Topcon RE Super: History of Tokyo Optical Co and Camera Review

StepheKoontz · Oct 15, 2023

Started adding some vintage camera content to my YouTube channel. Hope you enjoy this video on this great camera that just doesn't get a lot of love online.

mshchem · Oct 15, 2023

I always was fond of the Topcon design. I very briefly had a D1, couldn't afford a Super D, before I traded it and my Pentax stuff in on a brand new Nikon F2S with a 55 f3.5 micro-NIKKOR. I was the coolest camera geek in 10th grade.

Kino · Oct 15, 2023

I always admired the Topcon cameras, but never found a set within my price range.

Now, I have too many cameras...

George Collier · Oct 16, 2023

I enjoyed your video, took me back.
I bought an RE Super when I was in Vietnam, at a PX in 1966, for $108 I believe, with the normal 58mm, a 300mm (preset, as I recall), and maybe a 35 I don't remember. I sold the whole system in 1969 before going to school. I was working at a downtown Wash DC professional camera store, and had just taken a trade-in of Leica M2's with the 35, 50DR, and 90 summicrons from a doctor who was moving to an early Leica SLR sysem. For what I sold the Topcon system, I was able to buy the whole Leica traded-in system (the store had a generous employee policy - %5 on cost for anything in the store.) I did miss the Topcon for awhile (I did like the front shutter release), but not for long, I soon loved the M2's, and now use M4's.

wiltw · Oct 16, 2023

Topcon...I lusted for a Super D as a very young teen, whose father purchased an Auto 100 for his use to shoot fashion models and events and serve on his high school newspaper and yearbook photography staffs. Made of Unobtainium, it was...priced at $420 in a time when median household income was only about $6500.

About 50 years later, I came across a near-mint one with 58mm f/1.4 lens, and that activated long-suppressed desires, so now I own this...

Everything was fully functional and tested with accuracy with newly acquired the Super D! ...a very pleasant surprise in view of the fact that I purchased it without bothering to test anything...for $25 in a thrift store

mshchem · Oct 17, 2023

wiltw said:
Topcon...I lusted for a Super D as a very young teen, whose father purchased an Auto 100 for his use to shoot fashion models and events and serve on his high school newspaper and yearbook photography staffs. Made of Unobtainium, it was...priced at $420 in a time when median household income was only about $6500.

About 50 years later, I came across a near-mint one with 58mm f/1.4 lens, and that activated long-suppressed desires, so now I own this...

Everything was fully functional and tested with accuracy with newly acquired the Super D! ...a very pleasant surprise in view of the fact that I purchased it without bothering to test anything...for $25 in a thrift store

What a deal! My dad had an Auto 100. Super D was a dream.

Helge · Oct 17, 2023

The 135 3.5 is crazy good.

hsandler · Oct 17, 2023

Great video Stephe. I stumbled upon the RE Super and have really taken to it. I like the front shutter release. It turns out it takes the same size eyepiece accessories as the Nikon F3hp. I then acquired this Ihagee extension bellows and extension rings and a long Telemegor Exakta lens. This arrangement isn't really practical (I normally use the 50mm lens with the extension bellows) but doesn't it look cool!

Say hello to my little friend by Howard Sandler, on Flickr

Paul Howell · Oct 17, 2023

I have a couple of Topcon Uni 100s, and a IC, these were the amature level cameras in Topcon's line up. The Auto 100 came out in 1964, it has TTL metering, shutter preferred auto exposure, but has a leaf shutter. IC stood for integrated circuit and was a electronic shutter. Top shutter speed is 1/500. The lens line was limited 28 to 200, other than the F2 50 mm (6 elements) lens were on the slow side, but like all Topcon glass, sharp. In the early 70s when in the Air Force I attended a photographers conference sponsored by the Navy in San Francisco. At the time the Air Force was using Leica M2 and M3, along with Nikon F, the F2 had just come out and the Air Force had not yet updated it's line up. I think the Army was also using the Nikon F as was the Marine Corps. Someone claimed the reason that the Navy bought Topcon was that it was marketed by Beseler and some purchasing office thought it was made in the U.S. In attendance was a Navy officer in charge of Navy Photography who debunked that notion. As noted by Stephe Topcon did not use the indexing tabs, the built in light meter also means that TTL could be with the waist level and sports finders along with the 5 or 6 focusing screens. Although Topcon did not have as many lens as Nikon or Canon all of their lens were very good, as good an 35mm on the market, well maybe Swiss Alpa were better. The Navy bought a large number of motor drives for the Super DM. In addition to the Super D and D, Topcon offered stripped down version the RE, not the Super, no interchanaghle viewfinder, had a motor winder but not drive. The last RE was K mount, lasted a year or so before Topcon left the camera market. The black body Navy Topcon Super D are very collectable. I recall that Topcon left the market in 1977, same year as Miranda and Petri left or whent bust.

