Tōkyō Kōgaku

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Tōkyō Kōgaku, later Topcon, is a Japanese optical manufacturer, previously a manufacturer of photographic equipment.

History

The company was founded in 1932 as Tōkyō Kōgaku Kikai K.K. (東京光学機械㈱, usually translated as Tokyo Optical Company). It resulted from the merge on 1 September 1932 of the measure instruments section of Seikōsha (the manufacturing branch of Hattori Tokei-ten) and Katsuma Kōgaku Kikai Seisakusho (勝間光学機械製作所), said to be a subcontractor or a dependent company.[1] As its name indicates, it was based in Tokyo.[2]

It was first an optical company, like Nippon Kōgaku (later Nikon). It was a supplier of the Imperial Japanese Army whereas Nippon Kōgaku was a supplier of the Navy.[3] The company's first camera was the Lord, released in 1937, which was not a big success. It remained quite a minor camera maker until the end of the 1950s, even if its range of 6×6 TLRs met some success. It was also making 39mm screw lenses under the Simlar and later Topcor brands. The Topcon brand name appeared in 1953 on a 35mm camera. At about the same time the dependent company Yamagata Kikai was also manufacturing the Semi Oscon that was advertised together with the company's own cameras.

The company began the production of Topcon 35mm SLRs in 1957 (before either Nikon or Canon produced a SLR), and it very soon concentrated on these, stopping the production of all the other types. The Topcon RE Super, launched in 1963 at the Photokina, 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 with the Nikkormat FT, and with the Photomic T prism for the Nikon F.

In parallel to the high end bodies, Tōkyō Kōgaku also manufactured simpler SLRs, at the beginning with a central shutter, later with a Copal Square focal-plane shutter.

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.

At the end of the 1960s, the company ceased to innovate on the SLRs, and produced variations on the same basic design until 1976. The bodies made after 1977 are not up to their predecessors, and the rumor says they were not designed by Tōkyō Kōgaku but elsewhere.

Tōkyō Kōgaku decided to stop 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 (㈱トプコン). It still (2007) exists.

Today the better Topcon models are eagerly collected in Japan. In 2003 Cosina designed and marketed an "Auto-Topcor" 58/1.4 lens (in Nikon F and M42 mounts) that externally resembles the genuine Tōkyō Kōgaku item and is even marked Tokyo Kogaku; it also created a variant of its M42-mount Bessaflex SLR whose distinctive pentaprism housing resembles that of the Topcon RE Super.

35mm film

SLR

Exakta lens mount

  • Topcon R = Beseler B Topcon (1957-1960)
  • Topcon RII = Beseler C Topcon (1960-1961)
  • Topcon RIII Automatic (1961-1963)
  • Topcon RS (1963), rare variant of the RE Super with no meter
  • Topcon RE Super = Beseler Topcon Super D (1963-1972)
  • Topcon RE-2 = Beseler Topcon D-1 = Hanimex Topcon RE-2 (1965-)
  • Topcon Super D = Beseler Topcon Super D (1972-1973)
  • Topcon Super DM (1973-1976)
  • Topcon RE200 = Exakta EDX2 = Carena KS1 (1977-)
  • Topcon RE300 = Exakta EDX3 = Carena KS2

All of these take Exakta lenses.

Pentax K mount

  • Topcon RM300, the same body with minor modifications was sold under the names of Quantaray Delta 2-RZ, Carena KSM1, Exakta KE4 and Exakta KE5
  • Topcon AM-1, never sold, released in 1983 by Cima as Cimko LS-1

They take Pentax K lenses.

Topcon UV lens mount

  • Topcon Uni = Beseler Topcon Auto 100 = Hanimex Topcon RE Auto (1964-1969)
  • Topcon Unirex = Beseler Topcon Unirex (1969-1973)
  • Topcon Unirex EE (1972-1974)
  • Topcon IC-1 Auto (1974-1976)
  • Topcon New IC-1 Auto (1976-1978)

All of these take Topcon UV lenses.

Fixed lens

  • Topcon PR (1959-1960)
  • Topcon PRII = DeJur Dekon-SR (1960)
  • Topcon Wink Mirror (1960-1961)
  • Topcon Wink Mirror E = Beseler Topconette (1961-1963)
  • Topcon Wink Mirror S (1963-1964)

All had front element optical complements available.

