Topcon

The Topcon company was founded in 1932 as Tōkyō Kōgaku Kikai K.K. (Tokyo Optical Company), based in Tokyo. It was a supplier to the Imperial Japanese Army. The first lens was the State triplet 1933. The company also made special purpose lenses, many of them for military use until 1945. 

Current Topcon Factory

The company's first camera was released in 1937, but was not a big success. It was followed in 1938 by the Minion 4×5cm folders. The company began the production of 35mm cameras in 1948. The Topcon brand name appeared in 1953 on the Topcon 35 and the Topcor lens name appeared in 1954, soon replacing all the previous lens names.

The company began the production of Topcon 35mm SLRs in 1957, before both Nikon or Canon, and it soon stopped the production of all the other types. The Topcon RE Super, launched in 1963, was the company's most innovative camera and one of its most rugged and versatile. It was the first SLR with a through-the-lens exposure meter. Pentax would follow the next year with the Spotmatic, and Nikon only in 1965.

In parallel to the high end bodies, Tōkyō Kōgaku also manufactured simpler SLRs such as the UV series.

The Topcon SLRs were imported in the USA by Beseler, which put its own name on the bodies. Some models were marked Hanimex when imported in the Commonwealth.

Tōkyō Kōgaku stopped the production of cameras in 1981. It thereafter concentrated on making specialist optical equipment of no direct relation to photography, and in 1989 took the name K.K. Topcon. It still exists today.

The TOPCOR UV mount lenses were produced from the 1960's. These unique lens designs do not have an aperture setting ring, as this is found on the camera body. All Topcor UV lenses have a common minimum aperture of f/22.

All UV Topcor lenses

All UV Topcor lenses

UV stands for Ultra Violet, as the lenses had a UV coating, and did not need a separate UV filter.

An adapter for the UV Topcor line of lenses is very hard to find. I actually only found one company making them, and this was there last copy. It's a high quality build, and it works well with the UV Topcor lenses I currently own. Special about this adapter is that the aperture ring is on the adapter, and not on the lens. The aperture blades themselves are inside the lens. That makes this a fairly complex adapter to build, explaining why they are so rare. The aperture rings does not have any markings, so it's a guess what aperture setting you are on. But it works smooth, with only an occasional hiccup. Cost: $56, from RareAdapters.com

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