Other Topcon that is really good, I get an itch for one is the Horseman.

dynachrome · Oct 17, 2023

Topcon made SLR cameras before the RE Super. These are not yet in my Topcon collection. Was the RE Super designed on 1963? It was introduced in 1963 and work on its design must have taken a while. My RE Topcors are all standard lenses. I have a 5.8CM f/1.4, two 5.8CM f/1.8s and at least one 50MM f/1.7. The 50, if I am not mistaken, was made by CIMA Kogaku, to go with the RE200 and RE300 models.

I found the Carenar brand of lenses in Topcon mount and I have them in 28, 35, 135 and 200mm focal lengths. They are decent performers and look similar to Vivitar Fixed Mount lenses from that period. I can mount Vivitar T4 lenses, Vivitar TX lenses using T4 adapters, Tamron Adaptall, Adaptall II and probably Adaptamatic lenses, T mount lenses and possibly some Exakta mount lenses. At some point I may get some RE Topcors other than standard lenses. I have Topcon bellows units, slide copier attachments, extension tubes, extra finders and focusing screens. To keep my RE Super and Super D cameras company, I also have D1 and RE2 cameras. The Topcons are interesting even if this is one of my smallest collections.

Paul Howell · Oct 17, 2023

The RE super came out in 63, the auto 100 in 62, I assume that design was ongoing. Although I don't have one, Topcon also made a series of fixed lens SLRS, like the auto 100 used leaf shutters. the Wink Mirror used an instant return mirror, had an external selenium meter. These were on the market in the 50s, my guess is as soon as the Nikon F was on the market Topcon was working on a competitor.

StepheKoontz · Oct 17, 2023

Paul Howell said:
The RE super came out in 63, the auto 100 in 62, I assume that design was ongoing. Although I don't have one, Topcon also made a series of fixed lens SLRS, like the auto 100 used leaf shutters. the Wink Mirror used an instant return mirror, had an external selenium meter. These were on the market in the 50s, my guess is as soon as the Nikon F was on the market Topcon was working on a competitor.

There was an earlier Topcon R SLR introduced in the late 1950's that used an external aperture mechanism button made onto the lens, that in turn pressed the shutter like Exakta used.

ic-racer · Oct 17, 2023

Nice video thanks for expaining the unique features of the Topcon 35mm camera.

I don't have any Topcon cameras but I do have about 12 Topcor lenses for my Horseman 6x9cm and 4x5 cameras.

mshchem · Oct 18, 2023

ic-racer said:
Nice video thanks for expaining the unique features of the Topcon 35mm camera.

I don't have any Topcon cameras but I do have about 12 Topcor lenses for my Horseman 6x9cm and 4x5 cameras.

View attachment 351306

Beautiful!!!

Paul Howell · Oct 18, 2023

StepheKoontz said:
There was an earlier Topcon R SLR introduced in the late 1950's that used an external aperture mechanism button made onto the lens, that in turn pressed the shutter like Exakta used.

I looked for it, could not any information on the standard web sites. With the shutter release on the front, will a early Exakta lens mount and stop down?

wiltw · Oct 18, 2023

Paul Howell said:
The RE super came out in 63, the auto 100 in 62, I assume that design was ongoing. Although I don't have one, Topcon also made a series of fixed lens SLRS, like the auto 100 used leaf shutters. the Wink Mirror used an instant return mirror, had an external selenium meter. These were on the market in the 50s, my guess is as soon as the Nikon F was on the market Topcon was working on a competitor.

The RE Super is acknowledged as the very first camera commercially offered with TTL metering, beating Pentax, which presented as a prototype at Photokina 1960, to market. The RE Super did not debut until Photokina 1963. The Auto 100 would not have preceded the RE Super.
Topcon's first camera was the Topcon 35A in the early 1950's, and its first SLR came in the late 1950's, before Nikon or Canon.

abruzzi · Oct 18, 2023

ic-racer said:
Nice video thanks for expaining the unique features of the Topcon 35mm camera.

I don't have any Topcon cameras but I do have about 12 Topcor lenses for my Horseman 6x9cm and 4x5 cameras.

Nice. I started with the VH, figuring I didn’t need the rangefinder, but I recently found a very cheap VH-R with the rubber hoods for the viewfinder and rangefinder. (kind of a necessity for using the VF and RF.). I have the 65, 90, 105, 120, 150, and 180, but no cam for the 120 or 150. I also have the Horseman Convertible.

ntenny · Oct 18, 2023

Paul Howell said:
I looked for it, could not any information on the standard web sites. With the shutter release on the front, will a early Exakta lens mount and stop down?

My experience is that an Exakta lens will mount, the “automatic” diaphragm (the kind with the arm and plunger) will work, but because the mount is reversed from the Exakta’s orientation, the aperture plunger doesn’t align with the shutter release. You have to close the aperture with one finger and trigger the shutter with another.

Preset and manual Exakta lenses, I presume, work as usual, but I haven’t tried.

-NT

Paul Howell · Oct 18, 2023

Had not thought about the orientation of the arm to the shutter release.

Topcon RE Super: History of Tokyo Optical Co and Camera Review

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