Topcor 13.5cm (135mm) f/3.5 (Leica screw mount, R Topcor, Auto-Topcor and RE Auto-Topcor)

Variants & identification

1. One design throughout. Topcon Club says the Leica-thread Topcor 13.5cm f/3.5 was applied 'shortly afterwards' to the R Topcor with a lens diagram that does not change at all (そのレンズ構成図を見ても全く変わらない), and was then used for the F Auto-Topcor and RE Auto-Topcor, so the basic construction lasted about twenty years while coatings, the number of diaphragm blades and other details changed; its English caption reads 'This is the same lens composition as R TOPCOR / F AUTO TOPCOR / RE AUTO TPCOR 13.5cm'. Its lens-cut page says the 9cm and 13.5cm were used unchanged as R Topcors and that the 13.5cm has the same construction from the Leica-thread lens to the RE Auto-Topcor; its lens page 2 repeats that the RE lens's construction is the R Topcor's, and its English text there says the RE lens's optical design 'is similar to that of the R Topcor'. Topcon Club says the F Auto's lens design is unchanged from the semi-automatic Auto-Topcor and basically the same as the RE lens's.
2. Elements and groups. Four elements and 18° are the Maxifiche's for the R Topcor and the three automatic versions, and Beseler, Paillard and the RE-300/RE-200 book give four elements for the RE lens. No source states the Leica-thread lens's element count in words; it rests on Topcon Club's statement that the construction is the same and on its cross-section drawing of the screw-mount lens. Three groups is this page's reading of Topcon Club's drawings of the Leica-thread and RE Auto lenses: a front element, a cemented pair and a separate rear element. None of the sources gives the number of groups, the blade count or the optical type in words.
3. Specifications by version. Leica-thread lens: no closest focus, weight, filter size or aperture range published. R Topcor (Maxifiche): f/3.5–22, 1 m; no weight, filter size, length or diameter found, and no source gives its filter size. Semi-automatic Auto-Topcor and F Auto-Topcor (Maxifiche): f/3.5–22, 1.7 m, 49 mm on the F Auto, '?' on the semi-automatic lens. RE Auto-Topcor: Maxifiche 1.5 m, sliding hood, 49 mm, 390 g; Beseler (1966) 5 ft, f/22, 14½ oz; RE-300/RE-200 book 1.5 m (5 ft), 49 mm, 390 g; Paillard 4 ft, 14½ oz (400 g). Paillard's 4 ft stands alone against three sources giving 1.5 m or 5 ft. The closest focus, weight and filter size at the top of this page are the RE lens's.
4. The f/2.8 in Maxifiche. Maxifiche heads both its semi-automatic and F Auto entries 'f/2.8 de 13.5cm' but gives the aperture range as 3.5–22. The MFlenses compiler says Antonetto and Russo's Topcon Story, on which Maxifiche draws, always calls this lens an f/2.8 in error. Every lens engraving and every catalogue cited here says f/3.5.
5. R Topcor engraving. The Maxifiche says R Topcor focal lengths were marked in centimetres until about 1970. Topcon Club's Japanese caption calls the preset lens the 135mm, while its lens-cut page and the Leica-thread lens use 13.5cm. No dated copy or catalogue page showing the R Topcor's engraving was found, and no source says it was still made when the automatic 135mm lenses took over, so no 135mm-engraved R Topcor variant is listed.
