Non Alpa lenses for Alpa 9d

[DdeJ]

I have an Alpa 9d body, and need a lens, preferably 50mm. The lenses made for Alpa all seem to be expensive. Are there other options? I have seen plenty of Alpa to Leica-M etc adaptors, but not the other way round.

 

[Paul Howell]

There were only a few 3rd party lens made in the Alpa mount. My guess is that because the body was so expensive in the day that owners did want to buy non Alpa approved lens. As a matter of point, all Alpa lens were 3rd party, Alpa did not make lenes. Alpa picked what they thought was best lens for a given focal length then had those lenes made in Alpa mount. Alpa would then test and correct the lens in house take picture of test chart on a glass for reference in case the lens was returned for servicing.

On the lower cost side I would look for Schneider or Pentax Takumar 1.4 made in Alpa mount. Lots of Kern Swiss Macros have been bought and converted to Leica M and later to mirrorless mounts. The Schneider and Takumars I don't think as sought as they could be found much cheaper in other mounts. The last Alpa lens were Chinon and made to fit the Alpa 2000 in M42 and K mount, other than the name had nothing to do with Alpa.

 

[Besk]

Alpa has a short lens mount to film plane. There used to be adapters available to use other manufacturer's lenses on the camera.
You may want to look for those on the auction site - here and also Europe etc.

 

[DdeJ]

Thanks. I hadn't come across the Takumar, I will do some more searching around that. It seems some of the Kerns do become available in France from time to time at prices that aren't completely eye watering, so I may just need to be patient. On the adaptors, I can see there was the Autobag M42 and Autnibag Nikon equivalent - very pricey given it is purely mechanical - but good to know it opens up new options

 

[Paul Howell]

I've seen the Takumar on the U.S Ebay. I think it is somewhat rare, if memory serves me it;s the version with the radioactive Thorium element. I have on in M42, very sharp with nice contrast.

 

[Paul Howell]

I just check U.S ebay, all the Alpa lens are up in price from last time I checked, the A Schneider 50mm 1.9 is going for a $1000. The M42 Chinon branded Alpa copy of the Kern Swiss are going for $400 to $600. An adaptor is maybe the best way to go as with one adaptor you can marry a lot of good Nikon or M42 glass to you 9. I've wanted a Alpa 10 or 11, its been the cost of glass that has kept me from pulling the trigger.

 

[ph]

as to Chinon -Kern copies; there were some (less than 100) genuine Kern optical assemblies sent to Japan to be mounted after Aarau rn out of mounts, these are in M42mounts , perfectly able to match results from the Swiss mounted ones, but VERY rare and hence quite costly. 4-500USD woul be a bargain even for an original Switar. (Source: Lothar Thewes Alpa book, - no time to look up the page number, but I have one of the japan mounted and the Swiss mounted and can confirm that the foreign mount one is quite good).

p.

 

[MarkS]

It seems that the advent of mirrorless digital cameras has caused a revival of interest (and thus prices) in older, limited-production 35mm-format lenses. So Alpa lenses (which were always rare and expensive) are even more so now.
Alpa cameras have always interested me, but I may have seen two in fifty years, and have never used one. Like a Bentley S2 Continental and a 40' Hinckley sloop, in that regard.