Rittron / Noritar 55mm f/4

Norita Kogaku · Norita 66 · 1969 · Retrofocus

single source, unconfirmed our own finding

Also known as: Noritar 55mm f/4 · Noritar 55mm f4 · Noritar 55mm F4 · Noritar 55/4 · NORITAR 1:4 f=55mm · Norita Kogaku Noritar 55mm f/4 · Norita Kogaku Noritar 55mm f4 · Norita 55mm f4 Noritar · Norita 55mm f/4 · Norita 66 55mm f/4 · Graflex Noritar 55mm f/4 · Graflex Norita 55mm f/4 · MC Noritar 55mm f/4 · Rittron 55mm f/4 · ノリタール 55mm F4 · ノリタール55mmF4 · ノリタール 55ミリ F4 · ノリタ 55mm F4 · リトロン 55mm

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Rittron 55mm (for the Rittreck 6×6)	Rittreck / Norita 66 breech-lock	—	—	—
Noritar 55mm f/4 (1970, single-coated, metal focusing ring)	Norita 66	1970	—	—
MC Noritar 55mm f/4 (late, multicoated)	Norita 66	—	—	—

Construction conflict. The Graflex brochure (form 11143/1070) and the early Norita Operating Manual give 9 elements in 9 groups, and pentaconsix.com's table repeats 9/9. Norita's May 1972 brochure table gives 6 groups / 9 elements, as do Japanese Wikipedia (6群9枚) and Topcon Club (6群9枚のレトロフォーカス). This page follows the later maker table. The retrofocus description is Topcon Club's alone.
Aperture range, closest focus, angle of view (70° diagonal, 54° horizontal and vertical), filter (62 mm, pitch 0.75), size (76 mm × 62 mm) and weight (390 g) are identical in all three period documents: the Graflex brochure, the early manual and the 1972 brochure. The weight is 13.75 oz in the first two and 13 2/3 oz in the last. These are the plain Noritar's figures; none are published for the Rittron or the MC lens. No blade count was found.
Dates. No source dates the Rittron 55. 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 places a 55 in the Rittreck range before Musashino gave the camera up, which camera-wiki dates to 1969. 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 it follows Norita's month-year codes) and on Norita's later manual ('1970 was the year NORITA introduced the first eye-level "midformat" camera'); the early manual, which lists the 55, is undated. Against that, camera-wiki and Japanese Wikipedia date the export launch of the camera to 1971 and Japanese sales to 1972. The 1972 brochure's code 0572 is read here, on the same month-year pattern, as May 1972. Norita left the consumer camera and lens business in 1976 (Japanese Wikipedia); Topcon Club gives 1977 as the last year the Norita 66 was sold. The MC lens is undated.
Price. ¥33,200 list and ¥30,300 tax-free (免税), for 「ノリタール55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). The list was sold with a Japanese Norita 66 catalogue printed ©1972 NORITA 0572 and was read from that Yahoo! Auctions lot's photographs. The slant of the printed rows was checked against the outfit total: body ¥71,400 + pentaprism ¥12,000 + Noritar 80mm ¥25,200 = ¥108,600. The year 1972 is inferred from the catalogue and from the start of Japanese sales that year. No US price for the 55 was found.
The Rittron's f/4 aperture and its RITTRON 1:4 f=55mm engraving rest on one source, lens-db. The single-source flag on this page is for that claim.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Three names on one focal length: RITTRON (the Rittreck era, reported but not photographed), NORITAR 1:4 f=55mm (plain) and MC NORITAR 1:4 f=55mm (late). The f/4–22 range and 62 mm × 0.75 filter thread are the plain Noritar's published figures; none are published for the Rittron or the MC lens
Easily confused with the Noritar 80mm f/2. The 1972 brochure gives both as 76 mm × 62 mm with a 62 mm filter, and Topcon Club calls them close enough in size to mistake one for the other. Read the f= figure on the front ring
Breech-lock mount with the locking collar on the lens. It fits the Norita 66, the Graflex Norita and the Rittreck 6×6
Focuses to 0.45 m (1.5 ft). The diaphragm is automatic with manual control (Norita's lens tables). The early manual puts the depth-of-field preview ring on the lens, next to the locking ring, but names only the 80mm

Rittron 55mm (for the Rittreck 6×6):

Engraved RITTRON in place of NORITAR: lens-db gives the original name as RITTRON 1:4 f=55mm, but no photograph of an example has been found to confirm it
Same breech-lock mount as the Norita 66: Topcon Club finds no functional difference between the Rittreck 6×6 and the Norita 66 「マウントも含めて」 (including the mount)
On the Rittron 80mm the stop-down ring sits behind the aperture ring, and the Noritar 80 moved it nearer the mount (Topcon Club). No source says whether the Rittron 55 had the same layout

Noritar 55mm f/4 (1970, single-coated, metal focusing ring):

