Alpa information

Hi all--
I recently traded a fellow APUG'er for an Alpa Model 6. Of course now that I have it I seem to have decided to drive myself crazy tracking down lenses for it (based on my non-existent income!) I did end up getting a lens for a very good price, though not as good as the seller who left the thrift store $10 price tag on it to taunt me (where the hell are these thrift stores???) The thing I am having trouble finding is information about Alpa cameras and lenses. There do not seem to be that many websites out there with useful information. I can find tons of people selling stuff, or people showing photos of their gear and even photos taken with Alpas, but I am hoping to find more info. Are Alpa people not quite as OCD as Exakta or Nikon people? Anyway, if you know of some information heavy Alpa websites I would love to know about them.
Thanks!

Matt

Google search of Alpa cameras showed me this:

http://www.alpa.ch/en/glossary/about-alpa/historical-alpa-cameras.html

And this:

http://www.alpareflex.com/

Where did you look? Or is this not the Alpa you mean?

I've seen those websites...not that much info. Maybe I'm expecting too much. I'm hoping to find someone that has gone nuts for Alpa, equivalent to this kind of Exakta site:

http://captjack.exaktaphile.com/CameraPage.htm

captjack's is a neato site but all I see are photos of cameras and lenses and maybe a little info like serial numbers and such. Not much more...

The Alpareflex.com site is very good. I think there's not a whole lot of information, because the Alpa wasn't a huge seller when it was new. It remains a niche product today -- Leica seems like a mass market Canon or Nikon in comparison.

I don't know much about the owners, but it appears that many of them simply shoot photos and might not be that interested in posting stories or information about their Alpas.

I have a 9d and 6b with a horribly busted shutter.

Good morning, Matt;

Back in the 1960s, I also wanted an Alpa 8d or 9d. It had this funny lumpy shape, but it was made where precision Swiss watches were made, and there was a likelihood that it also benefited from precision machining and workmanship. At least that is what a kid just out of school was reasoning at the time. I had to settle for a Minolta SR-1b, but I admit to having an appreciation for the Nippon Kogaku NIKON F. Now, 50 years later, I have the Minolta SR-1b (although not my original one--that is another story) and all of the other cameras in the Minolta SR Series, the SR-T Series, and a few in the X Series, although I seem to have specialized in the X-700 System there. And, I finally did get that NIKON F along with the F2 in a couple of variants and the Nikkormat/Nikomat also. Now I look at the Alpa 9d that I can afford now, but, as you have learned, finding lenses and accessories for them is a challenge now. When I also think about what is here now for the Minolta cameras, it is even more difficult to justify that 9d. Believe it or not, the urge or GAS can subside over a time period if there is the desired infusion of equipment to where you also notice that there is a lot of it around.

But, if that is the camera that produces in you a desire to feel the satisfaction there can be in just holding and working and looking through a camera that you really appreciate, then there may be enough justification right there alone to suggest that this is the camera you should have.

Perhaps the fact that not as many were produced has made a difference in how much people were willing to invest in the work to produce the third party books and publications that would have all of that information about the Alpa that you would like to see.

Unfortunately the only thing more expensive than Alpa bodies, are Alpa lenses!

There's one eBay seller who has a bunch of them. Better bring along your paycheck. He wants something like $150 for a lens hood.

I find it truly absurd that a 50mm lens can go for $500-$1000 because it is made by Kern or Angenieux or something like that. I have no trouble admitting that I am much more of a collector than a user when it comes to some of the less common 35mm camera makers. To me, the Alpa is a crazy looking beast (I mean that in the best possible way!) that I will use rarely. Hopefully I will have some random luck and find a some additional lenses on the cheap. I still cannot believe that the eBay seller that I bought one lens from found it at a thrift store for $10! The only cameras that I ever find at thrift stores are those plastic ones that came as a free gift with Sports Illustrated in the 1980's...close to Alpa/Leica quality, but not quite as good. HA HA.

In case you are an Alpa fanatic and happen to have a Canon EOS, for the mere sum of $2280 you can have this custom modified Kern lens to be mounted on a Canon EOS maintaining autofocus.

http://cgi.ebay.it/Alpa-Kern-macro-...58819738?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item4aa2cb699a

I had never seen such a radical modification on a lens, actually this is the result of assembling two lenses, a "frankenlens".