f/4 (1970, single-coated, metal focusing ring):

Front ring engraved NORITAR 1:4 f=160mm, with no MC prefix, followed by a number that is presumably the serial: so it reads on the lens in Norita's 1972 brochure and on the Kamerastore example, and the early Norita manual's photograph shows the NORITAR name in the same place. The front ring of the lens in Topcon Club's photograph also carries NORITA KOGAKU JAPAN
All-metal focusing ring with flat knurled grip sections; aperture ring at the front of the barrel, f/4 to f/22; distance scale in feet and metres to 7 ft / 2 m, the depth-of-field scale behind it and the breech-lock collar at the rear (manual and brochure photographs). On the example photographed for Kamerastore's listing the aperture figures, feet scale and depth-of-field marks are filled in orange and the metre scale in white
Graflex listed it for the Graflex Norita as 'The Norita NORITAR 160 Lens' (Graflex brochure, form 11143/1070). The Graflex name appears on caps, such as the GRAFLEX NORITAR front cap in Topcon Club's photograph, and no barrel engraved Graflex is known

MC Noritar 160mm f/4 (late, multicoated):

Labelled MC, with a diamond-grid rubber focusing ring in place of the metal one: so the pentaconsix.com author describes the 160mm Noritar he acquired in 2006
No photograph of an MC 160 was found. On the MC 55 in Mike Eckman's photograph the front ring reads MC NORITAR with the MC in red; that the 160 carries the same form is likely but unconfirmed

Rittron 160mm (for the Rittreck 6×6): Norita made the telephoto for Musashino Kōki's Rittreck 6×6 before it took the camera over. Hagiya Takeshi, as cited by English Wikipedia, says Norita made the Rittreck's prism and its three lenses (wide, standard and tele), and that the Rittreck's 55/80/160 mm set became the 40/55/80/160/240/400 mm range of the Norita 66. Topcon Club says that besides the standard lens Norita supplied 55mm and 160mm Rittron lenses. The undated German manual for the Revue Rittreck Six names only the Rittron 80mm f/2, mentions a super-wide-angle lens in development, and says a lens programme from 55 mm to 300 mm was in preparation. Sylvain Halgand's collection-appareils page reports Rittreck adverts for teles of 150, 200 and 300 mm, with no 160; that report is unconfirmed and does not match Hagiya or Topcon Club. The f/4 aperture rests on lens-db alone. No source gives the Rittron 160's date, price or specifications, or says whether its optics are those of the Noritar.
Noritar 160mm f/4 (1970, single-coated, metal focusing ring): This is the lens Norita's literature describes. The Graflex Norita 66 brochure (form 11143/1070) and the early Norita Operating Manual, with its Itabashi address and five lenses, both give 6 elements in 5 groups, f/4–22, 7 ft (2.0 m), 28° diagonal and 20° across, a 62 mm P0.75 filter and 23.0 oz / 650 g. The manual gives the size as 108 mm × 75.5φ; the Graflex brochure prints 108mm × 7.55φ, a misplaced decimal point. Norita's May 1972 brochure lists it as Cat. No. 2005 at 76φ × 108 mm with every other figure unchanged. Both brochures call it 'a NEW design of a most frequently used lens' whose edge chromatic aberration, 'a characteristic flaw in teletype lenses', had been eliminated. Neither says whether new means different from the Rittron 160. Amateur Photographer reviewed the 160 with the 40, 55 and 240mm lenses on 3 November 1971, a week after its test of the body; this is known only from the pentaconsix.com summary. The pentaconsix.com author says that none of the lenses was multicoated when he was looking at the system in the mid-to-late 1970s. Topcon Club calls the 160 MC-coated, but the example in its own small photograph appears to have the knurled metal focusing ring of this version.
MC Noritar 160mm f/4 (late, multicoated): Selmar Meents told pentaconsix.com in December 2005 that his two multicoated 40mm lenses were marked as such and had diamond-grid rubber focusing rings in place of the metal ones of the single-coated version, that other owners reported MC 240mm and 55mm lenses, and that these lenses were probably made in small numbers at the end of the Norita 66's production. He did not mention a 160. The pentaconsix.com author then bought an MC-labelled 160 in 2006 and describes the same rubber ring on it. A collector's wanted post on MFlenses in July 2024 names the 160 among the MC Noritars sought. A Rangefinder Forum post calls the late multicoated 55, 80 and 160 lenses improvements on the originals. No Norita catalogue, manual or price list consulted lists an MC lens, and no date, price or production figure was found.

Specifications

Construction: 6 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range: f/4–f/22
Min. focus: 2 m
Dimensions: 76 × 108 mm
Weight: 650 g
Filter: 62 mm (0.75 mm pitch)
Years manufactured: 1969–1976
Country: Japan
Coating: Single-coated on the Noritar (pentaconsix.com); multicoated on the late MC Noritar. Topcon Club calls the 160 MC-coated without separating the versions. The Rittron's coating is not recorded
Original price: ¥34,000 (¥31,000 tax-free) on an undated Norita Kogaku price list sold with a Japanese catalogue printed ©1972 (0572); the same list prices the 55mm at ¥33,200, the 80mm f/2 standard lens at ¥25,200 and the 240mm at ¥56,200. No US price found. (today ¥107,000)

What reviewers say

Topcon Club (Norita Club 2) (blog) — A 5-group, 6-element medium tele of 28°, about a 90 mm in 35 mm terms, that at 76 × 108 mm and 650 g weighs hardly more than the 40mm. The writer finds it an easy lens to carry for casual shooting and notes that it still turns up often on the American used market. He gives no verdict on its image quality.

