Make space for ... the Alpa Monochrom!

[Paul Spinnler]

Hi guys – a little Sunday cracker for you all!

I have been dabbling a lot recently with the myriad of combination options available in the Alpa system and found that actually, if you pull it all together, one can put together a Leica Monochrom on steroids with 150 megapixels resolution.

As some might remember, back in the day Alpa cooperated with P1 to release the A system based on the TC with some nifty firmware features such as in-camera LCC (the functionality still must exist in the firmware, but for political reasons I suppose P1 deactivated it, but this is another story). In any case, back then you could also buy the iPhone holder of which there are multiple incarnations, but it is not widely discussed, if at all.

So with the advent of the IQ4 series of backs and the most recent release of Cascable I pulled the trigger on one of these and added HPF ring to my beloved SK60 XL as one can attach shift sticks to the rings to easily turn the helical with a finger while still holding the grip.

Add to that the ergonomic grip with lemo cable release and you basically have the closest you'll ever get to the big brother of the Leica M monochrom. Essentially a walkaround 8x10 B&W camera with the achromatic back.

It works really well, although I would recommend sticking to 60mm and below, with the 43XL in copal mount being the sweet spot. The lens is incredibly compact, sharp edge to edge and an ideal street photography lens. The other aspect is that if you go longer then you might suffer from the wobble effect given you are using the ES, except if you also sync the release with the copal shutter. Since that is a bit more tedious for sequential shooting I just stick with the electronic shutter. On a bright sunnry day, with ISO at 400, you can easily shoot f11 at 1/250th and go hyperfocal which is just awesome.

You can check focus by looking at live view, but the iphone on top with cascable works surprisingly well, just make sure you deactivate automatic file transfer. Alternatively you could attach a Zacuto viewfinder – unfortunately I sold mine – which would be the most hardcore EVF contraption as the live view would be fed via HDMI directly into viewfinder.

If only P1 implemented a manual focusing mode whereby it zooms to a pre-set magnifcation once you use manual focusing ... like the Leica cameras.

If you remove the iphone holder on top, the setup is extremely compact and enjoyable.

In my book this is a very unique feature of the Alpa system and a lot of fun!

Best
Paul

 

[tcdeveau]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing

My go to run and gun rig has been the STC/IQ4 A/70HR.

im doing tripod and landscape stuff and have no interest in doing handheld with this setup, but it’s amazing what powerful and compact setups one can put together with the Alpa/Phaseecosystem.

 

[Paul Spinnler]

Some walkabout impressions of Zurich with the Alpa Monochrom – IQ4 achromatic, 43 XL, TC, free-hand:

 

[Paul Spinnler]

The key was the fact that you can attach the shift sticks to the HPF rings – it is a little known thing about Alpa. This allows you to nudge the helical while holding the grip at the same time – essentially allowing one to focus quickly. easily, while handholding the camera and looking at live view. If you use a wide angle around 40 or below and just go to f11 and hyperfocal you don't even need to worry about focusing and wobble is also not a problem if you stand still.

Cars, fast-moving things and oneself moving ofc are not possible. For that you'd need an x-shutter lens and then you'd need to manually activate the shutter on the display - hope the next SoC of the IQ5 includes blueetooth so one can create shutter releases which work on bluetooth low latency ...

 

[Paul Spinnler]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing

My go to run and gun rig has been the STC/IQ4 A/70HR.

im doing tripod and landscape stuff and have no interest in doing handheld with this setup, but it’s amazing what powerful and compact setups one can put together with the Alpa/Phaseecosystem.

Agree, you are right, you can also do it with the STC, but it is more heavy on the arms ...

If you do street portraits with the 40 HR and you remove all grips from the STC and tripod mounts it is surprisingly hand holdable; you can do nice environmental portraits with 5mm rise ... I think back in the day Alpa also sold lenses mounted directly with 5 rise implemented and I suppose the Alpa SWA would be even the better walk around camera for handheld portraits because let's be honest – rise is 10x more used than fall in practice, so there's a use case for the SWA with two grips ...

 

[doccdiamond]

Hi guys – a little Sunday cracker for you all!

I have been dabbling a lot recently with the myriad of combination options available in the Alpa system and found that actually, if you pull it all together, one can put together a Leica Monochrom on steroids with 150 megapixels resolution.

