11.2017 - ALPA Capaul & Weber Ltd. also cares about the owners of historic Alpa 35mm lenses and offers now the possibility to use these vintage lenses on a current ALPA camera by introducing the ALPA Lens Module for Alpa 35mm lenses. Many of these lenses have their own unique image character and are waiting to be rediscovered.

ALPA 12 TC, Kilfitt 2.8/4 cm for Alpa, Sinar S30|45 digital back - ©ALPA

Among the most famous lenses from the analogue era of former Alpa 35mm cameras manufacturer Pignons S.A. (defunct) belongs the Switar/Macro Switar by Kern Aarau. This specific lens series was only available for the Swiss Alpa in this specific form. Besides the Switar numerous other lenses were sourced from leading optical manufacturers. ALPA Capaul & Weber Ltd. is now bringing the historic lenses back from collectors' shelves into practical photography with a current ALPA digital camera. In conjunction with the ALPA Lens Module for Alpa 35 mm, these lenses can be focused on all conventional ALPA 12 bodies from macro to infinity (in each case the effectively usable image circles may vary).

After many years the vintage Alpa 35mm lenses, produced between 1944 and 1990, can now be used again on the current ALPA platform. Some of them are very special in character and have their own footprint. The manufacturers include, in addition to Schneider-Kreuznach lenses, the Dutch optical manufacturer Old Delft, P. Angénieux from Saint-Héand near Saint-Etienne or the Enna factory, which was then based in Munich. Lenses from Heinz Kilfitt and their successor Zoomar as well as from A. Schacht in Ulm, which were located in Vaduz and in Munich, can now also be used on the new ALPA 12 cameras. There also exist fine and rare examples the famous Apochromats of French manufacturer Kinoptik or lenses by SOM Berthiot and Spectros in Basel. Today ALPA Capaul & Weber Ltd. in Zurich, in the tradition of the ALPA brand, already offers lenses from leading optics manufacturers as well as extensive adaptation options for Hasselblad, Contax 645 or Rolleiflex 6000 lenses for their ALPA 12 models.

Electronic Shutter

Since the Alpa 35mm cameras were equipped with a focal plane shutter, there is no built-in shutter in these lenses. Today the electronic shutter of the respective digital back can be used instead. This applies specifically for the Phase One IQ3 100 digital back and to some extent also to the Hasselblad H6D-100c / H6D-50c and the Sinar S30|45. At close range, the ALPA 12 FPS and its built in focal plane shutter allow the use of any digital back.

Swiss Optics Switar

The traditional Swiss lens brand Switar, which was newly registered by ALPA Capaul & Weber Ltd. in 2004, has been used by ALPA for medium and large format lenses over the recent years. In the analogue past, the brand was not only used for Alpa 35mm cameras from Pignons but also for various cine lenses of the famous Bolex 8mm and 16mm film camera under the name of Kern-Paillard. With the merging of still photography and cine / video new perspectives open up.

Links

ALPA Lens Module Alpa 35 mm

ALPA 12 TC, Kinoptik Apochromat 2.0/100 mm for Alpa, Phase One IQ3 digital back - ©ALPA

ALPA 12 TC, Kern Aarau Macro-Switar 1.9/50 mm for Alpa, Hasselblad H6D-100c digital back - ©ALPA

ALPA 12 TC, Old Delft 3.2/135 mm for Alpa, Phase One IQ3 digital back - ©ALPA