Topcor-S 5cm f/2 (Leica screw mount)
Topcon · LTM · 1957
our own findingKnown as “Panda”
Also known as: Topcor-S 5cm f/2 · Topcor-S 5cm f2 · Topcor-S 5cm 1:2 · Topcor-S 1:2 f=5cm · Topcor-S 50mm f/2 · Topcor-S 50mm f2 · Topcor-S 2/5cm · Topcor-S 2/50 · Topcor-S 50/2 · Topcor S 5cm f2 · Topcor S 50mm f2 · Topcor S 1:2 f=5cm · TopcorS 5cm f2 · TopcorS 50mm f2 · Tokyo Kogaku Topcor-S 5cm f2 · Tokyo Kogaku Topcor-S 50mm f2 · Tokyo Kogaku Topcor-S 1:2 f=5cm · Tokyo Optical Topcor-S 5cm f2 · Topcon Topcor-S 5cm f2 · Topcon Topcor-S 50mm f2 · Leotax Topcor-S 5cm f2 · トプコールS 5cm F2 · トプコール S 5cm F2 · トプコールS 50mm F2 · トプコール-S 5cm F2 · 東京光学 トプコールS 5cm F2 · トプコン トプコールS 5cm F2 · トプコールS 5cm F2 Lマウント · Topcor 5cm f/2 · Topcor 5cm f2 · Topcor 1:2 f=5cm · Topcor 50mm f2 LTM · Topcor 5cm F2 L39 · Tokyo Kogaku Topcor 5cm f2 · Tokyo Kogaku Topcor 1:2 f=5cm · Leotax Topcor 5cm f2 · トプコール 5cm F2 · 東京光学 トプコール 5cm F2 · Topcor 5cm F2 Lマウント
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Topcor-S 5cm f/2, chrome | LTM | 1957 | 210697, 216151, 216217 (examples) | No figure published |
| Topcor-S 5cm f/2, chrome with black aperture ring and scale ('panda') | LTM | 1958 | 218662, 218912, 545867 (examples) | No figure published |
| Topcor-S 5cm f/2, black aluminium | LTM | 1958 | 54616x, at the start of the FV cameras (Leica Copies Japan) | No figure published |
- One design or three. Leica Copies Japan writes that all versions of the Topcor-S f/2 are six elements in four groups, 'not 7 as some have guessed', and that the number of elements and groups stayed the same while the design is said to have changed. Topcon Club, laying the f/2 lenses side by side, says it had thought their basic design the same but found 'どれ一つとして同じ設計のレンズはない' (not one of them is the same design): the front element is the same size on all three Topcor-S versions, the barrel is wider on the black aluminium one, and the diaphragm shows more at f/2 on each later version. Both statements are kept: the element count is documented for the first and last versions, and the changes Topcon Club describes are within that count.
- Feet and metres. The chrome lenses photographed by Leitz Auction (no.210697), Flashback Camera (no.216151) and manuellfokus (no.216217) are scaled in feet; the black-and-chrome lenses from Leitz Auction (no.545867), Flashback Camera (no.218662) and Topcon Club (no.218912), and Topcon Club's black aluminium lens, are scaled in metres. This is a handful of examples, not a rule published by any source.
- Element count. legacycamera (2012) gives seven elements, reasoning that the S stands for septem, and an MFlenses forum thread repeats it. Leica Copies Japan answers this directly from a 1957 Popular Photography advertisement and the TV2 manual and brochure: six elements in four groups. Leicaphilia gives the same measured figures as legacycamera (255 g, 41 mm extension, 40.5 mm filter, f/16) but six elements in four groups. The page follows the period documents.
- Dates. Leica Copies Japan gives 1957 for the chrome Topcor-S, after the non-S Topcor f/2 of 1956; Topcon Club says the Topcor-S was newly made at about the end of Leotax F production and came on the 1957 Leotax TV. Fukagawa Seimitsu Kōbō writes 1956. manuellfokus gives 1954–1961 and legacycamera 'about 1954', which belong to the Leotax line rather than to this lens. The last year, 1961, is Leicaphilia's end date for the Topcor f/2 on Leotax cameras; Leica Copies Japan has three 1961 Leotax G with an f/2 Topcor-S, and Leotax itself went bankrupt in October 1959 (Mikio Awano, cited by Leica Copies Japan).