Front ring engraved NORITAR 1:4 f=55mm and NORITA KOGAKU JAPAN with the serial number, and no MC prefix. Seen in full on serial 4081353 in Aivaras Sidla's EMULSIVE photographs. The lens pictured in Norita's 1972 brochure shows NORITAR 1:4 f=55mm, with the rest of the ring out of view
All-metal focusing ring with a knurled grip. Distance scale in feet and metres down to 1.5 ft / 0.45 m, a depth-of-field scale behind it, and the breech-lock collar with its tab at the rear (EMULSIVE photographs)
Graflex listed it for the Graflex Norita 66 as 'The Norita NORITAR 55 Lens', with the same figures as Norita's own literature (Graflex brochure, form 11143/1070). No barrel engraved Graflex was found

MC Noritar 55mm f/4 (late, multicoated):

Front ring engraved MC NORITAR 1:4 f=55mm with the MC in red, plus NORITA KOGAKU and an eight-digit serial. Seen on serial 11080206 in Mike Eckman's photograph
The MC Noritars described in detail, a 40mm owned by Selmar Meents and a 160mm owned by the pentaconsix.com author, have a diamond-grid rubber focusing ring in place of the metal one. No side view of an MC 55 was found to confirm the rubber ring on this focal length

Rittron 55mm (for the Rittreck 6×6): Norita made the wide-angle lens 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 adds that Norita supplied 55mm and 160mm Rittron lenses as well as the standard lens. Japanese Wikipedia says Norita made lenses under the Rittron brand as OEM for Musashino. Sylvain Halgand's collection-appareils page reports that adverts for the Rittreck mention a 55 mm wide angle. The undated German manual for the Revue Rittreck Six names only the Rittron 80mm f/2 and says a lens programme from 55 mm to 300 mm was in preparation and would be available shortly, so the 55 had evidently not yet reached Revue's customers when that manual was printed. The f/4 aperture rests on lens-db alone. No source gives its year, price or specifications, or says whether its optics are the same as the Noritar's. Topcon Club found the Rittron and Noritar 80mm identical in construction and coating, but says nothing of the kind about the 55.
Noritar 55mm f/4 (1970, single-coated, metal focusing ring): This is the lens Norita's own literature describes. The Graflex Norita 66 brochure (form 11143/1070) and the early Norita Operating Manual, with its Itabashi address and five lenses, list it, and both give 9 elements in 9 groups. Norita's May 1972 brochure (©1972 NORITA 0572, Cat. No. 2002) gives 6 groups and 9 elements in its lens table, with the remaining figures unchanged. Like the Graflex brochure before it, it calls the 55 'the standard wide angle lens for the NORITA 66 SLR Camera' and says it is 'of the same size as the NORITAR 80'. Amateur Photographer reviewed the 55 with the 40, 160 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 recalls that none of the lenses was multicoated when he was looking at the Norita in the mid-to-late 1970s, and Selmar Meents calls the version with the metal focusing ring the single-coated one. Topcon Club says nothing of the 55's coating, though it calls the plain Noritar 80 multicoated.
MC Noritar 55mm f/4 (late, multicoated): The evidence is thin but comes from two directions. Selmar Meents, writing to pentaconsix.com in 2005, said other owners had reported MC 240mm and MC 55mm lenses, 'probably made in small numbers at the end of the production period of the Norita 66 system and are very rare'. Mike Eckman's 2025 Graflex Norita article pictures one, captioned 'this MC Noritar 55mm f/4 wide angle lens'. No Norita catalogue, manual or price list consulted lists an MC version, and no date, price or production figure was found.

Serial-range notes

4081353: A plain Noritar without the MC marking, engraved NORITAR 1:4 f=55mm NORITA KOGAKU JAPAN, in Aivaras Sidla's EMULSIVE review of January 2021. It is the only serial of a plain 55 seen, so it fixes no range.
11080206: An MC Noritar on a Graflex Norita, photographed by Mike Eckman (2025). It has eight digits against the seven of the plain example. With one example of each, no numbering break between the versions can be inferred.

Specifications

Formula: Retrofocus
Construction: 9 elements / 6 groups
Aperture range: f/4–f/22
Min. focus: 0.45 m
Dimensions: 76 × 62 mm
Weight: 390 g
Filter: 62 mm (0.75 mm pitch)
Years manufactured: 1969–1976
Country: Japan
Coating: Single-coated on the plain Noritar by Selmar Meents's and pentaconsix.com's accounts (Topcon Club, silent on the 55, calls the plain Noritar 80 multicoated); multicoated on the late MC Noritar. The Rittron's coating is not recorded
Original price: ¥33,200 (¥30,300 tax-free) on an undated Norita Kogaku price list sold with the Japanese catalogue printed ©1972 NORITA 0572; the 80mm f/2 standard lens was ¥25,200 on the same list. No US price found. (today ¥104,000)

What reviewers say

Aivaras Sidla (EMULSIVE) (blog) — He expected it to be his landscape and detail lens and was surprised to find it worked for portraits too. He reports the same excellent sharpness and flare control as the 80mm f/2, with every sample at f/4, f/8 and f/16 shot without a hood. With extension tube No. 1 it focuses at 24–30 cm, with No. 2 at 22 cm.
Topcon Club (Norita Club 2) (blog) — A compact retrofocus wide angle, about 31 mm in 35 mm terms, near enough the 80mm's size to mistake for it, and at 390 g as light as an f/1.4 standard lens for 35 mm. The writer sees it as the lens to leave on the camera for anyone whose normal lens is a 35mm, regrets that it is a little slow, and notes that its 45 cm closest focus rules out close-up work.

