Sunday, September 2, 2018

ALPA – LEICA QUALITY IN A COMPETITOR’S CAMERA


When the Leica was first marketed in 1925 it was without competition.  It was an entirely new concept, not seen before.  Thus it was no surprising that the camera immediately became a huge success with competing companies struggling to offer something similar.  Soon Zeiss entered the market with the Contax, as did others, including Kodak with the German made Retina, but none ever had the success of the Leica.

This success continued after being interrupted by WWII, with the first post war model, the Leica IIIf and then the incredible M3 which lives on in its basic concept even today with the Leica M.  Of course there were cameras from competing companies as well, the continuation of the Zeiss Contax as the main competitor.  Kodak too tried to get a hold on the 35mm rangefinder market with their incredible Ektra, but Leica remained on top.

This success continued even far into the new 35mm single lens reflex camera market which rapidly gained popularity.  This brings us to an interesting concept from Switzerland, the Alpa Reflex.

Alpa was an offshoot of the Pignons S.A. company, which made specialty parts (pinions) for Swiss watches.  In the late 1930s, Pignons invited engineer Jacques Bolsky to design a camera for them. This resulted in the Alpa-Reflex in the 1940s.  As did most everyone else, he took a close look at the Leica, but also at the emerging single lens reflex cameras (SLR).  As a company involved in the watchmaking industry, the Alpa camera turned out to be an incredibly well made piece of equipment, mostly hand made with extremely tight tolerances.

What set the camera apart from virtually all cameras at the time is the fact that the camera was a hybrid, offering rangefinder focusing as well as single lens reflex viewing. A closer look, especially at the lens, definitely reveals the influence of the Leica.  Because of the very high quality of the camera, production was low, but quality and prices were high. Even these days, collectible Alpa cameras can fetch quite high auction prices.

 
The original Alpa Reflex

Alpa was quite innovative with other features too.  There is an ongoing question concerning which camera company was first with such innovations as the quick-return mirror, through-the-lens metering cells in prism housings and the bayonet lens mount. Alpa was a contender for being first with each of these innovations and several others.

Soon after the introduction of the Alpa Reflex, a new model was introduced.  While the Alpa reflex sported a waist level viewfinder, the new Alpa Prism Reflex was one of the first SLR cameras with a prism viewfinder, but it also maintained rangefinder focusing.

 

Not only did the Apla cameras stand out because of their very high quality, this continued with their lenses as well.  They did not make their own lenses, instead they had them made by some of the best lens makers, Angenieux, Kern, Kinoptik, Schneider, and others.  They were the only company to guarantee optical quality of the lenses they sold.  The Kern Macro Switar lens was a 50 mm lens at F1.8 or F1.9.  It was an apochromat, and is still highly regarded as one of the best standard lenses ever offered. Other apochromats offered by Alpa included the 100 mm F2 and 150 mm F2.8 Kinoptik lenses.  The company retained the same lens mount on the Swiss made cameras from 1942 until they ended production. The back focus of the body was the thinnest of any 35 mm camera, and as a result, it was possible to make adapters to use lenses designed for almost any other 35 mm SLR on an Alpa. Adapters offered included Exakta, M42 (automatic diaphragm and manual), Nikon (auto and manual), Leica R, T-mount, and Contax.

Just as the combination of rangefinder and reflex focusing was a definite deviation from the norm, Alpa continued to be different with follow up models as well.  For instance, the initial film winding knob was replaced with a lever wind, as was the case on other cameras.  But instead of using the common counter clockwise, thumb activated winding lever, Alpa decided to do the opposite.  Their winding lever stuck out from the front of the camera and it was activated by pulling it with the right index finger.  Alpa also continued to use the camera release via a knob on their lenses which also activated the auto stop down of the diaphragm, a system apparently taken over from Exacta.

 
Alpa 9d with 50mm f/1.8 Macro Switar
The reverse wind lever and shutter release on the lens are clearly visible

 

One of the strangest accessories for the Alpa was without a doubt the motor drive.  While everyone would attach the motor to the bottom of the camera, Alpa decided to put it on the top.  The motor attached by being fastened to the screw fittings normally used to attach a neck strap.  Right above the advance lever a pin stuck out from the motor which, when activated, actually moved the advance lever as it would normally be done by the index finger.  The shutter release was in the back of the motor which necessitated a short cable release in front of the motor to be connected to the normal shutter release on the lenses.

Unfortunately, Alpa did not have the resources to keep up with the technological advances that the mainstream camera companies were introducing in the 1970s and sales began to decline. It is not clear whether the lack of technological "innovation" was due to lack of money, or actually a choice made by the company against the automation brought about by other companies.

In 1990 the company could no longer compete with other manufacturers, especially from outside Europe. The fatal blow however was delivered by problems within the company. Pignons SA declared bankruptcy. The last ALPA model produced by Pignons SA was the ALPA 11.

 

In 1996 Capaul & Weber from Zurich acquired the world-wide rights to the brand-name ALPA. The new owners aimed to continue the tradition of quality established with the classic 35-mm ALPA reflex cameras and to enter into the field of medium-format cameras which resulted in the Alpa 12 camera currently on the market.  Just recently Alpa joined forces with Phase One.  They now offer the Alpa 12 with the new, 100megapixle Phase One digital back.