As some might remember, back in the day Alpa cooperated with P1 to release the A system based on the TC with some nifty firmware features such as in-camera LCC (the functionality still must exist in the firmware, but for political reasons I suppose P1 deactivated it, but this is another story). In any case, back then you could also buy the iPhone holder of which there are multiple incarnations, but it is not widely discussed, if at all.

So with the advent of the IQ4 series of backs and the most recent release of Cascable I pulled the trigger on one of these and added HPF ring to my beloved SK60 XL as one can attach shift sticks to the rings to easily turn the helical with a finger while still holding the grip.

Add to that the ergonomic grip with lemo cable release and you basically have the closest you'll ever get to the big brother of the Leica M monochrom. Essentially a walkaround 8x10 B&W camera with the achromatic back.

It works really well, although I would recommend to sticking to 60mm and below, with the 43XL in copal mount being the sweet spot. The lens is incredibly compact, sharp edge to edge and an ideal street photography lens. The other aspect is that if you go longer then you might suffer from the wobble effect given you are using the ES, except if you also sync the release with the copal shutter. Since that is a bit more tedious for sequential shooting I just stick with the electronic shutter. On a bright sunnry day, with ISO at 400, you can easily shoot f11 at 1/250th and go hyperfocal which is just awesome.

You can check focus by looking at live view, but the iphone on top with cascable works surprisingly well, just make sure you deactivate automatic file transfer. Alternatively you could attach a Zacuto viewfinder – unfortunately I sold mine – which would be the most hardcore EVF contraption as the live view would be fed via HDMI directly into viewfinder.

If only P1 implemented a manual focusing mode whereby it zooms to a pre-set magnifcation once you use manual focusing ... like the Leica cameras.

If you remove the iphone holder on top, the setup is extremely compact and enjoyable.

In my book this is a very unique feature of the Alpa system and a lot of fun!

Best
Paul

View attachment 200064
View attachment 200065

Awesome!

 

[doccdiamond]

Some walkabout impressions of Zurich with the Alpa Monochrom – IQ4 achromatic, 43 XL, TC, free-hand:

View attachment 200066
View attachment 200067

"Home run" for the ALPA

 

[sunhouwang]

Nice test.
Can it be worked on IQ3 100mp platform?

 

[P. Chong]

Thanks Paul for the tip. Not Monochrome, but tried it on the STC with HR 40 with HPF...took off the tripod mounts, put on the wired release and shot this hand held. View just out of my window...its a drab day here in Singapore...cloudy, and just about to start a light rain, methinks.

I am now wondering why this way of using the STC never occured to me. At f/5.6 at 1/200s...quite hand holdable. Back shifted down 10mm. Will try more pics tomorrow. Maybe some street...haha...I am really bad at that, even with a Leica M11 with Sumicron 35...let's see how it goes.

Agree, you are right, you can also do it with the STC, but it is more heavy on the arms ...

If you do street portraits with the 40 HR and you remove all grips from the STC and tripod mounts it is surprisingly hand holdable; you can do nice environmental portraits with 5mm rise ... I think back in the day Alpa also sold lenses mounted directly with 5 rise implemented and I suppose the Alpa SWA would be even the better walk around camera for handheld portraits because let's be honest – rise is 10x more used than fall in practice, so there's a use case for the SWA with two grips ...

 

[Paul Spinnler]

Nice test.
Can it be worked on IQ3 100mp platform?

I don’t know about Cascable, but while walking around I focus with live view and the HPF ring shift stick trick, so that should be independent of the generation. You cannot attach an x shutter lens though, which you would need to trigger with the finger on the display because P1 still hasn’t made a cable that allows you to trigger a back via the USB-C port …

But with a copal lens and the Alpa ergo grip with Leno cable it should work

 

[Paul Spinnler]

Thanks Paul for the tip. Not Monochrome, but tried it on the STC with HR 40 with HPF...took off the tripod mounts, put on the wired release and shot this hand held. View just out of my window...its a drab day here in Singapore...cloudy, and just about to start a light rain, methinks.

I am now wondering why this way of using the STC never occured to me. At f/5.6 at 1/200s...quite hand holdable. Back shifted down 10mm. Will try more pics tomorrow. Maybe some street...haha...I am really bad at that, even with a Leica M11 with Sumicron 35...let's see how it goes.

View attachment 200103

Yes it also works with the STC, but I remove the ergo grip there and just trigger with the finger. If you have a small arca mount at the bottom and on the left side it makes the camera quite easy to hold … even with ergo grip ... the 40mm is perfect for that use case!