6. Silver-nosed Leica-thread lens. Leica Copies Japan reproduces Showa Optical Works (Leotax) documents of 1955 or 1956 that show the 13.5cm and the 9cm with silver noses, with the 9cm wearing the same fine ribbing as the 13.5cm, and says it has not seen an example of either early version in the wild. It adds that the brochure seems to imply the 9cm is the newer of the two lenses. With no example known, it is not listed as a variant.
7. Finder for the Leica-thread lens. Camera-wiki says the lens was sold with an external finder with 50/90/135 frames. Topcon Club describes this genuine 13.5cm finder as showing three bright frames, for 5cm, 9cm and 13.5cm, at once, with parallax correction, and says the original box and catalogue call it the Topco Brilliant Finder; it finds the finish 'somewhat cheap'. Topcon Club also says this finder is far easier to see through than the small finder sold with the 9cm. The 1958 Leotax TV2 manual offers a 50/90/135 finder, and Leica Copies Japan takes this to mean it seems to have replaced the 9cm's own finder completely. Neither the Leica IIIc, IIIf, IIIg nor the Canon IIB has a 135mm frame, so the external finder is needed on every Leica-thread body linked here. The Leica-thread lens fits only these screw-mount bodies, and the Exakta-bayonet versions do not fit them.
8. Topcon R (1957): the Maxifiche says the R's bayonet has no coupling of any kind and the body has no meter, and Topcon Club says the R body has no automatic-diaphragm mechanism of its own; the stop-down lever came into the body with the Automatic R (RII) of July 1960. The preset R Topcor needs no coupling, so it works fully on the R, with a hand-held meter; Topcon Club dates it to the R's launch. It follows, though no source says so in as many words, that of the automatic versions only the semi-automatic lens can work its diaphragm from the R's release; an F Auto or RE lens mounts, but nothing in the body closes it.
9. RII (Automatic R), RIII and RS: these bodies add an internal stop-down lever for the F Auto-Topcors (Topcon Club; Maxifiche); the F Auto lens is theirs. The lever does nothing on the preset R Topcor. The clip-on meters of the RIII and RS are coupled to the shutter speeds, not to the lens (Maxifiche), so they read with the aperture set by hand. Topcon Club says many RS bodies are found with RE Auto-Topcors fitted. No source describes an RE lens on the RII or RIII, or the semi-automatic lens on the RII–RS. The links stay with these limits.
10. ⁰ RE Super, RE-2 (Beseler D-1), Super D and Super DM: the RE Auto-Topcor meters at full aperture on all of them. The preset R Topcor has no meter coupling, so the TTL meter of these bodies reads only with it stopped down by hand; Paillard describes the preset R Topcors it still listed (the two 300mm lenses) as designed for stop-down exposure measurement, though it does not list the 135mm f/3.5. For the F Auto-Topcor the sources disagree: Maxifiche says it must not be used on these four bodies because its coupling finger turns the opposite way; Topcon Club says that unmodified on an RE Super it meters stopped down, and that the factory converted some F Autos to the RE mount for a fee. The semi-automatic lens was made for the plunger release of the R; Hugo Ruys says the semi-automatic Topcon lenses work on the later Topcons only with a shutter-button extension rod.
