Topcor 5cm f/2 (Leica screw mount)

Topcon · LTM · 1956

Also known as: Topcor 5cm f/2 · Topcor 5cm f2 · Topcor 5cm 1:2 · Topcor 1:2 f=5cm · Topcor 50mm f/2 · Topcor 50mm f2 · Topcor 50mm f2 LTM · Topcor 5cm F2 L39 · Topcor 2/5cm · Topcor 2/50 · Topcon Topcor 5cm f2 · Topcon Topcor 50mm f2 · Tokyo Kogaku Topcor 5cm f2 · Tokyo Kogaku Topcor 50mm f2 · Tokyo Kogaku Topcor 1:2 f=5cm · Tokyo Optical Topcor 5cm f2 · Tokyo Optical Topcor 50mm f2 · Leotax Topcor 5cm f2 · トプコール 5cm F2 · トプコール 50mm F2 · 東京光学トプコール 5cm F2 · トプコントプコール 5cm F2 · Topcor 5cm F2 Lマウント

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Topcor 5cm f/2, chrome (no S)	LTM	1956–1957	—	No figure published. Topcon Club thinks it was made only for a very short time and in small numbers

Groups. Leica Copies Japan gives this lens 6 elements in 5 groups and the Topcor-S 6 in 4, a cemented doublet replacing an air-spaced pair in the rear group. Topcon Club's cross-section page agrees: 'トプコール5cm f2は後群に空気レンズを用いるが、Sの方はこれを改めている' (the Topcor 5cm f/2 uses an air lens in the rear group; the S does away with it). Leicaphilia writes that all versions of the f/2 are 6 elements in 4 groups. The page follows Leica Copies Japan and Topcon Club, who compare the two lenses directly.
Topcor or Topcor-S. This page is the first, air-spaced f/2 only. The Topcor-S 5cm f/2 that followed it in 1957, chrome, then chrome with a black aperture ring, then black aluminium, is a different design and has its own page. Topcon Club also says the Topcor-S changed between those versions, and that the 5cm f/1.8 of the Leotax G is a further redesign. Listings titled only 'Topcor 5cm f/2' are shown on the Topcor-S page, since that is the lens they usually turn out to be; this page shows only titles that say the lens is the non-S or first version.
Price. No price for the lens alone has been found. A 1956 Asahi Camera advertisement, cited in Leica Copies Japan's price table, lists the Leotax F with the Topcor f/2 at ¥48,500. The US Department of Commerce booklet The Development of the Japanese Photographic Products Industry, 1954–1958 gives ¥52,000 for the same outfit at 31 March 1957, the same as the Leotax F with the Konishiroku Hexanon 5cm f/1.9. Both are Japanese list prices for camera and lens together. The 1957 figure may already refer to the Topcor-S, which Leica Copies Japan dates to 1957.
Bodies. Topcon Club places the lens on the late Leotax F. It also says, as Leica Copies Japan reports, that the Topcor f/2 reached the Leotax T in 1956. Leica Copies Japan finds the Topcor f/2 listed in the Leotax T manual but has found no Leotax T fitted with one. Leicaphilia's list of Leotax models sold with the Topcor 5cm f/2 (F, T, K, FV, TV2 and T2L, 1956–61) covers the Topcor-S as well.
Leicaphilia's text says the lens came on a 1956 Leotax F; a photograph caption in the same article calls the camera a 1956 Leotax K.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Leica 39 mm screw mount, rangefinder-coupled, rigid chrome barrel, f/2 on the name ring
Not the Topcor-S 5cm f/2 or the Topcor-S 5cm f/1.8 of the same cameras, and not the UV Topcor 50mm f/2 of the leaf-shutter Topcon Unirex or the fixed Topcor 48mm f/2 of the Wink Mirror

Topcor 5cm f/2, chrome (no S):

Name ring reads Topcor with no S after it. Topcon Club notes that the lettering on the name ring looks old-fashioned next to the Topcor-S
All chrome, aperture ring included. The middle Topcor-S has a black aperture ring and distance scale, and the late Topcor-S a black aluminium barrel
Shorter than every Topcor-S. Front element and barrel diameter are the same as on the chrome Topcor-S, so length is the quickest check when both are in a photograph (Topcon Club; Leica Copies Japan)
Amber reflections from the coating, where the Topcor-S shows magenta (Leica Copies Japan; Topcon Club)

Topcor 5cm f/2, chrome (no S): Topcon Club says this lens arrived late in the life of the Leotax F and that its design is basically the same as the 4.4cm f/2 of Tokyo Kogaku's own Topcon 35-S rangefinder. Leica Copies Japan dates it 1956 and has it replaced by the Topcor-S in 1957. Leicaphilia's copy came on a Leotax of 1956. No serial range has been published.