Optical formula — Retrofocus

No cross-section found. The Graflex brochure, the early Norita manual and the 1972 Norita brochure give only element and group counts, and those disagree (9/9 against 6/9); the later manual gives none. A patent search under Norita Kogaku's name found nothing.

History

The 55mm f/4 was the wide angle of the Norita 66 system. Norita’s literature, and Graflex’s before it, calls it the “standard wide angle lens”, leaving the 40mm as the super-wide. On the 6×6 frame it covers 70° on the diagonal and 54° across, and Topcon Club puts it at about 31 mm in 35 mm terms. The published figures stayed the same in every document from the Graflex brochure (form 11143/1070, probably October 1970) to the 1972 Norita brochure (code 0572, probably May 1972): f/4 to f/22, closest focus 0.45 m (1.5 ft), a 62 mm screw-in filter, 76 mm by 62 mm and 390 g. The 1972 brochure gives it catalogue number 2002. The one figure that changed is the construction. The Graflex brochure and the early Norita manual give 9 elements in 9 groups, while the 1972 brochure’s lens table gives 9 elements in 6 groups, as do Japanese Wikipedia and Topcon Club, which describes it as a retrofocus design. This page follows the later maker table. On the Japanese price list sold with the 1972 catalogue it cost ¥33,200, more than the ¥25,200 asked for the 80mm f/2 standard lens.

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 that Norita widened to 40/55/80/160/240/400 mm. Topcon Club confirms that Norita supplied 55mm and 160mm Rittron lenses as well as the Rittron 80. When the 55 first appeared is not recorded. The undated Revue Rittreck Six manual still lists a 55–300 mm programme as in preparation, and the family year of 1969 used here is an inference from that and from Hagiya. The f/4 aperture of the Rittron and its RITTRON engraving rest on lens-db alone. Whether the optics changed when Rittron became Noritar is also unrecorded. For the 80mm, Topcon Club found the two lenses identical down to the coating, but it makes no such comparison for the 55.

The Noritar exists in two forms. The usual one has NORITAR 1:4 f=55mm and NORITA KOGAKU JAPAN on the front ring and an all-metal focusing ring. Selmar Meents calls this version single-coated, and pentaconsix.com recalls no multicoated Noritar in the 1970s, though Topcon Club, which says nothing of the 55’s coating, calls the plain 80 multicoated. A late MC Noritar is engraved MC NORITAR, with the MC in red. Mike Eckman pictures one on a Graflex Norita, and Selmar Meents told pentaconsix.com that other owners had reported MC 55s, probably made in small numbers at the end of production. The MC 40 and 160 that have been described in detail carry a diamond-grid rubber focusing ring, but no side view of an MC 55 was found to confirm the same ring on this lens. US buyers got the same lens: Graflex’s brochure lists it with Norita’s figures, and no barrel engraved Graflex was found. The verdicts on it differ. Amateur Photographer tested the 55 with the 40, 160 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 saying which. Aivaras Sidla’s 2021 EMULSIVE review found the 55 sharp and well behaved against the light without a hood, and good enough for portraits as well as landscapes. Topcon Club credits Norita’s lenses as a group, with no lens singled out, to designers who had made their names at Tōkyō Kōgaku, naming Maruyama Shūji (丸山修治), 岸本匡 and 岡崎正義 among others.

When buying, read the front ring. The 55 and the 80 share a filter size and outside dimensions, and Topcon Club says they look so alike that they are easy to confuse, so a listing photographed from the side can be either. The MC engraving is the one confirmed sign of the rare multicoated lens. The diaphragm is automatic, worked by a pin that moves sideways in the mount rather than in and out, as pentaconsix.com describes. Norita’s tables give it manual control as well, and the early manual puts a depth-of-field preview ring on the lens next to the locking ring, though it names only the 80mm. Where the ring is there, turning it closes the diaphragm by hand, which makes a quick test of the blades. The original Norita hood (Cat. No. 1017) is shared with the 80 and 160 and is pushed back on the 55, with its rubber section folded. 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; the date, price and production of the MC version; whether the plain Noritar’s coating is really single; the blade count; and any US list price. Hagiya’s chapter and the Amateur Photographer tests were not read directly.

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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.

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