Alpa Mod 7 SLR Camera

[Stephen]

The Alpa is my main SLR camera, with a Swiss made Kern Macro 50mm f1.8 lens, just about the best 50mm lens made for 35mm.



Quirky camera as it is an SLR and Rangefinder camera combined in one body, complete with adjustable viewfinder to suit 50, 90, 135. fully coupled to the reflex lenses.

The reflex viewfinder is distinctly odd, it looks down at 45 degrees, but gives a bright viewfinder with cross hairs and split screen focus.

Very heavily built, with painted silver finish, shutter from 1 to 1000th, a cloth Leica type, but ball raced.

The Kern lens is exceptional, very sharp, and good colour balance, and able to focus down to under a foot. Beats Nikon on sharpness easily.

Built by the Swiss to be superior to Contax and Leica, they never succeeded to establish a complete system, but were the best available camera at the time. Alpa are still making view cameras and digital products, but dropped out of 35mm many years ago.

The Alpa bayonet mount can take adaptors for lots of other lenses, M42, Nikon, Canon, Exakta etc., the viewfinder angle was designed to make easy viewing on a microscope or telescope adaptor.

The camera was serviced by me a few years ago, but does need cosmetic attention to the silver paint, which requires a full strip, and the parts sent for powder coating epoxy painting.

Stephen.

[hansz]

Awesome reflex, Stephen, and a very valuable asset...
Hans

[Deleted]

Alpha was the absolute Rolls Royce of the early SLRs.

[Doug T.]

Stephen,

A lovely camera with a very classy look to it.
I would really enjoy seeing some photos taken with it.

Doug

[Berndt]

I would really enjoy seeing some photos taken with it.

Me too. Nice camera. I see it for the first time. Thanks for sharing !!!

[Deleted]

Back in the day, I think the Alpha was viewed more as a scientific "instrument." As I remember they were very expensive--more than a Leica, Contax or Nikon. I've only seen one Alpha "in person." Several years ago I was at the home of a friend who collected Soviet cameras and he pulled an Alpha out of the closet. It felt like it was milled out of a steel billet. If I remember correctly, the Alpha didn't have an instant return mirror. You had to wind it to get the mirror back in position for viewing. I remember my father thought the Alpha was the ultimate cameras (although he had only seen it in magazines).

[Stephen]

It is an instant return mirror on the Alpa mod 7, the iris is Auto by the Exakta method, the release is on the lens, and pressure closes the iris and then the body release is fired by the lens release.

As the finger is relaxed the iris re-opens, and the mirror drops back at the same time. It has a lens release lock for manual time exposures.

The 45 degree reflex viewfinder means the same viewing angle whether looking forward, or set to work downwards on to a microscope. Alpa made special bodies with the prism removable, and also laboratory cameras with no viewfinders for oscilloscopes, and meter cameras for Strowger System Telephone exchanges. they photographed banks of customer meters to generate the bills, with a date stamping device. Later versions of these had the prism body, but no prism optics.

The really odd thing is the Alpa lenses are all fully rangefinder coupled as well as a reflex, the rangefinder is vertical, not horizontal, and has triple optics to vary the view to suit 35, 50, and 135 mm lenses

Alpa were always very costly, the rangefinder only prototypes were made pre-war, to rival Zeiss Contax mainly, and were delayed into full production because of Zeiss, Contax, and Leica patents.

After the collapse of the patents with the war, the design evolved into a closer copy of the Leica shutter, and development of the bayonet mount, and reflex viewfinder. Alpa used as small a mirror as practical, and managed a small lightbox, and thin body, far smaller than Exakta, which allows mount adapters to be fitted for most other lenses, bar M39 Leica screw at infinity. It took all the Leica Viso lens though.

The engineering is first class throughout, hand assembled by one technician at each stage, and all are marked internally by the assembler.

Alpa were connected with Bolex, Kern, Pallaird, and Thorens, same designer at one time, Ex pat Ukrainian Jacques Bogopolsky, who was the designer of the 16mm Bolex film camera, and with Alpa being Swiss, the watch and clockmaking trade. He also designed the Bolsey 35mm cameras, and the sub miniature Bolsey 8mm cine which took stills and cine.


They traded on top quality, but did not make their own lenses, relying on the Swiss Kern Company to make the famous macro standard lens and a small range of close focus telephoto lenses. They supplied most lens makers in the Alpa Bayonet at one time or another, favouring, Schneider and Som Bertiot etc. TTH lenses were supplied in Alpa mounts, as well as specialist Baush and Lomb telephoto lenses.