- Origin. Fukagawa Seimitsu Kōbō says the Topcor-S was reworked from the 4.4cm f/2 of Tokyo Kogaku's Topcon 35-S with new glass and without the earlier lens's air space. Topcon Club makes the Topcon 35-S link for the first, non-S Topcor 5cm f/2 instead, and does not say where the Topcor-S came from. The page records both and decides neither.
- Price. No price for the lens alone has been found, and Leicaphilia believes these lenses were not sold apart from Leotax cameras. The US Department of Commerce booklet The Development of the Japanese Photographic Products Industry, 1954–1958 lists the Leotax F with 'Topcor f/2' at ¥52,000 on 31 March 1957, which may be this lens or the non-S Topcor f/2. A Merite brochure, reproduced by Leica Copies Japan, lists the Merite with the Topcor-S at ¥42,500; the brochure is undated, and the Merite name followed the TV2 of 1958. Both are Japanese list prices for camera and lens together.
- Weights. legacycamera measured 255 g on its black aluminium lens and manuellfokus 274 g on its chrome one. Leicaphilia repeats the 255 g for the Topcor f/2 in general. With brass and aluminium barrels in one family, no single weight is given.
How to tell them apart
- Leica 39 mm screw mount, rangefinder-coupled, rigid. Name ring: Topcor-S 1:2 f=5cm, Tokyo Kogaku, Japan, serial number
- 40.5 mm filter thread on every version; click-stopped aperture to f/16, the scale marked in thirds of a stop (Flashback Camera)
- Not the non-S Topcor 5cm f/2 (shorter, amber coating, no S), the Topcor-S 5cm f/1.8 of the Leotax G, or the Leonon-S 5cm f/2 of the late Leotax, which looks like the black Topcor-S but has different ribbing, a plain depth-of-field ring and a smaller, deeper-set front element (Leica Copies Japan). Also not the UV Topcor or Hi-Topcor 50mm f/2 of the leaf-shutter Topcon cameras, or the fixed 4.4cm f/2 of the Topcon 35-S
Topcor-S 5cm f/2, chrome:
- Name ring reads Topcor-S, with the S in red after a hyphen, then 1:2 f=5cm. The earlier Topcor f/2, which looks almost the same, has no S
- All chrome: the aperture ring and the distance scale are bright metal, with black engraving
- Taller than the non-S Topcor f/2 beside it, though the front element and barrel are the same diameter (Topcon Club; Leica Copies Japan)
- Focusing lever with a knurled infinity-lock button (manuellfokus's example)
- Distance scale in feet on the three examples photographed by Leitz Auction, Flashback Camera and manuellfokus ²
- Wide open, the diaphragm is almost fully withdrawn, close to the non-S lens; the later versions show more of the blades at f/2 (Topcon Club)
Topcor-S 5cm f/2, chrome with black aperture ring and scale ('panda'):
- Chrome brass barrel and focusing rings, but the aperture ring and the distance-scale ring are black with white figures. Topcon Club calls it the middle chrome model with a black aperture ring; Leica Copies Japan and camera-wiki call it the panda
- Name ring as on the chrome lens: Topcor-S with a red S
- Same front element, barrel diameter and length as the chrome Topcor-S (Topcon Club)
- A little of the diaphragm stays visible at f/2, where the chrome lens is almost fully open (Topcon Club)
- Distance scale in metres on the examples photographed by Leitz Auction, Flashback Camera and Topcon Club ²
- Infinity-lock button on the focusing lever (Flashback Camera item 026388)
Topcor-S 5cm f/2, black aluminium:
- Black aluminium barrel with a broad ribbed black focusing ring and a chrome band at the front of the mount; the earlier versions are brass
- Larger barrel diameter than the chrome and black-and-chrome versions; the front element is the same size (Topcon Club)
- Ten straight aperture blades (Leica Copies Japan). A good deal of the diaphragm stays visible at f/2 (Topcon Club)
- Focusing lever without an infinity lock (Leica Copies Japan; legacycamera)
- Easily confused with the black Topcor-S 5cm f/1.8 of the Leotax G, which looks almost the same but has a larger, more bulging front element and is marked f/1.8 on the name ring (Topcon Club; Leica Copies Japan)
- Topcor-S 5cm f/2, chrome: The first Topcor-S. Leica Copies Japan dates it to 1957 and says the Leotax TV of that year is most often found with it. Topcon Club calls it the early chrome model and says it was newly made at about the end of Leotax F production; Leitz Auction 13 offered one, no.210697, on a Leotax F of about 1956 (lot 270, estimate €600–800, unsold). A Popular Photography advertisement of April 1957, reproduced by Leica Copies Japan, gives this lens six elements. manuellfokus weighed its copy at 274 g. Leica Copies Japan notes that an all-chrome Topcor-S still appears at the back of the lens line-up in the Leotax TV2 manual of 1958, after the black lens had become standard.
