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

Topcor 5cm f/3.5 (Tessar type)

Topcon · LTM · 1955

via machine translation — corrections welcome

Also known as: Topcor 5cm f/3.5 · Topcor 5cm f3.5 · Topcor 5cm 1:3.5 · Topcor 1:3.5 f=5cm · Topcor 50mm f/3.5 · Topcor 50mm f3.5 LTM · Topcor 5cm F3.5 L39 · Topcor 3.5/5cm · Topcor 3.5/50 · Topcon 5cm f3.5 Topcor · Topcon Topcor 5cm f3.5 · Tokyo Kogaku Topcor 5cm f3.5 · Tokyo Kogaku Topcor 50mm f3.5 · Topcor K 5cm f3.5 · Leotax Topcor 5cm f3.5 · トプコール 5cm F3.5 · トプコール 50mm F3.5 · 東京光学 トプコール 5cm F3.5 · トプコン トプコール 5cm F3.5 · Topcor 5cm F3.5 Lマウント

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Topcor 5cm f/3.5 collapsible, Tessar type (後期型沈胴) LTM 1955 — —
Topcor 5cm f/3.5 rigid, Leotax K, later type (後期型固定鏡胴) LTM 1956 about 584xxx–589xxx, number under the lens near the mount (Leica Copies Japan)
588298x and 588856x: two seven-digit examples (Leica Copies Japan) 		No figure published; Topcon Club heard that fewer of the early lenses, collapsible and rigid, were made than of the later ones, yet finds the later rigid lens the commoner of the two on the market
  1. Date. Topcon Club's L-mount lens page dates the Tessar-type collapsible to mid-1955. Leica Copies Japan, which draws on Topcon Club, puts the redesign in 1956. The entry takes Topcon Club's own page for the first year and records the conflict. The later rigid K lens is dated 1956 by Leica Copies Japan, which attributes the date to Topcon Club; Topcon Club's lens page gives it no date of its own. No end date is published for either lens.
  2. Filter. Leica Copies Japan gives the rigid K lens a 34 mm filter and 36 mm cap, and suspects 34 mm for the collapsible as well, besides its 36 mm slip-on fitting. Topcon Club, describing the inner thread of the Topcor 3.5cm f/2.8, says it takes the same 34 mm filters as the 5cm f/3.5. Kamerastore lists 33 mm for a rigid copy. The entry gives 34 mm.
  3. Prices. No price for the lens alone has been found. The US Department of Commerce booklet The Development of the Japanese Photographic Products Industry, 1954–1958, reproduced by Leica Copies Japan, lists Japanese retail prices at 31 March 1957 of ¥26,000 for the Leotax K with the rigid Topcor f/3.5 and ¥38,500 for the Leotax F with the collapsible Topcor f/3.5. Leica Copies Japan also shows a 1955 Asahi Camera advertisement pricing the Leotax F with the Topcor f/3.5 at the same ¥38,500, which may predate the Tessar type. They are list prices for camera and lens together, and the booklet does not say which optical type the lens was, though by March 1957 both should have been the Tessar type if Topcon Club's and Leica Copies Japan's dates are right.
  4. The earlier Elmar-type Topcor 5cm f/3.5, collapsible with a tab at the front and stopping at f/16, and the early rigid K lens with its name and number on the front ring, are on the Simlar and Topcor 5cm f/3.5 (Elmar type) page. A Leotax F no.255096 of 1956 sold at Leitz Auction 45 (lot 291, €408 including premium) carries one of these front-tab lenses, no.570987, engraved 'Topcor 1:3.5 f=5cm Tokyo Optical Co.', so a 1956 body does not guarantee the Tessar type.
  5. Both pages share the plain title 'Topcor 5cm f/3.5', which most sellers write without saying which type. Topcon Club finds that among collapsible lenses the earlier Elmar type turns up more often, and among the rigid K lenses the later type.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Leica 39 mm screw mount, rangefinder-coupled; named Topcor, never Simlar or State, but the Elmar-type Topcor carries the same name, so check the controls as well (Leica Copies Japan; Leitz Auction photographs)
  • Stops to f/22: the Elmar-type Topcor, the Simlar and the State before it stop at f/16 or f/18 (Topcon Club; Leica Copies Japan)
  • Diaphragm behind the second element, as in a Tessar, where the Elmar type has it just behind the front element (Topcon Club)
  • Not the Konishiroku Hexar 50mm f/3.5 collapsible, which looks very like the Tessar-type Topcor and was sold on the same Leotax T bodies; the Hexar has a 34.5 mm filter thread and an inner 19 mm thread (Leica Copies Japan, citing Camera-wiki for the 34.5 mm)

Topcor 5cm f/3.5 collapsible, Tessar type (後期型沈胴):

  • Collapsible chrome barrel with a full-size aperture ring turning round the barrel, in place of the small tab at the front of the Elmar-type Topcor (Leica Copies Japan; Topcon Club; Camera-wiki)
  • Aperture scale runs to f/22; the Elmar-type collapsible stops at f/16 (Topcon Club)
  • Serial number on the front (Leica Copies Japan)
  • Screw-in filter thread at the front (thought to be 34 mm) besides the 36 mm slip-on fitting that all the collapsible f/3.5s take; Leica Copies Japan says the earlier Topcor lacks the thread

