Phase One Lenses on an Alpa Camera? YES*

 In ALPA, Leaf, News, Phase One, Phase One Lenses, Steve Hendrix, Tech Camera

Ok, before you freak out, notice there is an asterisk next to the YES.

But an end user reported that they had successfully mounted a Schneider Blue Ring Lens to an Alpa 12 Camera by adding 28mm of Alpa Spacers. With an IQ3 100 or IQ4 digital back, you can use the built-in Electronic Shutter to capture, the lens stays open and simply lets the light in for however long you specify.

I’ve had this in the back of my mind for some time, but I’ve never actually tried it. And the reason is that I had the impression that the Mamiya lens adapters would fit the older Mamiya lenses, but the newer Phase/Schneider versions would not fit on it. So I put it out of my mind. *You can’t control the aperture anyway, so I didn’t think much further on it.

Schneider 35mm Blue Ring, Alpa 12 Plus, Phase One IQ3 100, that’s a very nice sandwich!

But you can stick the aperture on virtually any electronic camera just by selecting Depth of Field Preview then shutting the camera down while holding that. I’ve done this often as I shoot some extreme macro subject matter with non-electronic extension rings. So yes, if you commonly shoot at f/11, you could stick that aperture on the Schneider Blue Ring lens by mounting to an XF camera and while holding down the DOF button, turn the camera off. Now the downside is that you won’t be able to focus wide open and easily stop down, that option would be too cumbersome, you’ll have to ballpark the focus point to a degree. But for a Schneider 35mm Blue Ring lens shooting a scenic view, your focus is probably not going to show as being off by much, even if it is.

So I mounted the Schneider 35mm Blue Ring lens onto our Alpa 12 Plus and shifted to see how far I could get, and as I expected, I could shift to about 12mm before I started seeing edge of image circle. I say “as I expected” because many 645 lenses have about a 70mm image circle. Now I have not tested the results when shifted – that’s another matter that remains to be seen.

A big thank you to Onasj for doing what I had thought about but never got around to – I think it has some possibilities for people. There are some limitations, but you now have access to these excellent lenses that you can then shift and capture with on your Alpa camera:

  • Schneider 35mm Blue Ring
  • Schneider 45mm Blue Ring
  • Schneider 55mm Blue Ring
  • Schneider 80mm Blue Ring
  • Schneider 110mm Blue Ring
  • Schneider 120mm Blue Ring
  • Schneider 150mm Blue Ring
  • Schneider 240mm Blue Ring
  • Schneider 40mm-80mm Blue Ring Zoom
  • Schneider 75mm-15mm Blue Ring Zoom

How about two zoom lenses covering 40mm – 150mm for your Alpa setup, with shift? Not to mention prior Phase One/Mamiya lenses as well. Maybe you want to shoot the legacy Mamiya 80mm/1.9 N Lens. You wouldn’t even need to stick the aperture on that one – just have fun shooting that at f1.9 (not that it will be super tack sharp, but that probably isn’t the point if you’re using that lens).

As Alpa dealers, we sell the Mamiya lens Adapter, contact us if you’d like to order one.

These are the pieces that let you do what we thought you could not do. No mustard required.
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