ALPA 12 FPS and Silex

The ALPA 12 FPS (focal plane shutter) opens the door into a new dimension: from the modular camera platform to the open toolbox. The ALPA 12 FPS acts as a shutter module when used together with another ALPA 12 camera. However, it is also an independent camera when combined on its own with a back, a lens, and a suitable adapter. This flexibility opens up the use of brand-new or fond old lenses from dozens of different optical systems manufacturers – with or without a central shutter and with or without manual or electronic aperture control. Plus, a free choice of format is only limited by the lens’s image circles and sensor sizes.  

The ALPA Silex Mk II is the modularized “brain” of the ALPA 12 FPS without the focal plane shutter. This control element shares the numerous functionalities of the ALPA 12 FPS. Together with the ALPA Electronic Lens adapter (ELA), all ALPA Lens Modules can be operated identically on all standard ALPA bodies. It can control the Sinar/Leica/Rodenstock eShutter 125 and 250.  

The ALPA 12 FPS and Silex Mk II open up the field of shift/tilt/swing/stitch in a wide range of variants and with the corresponding accessories to a whole new world which had previously hardly been possible, if at all. A continuously expandable firmware controls the whole system in a concept that includes all previous ALPA 12 models, many lenses, and almost all digital backs produced in the past ten years. A previously unknown variety of possibilities and combinations is opened up – a toolbox that the user can equip and utilize according to their own needs or while using already existing tools.