Being Swiss manufactured, they were very restricted in the UK after the war due to the bankruptcy of the UK by the war, and monetary restrictions due to repaying the US war loans. The US imported them straight away, it was the mid 1950's before they were available in the UK, and then they still had large import duties, as with all Swiss made goods. Alpa established a New York distributor and US service station. Alpa are still very much in business, making digital view cameras, and film view cameras.

During the 1980's there were some Alpa models made by Cosina in Japan, and Cosina supplied wide angle and 135mm lenses to Alpa. This was stopped by the current new owners. It was said that Cosina gave them a bad name, but of course Cosina went on to make Contax, Voigtlander, and other top makers cameras. The Cosina lenses are excellent.

Stephen.

[alx]

The current new Alpa brand name holders are making very simple but high quality medium format cameras with absolutely no relation or development from the 35mm traditional Pignons SA Alpa Reflex division. The new Alpas share nothing in parts nor design, none of the Kern lenses are available for new Alpas, only Hassleblad, Schneider, and such are used. Capaul and Weber, I think, at least last I had learned, were the new buyers of the Alpa name and legacy. They never had any relationship with Cosina, unlike the Alpa Pignons company in the mid-late 1970s.

[Stephen]

I was well aware of C&W and the background of the modern Alpa as I have one of the view cameras, and the company I worked for helped with development of the products they do today. There was an 8 year gap after Pignons Alpa lapsed, C&W took on the name etc, and decided not to return to using Cosina etc, or to make any 35mm products.

Stephen.

[alx]

Great to see someone else that knows and appreciates Alpa. I worked in a camera store in Nashville from 1976 thru 1981, the only Alpa dealer for hundreds of miles around. An Alpa 10d was my first serious camera, in 1976, with the KMS 1.8, and I also obtained an 11el. Although I sold and re-bought that same 10d twice, and a friend owned it for about 10 years, I later inherited it, and have had it, that same 10d, since 1991 again. Once recalibrated by Heitz Service in the late '90's.

In the early 90's, I began to collect and study Alpas in earnest. Acquiring every book on Alpa, including a German language one I could not read, but later found a translated copy of. 'Lots of pamhlet literature, instruction books, and lens brochures, plus Heitz price lists. 'Must have talked to Loretta Rosas every week for 5 years, hunting for and buying rare items, as well as getting some off eBay, and from NY old-line camera stores.

At the most, I had 21 Alpas at the same time. I never had a 4, but did have a Bolsey reflex, Alpa i, II, and III, a 5b, a 6, and 6c, ( several, including an all black one ), a 9d, and several 10d, an 11e, several 11el, and about 4 11si Alpas. My favorite is the 11el, with the arrow lights, and latest body configuration. And the black krinkle paint scheme on the top. Black chrome was interesting, but not as unique as the black krinkle. Each camera I collected had a proper contemporary standard Switar lens, the proper Alpa hood, and the proper-era leather ER case, in black and brown when available. A also liked the original European-market alpa 10 and 11 models without the crest coat-of-arms, as the American market cameras had that affectation of the red enameled gold shield, a bit too ostentatious, reminded me of the preppy patch on private school blazer jackets. Karl Heitz apparently thought it would appeal more to the American buyer, but I think it just a bit tacky.

My favorite Alpa is the 8b, the pinnacle of Alpa quirk, having a split-image reflex 45-degree viewing finder, as well as Alpa's unique over-and-under windows split image rangefinder, the backward winding lever, the parallelogram rewind lever, black krinkle prism house, and lacquer painted body.

I had several lenses, the Angenieux 180, and 24, plus every variant of Switar I knew of, including the non-macro 1.8, the all black KMS 1.8, the black-and-chrome KMS 1.8, and several of the 1.9. As the rarest and best variant of KMS, I actually owned a Kern Macro Switar 1.9 in the new-style Japanese barrel, actually a more conventional design, the same barrel used by Cosina making the Auto Alpa series of lenses, but with the Kern glass and brand name ring saying Kern Macro Switar, and made in Switzerland. Dominic Martucci at Karl Heitz told me that the KMS 1.9 had an additional lens element that made it a bit sharper than the prior KMS 1.8, but that he felt the color was better from the earlier 1.8 version.