11. ¹ RE200 and RE300 (1977–78): their instruction book lists the RE Auto-Topcor 135mm f/3.5 with an automatic diaphragm and full-aperture metering. Its table gives stop-down metering for the preset R Topcor 300mm f/2.8 but does not list the R Topcor 135mm f/3.5; that lens has the same kind of preset diaphragm, so stop-down use is expected but not stated. The F Auto and semi-automatic versions carry the cautions in note ¹⁰.
12. ² Ihagee Exakta bodies (none linked): the Maxifiche calls the R's mount a fully compatible Exakta bayonet, with the release on the other side, and says older Exakta lenses with plain or manual preset diaphragms mount on Topcon bodies without difficulty. Topcon Club notes that because Topcon put its release on the opposite side to the Exakta, lenses worked by a projecting preset arm lose that function when swapped between the makes. Hugo Ruys writes that the semi-automatic Topcon lenses can be used on an Exakta, and Exakta lenses on a Topcon, 'in a clumsy way only', but that 'the longer focus Topcon lenses available at the time were pre-set and easily usable on an Exakta'. The ihagee.org list files the R Topcor as a Kine Exakta-bayonet preset lens. No source describes the F Auto or RE lenses on an Exakta.
13. ³ Dates. Leica-thread lens: Topcon Club says the 9cm had already been introduced together with the 13.5cm in a 1956 magazine; the Showa documents that picture it are dated 1955 or 1956 by Leica Copies Japan, so 1955 cannot be ruled out; it is in Tokyo Kogaku's 1957 Asahi Camera advertisement; Leica Copies Japan says it 'seems to have been dropped' by the 1958 Leotax TV2 manual and is also missing from the Leotax FV brochure; no end date is published. R Topcor: Topcon Club says it was released with the Topcon R in 1957, and its page on the R lists the preset R Topcors of 90, 135, 200 and 300mm among the R's launch lenses, with a fast and a slow version at 135mm (f/2 and f/3.5) and at 300mm. The Maxifiche dates the R Topcor series as a whole 1957–1976 and says the 300mm f/2.8 was still catalogued with the Super DM in 1976; it gives no end date for the 135mm f/3.5. Paillard's mid-1970s US catalogue lists the two R Topcor 300mm preset lenses and the RE Auto-Topcor 135mm f/3.5, but not the R Topcor 135mm f/3.5, so it was no longer in the US range by then; when it was dropped is not known. Automatic versions: the F Auto-Topcor came with the Automatic R, sold in Japan from July 1960 (Topcon Club, Japanese text; the site's English caption on lens page 4 says the F Autos were launched in 1959); Maxifiche files the semi-automatic lens with its 1957 series, but Topcon Club does not name it among the R's launch lenses and suggests it came shortly before the F Auto. Maxifiche dates the F Autos 1960–62; the RS was sold until the RE Super of 1963. Wikipedia dates the RE 135mm to 1963; the Beseler catalogue of 1966 is the earliest dated catalogue listing of the RE lens cited here, and the RE-300/RE-200 book of 1977–78 the latest. Topcon Club says Topcon ended production of its 35mm cameras in 1980 and sales in 1981.
14. ⁴ Prices: none of the sources cited gives a Japanese list price for any version. The only figure is the US$152.75 catalogue price of Paillard, Topcon's US distributor, for the RE lens with built-in hood and leather case (no. 80590), in an undated catalogue that lists the Super DM of 1973, so it is not a launch price.

