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

RE Auto-Topcor 28mm f/2.8

Topcon · Exakta · 1967

via machine translation — corrections welcome our own finding

Also known as: RE Auto-Topcor 28mm f/2.8 · RE Auto-Topcor 28mm f2.8 · RE Auto-Topcor 28mm F2.8 · RE Auto-Topcor 28mm 1:2.8 · RE Auto Topcor 28mm f2.8 · RE Auto Topcor 28mm f/2.8 · RE.Auto-Topcor 28mm f2.8 · RE. Auto-Topcor 28mm f2.8 · RE. Auto Topcor 28mm f2.8 · RE. Auto-Topcor 1:2.8 f=28mm · RE.Auto-Topcor 1:2.8 f=28mm · RE Auto-Topcor 2.8/28mm · REAuto Topcor 28mm f2.8 · RE-Auto Topcor 28mm f2.8 · RE Auto-Topcor 28mm 2.8 · Auto-Topcor 28mm f2.8 · Auto-Topcor 28mm f/2.8 · Auto Topcor 28mm f2.8 · Auto Topcor 28mm f/2.8 · Auto Topcor 28 mm f/2,8 · Topcon 28mm f2.8 RE Auto Topcor · Topcon 28mm f2.8 RE Auto-Topcor · Topcon 28mm f/2.8 RE Auto-Topcor · Topcon 28mm f2.8 Auto Topcor · Topcon RE Auto-Topcor 28mm f2.8 · Topcon RE Auto Topcor 28mm f2.8 · Topcon Auto-Topcor 28mm f2.8 · Tokyo Kogaku RE Auto-Topcor 28mm f2.8 · Tokyo Kogaku RE Auto Topcor 28mm 1:2.8 · Tokyo Kogaku RE. Auto Topcor 28 mm f/2,8 · Beseler Topcon 28mm f2.8 Auto Topcor · REオートトプコール 28mm F2.8 · RE オートトプコール 28mm F2.8 · REオート トプコール 28mm F2.8 · オートトプコール 28mm F2.8 · トプコン REオートトプコール 28mm F2.8 · トプコン RE Auto-Topcor 28mm F2.8 · トプコン RE.Auto-Topcor 28mm F2.8

