What exactly is a technical camera, a travel camera and a view camera and a Hy6 question?

[dinora_de_rivera]

<p>Could somebody explain?</p>

<p>I was looking at the Alpa TC and I don't really get it what it's about. Basically this is just 'something', I don't know what term to use, you attach a lens to (OK, d'oh, that's the standar part), but then this thing actually doesn't have a sensor. If you have to attach either a film back or a digital back, then what is it? What exactly is a film back and who produces them? What does an Alpa TC do?</p>

<p>Then I'd also like to know what a technical camera is.</p>

<p>And what is a view camera.</p>

<p>And is it possible to learn to use all three and can you do it via a manual or is there a better way?</p>

<p>Regarding the Hy6, I stumble upon this</p>

<blockquote>

<p>The good news is that if and when either Kodak or Dalsa is able to manufacture an affordable 56X56mm sensor, the Hy6 will be able to take a back that size. The lenses already cover that format. In fact when shooting 645 one is using the "sweet spot" of these already superb lenses.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>So what kind of a back will Kodak or Dalsa manufacture? (This is an old article so they probably produced it already.) What are the lenses which cover it. I'm confused about the last line: so what? How will the soft spot situation change when there is a 56 x 56 mm back? Am I not using whichever aperture I'd like to use with these lens? And aren't they much sharper than any 35 mm lens making the sweet spot concept not unusable, but somewhat irrelevant?</p>

<p>I'd like to know the point of the line, what does it mean and why is it relevant.</p>

[leslie_cheung]

<p>So, basically...you are looking at buying something you have no idea how to use, or if you need it or not? Hmm...</p>

[SCL]

<p>It is basically a "medium format" precision spacer between the lens/shutter assembly and the digital sensor or MF film back. Film backs have been produced by many manufacturers for many years, most notably Hasselblad, but also Bronica, etc. which hold your film/winding mechanisms and attach to the back of a camera body. The usual camera body has been a SLR with a mirror, and attachable viewfinder, often with a built in metering system. The ALPA discards the notion of the SLR/mirror/viewfinder system, thereby reducing the size of the interface...by substituting a ground glass or digital back for viewing the scene, use of an external optical viewfinder, and basically uncoupled range focusing of the lenses. The shutter is built into the interchangeable lenses. As best as I can tell, the advantage of the TC is that it is small, light weight, and highly versatile. A view camera is one on which one focuses on a ground glass plate and then inserts a film plate or pack. Often they are large format, but they also come in medium format and most frequently are focussed by means of a bellows movement rather than helicoid on the lens. Of course one can learn to use all the cameras by means of tutorials, but practical experience, especially working with a seasoned photographer who routinely uses this type of gear can reduce the learning curve dramatically.</p>

[dhbebb]

<p>The answer to many of your questions are here:<br>

<a href="http://www.alpa.ch/en/products/cameras/camera-bodies/alpa-12-tc.html">http://www.alpa.ch/en/products/cameras/camera-bodies/alpa-12-tc.html</a><br>

TC stands for Travel Compact. This camera started life as an attempt at providing a high-quality medium-format film camera which was compact and portable (but not very light). In this attempt at compactness, the designers provided no focusing or exposure aid whatsoever. Since the camera has an industry-standard back (called a Graflok back), it will take not only a variety of film backs but also some digital backs. These digital back fundamentally include a sensor about twice as big as a full-frame DSLR like a Canon 5D. As an Alpa with a digital back is roughly as bulky and heavy as a Canon 5D and much less convenient, I personally would not buy one unless my interest was in film photography. The talk about an affordable 56 x 56 mm back is just that – talk, aimed at making the Alpa sound more future-proof than it actually is.<br>

Sweet spot – most lenses give good sharpness across a large central area at full aperture but need stopping down to a smaller aperture to be sharp right into the corners. As the Alpa lenses are designed to cover 56 x 56mm, they will have no trouble (Alpa suggests) in covering the 36 x 44 mm of a sensor at full aperture.<br>

View/technical camera. These terms are used rather vaguely. Strictly speaking a view camera is any camera where you can view the image on a ground glass screen directly behind the lens. A technical camera is a view camera with numerous adjustments for sharpness and depth of field. Technical cameras come in 2 basic forms, monorail technical cameras (like Sinar) and baseboard technical cameras (like LInhof Technika). Some people simply call a Sinar a monorail camera and a Linhof a technical camera. For further information, there are websites galore!<br>

@Leslie - if I can answer newbies' questions without being snotty, maybe you can too?</p>

[dhbebb]

<p><em>I don't like being an enabler … </em><br>

Your choice. Leslie. I’ve made a good living for nearly 40 years explaining things to people, from professors to raw beginners, so I see things a little differently. I also remember what it is like to be a newcomer in a particular field, how important it is not to worry about asking questions and looking stupid, and how annoying people are who for various reasons find it necessary to be condescending and secretive!</p>

[western_isles]

<p>Technical camera tends to be a 4x5" or 8x10" film camera, although digital versions are on the way! Travel camera can be anything from a 35mm Leica (or other brand 35mm) to a 6x7cm Mamiya/Fuji/other brand. View cameras tend to be 4x5 or 8x10". <br>

