There is some confusion, at least in my mind, regarding the name associated with the maker of the RE super/Super D camera and Topcor lenses. Do an Internet search for 'Topcon' and you come up with many hits, most dealing with non-camera related products. Originally the Topcon name was used to denote camera equipment. But these days names have changed, and the company that deserted camera manufacturing has usurped the name of the defunct camera for it's modern corporate name. Apparently  'Topcon' had high name recognition, it was just that no one was buying the cameras.

I have done some research trying to understand the name chronology of this particular company.  The results of this research follows:

Tokyo Optical Co., Ltd. (English name) otherwise known as Tokyo Kogaku Kikai K.K. (Japanese name) was established in September of 1932.

In 1933 Tokyo Optical began producing camera lenses. As with the German lens makers, they gave their lenses unique names--the State Anastigmat, the Simlar, the Toko and finally the Topcor.

The first camera that carried the Topcon name seems to have been the Topcon 35A of the early 1950s. As with the lenses, this was an invented name, perhaps a takeoff of the name of their popular Topcor lenses.

In 1960 Toshiba Corporation became Tokyo Optical's major shareholder with 40.75% of issued stock.

In 1957 Tokyo optical entered the SLR field with their Topcon R camera. The Topcon name was continued (in 1962) for their Topcon RS, the meterless predecessor of the RE Super/Super D that arrived a year later. To most camera buffs, the name Topcon brings to mind the slab-sided Super D, RE Super or the Super Dm.

About 1980 Tokyo Optical ceased the manufacturing of cameras for the consumer market.

In 1989 Tokyo Optical Co. changed it's name to Topcon Corporation. The names Tokyo Optical Co., Ltd. and Tokyo Kogaku Kikai K.K. were no longer associated with this company. The present Topcon Corporation manufactures electronic surveying instruments (including GPS receivers), medical equipment, optical units and systems, measuring instruments and optical mechatronic systems. In 1999 78% of their business came from medical and surveying equipment.

An Internet search for 'Tokyo Optical' will also bring up a Web Site for Tokyo Optical Co., Ltd. This company was founded in August of 1883 in Tokyo and specializes in eyewear (glasses), hearing aids, contact lenses and associated accessories. What is going on here? Two Tokyo based companies, one founded in 1883 and the other in 1932, with identical names! Did Japan have no registered trademark laws in those days?

Just to add more confusion; there is a line of computer monitors with the name Topcon. I believe these are sold by a Hong Kong based company and perhaps they are also manufactured there. I can find no additional information about these monitors and have no way to know if they have any corporate ties to the former Tokyo Kogaku Kikai.

And so, we who love the old cameras, are further humiliated by the diffusion of the Topcon name into non-camera products. If you tell someone you are a Topcon collector they may ask why you would want to collect surveying equipment, oftalmological devices or computer monitors. But we of stout heart know that a Topcon is a camera, nothing else. The name thieves may prevail, but we camera collectors/users have right and truth and virtue on our side.