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

RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.8

Topcon · Exakta · 1963

via machine translation — corrections welcome

Also known as: RE Auto-Topcor 1:1.8 f=58mm · RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.8 · RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f1.8 · RE Auto Topcor 58mm f1.8 · RE Auto Topcor 58mm f/1.8 · RE.Auto-Topcor 58mm f1.8 · RE.Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.8 · RE.Auto-Topcor 1:1.8 f=58mm · RE.Auto-Topcor 1:1.8 f=5.8cm · RE Auto-Topcor 5.8cm f1.8 · RE Auto Topcor 5.8cm f1.8 · RE Auto Topcor 5.8cm 58mm f1.8 · REAuto Topcor 58mm f1.8 · RE Topcor 58mm f1.8 · RE58mm f1.8 · Topcon RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f1.8 · Topcon RE Auto Topcor 58mm f/1.8 · Topcon 58mm f1.8 RE Auto Topcor · Tokyo Kogaku RE Auto Topcor 58mm f1.8 · Tokyo Kogaku RE Auto Topcor 5.8cm f1.8 · Tokyo Kogaku Topcor 58mm f1.8 · Topcon 58mm f1.8 · Topcon 58mm f/1.8 · Topcon 58mm 1:1.8 · Topcon 58 1.8 · Topcor 58mm f1.8 · Topcor 58mm f/1.8 · Topcor 58 1.8 · Topcor 1.8/58 · Topcor 1.8/58mm · Topcor 5.8cm f1.8 · Auto Topcor 58mm f1.8 · Auto-Topcor 58mm f1.8 · Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.8 · Beseler Topcon 58mm f1.8 · Beseler Topcor 58mm f1.8 · REオートトプコール 58mm F1.8 · RE オートトプコール 58mm F1.8 · REオートトプコール 5.8cm F1.8 · トプコン RE Auto-Topcor 58mm F1.8 · トプコン RE Auto Topcor 58mm F1.8 · トプコン REオートトプコール 58mm F1.8 · トプコール RE 58mm F1.8 · トプコール 58mm F1.8 · トプコン 58mm F1.8 · 東京光学 RE Auto-Topcor 58mm F1.8