For years I used film cameras, where the lens focuses the light on a piece of celluloid film. Then tried digital where a lens focuses the light on a sensor made of carbon, or something!<br>

The end result is the same, a photograph/image. <br>

I now have gone back to film but still use digital as I prefer film. Bit like buying a shirt, I like blue, you like green! Personal choice. <br>

</p>

[jon_shumpert2]

<p>David, I and others appreciate your attitude toward helping others. I consider myself very knowledgeable about a wide range of photographic subjects, but I know I can get help here for the things I don't know. I too feel a responsibilty to help those who ask me questions. When I was just getting started, I met an old pro who got irate for me asking a question. He didn't want to give out his "secrets". As I have learned, there are no secrets.</p>

[jeff_sudduth]

<p>Dinora de Rivera,</p>

<p>I would first of all start off doing some searches on the web and reading about large format cameras and medium format cameras. Most of the difference between 35mm, medium format (Hy6), and large format cameras has to do with the size of the negatives. Large format cameras can have the added benefits of movements for perspective correction and controlling depth of field. The problem with large format cameras is you end up having to use sheet film as opposed to roll film. Meaning each exposure is taken on it's own individual piece of film.</p>

<p>ALL the options you discussed are very expensive. You need to spend a little money and some time reading some basic photography books. I would put in as much research as I would for any $3,000+ purchase. I own an ancestor of the Rollei Hy6 and it took me months of research and years of waiting for prices to come down before I bought it. A Rollei Hy6 is really expensive and every piece of equipment that goes with it is expensive as well. Good medium format digital backs can cost more than a lot of cars. $4,500 should get you a nice USED 33 MP digital back but the prices go up from there. New Rollei lenses routinely sell for over $4,000 a piece.</p>

<p>I think why the initial response was somewhat incredulous is because most people who are just starting out in medium or large format photography don't have $20,000 to spend. And most people when they are serious about spending $20,000 do a lot of research before even reaching the point of deciding they want a Hy6 with a huge square sensor. By the way I don't know what article you were referencing but I have never heard of a square medium format sensor of any kind being manufactured by anyone.</p>

<p>I think you should tell us what you want to do with the camera and your budget and there are tons of people that will help you. There are plenty of photographers that make a nice living that have never touched a large format camera of any sort nor a medium format digital back. Those are very specialized pieces of equipment and I think when people say I want to get this the natural question is why. If you can't answer why then it is pointless for people to spend their time giving a bunch of advice.</p>

[dhbebb]

<p><em>I think you should tell us what you want to do with the camera </em><br>

A wise remark. It is important to understand that you are talking about 2 things, a modular medium-format camera and a large-sensor digital back, which meet at the interface I mentioned, the Graflok back. There are many modular medium-format cameras, far cheaper and maybe better than (but not as portable as) the Alpa and cheaper still in comparison with an Hy6. Obvious examples are Mamiya 645, RB67, RZ67 and equivalents by other makers.<br>

Obviously an Hy6<br>

<a href="http://www.rolleiflexpages.com/Hy6.html">http://www.rolleiflexpages.com/Hy6.html</a><br>

has been designed to work with digital backs, it features among other things autofocus and has lenses in focal lengths more appropriate to digital (lenses made for 6x7 cm film will be a little too long but can of course be used). <br>

As regards the digital backs themselves, full 35 mm frame digital cameras like the Canon 5D and Nikon equivalents have been game changers – for almost all amateurs and pros, a 21 MP sensor giving 63 MB RGB files is plenty big enough. If this isn’t big enough, the chances are the photog in question is shooting pictures for billboards, and unless he/she is doing this every day, he/she is much more likely to rent a Leaf-type digital back than buy one. So, the questions for Dinora are – what kind of work do you want to do, and why do you feel that a 63 MB RGB file will not be adequate?</p>

 

[eric_brody]

<p>Re: all these questions... Google is your friend.</p>

[dinora_de_rivera]

<p>Thank you, Stephen Lewis and David Bebbington!</p>

<p><em>That</em> is the answer I was looking for. I have no idea why people are so evil and why they roll their eyes when I haven't said anywhere that I was going to buy any of the things I was talking about.</p>

<p>Simply, after days of <em>Googling</em> and reading about these systems it seemed to me that there was always something presupposed, implied, which, obviously, is normal for people who do this every day, but if you are starting to delve into the matter, a lot is unclear.</p>

<p>So Stephen's definition of <strong>precision spacer</strong> is what I was aiming for – I just didn't get why they call it a camera body when there is no sensor in it. If it is just a spacer, why is it so expensive? I am talking about the <em>Alpa</em>, for example. What exactly do you <em>space</em> with it?</p>

<p>I presume if you have a <em>Master Technika</em>, or some other similar technical cameras, what you get when you by it is the front standard, the bellows, the rear standard and the film holder / ground glass. I just didn't understand what is the purpose of <em>Alpa's</em> 'board', that black thing, or wood-coloured thing, that has a hand grip attached to it.</p>

<p> </p>