• Topcor 13.5cm f/3.5 (Leica screw mount): The rangefinder version, and the first. The only version known in the hand: Leica Copies Japan shows a copy from Gary Hill's collection beside a later 9cm and again with its matching hood, and this is the 'later type' 13.5cm in the lens line-up of Tokyo Kogaku's 1957 Asahi Camera advertisement. Topcon Club photographs a copy on its page of screw-mount Topcors. It was sold with an external finder with 50/90/135 frames (note ⁷). A silver-nosed version is shown only in Showa documents (note ⁶). It fits only Leica-thread bodies. No serial numbers, weight, filter size or closest focusing distance have been published.
• R Topcor 13.5cm f/3.5 (manual preset): The first SLR version, and the only R Topcor 13.5cm f/3.5 known. Topcon Club photographs a copy beside the F Auto-Topcor and the chrome and black RE Auto-Topcor 135mm f/3.5, and dates it to the launch of the Topcon R in 1957. The Maxifiche lists it in its R Topcor table, and the ihagee.org Exakta lens list files it as a preset R.Topcor 135mm f/3.5 in the Kine Exakta bayonet. The Maxifiche says R Topcor focal lengths were engraved in centimetres until about 1970; no copy engraved 135mm has been seen (note ⁵). With nothing in the mount for a body to work, it behaves the same on every Topcon focal-plane body and meters stopped down on the RE bodies (notes ⁸–¹¹). No serial range, production figure, weight, filter size or blade count was found.
• Auto-Topcor 13.5cm f/3.5, semi-automatic (Topcon R): The rarest version, and the thinnest on evidence. It was not among the Topcon R's launch lenses: Topcon Club lists only the 3.5cm and 10cm Auto-Topcors and the preset R Topcors, the 135mm among them, as the R's first interchangeable lenses. Topcon Club's Japanese text says a semi-automatic Auto-Topcor 13.5cm f/3.5 with a projecting arm was produced in very small numbers, a semi-automatic version of the R Topcor made for North America, and that it was first pictured in Classic Camera Senka (Kurashikku Kamera Senka) no. 62; the author had not seen one himself and guesses the numbers are small because the F Auto-Topcor replaced it soon after release. The site's older English text calls it a probable prototype. Maxifiche, which draws on Antonetto and Russo's Topcon Story, lists it with 4 elements, 18°, f/3.5 to f/22 and 1.7 m, filter size unknown. Unlike the three shorter lenses it is not recorded in an Autokinon version. Its date is not recorded, and no serial range is known.
• F.Auto-Topcor 13.5cm f/3.5 (Automatic R / RII, RIII, RS): The fully automatic version brought out with the Automatic Topcon R (RII) of July 1960 and kept for the RIII and RS. Topcon Club photographs it beside the F Auto 3.5cm and 10cm, says the lens design is unchanged from the earlier Auto-Topcor and basically the same as the RE lens, ranks the F Autos near the top of all Topcors for rendering, and says they are hard to find. Maxifiche gives 4 elements, 18°, f/3.5 to f/22, 1.7 m and 49 mm. Topcon Club has also seen an F Auto-Topcor 13.5cm in a chrome barrel and argues it was an F Auto converted to the RE mount by the factory for a fee after the RE lens came out; it adds that some conversions kept the black barrel and had only the mount changed. Topcon Club thinks an H-F Auto-Topcor 13.5cm was probably made as well, like the H-F 3.5cm and 10cm of 1962–63, but has not seen one. No serial range is known. On the RE bodies the sources disagree (note ¹⁰).
• RE Auto-Topcor 13.5cm / 135mm f/3.5, chrome: The open-aperture metering version for the RE Super, and the one usually found. Wikipedia's list of RE Super lenses dates it 1963. Topcon Club says its construction is unchanged from the R Topcor, now with an automatic diaphragm. Beseler's 1966 catalogue lists it as the 135mm f/3.5 Topcor Automatic, BT-375: 4 elements, 18°, infinity to 5 ft, click stops to f/22, built-in telescoping hood, 49 mm, 14½ oz. Maxifiche gives 4 elements, 18°, 1.5 m, sliding hood, 49 mm and 390 g. Topcon Club suggests re-seating a swollen focusing band with a thin coat of rubber sealant.
• RE Auto-Topcor 135mm f/3.5, black: Topcon Club calls the black lens the later type, from the Super D on; from 1972 all Topcors but the 20mm and 25mm were made black. Topcon Club also says that in the RE Super years black lenses were made to go with black bodies, and that these earlier black lenses kept a chrome front ring or hood bayonet, while the 1972 lenses are black all over. The forum list adds one early black lens engraved f=13,5cm with a serial inside the chrome block, a variation Antonetto and Russo did not record; the list's compiler notes that the book calls the lens an f/2.8 throughout. The Topcon RE-300/RE-200 instruction book (it covers the RE300 of 1978) still lists the RE Auto-Topcor 135mm f/3.5: 4 elements, 18°, f/3.5 to f/22, full-aperture metering, 1.5 m (5 ft), telescoping hood, 49 mm, 390 g. Paillard's catalogue price for the lens with case was US$152.75, and its catalogue gives 4 ft and 400 g.