- Topcor-S 5cm f/2, chrome with black aperture ring and scale ('panda'): Leica Copies Japan dates the black-and-chrome version to 1958. Topcon Club calls it the last f/2 with a brass barrel and says it was made in the time of the Leotax TV and FV and fitted as standard to the FV; Leica Copies Japan, citing Topcon Club, says the FV arrived with this lens before changing to the black aluminium one, but every FV in its own records has the later lens. Topcon Club thinks the optics were revised as well: the lens seems to transmit more light, so the stop was set to leave a little of the diaphragm showing at f/2. In its test it rated this version the best of the screw-mount Topcor standard lenses, with the best colour balance, and on its lens page it finds the colour more neutral than the later black lens's. Serial numbers seen run from the 218xxx block of the chrome lenses to no.545867 on a Leotax FV of about 1959 (Leitz Auction 13 lot 271, estimate €1,200–1,500, unsold), close to the 54616x that Leica Copies Japan gives for an early black aluminium lens.
- Topcor-S 5cm f/2, black aluminium: Leica Copies Japan dates the black aluminium version to 1958 and finds it the standard lens of the Leotax FV, the TV2 (later Merite) and the T2L (later Elite) until the T2L/Elite went over to the cheaper Leonon in 1959 (made by Showa Koki, according to Topcon Club). Leica Copies Japan notes that a serial number of 54616x places the black lens at the start of the FV cameras. The Leotax TV2 manual and the FV brochure show it with six elements in four groups. Topcon Club calls it the commonest and cheapest of the Topcor f/2 lenses, says that screw-mount collectors tend to look down on its aluminium barrel, and found its colour harder than the middle version's in its test. legacycamera measured its black copy at 255 g. Leica Copies Japan also records three of the 1961 Leotax G cameras with an f/2 Topcor-S rather than the f/1.8, possibly using up stock.
Specifications
- Formula
- Double-Gauss type, 6 elements in 4 groups, a cemented doublet in the rear group where the earlier Topcor f/2 had an air-spaced pair (Leotax TV2 manual and FV brochure via Leica Copies Japan; Topcon Club; see note ¹)
- Construction
- 6 elements / 4 groups
- Aperture range
- f/2–f/16
- Diaphragm blades
- 10
- Min. focus
- 1 m
- Filter
- 40.5 mm
- Years manufactured
- 1957–1961
- Country
- Japan
- Coating
- Magenta (Leica Copies Japan); magenta-blue, unchanged on the middle version (Topcon Club)
- Material
- Chrome-plated brass on the chrome and black-and-chrome versions, black aluminium on the last (Topcon Club)
What reviewers say
- Topcon Club (blog) — Shot all three Topcor-S versions at f/8 on a Leotax FV beside the other screw-mount Topcors. The chrome and black-and-chrome lenses draw very fine, sharp lines; the black-and-chrome version has the best colour balance and is ranked first overall; the black aluminium one has strong depth but harsher colour.
- Fukagawa Seimitsu Kōbō (blog) — Topcor-S with a black band, by his description the black-and-chrome version, on a Nicca 3F, every frame wide open: very sharp where focused, moderate contrast, a somewhat swirling background. In the comments he sets it beside the L Super Rokkor 5cm f/1.8 and calls it quite unlike the all-chrome Topcor that he and his friends had found ordinary.
- manuellfokus (blog) — Chrome Topcor-S on a Sony A7 II. Sharp in the centre wide open but softening quickly towards the corners, sharp across the frame stopped down, some swirl and some colour fringing; well built, and in the author's view a hair behind the Canon 50mm f/1.8, Tanar 50mm f/2 and Nikkor-H·C 50mm f/2.
- legacycamera (blog) — A black Topcor-S on a Tower 48 with colour print film: build good but not outstanding, comparable mechanically to Canon's later screw-mount lenses, with a nice focusing lever but no infinity lock. The author's seven-element figure is his own guess from the S; the period documents give six.
