Back in the late 60s, a friend of mine had an Alpa. All I remember
about it was the film advance lever. The tip of the lever pointed to
the front of the camera, towards the subject . You had to reach over
the top of the camera and wind clockwise to advance the film.
John
Keith (R.K.) Berry wrote:
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Hudson <jahudson@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 27 February 1999 05:07
> Subject: [OM] ALPA cameras
>
> >Out of curiosity, is this brand still being manufactured? ........ I seem
> >to remember that they were manufactured in Switzerland.
>
> I vaguely remember a mid '80s mention in Modern Photography that the Alpa
> brand had been transferred to a Japanese made camera. The last real Swiss
> one that I remember seeing and handling was the Alpa 9d, in the mid '60s. It
> had stop down match needle t.t.l. metering (mercury battery!) and a superb
> f1.8 Macro Switar lens with a depth of field indicator that consisted of a
> series of small holes through which a gold coloured wedge showed to make it
> look like an array of glowing LEDs. It had its own large bayonet mount but
> was supplied with a converter ring so that it could use Edixa/Pentax
> threaded lenses. The body was curved and looked slightly like a large Leica
> M2 and we used to say that if Leitz made an s..l..r. this would how it
> should look - this was a year or so before the ugly, Leicaflex 1 appeared.
> The most offbeat looking thing about the 9d was its back-to-front wind-on
> lever that stuck out to the front, designed to make it easy to use in the
> snow while wearing thick gloves.
> At the time I was earning £16 per week as a photographic salesman, this 9d
> body and lens cost £250 and you couldn't buy it cheaper elsewhere in the UK
> because RPM (Retail Price Maintenance) ruled back then, a decade before the
> appearance of the OM-1 (Oly content).
> A couple of months ago B&H listed a used Alpa 9d for $1500, plus $79 for the
> case, and I was very tempted for a while.
>
> Regards,
> Keith
> keith_r.k.berry@xxxxxxxxxx
>
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