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
RE. Auto-Topcor 1:2.8 f=28mm, chrome Exakta — — —
RE. Auto-Topcor 1:2.8 f=28mm, black Exakta 1972 — —
  1. Date. Topcon Club's article on the RE Auto-Topcor 500mm f/5.6 says the 500mm came out in 1967 together with the long-delayed 28mm, after the 200mm f/5.6 of 1965. English Wikipedia's RE Super article gives 'introduced 1971' for the RE. Auto-Topcor 1:2.8 f=28mm, with no citation on that line (the list's only citation, Antonetto and Russo's Topcon Story of 1997, is attached to the GN 50mm entries). Topcon Club's lens page says the 28mm came out a long time after the 25mm and 35mm, and had not appeared by the mid-1960s, when the RE Super sold best (最もREスーパーの売れ行きが好調だった60年代半ばにその姿を現していなかった). Beseler's Topcon catalogue © 1966 and an undated Beseler Topcon Super D sheet list lenses from 25mm to 300mm with no 28mm. Both Paillard catalogues, which list the Super DM of 1973, include it. The Maxifiche dates the RE Auto-Topcor series as a whole 1963–1976. 1967 is set here on Topcon Club's specific statement, against Wikipedia's uncited 1971; no end date was found, and the RE300/RE200 instruction book's lens table of 1977–78 does not list the lens.
  2. Construction and filter: a conflict between two editions of the same catalogue. The Maxifiche gives 7 elements, 75°, f/2.8–22, 0.3 m, bayonet hood, 49 mm filter, 240 g. Paillard's unpriced catalogue (pacificrimcamera 01180) gives 7 elements, 75°, 49 mm, 11 oz (310 g), 1 ft. Paillard's priced catalogue (01181), with the same photograph and text, gives 10 elements and a 62 mm filter, with the same 310 g and 1 ft. Wikipedia gives 49 mm. The 7 elements (Maxifiche, Paillard 01180) and 49 mm (those two and Wikipedia) are set here. Kamerastore gives a diameter of 61 mm, too small to carry a 62 mm front thread, which also points to 49 mm (our inference). Neither edition is dated, so it cannot be said which is the correction; no source gives the number of groups.
  3. Weight: 240 g (Maxifiche), 243 g (Kamerastore, for the copy it listed), 310 g / 11 oz (both Paillard editions, perhaps with the hood or case). 240 g is set.
  4. RE Super, RE-2, Super D and Super DM: full-aperture focusing and metering (Paillard: 'Exposure measurement and focusing are done at full aperture'; Maxifiche, for all RE Auto-Topcors). Paillard adds that the lens can be used without mirror lock-up.
  5. RE200 and RE300 (1977–78): Topcon Club says the RE200 uses the RE mount of the RE Super line, with a simplified CdS TTL meter and LED display, and describes the RE300's Exakta EDX3 twin as an open-aperture TTL body; they were sold with the new RE Topcor N lenses, and their instruction book's table of Topcor lenses lists the new RE Topcor 28mm f/2.8, not this lens; no source describes the RE Auto 28mm on them. The link is kept on the shared mount.
  6. Automatic R (RII), RIII and RS (1960–63): these bodies have the body stop-down lever Topcon added in 1960, which closes the automatic diaphragm, but no through-the-lens meter (the RIII and RS take clip-on meters coupled to the shutter speeds; Maxifiche, Topcon Club). The lens's meter coupling does nothing on them. Topcon Club says the RE Auto-Topcors stop down in the opposite direction to the F Auto-Topcors of the RII and RIII because of the TTL coupling, but also that many RS bodies are found with RE Auto-Topcors fitted; no source says whether the RII or RIII lever closes an RE Auto-Topcor, and none describes the 28mm, which came later, on these bodies.
  7. R (1957): Topcon Club says the R has no automatic-diaphragm mechanism in the body, everything being in its semi-automatic Auto-Topcors. The RE Auto-Topcor fits the bayonet, but nothing on the R closes its diaphragm. No source describes the pairing; the link is kept with that limit.
  8. Ihagee Exakta bodies: the Maxifiche says Exakta lenses mount on Topcon bodies without an adapter, though some automatic Exakta lenses (notably Carl Zeiss Jena's of 1961–70) foul the Topcon bayonet's outer ring; Topcon Club notes that the Topcon release sits on the left, opposite the Exakta's, so lenses with a protruding preset arm lose that function when swapped. Neither source describes an RE Auto-Topcor on an Exakta body.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved RE. AUTO-TOPCOR 1:2.8 f=28mm and TOKYO KOGAKU, with a 49 mm front thread and a bayonet hood
  • Not the RE Topcor 28mm f/2.8 of 1977 (the N series for the RE200 and RE300): that lens reads RE TOPCOR with no AUTO and was designed by Tokyo Kogaku but built by its subcontractor Sima Kogaku, later Cima (Topcon Club). Topcon Club photographs the two side by side
  • Not the AM Topcor MC 28mm f/2.8 (Pentax K mount, for the RM300), not the UV Topcor 28mm f/4 of the leaf-shutter Topcons, and not the R Topcor 28mm f/2.8 preset lens that only the Maxifiche lists

RE. Auto-Topcor 1:2.8 f=28mm, chrome:

  • Satin-chrome barrel with a black ribbed rubber focusing band and a chrome aperture ring; front ring engraved RE. AUTO-TOPCOR, as on the copy pictured in both editions of the Paillard Topcon catalogue
  • Bayonet lens hood fitting at the front (Maxifiche); Paillard sold the 28mm's hood separately as #82028

RE. Auto-Topcor 1:2.8 f=28mm, black:

  • Black barrel, black aperture ring, ribbed rubber focusing band; distance scale in orange feet and white metres; front ring engraved TOKYO KOGAKU, serial number and RE. AUTO-TOPCOR (Kamerastore's photographed copy, serial in the 141xxxx range)
  • Super D era (from 1972): fully black, with the edges of the front ring and hood bayonet machined so that bare aluminium shows as a bright accent (Topcon Club)
  • Black RE Auto-Topcors made before 1972 had a silver-plated hood bayonet at the front; Topcon Club names the 28mm among the lenses this applies to, but no photographed 28mm of that kind has been found

Specifications

Construction
7 elements
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/22
Diaphragm blades
6
Min. focus
0.3 m
Weight
240 g
Filter
49 mm
Country
Japan
Original price
US$204.50 with lens hood and leather case (Paillard Incorporated, US importer's catalogue no. 80550, catalogue price; the catalogue is undated but lists the Super DM of 1973). Hood alone #82028, $9.75. No Japanese list price found.

