ALPA Helvetar 43mm and back choice

[WeiW]

Hello,

I slowly gathered some components towards my first ALPA set. I'm now having some difficulty for the back choice. My lens is 43mm Helvetar, and I read it may have been designed to be used equally well on digital back or film back. I would like to ask from the experienced members here: what is the resolution recommendation for digital back to go with this lens? Is film back more favorable compared with digital back? Any advice will be appreciated.

Regards,

Wei

 

[Shashin]

The resolution is not really the issue, but whether the sensor works well with symmetrical lens designs. While this is an old back, the p25 worked well with lenses like these as it had no micro lenses in the sensor array. There are actually lots of threads at GetDPI on lens cast, the color fringe effects caused by oblique light angles, that can help as they cover a number of backs. Some of these issues can be corrected by an LCC (Lens Cast Correction) image. Sorry, I could be no more helpful. Hopefully other will chime in here.

 

[Aviv1887]

The Schneider 43mm is a lovely lens and my go to lens. I've used this lens through my whole trajectory of every generation digital back (only phase one though). Yes, you loose mostly movement along the way to higher resolution but never image quality and how this lens renders perspective. Capture One has grown along the way too and has helped to keep this lens viable and a treasure imho. LCC are a must in all cases and have a center filter. The new IQ4-150 has given extra life to this lens in that you gain several millimeters of movement again and cleaner files, particularly in the corners. Enjoy this lens and the journey of working with these amazing tools.

 

[WeiW]

The resolution is not really the issue, but whether the sensor works well with symmetrical lens designs. While this is an old back, the p25 worked well with lenses like these as it had no micro lenses in the sensor array. There are actually lots of threads at GetDPI on lens cast, the color fringe effects caused by oblique light angles, that can help as they cover a number of backs. Some of these issues can be corrected by an LCC (Lens Cast Correction) image. Sorry, I could be no more helpful. Hopefully other will chime in here.

Thanks Will! Besides color fringe, does the edge sharpness also inferior compared to traditional film usage? I also use a Linhof 612, and can get good results from the film. Although digitizing films can be cumbersome, if sharpness is a loss, then I would lean towards a 6x9 film back.

The Schneider 43mm is a lovely lens and my go to lens. I've used this lens through my whole trajectory of every generation digital back (only phase one though). Yes, you loose mostly movement along the way to higher resolution but never image quality and how this lens renders perspective. Capture One has grown along the way too and has helped to keep this lens viable and a treasure imho. LCC are a must in all cases and have a center filter. The new IQ4-150 has given extra life to this lens in that you gain several millimeters of movement again and cleaner files, particularly in the corners. Enjoy this lens and the journey of working with these amazing tools.

Thank you for the reply! I'm surprised to know that this lens can still prove useful with the newest IQ4!

 

[WeiW]

Guess I will look for a film back anyway, as it looks compact and solid. If you read this and happen to have one to separate (the ALPA 6x9 manual-wind film back), please send me a pm. thx!

 

[narikin]

This probably deserves it's own thread, but IMHO the best value in Alpa lenses are the digital ones from 5 to 10 years back.

Rodenstock and Schneider made some really good 'digital' lenses - the Schneider Digitar and Rodenstock's HR Digaron S (small IC) or Digaron W lines (larger IC) and these were available for a good few years before everything jumped in price.

Later Alpa rebranded some of these lenses with their own name (Alpagon, etc) and the price near doubled, in many cases. Though to be fair, this had a lot to do with Rodenstock as much as Alpa. Schneider quit production altogether.

Earlier film lenses - the Super Angulons, and the Alpa Helvetar's etc - never reached the heady prices of current lenses, but nor did they reach the heady resolution required for modern digital backs.

So if I were in the market to build an Alpa kit, I'd be looking at the first generation digital releases.

(Of course the 2nd (current) generation Digaron W - the 40 and 50mm are in a class above, as is the unparalleled HR 90mm W. They have prices to match!)

 

[Shashin]

Thanks Will! Besides color fringe, does the edge sharpness also inferior compared to traditional film usage? I also use a Linhof 612, and can get good results from the film. Although digitizing films can be cumbersome, if sharpness is a loss, then I would lean towards a 6x9 film back.

I used a film-era 55mm and 90mm Rodenstock lenses on the p25. They were basically 4x5 lenses. I found the results very sharp. Besides the problem of symmetrical lenses with color-cast, which can be corrected, I really did not feel I was getting an inferior image in either sharpness or contrast, certainly not in regards to a film one.