The Topcor RE 2.8/35mm is a typical 1fist generation retrofocus wideangle lens with the flaws in rendering typical for those lenses. Of course these flaws can be used to get the equally typical "vintage look" .

These lenses usually consist of a master lens and a wide angle converter in front. The master lens often was a Tessar type (or even a simple triplet for slower f4 lenses), but Topcor chose a Heliar type instead. Obviously that didn't solve the inherent problems of retrofocus wideangles. Nikon even tried a double gauss as a master lens for their early 2.8/35mm, but failed as well. Only when a more integrated approach was explored - correcting the inherrent erreors of the front wideangle converter group with two positive lenses at the rear of the master lens - the coma of retrofocus lenses was reduced to accaptable values.

Wide open at f2.8, the Topcor RE 2.8/35mm has a very good center resolution. A bit further out - maybe at 1/3 of the image circle - the contrast starts to drop. In high contrast situations, we can see the "glow" typical for eraly retrofocus lenses (and typical for most fast double gauss lenses as well). Stoppoing donw gradually increases the image quality. Around f8 the full frame borders become good (24 MP full frame), and at f11 the corners are quite sharp as well. That said, a more modern design such as the Minolta MD 2.8/35mm or the Canon FD 2.8/35mm have better corners at f4 than this Topcor at f11!

TOPCON AUTO-TOPCOR RE 35mm 1:2.8                  (7 Linsen / 6 Glieder)