Specifications

Formula: 6 elements in 5 groups (Leica Copies Japan), with an air space ('air lens') in the rear group (Topcon Club; Leica Copies Japan)
Construction: 6 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range: f/2
Filter: 40.5 mm
Years manufactured: 1956–1957
Country: Japan
Coating: Amber (Leica Copies Japan; Topcon Club)
Material: Chrome-plated; brass by implication of Topcon Club, which calls the middle Topcor-S the last f/2 in a brass barrel (Leicaphilia: heavy chrome)

What reviewers say

Leicaphilia (blog) — Writes about his own chrome Topcor 5cm f/2 without the S and the Topcor f/2 line as a whole: reports it is considered one of the best screw-mount normals of the pre-Summicron era, finds it mechanically on a par with the screw-mount Nikkor and Canon lenses, and notes that it usually turns up still on a Leotax body at a relatively low price, while lenses sold on their own fetch a premium.
Topcon Club (blog) — Shot at f/8 on a Leotax FV beside the other screw-mount Topcors. The air-spaced f/2 draws finer and sharper than the early 5cm f/3.5 but with somewhat weak contrast, and ranks with the 5cm f/2.8 and the early f/3.5 a little below the Topcor-S, the f/1.5, the late f/3.5 and the f/1.8, which he calls largely a matter of taste.

History

The Topcor 5cm f/2 was the first f/2 standard lens that Tokyo Kogaku (Tokyo Optical, later Topcon) made in Leica 39 mm screw mount. Like the other screw-mount Topcors, it was made mainly for the Leotax cameras of Showa Optical (Leotax Camera Co. from about 1955), and Leicaphilia finds no sign that it was sold apart from them. Leica Copies Japan dates it to 1956. Topcon Club, the Japanese collectors’ site, places it late in the life of the Leotax F. A year later it was replaced by the Topcor-S 5cm f/2, the lens most people mean when they talk about the Topcor f/2. Topcon Club thinks the first lens was made only for a short time and in small numbers, and no production figure or serial range has been published.

It is a different design from the Topcor-S. Leica Copies Japan gives it six elements in five groups, with an air-spaced pair in the rear group, where the Topcor-S has six elements in four groups and a cemented doublet instead. Topcon Club’s cross-sections show the same change, and its lens page likens the air space to the Summicron’s. Topcon Club also says the design is basically the one used for the 4.4cm f/2 of Tokyo Kogaku’s own Topcon 35-S rangefinder of the same years. Leicaphilia says that every Topcor f/2 has six elements in four groups, but that is written about the line as a whole. The coating differs as well: amber on this lens, magenta on the Topcor-S.

No price for the lens alone has been found. A 1956 Asahi Camera advertisement, cited by Leica Copies Japan, lists the Leotax F with the Topcor f/2 at ¥48,500. A US Department of Commerce list of Japanese retail prices on 31 March 1957 gives ¥52,000 for the same outfit, by which time the lens may already have been the Topcor-S. Both are list prices for camera and lens together. Topcon Club’s own test at f/8 found this lens finer and sharper than the early Topcor 5cm f/3.5 but a little weak in contrast, and put it, with the 5cm f/2.8 and the early f/3.5, a little below the Topcor-S, the 5cm f/1.5 and the later f/3.5 and f/1.8, though he calls the order partly a matter of taste. Leicaphilia, who owns one, reports that the Topcor f/2 is considered one of the best screw-mount standard lenses of the pre-Summicron era.

The lens is easy to confuse with the chrome Topcor-S, which looks very much the same. Read the name ring first: this lens says Topcor with no S. In a photograph with both lenses, this one is visibly shorter, though the front element and barrel are the same diameter. The whole barrel is chrome, with no black aperture ring or scale, and the coating reflects amber, not magenta. Both lenses take 40.5 mm filters. Listings that say only “Topcor 5cm f/2” are usually for the commoner Topcor-S, so check the engraving before paying a premium. The lens fits any Leica-thread body and couples to its rangefinder. A copy on a Leotax F may be original to the camera, but a camera and lens sold together are no proof that they left the factory together. As with any 1950s lens, look for haze, separation and cleaning marks, and check that the focusing is smooth over its full travel.

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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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