Auto-Alpa (Pentax) 35mm f 1:2.8

[markus maurer]

<p>Who knows this lens brand? I see ads on auctions here but without a photo for a multicoated 35mm and 50mm F1.7, no comment if it's a manual lens or A-mode k-mount.</p>

[paul_wheatland]

<p>The Alpa SI2000 was produced in Japan. It had manual and aperture preferred automatic and employed M42 thread lenses. An Auto Alpa lens is Pentax thread mount and fits most all M42 cameras. The lenses are clones of those made for Chinon. I suspect they were in fact made by Chinon. Chinon made an M42 camera called the Chinon CE-3 which employed the same instant stop down metering using silicon diode which is faster than CDS and I believe does away with memory effect. There were re badged versions sold by GAF (Les?) and Sears. I had a Chinon CE-3 with winder and invalometer.It was a nicely made camera.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>The story that paul tells is the sad end of what was once one of the classic SLR film cameras. The Wikipedia article (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpa">link</a> ) seems to be pretty close to right. I believe, as it says there, the company never made any lenses, but bought them from other manufacturers. I think that the Chinon adventure was the death of the company's market which had always depended on the same kind of hand-built snob appeal that supports Leica to this day.</p>

<p>I do not mean that as a put-down of anybody, but as a simple matter of market position and appeal.</p>

[markus maurer]

<p>Thanks Paul and JDM. Do you know anything about the build and image quality of those Alpa primes compared to Takumars for example? I think Chinon made some good lenses or not? The Wikipedia article mentions even some K-mount primes and not only M42, maybe I should just ask the seller for more information and photos.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Some of the best lens makers like Angenieux made lenses for Alpa cameras, but one in M42 is probably a Chinon. There are fans of Chinon (Butkus's wonderful site for manuals and other literature started out as a Chinon site). I haven't used them myself, so can't say how good they might be, but it's safe to say that it wouldn't be of great worth.</p>

[markus maurer]

<p>Aah yes, I found lots of great information on Butkus site and also downloaded some manuals. I wrote the seller a notice asking for details and photos. Not that I really needed another 35/50mm :-)</p>

[markus maurer]

<p>The seller wrote me now that they are manual K-mount lenses with 49mm filter size and on first sight at the bad photos he supplied they look similar to the Tokina RMC.</p>

[User_502260]

<p>I have two of the 50/1.7 Alpa Made In Japan lenses. They are surprisingly good and focus down to 1:3. I don't know how they compare to the famous Kern Macro Switars but with an adapter on a Minolta X-700 or Canon F-1 they are nice to use. I think I have also used one of these on a Mamiya 500DTL. I once saw a complete set of these lenses, including the 55/1.4 on eBay.</p>

[markus maurer]

<p>Thanks for the information Jeff. I will not buy them, my SMC Takumars seem to be much better IQ and build wise and look so much nicer anyway.</p>

[User_502260]

<p>I have plenty of Takumars myself so I know how nice they are. The Japanese Alpa lenses have a kind of neat tapered look. </p>

[robert_hayden]

<p>Hi folks. I am no expert but I own three of these Chinon-made SLRs and am old enough to have been around when they came out and read the reviews;-) The Chinon Memotron CE II, the Alpa Si200, and the GAF LE-S/2 are what I have. I bought the first two new. I think Sears Roebuck sold this under another name as well, and that there was an Argus version (CR-3E?). These are big, heavy cameras. The Chinon CE-3 was a later, smaller version.<br /> <br /> With all, you focus and compose wide open. The shutter release is stiff with a long but smooth travel. As you press it down the lens stops down, the meter turns on, and a needle shows the automatically-set shutter speed. You can press it slowly to check that speed in marginal lighting, or you can just push it down hard and take your picture with what appears to be open-aperture metering. You also have auto-exposure with any manual or preset lens and virtually anything you can attach to the camera. There was talk at the time that the technology may have been developed by Cosina. Similar technology was used in the Minolta X-700 and some Nikons.<br /> <br /> The Chinons came with Chinon-brand lenses and the Alpas with Alpa brand lenses. They appear to be the same lenses. I do not believe that Chinon actually made any lenses and that most of these were made by Tomioka. There were two f/1.7 normal lenses -- one focused much closer than the other -- and a 1.4. The close-focusing one was like the Meyer 1.8 on Practicas or many "macro" zooms in that they just extended the range, they did no special correction for good results close up as a true macro lens would. Tomioka made an f/1.2 as well though I know not under what brands. Early lenses carried both the Chinon and Tomioka labels, later ones just the Chinon brand. Modern Photography's tests called it a Tomioka lens. They tested both the 1.4 and the 1.7 macro. Both passed their tests but resolution and contrast were not up to normal lenses from the major brands of the time. Tomioka made most of the Yashica lenses and later the "Zeiss" lenses for Contax as well as many other brands.<br /> <br /> The basic camera mechanism is pretty rugged. There is an internal eyepiece blind. You operate it by a little lever. It is pretty stiff and the lever tends to break off. The film rewind mechanism is fairly delicate though my two failures involved equipment abuse;-) The meter readout in the viewfinder is often inaccurate or non-functional but the camera still seems to set the proper exposure. One review at the time took the camera apart and complained about a huge number of solder joints inside. I have never had an electrical problem except for the meter needle. It uses the Copal Square shutter. Top speed is 1/2000, unusual for that shutter or for the time the camera was new.<br /> <br /> I think the cameras are great of you have M42 gear to attach to them. The lenses are nothing special as far as I can see.</p>