- Leicaphilia (blog) — Writes about the screw-mount Topcor f/2 line as a whole: one of the best normal lenses of the pre-Summicron era, built like the screw-mount Nikkors and Canons, usually found stuck to a Leotax body. A commenter rates his chrome and black-and-chrome Topcor-S lenses above his Summicron, Nikkor and Canons.
History
The Topcor-S 5cm f/2 is the standard lens that Tokyo Kogaku (Tokyo Optical, later Topcon) made for Leotax rangefinder cameras in the late 1950s. It is in Leica 39 mm screw mount, couples to the rangefinder of any Leica-thread body, and is the lens most people mean by “the Topcor f/2”. Topcon Club, the Japanese collectors’ site, says it was newly made at about the end of Leotax F production and came on the Leotax TV of 1957. Leica Copies Japan dates it to 1957 as well, replacing the Topcor 5cm f/2 without the S of 1956. Leicaphilia believes the Topcor f/2 was not sold apart from Leotax cameras at all.
The S lens is a new design. Where the first Topcor f/2 had an air-spaced pair in its rear group, the Topcor-S has a cemented doublet, giving six elements in four groups, a double-Gauss type, as the Leotax TV2 manual and FV brochure show. A blog in 2012 guessed seven elements from the S, and the figure still turns up; Leica Copies Japan answers it from the period documents. The coating reflects magenta rather than the earlier lens’s amber. The lens was made in three versions: all chrome from 1957; chrome with a black aperture ring and black distance scale from 1958, the “panda”; and a black aluminium barrel, also from 1958, which was the standard lens of the Leotax FV, TV2 (later Merite) and T2L until Leotax turned to the cheaper Leonon lenses in 1959. Leica Copies Japan says all three keep six elements in four groups. Topcon Club, comparing them side by side, says no two are quite the same design: the black lens has a wider barrel, and each later version leaves more of the diaphragm showing at f/2. Topcon Club thinks the optics of the black-and-chrome version were revised, and in its own test ranked that version the best of all the screw-mount Topcor standard lenses.
No price for the lens alone has been found. Both period figures are Japanese list prices for camera and lens together: ¥52,000 for a Leotax F with “Topcor f/2” on 31 March 1957, in a US Department of Commerce booklet, which may be this lens or the earlier one, and ¥42,500 for the Merite with the Topcor-S in an undated Merite brochure. Today the black aluminium lens is, Topcon Club says, the one most often seen and the cheapest of the Topcor f/2 lenses; it adds that screw-mount collectors tend not to like its rather cheap-looking aluminium barrel, though it draws very well.
To tell the versions apart, look at the aperture ring and the distance scale. On the first lens both are chrome; on the panda both are black on a chrome barrel; on the last lens the whole barrel is black, with a broad ribbed focusing ring. The two brass versions have an infinity lock on the focusing lever and the black one does not. Read the name ring as well. “Topcor-S” with a red S is this lens; “Topcor” alone, on a shorter all-chrome barrel, is the earlier f/2; “f/1.8” on a black barrel that looks just like the last version is the rare Topcor-S 5cm f/1.8 of the 1961 Leotax G; and the Leonon-S of the last Leotax cameras imitates the black lens with a smaller, deeper-set front element. A lens on a Leotax may be original to the camera, but camera and lens sold together prove nothing. As with any 1950s lens, check for haze, cleaning marks and fungus, and check that the diaphragm blades are free of oil (both lenses Flashback Camera offered had some) and that the focusing is smooth over its whole travel.
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
- Topcon Club: the Topcor-S 5cm f/2 middle version, no.218912
- Topcon Club: cross-sections of the screw-mount Topcors, the Topcor-S 5cm f/2 included
- Leica Copies Japan: the Topcor-S in its three finishes on Leotax cameras
- Flashback Camera: chrome Topcor-S no.216151
- Flashback Camera: black-and-chrome Topcor-S no.218662
- Leitz Auction 13 lot 271: Leotax FV with black-and-chrome Topcor-S no.545867
- manuellfokus: sample photographs with the chrome Topcor-S
These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.
Sample photo wanted — shot with a Topcor-S 5cm f/2 (Leica screw mount)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
Asking price, USD: a median of $340 across 24 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $270–$400). 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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