Optical formula

No cross-section found. The Graflex brochure, the early Norita manual and the May 1972 Norita brochure give only the element and group count, 6 in 5, and Topcon Club and Japanese Wikipedia add nothing beyond it. No Norita Kogaku telephoto patent has been found.

History

The 160mm f/4 was the medium telephoto of the Norita 66 system, exactly twice the standard 80mm. Graflex and Norita literature both sell it as “2 X magnification over the standard 80mm lens”, and Topcon Club notes that Norita chose its focal lengths as multiples of the 80, with the 240 at three times. On the 6×6 frame it covers 28° on the diagonal and 20° across, about a 90 mm lens in 35 mm terms. Its figures stayed the same from the Graflex brochure (form 11143/1070, probably October 1970) and the undated early Norita manual to Norita’s 1972 brochure, which gives it catalogue number 2005: 6 elements in 5 groups, f/4 to f/22, closest focus 2 m (7 ft), a 62 mm screw-in filter, 108 mm long and 650 g. Only the diameter moves, from 75.5 mm to 76 mm, and the Graflex brochure misprints it as 7.55. On the Japanese price list sold with the 1972 catalogue it cost ¥34,000, a little more than the 55mm wide angle and well under the ¥56,200 of the 240mm.

The focal length is older than the Norita 66. Norita made the Rittreck 6×6’s lenses for Musashino Kōki before it took the camera over, and Hagiya Takeshi’s account, as cited by English Wikipedia, gives the Rittreck a 55/80/160 mm set. Topcon Club confirms that Norita supplied a 160mm Rittron as well as the 55 and 80. When the Rittron 160 appeared is not recorded: the undated Revue Rittreck Six manual still lists a 55–300 mm programme as in preparation, and a French collector site reports Rittreck adverts for 150, 200 and 300 mm teles that no other source consulted names. The family year of 1969 used here is an inference. The Rittron’s f/4 and its RITTRON engraving rest on lens-db alone. Both the Graflex and the Norita brochures call the Noritar 160 “a NEW design”, with edge colour fringing eliminated, but neither says whether that marks a change from the Rittron or is advertising copy. Topcon Club adds that Norita built the 160 separately from the Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 it made for Zenza Bronica, a 6-element, 6-group lens, and suggests Norita wanted to keep its own line at f/4.

The Noritar exists in two forms. The usual one is single-coated, with NORITAR 1:4 f=160mm on the front ring and a knurled metal focusing ring. A late MC Noritar is labelled MC and has a diamond-grid rubber focusing ring; the pentaconsix.com author bought one in 2006, and Selmar Meents, writing to him about MC 40mm lenses, said such lenses were probably made in small numbers at the end of production. No photograph of an MC 160 was found. The coating record is not clean: Topcon Club calls the 160 MC-coated, but the lens in its small photograph appears to have the metal ring of the ordinary version, and the pentaconsix.com author says none of the lenses was multicoated when he looked at the system in the mid-to-late 1970s. Singer’s Graflex division sold it with the Graflex Norita in the United States and Canada, and Adorama still lists it as “Graflex/Noritar”; the Graflex name is on the caps, not the barrel. Verdicts are thin and split. Amateur Photographer tested the 160 with the 40, 55 and 240 in November 1971, and pentaconsix.com sums up those tests as finding many of the lenses soft at the wider apertures and prone to flare, without naming which. Of two Norita 66 owners commenting under Aivaras Sidla’s EMULSIVE review, one, Alex, says the 160 “leaves a lot to desire performance wise”, while Pere calls it “an excellent lens too” if less special than the 80. Sidla owns one but has not shot it. Norita’s own claim was good close-up performance with the aperture slightly closed.

When buying, read the front ring and ignore dealer specification tables: Kamerastore’s page for this lens carries the 80mm’s figures, so a listing quoting 440 g, 0.85 m or 6 elements in 4 groups is describing the wrong lens. The MC engraving and the rubber ring are the only reported signs of the late version. The diaphragm is automatic, worked by a pin that moves sideways in the mount, as pentaconsix.com describes, and pushing up the depth-of-field preview ring next to the lens locking ring, as the later Norita manual describes, closes it by hand: a quick test of the blades. For close work Norita’s auto extension tubes accept the 160, but pentaconsix.com found the double-walled tubes heavy, prone to friction and liable not to stop the lens down in time. The original hood (Cat. No. 1017) is shared with the 55 and 80 and is pulled forward for this lens. The lens fits every Norita 66, every Graflex Norita and the Rittreck 6×6, whose mount Topcon Club finds no different.

Several points are left open by the sources consulted here: the Rittron’s aperture, engraving, date and optics; whether the “NEW design” of 1970 differs from the Rittron; the date, price, engraving and production of the MC version; the blade count; any serial range; and any US list price. Hagiya’s chapter and the Amateur Photographer tests were not read directly.

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

Topcon Club (Norita Club 2): a metal-ring Noritar 160mm f/4 with a GRAFLEX NORITAR front cap

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

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Rittron / Noritar 160mm f/4? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

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