Changes: Alfa

Revision as of 18:55, 19 May 2015

For the Japanese roll-film camera manufacturer, see Alfa Camera. For the Italian viewfinder camera, see Ferrania Alfa.

The Alfa cameras were cast alloy 35mm viewfinder cameras made by WZFO in Warsaw, Poland, in the early 1960s. The Alfa was manufactured in the years 1962-1964 and after the modification as Alfa 2 between 64-65.

The Alfa had an unconventional vertical format, with the portrait-format viewfinder in a curved, cream-coloured surround at the top, the lens barrel below that, and the film running vertically from bottom to top. There were cream plastic controls around the lens, and wind-on knob on the user's left, just above an accessory shoe. The shutter release was a large button on the front, below the lens on the user's right. The frame counter was also on the front, below the lens opposite the release. It had a leaf shutter with speeds 1/30 - 1/125 + B (top speed seems to be different on some examples) and a WZFO Euktar 45mm / f4.5 lens with PC flash sync socket.

The Alfa seems to have been available in red, pink, dark blue, light blue, light green, cream, grey or brown, each with a striped chrome front panel.

The Alfa 2 was a slight upgrade, with parallax marks in the viewfinder (obvious from the front, as small points on the cream surround), a redesigned shutter release with a separate cable release socket and an Emitar lens.

Links

Various different Alfas and instruction extracts on Jacek Przybyszewski's Polish Camera site
Photo of Grey Alfa 2 on PBase.com larger, image-only version
Blue Alfa on Michał R. Adamczyk's Gallery
Dark blue Alfa on the Gdansk Fotomuzeum site (in Polish)
Alfa, on aparatyanalogowe.pl (in Polish)
Alfa, on r-kobus.eu

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 ''For the Italian viewfinder camera, see [[Ferrania Alfa]].''
-The '''Alfa''' cameras were cast alloy [[35mm]] [[viewfinder camera]]s made by [[WZFO]] in Warsaw, Poland, in the early 1960s.
+The '''Alfa''' cameras were cast alloy [[35mm]] [[viewfinder camera]]s made by [[WZFO]] in Warsaw, Poland, in the early 1960s. The Alfa was manufactured in the years 1962-1964 and after the modification as Alfa 2 between 64-65.
 The '''Alfa''' had an unconventional vertical format, with the portrait-format viewfinder in a curved, cream-coloured surround at the top, the lens barrel below that, and the film running vertically from bottom to top. There were cream plastic controls around the lens, and wind-on knob on the user's left, just above an accessory shoe. The [[shutter release]] was a large button on the front, below the lens on the user's right. The frame counter was also on the front, below the lens opposite the release. It had a [[leaf shutter]] with speeds 1/30 - 1/125 + B (top speed seems to be different on some examples) and a WZFO Euktar 45mm / f4.5 lens with PC [[flash sync]] socket.