Viewfinder

Rangefinder

120 film

6×6 TLR

  • Topcoflex
  • Primoflex

4.5×6 telescopic

127 film

4×4 TLR

Both are the same camera with different name plates. The Primo Jr was also offered with a meter.

4×5 folding

Lenses

Interchangeable lenses

Fixed lenses on cameras from other makers

Not all examples of the cameras listed below have Tōkyō Kōgaku lenses.

Miscellaneous

  • Special lenses, mostly for military use:
    • Toko 50/0.7 (1943 or 1944)[4]
    • Simlar 50/0.7 (1951)[5]
    • Simlar 180/4.5[6]
    • Simlar-F 180mm f/1.5 (1942)[7]
    • Simlar 21cm f/4.5 (1937)[8]
    • Simlar 300/4.5[9]
    • Tele-Simlar 400/5[10]
  • Enlarging lenses:[11]
    • Topcor 50/3.5 (sold ¥4,500 in 1955)
    • Toko 75/4.5
    • Toko 75/3.5 (sold ¥3,500 in 1955, at least two variations)
    • Simlar 75/3.5

Other

Notes

  1. ↑ See the FAQ of Topcon's website. The JCII exhibition catalogue Nihon no kamera o omoshiroku shita kyōshū no burando ten says the same and adds that Katsuma was a dependent company of Hattori. Lewis, p. 184, says that it was a subcontractor. Baird, p. 69, says that Tōkyō Kōgaku was formed by the optical section of Seikōsha and by Katsuma, a small binocular maker (perhaps by confusion with a later Katsuma company that made binoculars after the war), and that it bought the surveying instruments section in 1933, but it seems that these are mistakes. Antonetto and Russo, p. 21, repeats the same story as Baird.
  2. ↑ Its address in 1932 was Tōkyō-shi Kyōbashi-ku Ginza 4–2 (東京市京橋区銀座4丁目2番地), with plants in Toshima-ku (豊島区) and Takinogawa-ku (滝野川区). At the beginning of 1933, the company moved to its main plant in Tōkyō-shi Itabashi-ku Shimura Motohasunuma-chō 180-banchi (東京市板橋区志村本蓮沼町180番地), where it still resides (2007). Source: chronology of the official website.
  3. ↑ Baird, p. 69.
  4. ↑ Mentioned in this page of the Topcon Club website. Date: Antonetto and Russo, p. 26, says 1943. Lewis, p. 184, says 1944. Both sources say that the prototype was sold to the U.S. forces.
  5. ↑ See this page of the Topcon Club website. This source says 1951 but the Simlar 50/0.7 is still listed in a Tōkyō Kōgaku catalogue dating about 1956, reproduced in this page of the Topcon Club website.
  6. ↑ Mentioned in this page of the Topcon Club website as pictured in Classic Camera Senka issue no. 15.
  7. ↑ See this page of Michio Akiyama's Red Book Nikkor site.
  8. ↑ See this page of the Topcon Club website. Date: Antonetto and Russo, p. 22.
  9. ↑ Reported by a dealer, with serial no. 2.
  10. ↑ See this page of the Topcon Club website.
  11. ↑ Advertisements published in Asahi Camera January and August 1955 and Shashin Salon November 1955, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 151. See also this page of the Topcon Club website.
  12. ↑ Advertisement published in Asahi Camera June 1950, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 150.

Sources / further reading

  • Antonetto, M. and Russo, C. Topcon Story. Lugano: Nassa Watch Gallery, 1997. ISBN 88-87161-00-3.
  • Asahi Camera (アサヒカメラ) editorial staff. Shōwa 10–40nen kōkoku ni miru kokusan kamera no rekishi (昭和10–40年広告にみる国産カメラの歴史, Japanese camera history as seen in advertisements, 1935–1965). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1994. ISBN 4-02-330312-7.
  • Lewis, Gordon, ed. The History of the Japanese Camera. Rochester, N.Y.: George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography & Film, 1991. ISBN 0-935398-17-1 (paper), 0-935398-16-3 (hard).
  • Nihon no kamera o omoshiroku shita kyōshū no burando ten (日本のカメラを面白くした郷愁のブランド展, Exhibition of nostalgic brands that made Japanese cameras interesting). Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 1997. Exhibition catalogue.

Links

General links

In English:

In Japanese:

Miscellaneous links

In English:

In Japanese:

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