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
RE.Auto-Topcor 1:1.8 f=5.8cm, chrome, code 99B (1964) Exakta 1964 99xxxxx, seven digits, to 9901920 last recorded (code 99B, as quoted on the MFlenses forum from Topcon Story) —
RE.Auto-Topcor 1:1.8 f=5.8cm, chrome, code 116B (1965) Exakta 1965 1160001 to 11608302 last recorded (code 116B, as quoted on the MFlenses forum from Topcon Story); owners report 11608792, 11618977 and 11625645 —
RE.Auto-Topcor 1:1.8 f=58mm, chrome, code 129B (1966–72) Exakta 1966–1972 1161xxxx to 11670435 last recorded (code 129B, black or chrome, as quoted on the MFlenses forum from Topcon Story); owner serial 11670677 —
RE Auto-Topcor 1:1.8 f=58mm, black with plated front ring (black RE Super, before 1972) Exakta 1966–1972 — —
RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.8, all black, code 129BG (from 1972) Exakta 1972 1168xxxx to 11685922 last recorded (code 129BG, 'AUTO-TOPCOR (black)', as quoted on the MFlenses forum from Topcon Story); owner serial 11680634 —
  1. Specifications: Maxifiche and the Paillard catalogue agree on six elements, 41°, a 49 mm filter and 220 g (Paillard: 7¾ oz); Maxifiche gives f/1.8 to f/22 and 0.45 m, Paillard 18 in. Neither gives the groups. One owner counts six diaphragm blades on a code-99B lens. A forum poster reports a published lens drawing of an early lens as a reversed Ultron-type layout; the groups are not set here.
  2. One design or several: the code list quoted on the MFlenses forum from Antonetto and Russo's Topcon Story (1997) gives three optical computations: the first lens of 1963 based on the F Auto-Topcor, new optics in 1964 (99B) and another change in 1966 (129B). Topcon Club instead says the Auto-Topcors kept their basic lens construction, changing coatings, barrels, diaphragms and mounts, until the RE Topcor N series of the mid-1970s (lens4). Topcon Club also reports that around 1968 a 58mm f/1.8 with one element fewer was used, and that after user enquiries about a marked loss of image quality it was promptly replaced by the original (FPslr2); Topcon Club gives this as hearsay and names no serials. Owners on the MFlenses thread report clear differences between a 99B and later lenses. The page follows the code list for the variants and keeps the disagreement.
  3. RE Super, Super D, Super DM and RE-2 (Beseler D-1, Hanimex RE2): full-aperture TTL metering. Topcon Club notes that the RE-2's catalogue lists only this lens as its standard lens; the 1966 Beseler catalogue sells the D-1 with it as BT-410 and the Super-D as BT 310 and, in black, BT 311. Paillard says every RE lens was individually matched to the meter. RE200 and RE300 (1977–78): Topcon Club says they keep the RE mount of the RE Super line, with open-aperture TTL metering; their own lens was the RE Topcor 55mm f/1.7, but the cameras' instruction book still lists the RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.8 in its table of Topcor lenses (6 elements, f/1.8–22, 0.45 m, 49 mm, 220 g), with automatic diaphragm and full-aperture metering.
  4. Automatic R (RII), RIII and RS (1960–63): these bodies have the body stop-down lever that closes an automatic diaphragm, so the lens's diaphragm should work, but none meters through the lens, so the coupling finger does nothing. Topcon Club says many RS bodies are found with RE Auto-Topcors; no source describes an RE lens on the RII or RIII. The opposite pairing is the one to watch: Maxifiche warns that the F Auto-Topcors of these bodies must not be used on the RE bodies, because their coupling finger turns the other way, while Topcon Club says that unmodified they meter stopped down.
  5. Topcon R (1957): its body has no diaphragm mechanism (Topcon Club), so nothing closes this lens and it can only be used at full aperture. No source describes the combination; the link is kept with that limit.
  6. Exakta bodies: Maxifiche calls the R's mount a fully compatible Exakta bayonet that Topcon then developed in stages. Topcon Club says that because Topcon's release is on the opposite side, lenses worked by an external arm lose that function when moved between Topcon and Exakta bodies. No source describes this lens, which has no external arm, on an Exakta.
  7. Prices: Paillard Incorporated's US catalogue lists the lens alone with hood as no. 80520 at $125.00 (list price; undated, it includes the Super DM of 1973), against $200.00 for the 58mm f/1.4. An undated Beseler sheet prices the D-1 with this lens at $269 (list). Maxifiche quotes French prices of December 1966 for outfits: RE 2 with 1.8/58mm 1550 Fr and RE Super with 1.8/58mm 2310 Fr. No Japanese list price for the lens is recorded.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved RE.Auto-Topcor (RE Auto-Topcor on the later lenses) with 1:1.8 and either f=5.8cm or f=58mm. A 5.8cm f/1.8 engraved Auto-Topcor, F.Auto-Topcor or H-F Auto-Topcor is the earlier R-series lens
  • 49 mm filter thread and bayonet hood; the f/1.4 that shares the barrel style takes 62 mm
  • Fully automatic diaphragm, closed by the body's lever, with a meter-coupling finger at the rear that turns the opposite way to an F Auto-Topcor's (Maxifiche, which photographs the two side by side)
  • Not the RE GN Topcor 50mm f/1.8 of the Super DM, the RE Topcor 55mm f/1.7 of the RE200 and RE300, or the leaf-shutter Topcons' UV Topcor and Hi-Topcor lenses

RE.Auto-Topcor 1:1.8 f=5.8cm, chrome, code 99B (1964):

  • Seven-digit serial beginning 99; owners on the MFlenses forum report 9900727 and 99005073
  • Focal length in centimetres, f=5.8cm, on the front ring (owner 9900727)
  • Owner reports: six diaphragm blades, f/1.8 to f/22 (9900727); three separate elements at the front (99005073)

RE.Auto-Topcor 1:1.8 f=5.8cm, chrome, code 116B (1965):