Specifications

Formula

4 elements in 3 groups, one design from the Leica-thread Topcor of the mid-1950s to the RE Auto-Topcor (Topcon Club; element count from the Maxifiche; groups read from Topcon Club's drawings)

Designed by

Kawase Suminosuke (河瀬澄之介) — barrel design of the Leica-thread lens, in high-strength Alcoa aluminium (Topcon Club); later designer of the Topcon RE Super

Construction

4 elements / 3 groups

Aperture range

f/3.5–f/22

Min. focus

1.5 m

Weight

390 g

Filter

49 mm

Years manufactured

1956

Country

Japan

Material

Aluminium barrel on the Leica-thread lens (high-strength Alcoa alloy, per Topcon Club)

Original price

US$152.75 for the RE Auto-Topcor 135mm f/3.5 with built-in hood and leather case (catalogue price of Paillard Incorporated, Topcon's US distributor, no. 80590; the catalogue is undated but lists the Super DM of 1973)

What reviewers say

• stevemark (MFlenses forum) (blog) — Tested the RE Auto-Topcor with seven other RE Topcors on a full-frame Sony A7: a little less convincing than the RE 100mm f/2.8, with some aberrations left in the corners at f/3.5 and some chromatic aberration, much like most other 135mm f/3.5 lenses of other makers.

History

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 wanted — shot with a Topcor 13.5cm (135mm) f/3.5 (Leica screw mount, R Topcor, Auto-Topcor and RE Auto-Topcor)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

• Isco Tele-Westanar 135mm F/3.5 Tele Lens Teleobjektiv für Exa / Topcon - 3,5/135 — €24.32 · eBay
• Isco Tele-Westanar 3,5/135 Teleobjektiv für Exa / Topcon - 135mm F/3.5 Tele Lens — €29.65 · eBay
• Topcon 1:3.5 f=13.5cm RE. Auto-Topcor TOKYO KOGAKU Camera Lens & CAPS — $38.95 · eBay · likely auto-topcor
• Topcon 135mm f3.5 RE Auto Topcor Lens Tokyo Kogaku #G448 — $41.77 · eBay · likely auto-topcor NEW
• Topcon Tokyo Kogaku RE Auto Topcor 13.5cm 135mm F/3.5 Telephoto Lens — $45.80 · eBay · likely auto-topcor
• Topcor Re Auto Tokyo Kogaku 135mm F/3.5 Telephoto 7613070. 1:3.5 F=13.5cm — $50.00 · eBay
• Tokyo Kogaku 135mm f/3.5 Lens RE Auto Topcor Topcon Lens Japan — $59.95 · eBay · likely auto-topcor
• Topcon 135mm f3.5 RE Auto Topcor Telephoto Lens, EXC — $60.00 · eBay · likely auto-topcor
• Tokyo Kogaku Topcor 135mm f/3.5 Lens Topcon Exakta Mount Vintage Japan + Caps — $64.99 · eBay
• Topcon RE.Auto-Topcor 13.5cm 135mm F3.5 Exakta Mount Lens From Japan Ship Free — $66.00 · eBay
• Topcon 135mm f3.5 RE Auto Topcor Telephoto Lens with Case — $69.00 · eBay · likely auto-topcor
• TOPCOR RE Auto Topcor 135 mm f 3,5 Exakta — €68.00 · eBay · likely auto-topcor
• Tokyo Kogaku Japan 7623340 RE,Auto-Topcor 1:3,5 F=135mm — $75.00 · eBay
• Tokyo Kogaku Topcor 13.5cm F3.5 Lens — $79.99 · eBay
• Topcon 135mm f3.5 RE Tokyo Kogaku — $79.99 · eBay
• Topcon Super D/RE Super 135mm f3.5 lens (bx 120) — $85.00 · eBay
• Topcon 13.5cm f/3.5 RE Auto-Topcor Tokyo Kogaku (S#:760xxx) in Excellent Cond. — $85.95 · eBay · likely auto-topcor
• Topcon RE Auto-Topcor 135mm F3.5 (lesen) #7607205 — €79.00 · eBay
• Tokyo Kogaku RE Auto-Topcor 135mm f3.5 with Exakta Mount vintage portrait lens — $95.08 · eBay
• Tokyo Kogaku RE Auto-Topcor 135mm F3.5 with Exakta Mount — $98.75 · eBay

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