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

RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.4

Topcon · Exakta · 1963

via machine translation — corrections welcome

Also known as: RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.4 · RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f1.4 · RE Auto Topcor 58mm f1.4 · RE.Auto-Topcor 58mm f1.4 · RE.Auto-Topcor 1:1.4 f=58mm · RE Auto-Topcor 1:1.4 f=5.8cm · REAuto Topcor 58mm f1.4 · Topcon RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f1.4 · Topcon RE Auto Topcor 58mm f/1.4 · Tokyo Kogaku RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f1.4 · Tokyo Kogaku Topcor 58mm f1.4 · Topcon 58mm f1.4 · Topcon 58mm f/1.4 · Topcon 58mm 1:1.4 · Topcon 58 1.4 · Topcor 58mm f1.4 · Topcor 58mm f/1.4 · Topcor 58 1.4 · Topcor 1.4/58 · Topcor 1.4/58mm · Topcor 5.8cm f1.4 · Topcon 5.8cm f1.4 · Auto Topcor 58mm f1.4 · Auto-Topcor 58mm f1.4 · Auto Topcor 58 1.4 · Beseler Topcon 58mm f1.4 · トプコール 58mm F1.4 · REオートトプコール 58mm F1.4 · RE オートトプコール 58mm F1.4 · オートトプコール 58mm F1.4 · トプコン 58mm F1.4 · トプコン RE Auto-Topcor 58mm F1.4 · トプコール 5.8cm F1.4

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
RE.Auto-Topcor 1:1.4 f=5.8cm, chrome Exakta 1963–1972 — —
RE AUTO TOPCOR 1:1.4 f=58mm, black (1972) Exakta 1972 — —
  1. Construction: seven elements per Maxifiche and the Paillard catalogue, neither giving groups; seven in five groups and six blades per Kamerastore. A seven-in-six count and a nine-blade count appear in at least one seller's listing; nine blades and 7/6 are the figures for Cosina's 2003 M42 lens of the same name (M42 Lens Database), and the 7/6 has not been found in any period source, so they are not set here.
  2. Weight: 340 g (Maxifiche; the RE300/RE200 instruction book's lens table), 11 oz / 300 g (Paillard), 360 g (Kamerastore). The 340 g of the two is set. Size 57 × 67 mm (Kamerastore). Closest focus 0.45 m (Maxifiche, Kamerastore), 18 in (Paillard, Beseler). Angle of view 41° on every source; f/1.4 to f/16 (Maxifiche).
  3. A black f/1.4 from before 1972: Topcon Club says black lenses were made for the black RE Super bodies, with a plated front ring, and Maxifiche calls black RE Auto-Topcors rarer than chrome; but the only pre-1972 black lenses those sources picture or name are the 58mm f/1.8, 35mm and 28mm. Flashback Camera has sold a black-paint RE Super with an f/1.4 without describing the lens's finish. No variant is listed until one is seen.
  4. The R (1957): Topcon Club states that the R body has no automatic-diaphragm mechanism of its own; the semi-automatic Auto-Topcors of that camera carried it in the lens, and the body stop-down lever arrived with the RII. The RE Auto-Topcor fits the R's bayonet, but by that account nothing on the R would stop it down at the moment of exposure. No source describes using the lens on an R, so the link is kept with that limit.
  5. The Automatic R (RII), RIII and RS (1960–63): these bodies have the internal stop-down lever that works the lens's automatic diaphragm. Topcon Club says the F Auto-Topcors of the RII and RIII are basically the RE design with the aperture ring turning the other way, and that many RS bodies are found with RE Auto-Topcors on them. None of these bodies meters through the lens: the RIII and RS take clip-on meters coupled to the shutter speeds only (Topcon Club, Maxifiche), the RII has no coupled meter, and the lens's meter-coupling finger does nothing on any of them.
  6. RE-2 / Beseler D-1 (1965): Topcon Club notes that the RE-2's catalogue lists only the 58mm f/1.8 as its standard lens and says the f/1.4 could surely be had; Maxifiche gives the RE2, Beseler D1 and Hanimex RE2 with the f/1.4 or f/1.8. RE200 and RE300 (1977–78): Topcon Club says they use the RE mount of the RE Super line, with open-aperture TTL metering; their own lenses were the new RE Topcor N series, but the cameras' instruction book lists the RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.4 in its table of Topcor lenses (7 elements, f/1.4–16, 0.45 m, 62 mm, 340 g), with automatic diaphragm and full-aperture metering.
  7. Price: the Paillard Incorporated catalogue (Paillard was then Topcon's US distributor) lists the lens alone with hood as no. 80515 at US$200.00, against $125.00 for the f/1.8 and $234.45 for the RE GN Topcor M 50mm f/1.4. The catalogue is undated; it includes the Super DM of 1973. Two undated Beseler sheets price the Super-D with this lens at $409 and $420.00 (body and lens, as advertised by the importer). Maxifiche gives French prices only for the f/1.8 outfits. Kamerastore's €299 (shown out of stock in November 2026) is a present-day dealer price for a used copy, not a period figure.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Large front element in a 62 mm filter mount, much wider than the 49 mm f/1.8; Topcon Club says the large front glass was Topcon's answer to the narrow Exakta-derived throat
  • Fully automatic diaphragm with no A/M switch: the diaphragm is closed by the body's lever at the moment of exposure and reopens at once (Maxifiche, Paillard)
  • Aperture ring turns the opposite way to the F Auto-Topcors of the RII and RIII, and a meter-coupling finger at the rear passes the set aperture to the RE Super's open-aperture meter (Maxifiche; Wikipedia)
  • Engraved RE Auto-Topcor and 1:1.4; the f/1.8 that shares the barrel style takes a 49 mm filter. Not the 1973 RE GN Topcor M 50mm f/1.4 of the Super DM, and not Cosina's 2003 Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.4 in M42

