Topcon?

dynachrome · Jun 1, 2025

I took delivery today of an item purchased on the auction site. It's a bellows unit with the slide copier attachment and an integrated focusing rail. It is marked TOPCON but does not look like any of my other Topcon bellows units. Also, it's in Pentax K mount. The Pentax K mount has two pins. One protrudes and one is recessed. The bellows unit only contains the pin which protrudes. The unit seems to be very well made. I will attempt to attach some cell phone photos if I can reduce the file sizes. I think that when Topcon stopped making cameras, the Topcon name was used for things they didn't make. It's like the Kodak name on some AA batteries I recently bought at a local supermarket. I prefer Energizer Industrial AAs for anything important but the Kodak ones will do for flashlights and TV remotes. Has anyone seen bellows units like this one with the Topcon name but with other non-Topcon mounts?

Sirius Glass · Jun 1, 2025

Has the Topcon label in substituted for Pentax on the equipment? If so think about returning it.

Paul Howell · Jun 1, 2025

I have not, but the last Topcon made was an RE in K mount, as I recall they also made a few K mount lens as well. this might have been made for change over. I read an article on a long dead web site devoted to Topcon and Swiss Alpa cameras that Topcon was going to come out with a complete line of K mount cameras including a K mount version of the Super DM. The author was unsure why Topcon killed the project.

xkaes · Jun 1, 2025

The only Topcon I know of with a K-mount was the RM 300 (also sold under several other labels). It was not made by Topcon, but it makes sense to think that they simply took the most recent "Topcon" bellows and stuck a K-mount on it -- and Topcon label.

https://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Topcon_RM_300

Yashica · Jun 3, 2025

Topcon back then had very HQ 35mm SLRs, really pricey.

Paul Howell · Jun 3, 2025

Topcon was the second full system 35mm camera, came out in 1966s. The SuperRE had options for interchangeable focusing screens, finders, had motor drive and a winder, bellows, and pretty wide selection of lens. It used the same mount aUsed T the Exacta but now sure if old Exacta lens could be used. Nikon had a much wider selection of lens including very fast primes Like Nikon had the Nikormate Topcon had the RE as a basic body. The U.S Navy used the SuperDM until Topcon left the market in 1977 or so. The big advantage of the Topcon SuperRE and later SuperDM the meter was built into body, so when changing to a wasit level or sports finder metering was maintained.

wiltw · Jun 3, 2025

Paul Howell said:
Topcon was the second full system 35mm camera, came out in 1966s...Topcon had the RE as a basic body.

Topcon RE Super actually was launched in 1963. When I was a young teen, I managed to convince my father to buy a Beseler Topcon Auto 100 in 1964, and lusted for the Beseler Topcon Super D (as the RE Super was badged for the US market) until I finally found one 50+ years later in my late 60's! The RE Super was the world's first TTL metering camera on the market, beating the Pentax Spotmatic to market. The RE Super was hardly 'basic' but was priced at the top of the heap at $420 with f/1.4 normal lens in the stratosphere along with the Nikon F with Phototomic T finder; my Auto 100 was a modest $159, in a time when the median monthly family income in the US was $550 and gas was $0.30/gal!

Paul Howell · Jun 3, 2025

Yeah 1966 is a typo that I did not catch. I have Auto 100 and a couple of lens, the 50mm 2.0 is sharp as is the 200 F4 or 5.6 I forget off the top of my head, but really heavy, the heaviest 200mm for a 35mm camera I have ever used. When in the Air Force I attended a training session sponsored by the Navy. The Air Forced used Nikon as did the Marines and Army. The Navy photographers showed with aluminum cases, the Super DM, motor drive, 3 lens and a flash. It was nice kit.

xkaes · Jun 3, 2025

wiltw said:
The RE Super was the world's first TTL metering camera on the market, beating the Pentax Spotmatic to market.

The first camera with TTL metering was the Feinwerk Mec SB in 1960. It came in two models -- one with a Schneider f2.0 lens and the other a Color-Ennit f2.8. The meter was made by Gossen.

http://www.subclub.org/shop/feinwerk.htm

wiltw · Jun 4, 2025

xkaes said:
The first camera with TTL metering was the Feinwerk Mec SB in 1960.

I should have stated 'first SLR' rather than 'first camera'

ntenny · Jun 4, 2025

Paul Howell said:
It used the same mount aUsed T the Exacta but now sure if old Exacta lens could be used.

Exakta lenses generally work on the RE Super/Super D, but you don’t get automatic diaphragm functionality. For the “auto” lenses with the side lever to control the diaphragm, you get to actuate the plunger with one hand and fire the shutter with the other. It’s kind of awkward but it opens the door to a lot of interesting lenses.

-NT

BMbikerider · Jun 4, 2025

I never actually owned a Topcon but I lusted after then in my penniless days of youth. They had the impression of being very very well made and sturdy cameras, but ownership or even use was not to be. I imagine they were very weighty beasts. I have not even seen one for a good many years.
They also made a Rollieflex 3.5f look-a-like, which bore the name of Topcoflex or something very similar which I think was the last model one from that company I saw. It was in the window of a camera shop, 2nd hand, and that must have been around 40+ years ago. Sadly it was on a Sunday morning and the shop was closed, because I may well have bought it but the next time I went past it had gone from display. I also remember around the lens bezel were the words Tokyo Optical Company.

Topcon?

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