[Leica] So.. what is the deal with Alpa Cameras?

[creativevisions at verizon.net (Michael J Herring)]

Seth,

Do you know of any place where you can find these late model Alpa 35mm SLR
cameras? I have been told it is rather easy to adapt other optics to them.
I live in New Jersey.
Thanks,
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Seth Rosner" <sethrosner@nycap.rr.com>
To: "Leica Users Group" <lug@leica-users.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 11:31 PM
Subject: Re: [Leica] So.. what is the deal with Alpa Cameras?


> Aha!
>
> Eric, this very high quality MF camera is the successor to a line of
very
> high quality Swiss 35mm cameras whose prodution started in the 1940's by
a
> company called Pignons, S.A. in Ballaigues, Suisse, that also
manufactured
> parts, gears, levers etc. for the top-line Swiss watch manufacturers.
They
> were very quirky; early models were rangefinders, next lines featured
both
> rangefinder and reflex focusing in the same camera (!!!)and the final
> models were strictly SLRs. Alpa made no lenses. They were furnished in
> Alpa mount by Kern, Schneider-Kreuznach, Angenieux, Kilfitt.
>
> Their quirkiness made them relatively uinsuitable for what our group
terms
> photjournailsm or street photography as they are slow and
counterintuitive
> (e.g. the film advance-shutter cock lever protrudes from the front of
the
> camera and is drawn clockwise toward the rear!!!) Thus it is very slow
and
> deliberate in operation and was used more by scientists, laboratory and
> research people than by PJ's.
>
> Tom Abrahamssen, who used to collect them, describes having disassembled
a
> very early model of which he said the shutter mechanism and gear train
for
> the delayed action release were like the inside of a Patek Philippe or
> Rolex watch while the rest of the camera looked like it came from a
Soviet
> tractor factory! Later models are magnificently made, rivaling even
> contemporaneous Leitz and Zeiss production.
>
> Take a look at the history that I believe is on the Alpa website. Capaul
> and Weber are a Swiss couple who bought the Alpa name and mark from the
> receiver in bankruptcy in about 1990 and proceeded to design and
> manufacture this current Alpa camera that is built to space station
> quality levels, nothing automatic whatever. They too do not make lenses
> which are still produced for the Alpa by some of the world's finest
optics
> manufacturers.
>
> I have had several Alpa's and 50mm lenses recently and still have a
> collector camera/lens combo like-new in box.
>
> Seth
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "eric" <leica_korenman@hotmail.com>
> To: "LUG" <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
> Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 6:36 PM
> Subject: [Leica] So.. what is the deal with Alpa Cameras?
>
>
> http://www.alpa.ch/
> Do pros really use these? Or just former sultans?
> Are these even snobbier than Leicas?
>
> I stumbled into these cameras on a stroll of the net today and I am not
> familiar with them.
>
> Eric
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information


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