Today I only have the one 10d, my first Alpa, with the KMS 1.8 lens, and fully dressed with Alpa filter, hood, brown ER case, and strap with those quirky strap lugs.

[Stephen]

The photographic store I worked in during the 1970's/80's would never considerer stocking Alpa, far too expensive was the usual trade judgement, but we did sell Leica quite easily in the same 1970's period. The UK market was not good for Alpa, the import taxes hit them hard being Swiss made, and nothing much was sold here in the 1950's due to the import restrictions after the war. They were sold in some London shops, but not in the provinces. We sold one or two secondhand, at a good price, too much for me at the time.

Genuine Alpa accessories are rare in the UK as a consequence, but the lenses were not too bad as they turned up from European tourist sales. In the 1950/60's it was common for European visitors to the UK to sell surplus or especially bought equipment whilst on holiday, as it provided ready currency at a time when all the Euro countries had pretty severe restrictions on currency exchange. It was barely legal for shops to deal like this as no import duty had been paid, but the London shops disregarded this rather blatantly.

I bought a Bertiot wide angle, and an Angenieux telephoto and have a Schneider 135, plus a Cosina "Alpa", which is basically a Cosina 28 M42 on a Swiss made adaptor! I did not notice the adaptor till it unscrewed! The lens is marked made for Alpa quite clearly and is a good lens.

Nowadays the French lens go for a fortune as they fit Digital etc., and all lens have gone through the roof recently as this use has spread like wildfire with adaptors so easily sourced.

The Standard Macro Switar is a very good lens indeed, great colour balance and very sharp even at full aperture, it beats most Nikon and Leica, and of course excels at close-ups. I will try it myself on Digital, as soon as I get a mirrorless digital after Xmas. I have seen Alpa fit adaptors advertised from Hong Kong, so may try one.

Stephen.

[melek]

I have a 9d, and some photos that I shot with it had a 3D quality - something that I've never seen before in my photos.

They're exquisitely made, and the lenses can really focus closely.

[alx]

Kern Macro Switar and Kodachrome ... makes the slides' surface look laser-etched.

[Stephen]

The sharpness is a lot higher than most Leica, but do not tell that to a Leica enthusiast. The contrast is also better on the Swiss Kern lenses.

Alpa's problem was persuading Kern to make a full range, with such low sales due to the high prices, they had to resort to other makes, but for instance Schneider despaired of sending batches to Alpa, only to have them returned after testing, as not meeting the optical standards. Other makers simply side stepped the whole issue and sold direct in Alpa fit, rather than through Alpa.

A batch of TTH standard lenses for the Reid were sold to Alpa, the optical standard was met easily, but then TTH found out that Alpa had Kern build new bodies for all of them as they thought the focus etc., was not right. I have never seen one of this batch, I was told about it by the retired Rank/TTH sale representative, who had arranged the deal. Rank had several hundred TTH lens on their hands after Reid stopped production.

Stephen.

[paulhofseth]

I stumbled onto this forum through a mail on MFlenses, so please excuse reviving an older, but interesting thread.

Above it is stated that Alpa did not establish a complete system. That is a matter of definition.

In the "small bayonet" rangefinder- and rangefinder plus mirror, with and without pentaprism- phase before the Alnea, they offered wides through several normals -including the collapsible ones- all the way up to the long mirror lenses from Oude Delft.

After a while they offered a complete kit of macro equipment; rings, lights etc. , and followed with 250exposure backs and motors for the later "big bayonet" types. They also used the basic body to make a special vewfinder camera for sterilization (the surgical) as well as one for microfilming with adapted lenses and focussing frames. Lenses ranged from the wide Angenieux to the medium length Schneider, Kinoptic etc. through to the long Kilfitts. The most numerous body with -if I recall correctly, some 4000 made (compare numbers with the Leica IIIg- ), were the telephone-company-special modified by Alos. It came with a fix focus lens and a mains flash unit.

As Angenieux, Kinoptic apochromats and others may have become too expensive, the later system left Europe behind. First Asahi lenses with autoaperture-adapters came into their catalogue. Kern succumbed to the Leitz-Wild takeover, Switar production was stopped, tools scrapped and the institutional memories erased -exept for what has been saved by the Aarau museum.

The Chinon (not Cosina) period was an era of "badge engineering"- rather like when the Jaguar badge was put on the Ford family saloon or maybe more like when the Leica badge was put on Panasonic. Pignons may still have used their quality control on lenses sold in their name.

p.