For as long as anyone can remember, ALPA has been known to perfectionists of photographic technology as one of the world’s top names. The reputation is now based on six camera models, all engineered to the highest supportable degree of mechanical precision. Their versatility and the reduction to the essentials attracts all those photographers who wish to leave the world of compromise behind them when they choose their instruments, who search for unhindered access to their creativity.
As simple as possible is as good as possible. That is the principle and ALPA is the result. All six models of the ALPA form a common, modular platform that ensures full compatibility. Part of the concept are integrated lenses from 23 to 250 mm focal length, adapters for digital backs, and directly attachable roll-film backs up to 6×9 as well as an extensive range of accessories. Part of the concept is the full compatibility of all ALPA models with the very first ALPA 12 of 1998. Such compatibility will also be retained in future. Nothing in the ALPA platform is arbitrary, nothing is accidental, nothing is superfluous. All is subordinated to the motive “only the best endures”.
Precision and quality
Connoisseurs and experts have always known the decisive importance of mechanical precision and optical quality. Developments during the past few years have made many more aware of the decisive value of precision and accuracy. It is above all the digital backs that demand a minimum in tolerances and a maximum in optical performance if their potential is to be fully exploited. With more than 60 Megapixels, sensors up to 40 x 54 mm (40.4 x 53.9 mm) at 6.0 µm pixel size – here is where the chaff is rapidly separated from the wheat: the tiniest mechanical inaccuracy, the most minor shortcoming in performance of lenses can turn into distortions, lateral color aberration and other errors. It is here that the ALPA platform is confirmed in the clearest way possible: uncompromising orientation in construction and highest possible precision in execution, only the best lenses and those exclusively adjusted optimally on the collimator by the manufacturers (Schneider-Kreuznach in Bad Kreuznach and Linos/Rodenstock in Munich). Only thus can constant quality at the highest level be developed. That ALPA cameras also look good and have won many a design price merely confirms the old saying “true beauty comes from within”.
Which model for what purpose?
Those who like or need the technical quality of a high-end digital back or of a grown-up roll-film format up to 6×9, but who must travel light and work expeditiously, those are the very people who most appreciate the ALPA 12 TC, the ALPA 12 WA and the ALPA 12 SWA. They are the ALPA cameras that are easy-to-handle not just with light-weight lenses, but that can also remain within the ever-tighter limits for traveling bags. Ergonomically formed handgrips and the silky-smooth, instant shutter release contribute to the superior quality of your freehand shots. Where complex camera settings such as shift (perspective control) simultaneously in both directions with tilt/swing (zone of sharpness control) from tripod are used but where free-handed photography is also required, the ALPA 12 MAX can offer a particularly flexible solution. Where work is done almost entirely on tripod, the ALPA 12 XY comes into its own by adding the capability of shift movements limited only by the sizes of the image circles of the lenses available. The ALPA 12 MAX and the ALPA 12 XY offer the possibilities of digital stitching, without the slightest movement of the lens during shifting. This is needed to avoid a change of perspective and is a characteristic indispensable to avoid unwanted stereoscopic effects. The sixth ALPA model also needs to be mentioned here: the ALPA 12 METRIC is used in digital photogrammetry, i.e. for photographic computer-supported measuring for cartography and many other scientific and industrial applications.
In praise of simplicity
Why do we lay so much stress here on the uncompromising orientation of all ALPA products towards the greatest possible simplicity? We think that there is a direct connection between limiting oneself to the essentials – and the reliability of a camera. We also think that there is a growing general weariness with the missing transparency, the limited control, the patronizingly automated picture-taking – and above all with the arbitrary nature of the results. We think that there are enough photographers out there who are not meekly inclined to tolerate this situation, but who are trying to escape from it with the help of their photographic knowledge and skills – and possibly with an ALPA.