RE.Auto-Topcor 1:1.4 f=5.8cm, chrome:

  • Satin-chrome barrel with a black ribbed rubber focusing band and a bright chrome front ring that carries the hood bayonet
  • Black name ring inside the chrome front ring, engraved RE.Auto-Topcor 1:1.4 f=5.8cm Tokyo Kogaku Japan and the serial number, in upper and lower case (the Wikimedia Commons example on a chrome RE Super)
  • On the standard lenses of the first RE Supers (about 1963–65), Topcon Club notes, the rubber focusing band has slightly raised rims front and back and the distance and aperture index dots are red; from partway through that period the dots are green

RE AUTO TOPCOR 1:1.4 f=58mm, black (1972):

  • All-black barrel, including the front ring and hood bayonet; edges of the front ring machined back to bare aluminium as a bright accent (Topcon Club, for the 1972 lenses generally)
  • Front ring engraved RE AUTO TOPCOR 1:1.4 f=58mm TOKYO KOGAKU, in capitals and with the focal length in millimetres (Topcon Club's photographs of a Beseler Super D and a black Super D; the black example reads 11250161)
  • Aperture ring with firmer, audible click stops than the chrome lens, still with half stops (Topcon Club)

Serial-range notes

Serials seen in photographs: 1121x716 (one digit unclear), 11250161
The chrome f=5.8cm lens on the Wikimedia Commons RE Super reads 1121x716, its fifth digit not legible; the black f=58mm lens on Topcon Club's black Super D reads 11250161. No source on this page gives version codes or serial ranges for the f/1.4, so these numbers cannot be dated.

Specifications

Construction
7 elements
Aperture range
f/1.4–f/16
Diaphragm blades
6
Min. focus
0.45 m
Weight
340 g
Filter
62 mm
Years manufactured
1963
Country
Japan
Original price
US$200.00, lens alone with hood (Paillard Incorporated catalogue no. 80515, undated; it lists the Super DM of 1973)

What reviewers say

History

The RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.4 was the fast standard lens of the Topcon RE Super, which Tokyo Kogaku launched in 1963 as the first 35mm reflex to meter through the lens at full aperture. Wikipedia gives the RE Super’s standard lens as the RE. Auto-Topcor 1:1.4 f=5.8cm or the slower f/1.8, and Topcon Club, the Japanese collectors’ site, names the same two. The lens works with that meter. Its diaphragm is fully automatic, closed by a lever in the body at the moment of exposure and reopened at once. A coupling finger at the rear passes the set aperture to the meter, so focusing and metering are done wide open. Maxifiche, the French collectors’ sheet, gives seven elements, an angle of view of 41°, f/1.4 to f/16, a closest focus of 0.45 m and a 62 mm filter. The Paillard catalogue of the 1970s gives seven elements and 300 g, and Kamerastore gives seven in five groups and six blades. The weights do not agree, at 300, 340 and 360 g; Tokyo Kogaku’s own RE300/RE200 instruction book gives 340 g, as does the Maxifiche. The mount is Topcon’s development of the Exakta bayonet, and its throat is narrow for an f/1.4. Topcon Club notes that the lens, like the later 85mm f/1.8, gets round this with a very large front element; it takes 62 mm filters where the f/1.8 takes 49 mm.

