New guy from Colorado

[laverdaguy]

Hi, I'm Ed, and my wife says I have too many cameras...

Sound familiar?

I've been collecting for a while, mostly various '70's era items that I wanted when new but couldn't afford. Canons, Nikons, Olympus OM's a RB67 setup, etc. All work and all get used. Recently however I received literally a room full of old camera gear, most of which was broken and had been used as parts cameras. Amongst it all however I've found some real gems. Various folders, rangefinders, guestimate focusing viewfinders, TLR's... Its been quite an adventure researching these things, some of which I'd never even heard of. This researching is how I found this forum. I've been learning what I can about Alpa's:



You might notice the lens, this had me confused as it seems to be an Exakta mount. After some Googling brought me here I found a thread referencing an Alpa with a weird mount and learned that I too have an adapter on mine. Success! I'd love to have a nice Alpa mount lens but don't, and as I have a few Exakta lenses this adapter isn't such a bad thing.

As you can see this one is missing some parts, and as you cant see its also pretty well locked up so soon after Christmas I'll be sending it off to Radu at 3R Camera. He's got the parts, and I hear he has the skills, so hopefully soon this one will be working again.

I'm looking forward to hanging out here with some like minded individuals, its good to know I'm not alone...

Ed

[Stephen]

welcome to the forum, I am sure that the Alpa can be got going, but, Please, get a quote before work! They were expensive new and remain expensive to work on! I have a Mod 7 myself.
Not absolutely sure but the early and maybe the 4b Alpa have a smaller mount size than the later models, so more restrictive on adaptors etc.

What you may have is an Exakta adaptor in place on the body, and you are removing the lens via the Exakta mount on the lens, leaving the Alpa adaptor in the body. The release button on the body to the right of the lens should release the adaptor complete with the lens.

It is an Exakta adaptor there will be a second lever to press in which should allow only the lens to be released, leaving the adaptor in place.

Stephen.

[laverdaguy]

Hi Stephen,
At first I was removing the lens and leaving the adapter in place thinking it was a fixed part of the body. After reading here that there were adapters, and seeing how the camera was supposed to look without an adapter in place, I used a bit more force and was able to remove the adapter from the body. It had been there so long that it was pretty well stuck and as I don't believe in forcing things I hadn't put enough force into it to move the adapter. Now I've had it all apart and cleaned it up a bit and the adapter goes on and off much easier.

I've been given a quote on a CLA (not to much), and once the camera is in New York will be getting an estimate on the repairs. I'll then decide on just how much I'm willing to go to get this one working. My general rule is that any camera in my collection has to be working but this thing is so cool that I will probably keep it fixed or not. I cant find much on these and don't really know what its worth (any ideas?) so I guess the decision will be based on what I think its worth to me.

[hansz]

Welcome Ed, to this forum - you description of your environment sounds very familiar!
Hans

[genazzano]

Wow, do you fit this group well. Personaly I am way passed the point where counseling would help.

David (aka Genazzano)

[rickoleson]

Hello Ed! I have some repair notes from an Alpa 5 that I'll be happy to send you if you can drop me an email at [e-mail] - I think it's very similar to your 4 except for the viewfinder arrangement. My 5 also came with an Exakta adapter on it, I suppose that made it a lot easier and somewhat cheaper to find lenses for it.

rick

[laverdaguy]

Hello Rick,
I would love to see what you have on the Alpa 5, I'm quite curious about how Alpa built their cameras. You can send things to me at [e-mail]. Thank you very much!
I have to tell you too that I have enjoyed your tech notes on the web, they will be my guide soon when I start on my two working Exaktas which both are squeaking a bit. Thank you for the time you've put in to helping those of us looking to learn a bit about camera repair!

Ed