Topcor 5cm f/3.5 rigid, Leotax K, later type (後期型固定鏡胴):

  • Rigid aluminium barrel with chunky knurled rings, made for the Leotax K (Leica Copies Japan; Camera-wiki)
  • Name on a thin printed aluminium nameplate glued just inside the outer filter thread, and no small inner filter groove (Topcon Club; Leica Copies Japan gives the early lens's inner thread as 27 mm)
  • Serial number underneath the lens towards the mount, not on the front ring (Leica Copies Japan)
  • Aperture scale to f/22

Serial-range notes

580xxx–589xxx
Leica Copies Japan's split of the rigid Leotax K lenses: 580xxx to 584xxx with the number on the front ring for the early (Elmar-type) lens, 584xxx to 589xxx with the number under the lens for the later one, so a number near 584xxx needs the physical check as well. Leitz Auction 15 lot 388, a Leotax K no.57876 catalogued as 'later type with Topcor 3.5/5cm no.580419', shows in its photographs a lens with the number on the front ring and a scale ending at 16: by both Leica Copies Japan's and Topcon Club's descriptions that is the early lens, whatever 'later type' was meant to describe.

Specifications

Formula
Tessar type, 4 elements in 3 groups, diaphragm behind the second element
Construction
4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/3.5–f/22
Filter
34 mm screw-in, also 36 mm slip-on (Topcor 5cm f/3.5 collapsible, Tessar type (後期型沈胴)) · 34 mm (Topcor 5cm f/3.5 rigid, Leotax K, later type (後期型固定鏡胴))
Years manufactured
1955
Country
Japan

What reviewers say

History

The Tessar-type Topcor 5cm f/3.5 is the second version of the slow standard lens that Tokyo Kogaku made in Leica 39 mm screw mount for Showa Optical’s Leotax cameras. The first, sold as Simlar and C.Simlar from the late 1940s and as Topcor from 1955, was an Elmar type, with its diaphragm just behind the front element. Topcon Club, the Japanese collectors’ site, says the State lens before them was basically the same; Leica Copies Japan thinks the State may have been a triplet. Topcon Club says that from mid-1955 the collapsible lens was redesigned as a true Tessar, with the diaphragm moved behind the second element. Leica Copies Japan dates the change to 1956. Both designs have four elements in three groups, and Leica Copies Japan notes that their diagrams look alike. A buyer tells them apart by the controls. The Tessar type has a full-size aperture ring round the barrel instead of the small tab at the front, its scale runs to f/22 instead of f/16, and it has a screw-in filter thread as well as taking the 36 mm slip-on filters and hoods of the earlier lens. Topcon Club adds that the lock that holds the extended barrel was made sturdier.

There are two versions. The collapsible lens was the standard lens of the Leotax F and Leotax T for a time. The rigid version, in an aluminium barrel with chunky knurled rings, was made for the budget Leotax K and is not normally found on other models. Topcon Club says the K lens was made in an early and a later design that look almost the same, and that the later one has the optics of the Tessar collapsible. You can tell them apart at the front. The early lens has its name and number engraved on the ring holding the front element, with a small filter groove just outside it. The later one has a thin printed aluminium nameplate glued inside the outer filter thread, and Leica Copies Japan finds its serial number underneath the lens near the mount, in a block of about 584xxx to 589xxx. Topcon Club calls the later build a step back but thinks the lens draws better. No lens-only price has been found. A US Department of Commerce survey of Japanese retail prices at 31 March 1957, reproduced by Leica Copies Japan, lists the Leotax K with the rigid Topcor f/3.5 at ¥26,000 and the Leotax F with the collapsible one at ¥38,500, camera and lens together.

The lens has a good name. Topcon Club reports that a test of several Japanese collapsible lenses in the magazine Classic Camera Senka rated it best. In the club’s own f/8 test of eleven screw-mount Topcors it gave neutral colour and good sharpness, with finer rendering than a Tessar usually gives, and the club tentatively placed it third among the screw-mount Topcor standard lenses, level with the Topcor-S 5cm f/1.8. Kamerastore, a dealer, has asked €169 for a rigid copy. At Leitz Auction a Leotax K with an early rigid lens made €480 including premium.

When buying, read the front ring and the aperture scale. A lens that stops at f/16, has a tab at the front or is named Simlar is the earlier Elmar type, which has its own page. A Leotax F of 1956 sold at Leitz Auction still carried one, engraved Tokyo Optical Co., so the camera’s date is no guide. The Konishiroku Hexar 50mm f/3.5, found on most Leotax T cameras in Leica Copies Japan’s database, looks very much like the Tessar-type Topcor; read the name, and note that the Hexar also has a small inner 19 mm filter thread. For the rigid K lens, check where the number is, and expect a Leotax K kit to carry either type: Leica Copies Japan finds them roughly half and half. As with any collapsible lens, check that the barrel locks firmly when pulled out, that the helicoid turns smoothly, and that the front element is free of cleaning marks and haze.

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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

More sample photos elsewhere

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Topcor 5cm f/3.5 (Tessar type)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $190 across 25 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $110–$240). 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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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.

Related: Simlar and Topcor 5cm f/3.5 (Elmar type)

Sources (7)

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.