There are two versions that a buyer can tell apart. The lens of the RE Super years is satin chrome to match the body, with a black rubber focusing band and a bright chrome front ring around a black name ring engraved RE.Auto-Topcor 1:1.4 f=5.8cm Tokyo Kogaku Japan. Topcon Club says the standard lenses of the earliest RE Supers have raised rims on the rubber band and red index dots, which turned green partway through the early production. From the Super D of 1972, which was sold for export from late 1971, Topcon made every lens except the 20mm and 25mm in black, and the plated front ring went too. The black f/1.4 is engraved RE AUTO TOPCOR 1:1.4 f=58mm TOKYO KOGAKU in capitals. Topcon Club describes its aperture clicks as noticeably firmer and louder than the chrome lens’s, though half stops remain. Earlier black lenses did exist: Maxifiche calls RE Auto-Topcors generally chrome and more rarely black, and Topcon Club says black lenses were made for the black RE Super bodies, but neither pictures or names a pre-1972 black f/1.4. In the United States the lens came with Beseler Topcon cameras. Two undated Beseler sheets price the Super-D with the f/1.4 at $409 and $420.00. Paillard’s later price list gives the lens alone, with hood, at $200.00 against $125.00 for the f/1.8. These are the importers’ published prices, not dealer or auction figures.

The lens fits every Topcon focal-plane reflex, but it does not work fully on all of them. On the RE Super, Super D, Super DM and RE-2 (Beseler D-1) it meters at full aperture. Topcon Club notes that the RE-2’s catalogue shows only the f/1.8, while Maxifiche lists both lenses for it. The cheaper RE200 and RE300 of 1977–78 keep what Topcon Club calls the RE mount, and though they were sold with the new RE Topcor 55mm f/1.7, their instruction book lists the f/1.4 with full-aperture metering. The older bodies cannot meter through the lens. The Automatic R (RII), RIII and RS have the internal stop-down lever, so the automatic diaphragm should work, and Topcon Club says many RS bodies turn up wearing RE Auto-Topcors; no source describes an RE lens on the RII or RIII. None of them meters through the lens: the RIII and RS take clip-on meters coupled to the shutter speed only, and the RII has no coupled meter. The original R of 1957 has no automatic-diaphragm mechanism in the body at all, Topcon Club says, so by that account nothing on it would stop this lens down at the moment of exposure. Going the other way, Maxifiche warns that the F Auto-Topcors of the RII and RIII, whose coupling finger turns the opposite way, must not be used on the RE bodies. Topcon Club says that, unmodified, they simply meter stopped down there. Neither source describes this lens on an Exakta body. Topcon Club notes only that Topcon put its release on the opposite side to Exakta’s, so lenses worked by an external arm lose that function when moved between the two.

Topcon Club calls the f/1.4 warm in colour with a deep character, against a cooler and sharper f/1.8. On its rangefinder-lens page the same author finds the Topcor 5cm f/1.5 low in flare from full aperture, with contrast he thinks even the f/1.4 would not match. Do not confuse it with two lenses of similar name. The RE GN Topcor M 50mm f/1.4 replaced it as the Super DM’s standard lens in 1973. Cosina’s Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.4 of 2003 is an M42 lens styled after this one with Tokyo Kogaku’s permission, a new design of seven elements in six groups and nine blades, of which 800 were made in M42. The leaf-shutter Topcons (the Wink Mirror, Uni, Unirex and IC-1) are a separate system with their own lenses. When buying, check that the diaphragm snaps shut and reopens when the actuating lever at the rear is worked, and look for oil on the blades: John Shriver, replying in the MFlenses review thread, notes that the f/1.4’s focusing mount has through-slots that give decomposing helicoid grease a short path to the diaphragm, unlike other Topcors. The big front element is worth inspecting for haze and cleaning marks, and the black lens’s engraving and click feel should match each other. The serial numbers seen so far, 1121x716 on a chrome lens and 11250161 on a black one, have not been tied to dates.

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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

Sample photo taken with the RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.4
Chrome RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.4 (engraved RE.Auto-Topcor 1:1.4 f=5.8cm) on a chrome Topcon RE Super — E Magnuson, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.4
RE Super bodies and RE Auto-Topcors; the chrome RE Super on the right carries the f/1.4, and the hood engraved RE.Auto-Topcor 1.4/5.8cm lies in front — Stevemark, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

More sample photos elsewhere

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

Sample photo wanted — shot with a RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.4? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $400 across 12 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $280–$410). First day tracked.

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

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-11-10. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Sources (17)

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.