 

As Leica enthusiast we should be able to understand a certain resistance to market trends.  The insistence on doing things their way brought considerable financial hardships for Leica, especially their less than lukewarm embrace of digital photography.  Fortunately, with the help of Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, the direction of the company changed and today Leica is once again one of the major players in the high end camera market.



For other articles on this blog please click on Blog Archive in the column to the right

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Saturday, September 1, 2018

RUSSIAN "LEICAS"


When the first Leica was introduced at the Leipzig Spring Fair in 1925, it was quite a sensation.  It was the first time that such a small, portable camera was capable of delivering professional results.  Thus it is not surprising that other camera manufacturers took note.  As a matter of fact, the entire photographic industry at that time soon got involved to come up with 35mm cameras of their own.

The 1930s saw the first imitations and the first attempts to bring construction standards in line with those of the new small format camera.  While German companies like Zeiss respected the Leitz patents and worked on coming up with their own 35mm camera designs, camera companies from other countries showed much less respect for the rights of the German company of Ernst Leitz.

Especially in Russia, the Leica was at the very front of an industrial venture that was to span a period of over 50 years.  The Leica II with its built-in rangefinder was studied, analyzed and finally reproduced in functional prototypes starting as early as 1933.

Image of Leica II
Leica II

 
Prewar FED, the first Russian Leica copy to be mass produced


The Leningrad mechanical works were the most advanced in Russia at the time.  They built prototype copies of the Leica under the VOOMP name, while the FAG company in Moscow built a few examples under the FAG name.  Both models were exact copies of the Leica with the exception of not having an accessory shoe.  In 1934 the Leningrad and Moscow prototypes were abandoned and the construction of Russian Leicas began at the FED works in the Ukraine.

While these Russian Leica copies do look very much like a genuine Leica, a bit closer inspection will quickly reveal that these cameras do not approach the overall quality of a Leica.  They usually operate a lot rougher, without the legendary smoothness of a Leica.  But there is one other, sure way to tell if it is a Russian copy or the genuine Leica product.  All one needs to do is to remove the lens.  This will reveal the rangefinder lever of the camera.  While all Leicas have a roller at the end for smooth operation, the Russian copies have only a simple cam.

 
Leica rangefinder lever with roller

 
FED with simple cam at the end of the rangefinder lever

 
From top to bottom:
Export Zorki, Standard Zorki, Synchronized Zorki


The prewar production of FED cameras was over 150,000.  That included a number of experimental cameras with a top shutter speed of 1/1000 sec. and some had a slow shutter speed dial like the Leica III.  It is thought that some even had a large film capacity of 250 frames, like the famous Leica Reporter.

 
Leica Reporter with attached electric motor


Some of the prewar FEDs were even engraved with the Leica logo on the top plate.  These were meant to be exported to Western Europe.  While the standard FED cameras all were equipped with a 50mm f/3.5 lens, a copy of the Leitz Elmar, labelled as Industar, the lenses for the Leica engraved cameras even used the Elmar designation on the lens.

 
Fake Leica Engraving on FED

 
Fake Leica engraving on Industar lens


The beginning of WWII resulted in the suspension of the manufacture of FED cameras for the civilian market in 1941.  Production started again in 1946 and went on without any major changes until 1955.

Between 1949 and 1950, about 1000 FED cameras were modified with the Contax type bayonet mount to be able to use the original Zeiss lenses for the Zeiss Contax.  In place of the usual FED inscription, the top plate of these cameras was engraved with a five point star, surrounded by the Cyrillic letters TCBCB.

In 1948 the Krasnogorsk optical works near Moscow started to produce FED cameras.  Initially their cameras were engraved with a combination of the FED and Zorki label, Zorki meaning ”sharp sighted” in Russian.  But after just a few examples, these cameras switched to just the Zorki label.  These cameras were absolutely identical to the FED and they too were produced without any changes until 1955.

In 1954 a variation of the Zorky 2 cameras was made with a short production run of approximately 1000 cameras.  They had an identical camera body as the Leica they were copied after, but were equipped with a long prewar Zeiss Contax style self-timer lever.

During the military occupation of the cities of Dresden and Jena, the Soviet troops removed the entire Contax works and took all machinery back to Kiev.  That led to experiments of combining elements of the Leica and the Contax.  This led to the design of the Zorki 3 which differed from the original Leica copy in many respects.  The Zorki 3 was equipped with a large viewfinder/rangefinder very much like the one in the Contax.  The camera also had a slow shutter speed selector.

 
Standard Zorki (bottom) and Zorki 3C
with Zeiss Contax style rangefinder/Viewfinder


In 1955 the FED too was equipped with a large viewfinder as the FED 2 model.  This remained in production without any significant changes until 1970.  In 1956 the FED 2 was equipped with a flash synch outlet but was left otherwise unchanged.  The Zorki C, Zorki 2C and Zorki 3C also changed to offer flash synch, but not without a redesigned camera body.

 
FED 2, Leica body with Zeiss Contax style viewfinder

 
Zorki 5



For other articles on this blog please click on Blog Archive in the column to the right

To comment or to read comments please scroll past the ads below.

All ads present items of interest to Leica owners.


__________________________________________________________________________


 www.leicastoremiami.com  


      www.eddycam.com        

      



Buy vintage Leica cameras from 
America's premier Leica specialist 
www.tamarkin.com

                          
           http://www.tamarkinauctions.com/               http://www.tamarkin.com/leicagallery/upcoming-show


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Please make payment via PayPal to GMP Photography

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