Gerald,
Thanks for your input. I have been reading all your posts this last week. I would love to know all about the FPS - this looks to be a fantastic system!
My main purpose of the tech cam is for landscapes in pano format. From what i have been able to understand, on the Alpa system the way to get this is to use the FPS as a shutter and the STC as the stitch mechanism. Is this correct?
The concern is, if i needed to go that way to get stitch (and my understanding is i do) then do we lose the ability to mount all sorts of lenses?
The charm to me (at least at this point) in the FPS is to be able to mount many different lenses.
However a very decent pano system comes first on my list.
I just dont know enough about Alpa and where i live there is zero chance of getting my hands on one.
Thanks
Hi -
OK, as I see it, you have two totally distinct requirements here from a tech cam perspective (I'm not going to comment on the reflex camera requirement because I have no knowledge whatsoever on the Hy6)
1. You want to shoot panos.
2. You want the FPS because of the versatility of the lens mounts.
The unanswered question is - what lenses do you want to shoot panos with?
Depending on what the answer to this question is, will determine whether or not the FPS even enters into the pano-shooting game.
Caveat - I'm assuming you're only interested in shift-stitching panos here. If you're interested in/happy to shoot by spinning the camera around the nodal point, then that opens up a whole other world of opportunity.
Do NOT write off nodal point stitching. It is just as good a - and in many instances, actually better - proposition than shift-stitching.
But I'll park that diversion here and we can come back to it if you want to.
So, back to the lenses.
It's the lenses that you want to shoot with that will determine what you will end up buying. Start with the glass, and everything will follow pretty much automatically from there.
...Alpa have a lens adapter for Rollei lenses.
I'm assuming you're talking about this -
ALPA of Switzerland - Manufacturers of remarkable cameras - ALPA lens adapter Rolleiflex 600x/Hy6 / Sinar Hy6 / Leaf AFi
This is NOT an adapter to be able to use the lenses with the FPS. To the best of my knowledge you still need the Rollei Lens Control S in order to use the lenses on the ALPA 12 cameras.
If you want to shift-stitch with these lenses, then you won't be using the FPS
at all. I'm not familiar with the adapter, but it clearly has a flange distance designed to only work on the "regular" 12-series ALPA cameras.
Now, whether there is any other way to use those lenses with the FPS, I don't know - I'm not familiar with them. ALPA only provide Canon, Nikon, Mamiya and Hasselblad (V-mount) lens adapters (in addition of course to the regular "ALPA-mount" Rodenstocks and Schneiders).
So, in order to use any of the lenses with the FPS, first you need to find out whether you can use an interim adapter to one of those mounts. If so, that's the flange distance sorted out. Then, you need to know whether the lenses can be used manually. I assume these lenses have shutters - you'd need to bypass that shutter and use the FPS's focal plane shutter. Next, you need to be able to focus them manually, and finally, you need to be able to set the aperture manually.
IF you can meet all the above requirements, then IF you're going via either the Mamiya or Hasselblad ALPA lens adapters, then you will be able to use an STC, SWA, Max or XY in the mix to do shifts. (If you can go via the Hasselblad adapter, then you can do swings/tilts as well.)
There's a lot of "if's" in the above.
The FPS is a remarkably versatile camera though, and who knows what might be round the corner. Conceptually, I can't see why the FPS wouldn't be able - in the future - to take the place of the Rollie Lens Control S. A shorter adapter, and you'd be good to go. Whether this is physically realistic, and even if it were, whether there was actually sufficient demand to justify creating such a solution is a whole other matter though.
The guys at ALPA are extremely helpful - drop them a line and ask.
OK, long winded I know, but I think the answer is clear - you're not going to be using your Rollei lenses with the FPS at the moment.
Next - the FPS Mamiya adapter.
This is for Mamiya 645 mount lenses. Not RZ.
Same story again. Is there an adapter to go from RZ to any of the ALPA adapters (Canon, Nikon, Mamiya 645, Hassy)?
HCam do one -
HCAM RB/RZ-645 Adapter
Stefan is on the forum - drop him a line and I'm sure he can fill you in on the necessary details, but it looks at first glance as if this is an option.
You could go RZ mount - HCamRB/RZ>Mamiya 645 adapter - ALPA FPS Mamiya adapter - ALPA 12 series camera for the shifts - ALPA FPS.
So that gets a tick.
Next. Fuji GX680.
No way that I know of to use these on ALPA. Would it be interesting? Yes. Could it be hacked together somehow? Almost certainly. Would it be worthwhile? Who knows.
OK - that's I think dealt with the lenses and systems that you wanted to use. Once I've had a bit of a breather, I'll post more generally about the FPS and ALPA 12 system and my experience with it over the last couple of years.
Kind regards,
Gerald.