  • Eight-digit serial beginning 1160, 1161 or 1162; still engraved f=5.8cm (owners of 11608792, 11618977 and 11625645)
  • Satin-chrome barrel with a black ribbed rubber focusing band and a chrome front ring that carries the hood bayonet (the Wikimedia Commons photograph)
  • A chamfered depth-of-field scale, per the forum poster who compiled the code list
  • Distance scale in metres and feet, or in feet only on lenses for the American market (owners of 11618977 and 11608792)

RE.Auto-Topcor 1:1.8 f=58mm, chrome, code 129B (1966–72):

  • Focal length engraved f=58mm in millimetres where the earlier lenses read f=5.8cm (owners on the MFlenses forum; one notes that the code-129 lenses still carry serials beginning 116)
  • Serial from about 1166xxxx: Stephan (stevemark on the forum, of artaphot.ch), who has tested several, says the latest optical computation starts there
  • Same satin-chrome barrel and plated front ring as the earlier lenses; distance scale in metres and feet, or in feet only on Beseler lenses (owner of 11670677, on a Beseler Topcon)

RE Auto-Topcor 1:1.8 f=58mm, black with plated front ring (black RE Super, before 1972):

  • Black barrel and black aperture and distance rings, but a bright plated front ring that carries the hood bayonet (Topcon Club; the Wikimedia Commons black RE Super)
  • Front ring engraved 1:1.8 f=58mm with Tokyo Kogaku (the Wikimedia Commons black RE Super)

RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.8, all black, code 129BG (from 1972):

  • Black to the front: no plated ring; the edges of the front ring and the hood bayonet are machined back to bare aluminium as a bright accent (Topcon Club)
  • Serial beginning 1168; engraved f=58mm, distance scale in feet and metres (owner of 11680634)
  • Topcon Club describes firmer, audible aperture clicks, still with half stops, on the black 58mm f/1.4 of the Super D years; it does not say the same of the f/1.8

Serial-range notes

620001–625115: first RE lens, code 62B (1963)
The forum code list gives code 62B, 'based on the F Auto-Topcor', for the first RE lenses of 1963. No RE-engraved lens with a six-digit 62 serial has been reported by an owner, so it is not listed as a variant. A 62xxxx lens must be identified by its name ring and by which way its coupling finger turns.
1165xxxx to 11650401: U.S. Navy, code 129BD (1967)
Code 129BD in the same list. No Navy-marked 58mm f/1.8 has been documented with a photograph. Topcon Club shows a Navy RE Auto-Topcor 100mm f/2.8 with a red N after RE AUTO-TOPCOR, a finger tab on the focusing ring and slightly different coating, and says later Navy lenses had an infinity stop; a Navy 58mm would be expected to carry similar marks, but none is confirmed.
The serial gives the code
John Shriver on the MFlenses forum: the first digits of the serial are the lens's code (99 for 99B, 116 for 116B). The compiler of the list adds that code-129 lenses carry 116 serials, and owners report serials just outside the recorded ranges (11608792, 11670677), so the ranges are guides, not boundaries.

Specifications

Construction
6 elements
Aperture range
f/1.8–f/22
Min. focus
0.45 m
Weight
220 g
Filter
49 mm
Years manufactured
1963
Country
Japan
Original price
US$125.00, lens alone with hood (Paillard Incorporated list price, catalogue no. 80520, undated; it lists the Super DM of 1973)

What reviewers say

History

The RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.8 was the cheaper of the two standard lenses Tokyo Kogaku offered with the Topcon RE Super of 1963, the first 35mm reflex to meter through the lens at full aperture. The f/1.4 was the other. It became the standard lens of the whole RE line: the RE-2 of 1965, the Super D of 1972 and their export twins, the Beseler Topcon Super-D and D-1 in the United States and the Hanimex RE2. Paillard was still listing it in the Super DM years. The diaphragm is fully automatic, closed by a lever in the body at the moment of exposure, and a coupling finger at the rear passes the set aperture to the meter. Maxifiche, the French collectors’ sheet, and the Paillard catalogue agree on six elements, a 41° angle of view, a 49 mm filter and 220 g. Maxifiche gives f/1.8 to f/22 and a closest focus of 0.45 m. Paillard listed the lens alone, with its bayonet hood, at $125.00, against $200.00 for the f/1.4. That is a US list price.