 

[Paul Spinnler]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing

My go to run and gun rig has been the STC/IQ4 A/70HR.

im doing tripod and landscape stuff and have no interest in doing handheld with this setup, but it’s amazing what powerful and compact setups one can put together with the Alpa/Phaseecosystem.

I think that is the main use case for the TC - it is unique in the medium format world because it is by far the most compact solution - that is, it is just a frame. But attach a nice head strap to it, the ergo grip and a compact SK lens such as the 43XL … and boom you have a Leica Monochrom on steroids. You can bring it anywhere while the XF or any other tech cam outfit is too bulky.

It is also a head turner - people never comment on cameras I carry around, but in this instance I was asked twice in an afternoon what camera it is … and that it looks super nice!

 

[P. Chong]

Tried my hand shooting hand held during my lunch break today. Same setup - Alpa STC with Rodie HR 40, CFV II 5-0C back. Hand held, guesstimate exposure. I think it was f/5.6 at 1/80s, ISO 800. BW conversion with yellow filter in PS.

Typical food court scene at lunch time.

 

[Paul Spinnler]

Do you have a shift stick attached to the lens?

One advantage of the achromatic back is that ISO 200 is like ISO 50, meaning ISO 800 is extremely clean still which is perfect for f5.6-f8 ...

 

[P. Chong]

Paul, is your question is directed to me? No I don’t have a shift stick. I don’t have an Achromatic back either, though I do have an IQ3100, but no trigger wire, will attempt to try it out later today.

Do you have a shift stick attached to the lens?

One advantage of the achromatic back is that ISO 200 is like ISO 50, meaning ISO 800 is extremely clean still which is perfect for f5.6-f8 ...

 

[Paul Spinnler]

Paul, is your question is directed to me? No I don’t have a shift stick. I don’t have an Achromatic back either, though I do have an IQ3100, but no trigger wire, will attempt to try it out later today.

Yes, in case you can get hold of one (they are not too expensive) it is worth it because you can nudge the helical of the lens with the HPF ring while keeping your hand on the ergo grip - this in my view is a game changer for handheld shooting. Might post a GIF to show this at one point ... one can unscrew one of the two silver tips in the HPF rings depending on how you orient the lens vs. the camera. Really nifty and not well documented!

 

[PeterA]

Alpa 12WA with a Schneider 45XL @f11 and the hyperfocal scales - not B&W and only 39 megapixels - which is was the most one could buy - back in the day before M8 let alone the Leica M9 monochrome. I liked shooting with th Alpa because it looked so damn good and different - long gone now ....

 

[P. Chong]

Here is another...more my comfort level - street architecture. The building is the David Elias Building which was completed in 1928. The building features various Stars of David in bas-relief on its facade. The architect was Swan and Maclaren.

Hand held walkabout mode, with the STC with Rodenstock HR40 and CFV II 50C. Even exposure was guesstimated. I did apply a small back fall, about 5mm.

 

[Paul Spinnler]

I think with practice one can get great imagery out of this kit and with the STC you can do 5mm rise included ... cool!

 

[Paul Spinnler]

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This makes it possible with IQ4 gen backs to quickly frame something in live view, "focus with your fingers" and shoot.

This allows for one-handed focusing and shooting.

Weather conditions permitting, you'll get sharp shots with a sub 60mm lens at 1/200th – if you furthermore can stop down to f8-f11 it really becomes a workable solution. The absolute best lens for this in my view is the 43 XL as it is extremely compact and sharp edge to edge without strong vignetting.

Given these are rare and will cost more and more as time passes, a great alternative would be the 40 HR. If you get the x-shutter variant you won't have any wobble with fast moving subjects and at slower shutter speeds, but you will have to release the shutter with the thumb which requires lifting the camera a bit below the level of your head if you are not someone with extremely long fingers!

Add to that the sexy Alpa viewfinder for quickly finding the scene while walking around. Given it is optical you won't have to always turn on the back, connect with Wifi, etc. or turn the back on at all as you can basically walk, look at a scene through the viewfinder, find the c. correct distance from it and then turn on the back.

The Alpa STC is also great for this as it is only a tiny bit bigger than the TC with built-in rise capability – allowing you to capture high-rise buildings with 5mm always on when doing street photography in a city like London or New York ...

So in my humble opinion it is a no-brainer for any Alpa owner to add HPF rings to their lenses as the shift stick trick also works with the Alpa Max, Plus, etc. and makes focuing super convenient und luxurious ...