What reviewers say

History

The RE Auto-Topcor 28mm f/2.8 is the 28mm Tokyo Kogaku made for its Exakta-derived RE bayonet in the last years of the Topcon RE Super and through the Super D and Super DM. It is a fully automatic lens: the diaphragm stays open for viewing and is closed by the body at the moment of exposure, and on the RE bodies it couples to the through-the-lens meter, so focusing and metering are done at full aperture. The French Maxifiche (the Club Niépce Lumière’s collectors’ sheet) gives 7 elements, a 75° angle of view, f/2.8 to f/22, a closest focus of 0.3 m and a 49 mm filter thread. The US importer Paillard sold it as catalogue no. 80550 at US$204.50 with hood and leather case, noting that it could be used without locking the mirror up.

It came late. Topcon Club, the Japanese collectors’ site, says the RE Super was launched with a 25mm and a 35mm, and that the 28mm had still not appeared by the mid-1960s, when the RE Super sold best. Photographers who wanted something wider than 35mm had bought the 25mm instead. Beseler’s US catalogue of 1966 lists no 28mm. Topcon Club’s article on the 500mm says the 28mm finally came out in 1967, alongside that lens; English Wikipedia dates it to 1971 without a source. It is in both of Paillard’s catalogues of the Super DM years. Topcon Club notes that it seldom turns up on the used market and puts this down, probably, to that late arrival. The site’s author rates it highly for use. It handles as well as the 35mm, is sharp with rich colour, and is well enough made to serve as an everyday lens.

The two Paillard catalogues disagree on the lens’s construction. The unpriced edition gives 7 elements and a 49 mm filter, matching the Maxifiche (Wikipedia also gives 49 mm). The priced edition, with the same photograph and text, gives 10 elements and a 62 mm filter. Both give 310 g, against 240 g in the Maxifiche and 243 g for a copy Kamerastore listed. The 7 elements and 49 mm thread are the better supported figures, and the 61 mm barrel diameter Kamerastore gives leaves no room for a 62 mm thread. But neither catalogue is dated, so it is not known which edition corrected the other.

There are two finishes and no reported optical change. The chrome version, with a black rubber focusing band, is the one Paillard illustrates. Topcon Club shows both chrome and black copies, and says that from the Super D of 1972 every RE Auto-Topcor except the 20mm and 25mm was made black. Later black lenses are black all over, with the edges of the front ring machined to bare aluminium. Black lenses made earlier for the black RE Super had a silver-plated hood bayonet at the front instead. Topcon Club names the 28mm among the lenses this applies to, but no photographed 28mm of that kind has been found. Do not confuse this lens with the RE Topcor 28mm f/2.8 of 1977. That lens is engraved RE TOPCOR with no AUTO and belongs to the N series for the RE200 and RE300, designed by Tokyo Kogaku and built by its subcontractor Sima Kogaku. Topcon Club photographs the two side by side. It is also not the K-mount AM Topcor MC 28mm or the UV Topcor 28mm f/4 of the leaf-shutter Topcons (Wink Mirror, Uni, Unirex, IC-1), which take a different mount.

The lens fits every Topcon focal-plane body, but it works fully only on the RE Super, RE-2, Super D and Super DM. Topcon Club says the RE200 and RE300 keep the same RE mount, with TTL metering. The Automatic R (RII), RIII and RS have a body stop-down lever but no through-the-lens meter; RE Auto-Topcors are often found on the RS, but Topcon Club notes that they stop down in the opposite direction to the RII and RIII’s own F Auto-Topcors, and no source describes the 28mm on these bodies. The original R of 1957 has no diaphragm mechanism in the body, so nothing on it stops this lens down. The Topcon bayonet started as the Exakta’s, but Topcon put its release on the opposite side, so lenses with a protruding preset or release arm lose that function when swapped; no source describes an RE Auto-Topcor on an Ihagee Exakta. When buying, check that the diaphragm snaps shut and reopens when the stop-down lever at the rear is worked. Check that the focusing turns smoothly: an MFlenses forum member found his copy stiff and set out to strip and clean it. The rubber focusing band can dry out, crack or slip on the barrel. Check that the front ring reads RE. AUTO-TOPCOR, and look for the bayonet hood, which Paillard sold separately as no. 82028.

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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

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a RE Auto-Topcor 28mm f/2.8? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $330 across 3 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $300–$330). First day tracked.

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Sources (15)

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.