Alpa

Alpa was formerly a Swiss camera design company and manufacturer of 35 mm SLR cameras. The current owners bought the company name after bankruptcy of the original company and the company exists today as a designer and manufacturer of high-end medium-format cameras (Website alpa.ch).

Alpa was an offshoot of the Pignons S.A. company, which made a particular part (pinions) for Swiss watches. They made high-end, all-metal 35mm cameras with a similar high-end but smaller-volume market to Germany's Leica, Contax, and Rolleiflex. In the late 1930s, Pignons invited engineer Jacques Bolsky to design a camera for them. This he did with the Alpa-Reflex in the 1940s. In true Swiss fashion, each camera was individually crafted. Thus, production was low, but quality and prices were high. Even these days, collectible Alpa cameras can fetch quite a high auction price. It is estimated that as few as 40,000 cameras of all models of Alpa were made during the company's 40-year history. Allowing for certain gaps, the serial numbers would support that, as the last cameras made (in about 1990) carried serial numbers of only 64,xxx.

There is an ongoing question concerning which camera company was first with such innovations as the quick-return mirror, through-the-lens metering, cells in prism housings and the bayonet lens mount. Alpa was a contender for being first with each of these innovations and several others.

Unfortunately, Alpa did not have the resources to keep up with the technological advances that the mainstream camera companies were introducing in the 1970s and sales began to decline. It is not clear whether the lack of technological "innovation" was due to lack of money, or actually a choice made by the company against the automation brought about by other companies.

A more popularly priced "Alpa" camera made in Japan by Chinon was introduced. It used M42 screw mount lenses, but it did not sell very well, partly because the premium Alpa lenses could not be used on it. (The Si2000 used the M42 Screw mount, the Si3000 used the Pentax K mount.) Neither model was popular and they are not considered true Alpas by collectors. Some feel the Japanese Alpa was a mistake that hurt the company.

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Wikipedia