How many optical versions there are is not settled. A code list posted on the MFlenses forum, which its poster takes from Antonetto and Russo’s Topcon Story (1997), gives a first lens of 1963 based on the F Auto-Topcor of the RII and RIII (code 62B), new optics in 1964 with the second and third elements separated (99B), new mechanics in 1965 (116B), and another optical change in 1966 (129B). The same list has a U.S. Navy version (129BD) and a black AUTO-TOPCOR of about 1971 (129BG). Topcon Club, the Japanese collectors’ site, says the Auto-Topcors kept their basic construction until the RE Topcor N series of the mid-1970s. It also reports one lapse, as hearsay: around 1968 a 58mm f/1.8 with one element fewer was used, and after user enquiries about the loss of image quality it was promptly replaced by the original. Owners on the forum do see a difference. One found his 99B “not nearly as good” as the later lens. Stephan (stevemark), who has tested several later copies, places the newest computation from serial 1166xxxx and calls those the best normal lenses of the early 1960s he owns.

Buyers can sort these lenses by engraving, finish and serial. The early chrome lenses read RE.Auto-Topcor 1:1.8 f=5.8cm. Their serials run from 99 (seven digits) to 116 (eight digits), and the first digits are the code. Lenses on the first RE Supers have slightly raised rims on the rubber focusing band and, at first, red index dots, later green. Later chrome lenses read f=58mm. Black lenses came with the black RE Supers, which Topcon Club says sold little in Japan and turn up mainly in the United States, many of them U.S. Navy cameras. Beseler’s 1966 catalogue lists the black outfit as BT 311. Until 1972 these black lenses kept a bright plated front ring. From the Super D of 1972 every Topcor except the 20mm and 25mm was made black, and the 58mm f/1.8 lost its plated ring: it is black to the front, with the edges machined back to bare aluminium as accents. One forum owner calls the late black-trim 129BG lenses much cheaper inside than the earlier ones; the code list dates 129BG to 1971. No Navy-marked 58mm f/1.8 has been documented with a photograph. Topcon Club’s Navy 100mm has a red N after RE AUTO-TOPCOR and a finger tab on the focusing ring, and a Navy 58mm, if one exists, might carry the same marks.

The lens fits every Topcon focal-plane reflex, but it does not work fully on all of them. It meters at full aperture on the RE Super, RE-2, Super D and Super DM. Topcon Club says the RE200 and RE300 of 1977–78 keep the RE mount, and though they came with the RE Topcor 55mm f/1.7, their instruction book lists this lens with full-aperture metering. The Automatic R (RII), RIII and RS have the body lever that closes an automatic diaphragm, so the lens’s diaphragm should work, but those bodies cannot meter through the lens; no source describes an RE lens on the RII or RIII. Topcon Club notes that many RS bodies turn up wearing RE Auto-Topcors. The original R of 1957 has no diaphragm lever in the body, so nothing on it closes the lens. The earlier F Auto-Topcor 5.8cm f/1.8 looks similar, but its coupling finger turns the other way. Maxifiche says it must not be used on the RE bodies. Topcon Club says it only meters stopped down there. Read the name ring before buying a 5.8cm f/1.8 for an RE body.

When buying, check that the diaphragm snaps shut and reopens when the lever at the rear is pressed. Check that the rubber focusing band is tight. Owners on the MFlenses thread report bands that stretch and slip, and black and chrome lenses suffer alike. Stiff focusing turns up too. Do not confuse this lens with three others: the RE GN Topcor 50mm f/1.8 that replaced it on the Super DM in 1973, the RE Topcor 55mm f/1.7 of the late RE200 and RE300, or the HI Topcor 55mm f/1.8 of the UV-mount New IC-1. The leaf-shutter Topcons, from the PR to the Wink Mirror, Uni and Unirex, are a separate system, and the UV Topcor lenses of the Uni and Unirex do not fit these bodies.

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

Sample photo taken with the RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.8
Two RE Auto-Topcor 58mm f/1.8s: the chrome RE.Auto-Topcor 1:1.8 f=5.8cm on the chrome RE Super at left, and a black f=58mm lens with a plated front ring on the black RE Super behind; the f/1.4 is on the RE Super at right — 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/1.8? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $180 across 31 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $130–$220). First day tracked.

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

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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.