I know this sounds like a silly question (and maybe it is) but I've been looking at some of the nicer Alpa cameras lately (not that I'm about to dunk $15K on a camera body that's really not much more than a fancy plate with a lens and back mount). I'm just curious about what cameras of this type are all about and what makes them so special, other than their fine names, high quality and astronomical cost.
I guess I'm specifically talking about cameras like the Alpa SWA, XY, etc.. I might have the models wrong, but the concept seems pretty much the same. The camera body is really not much more than a fancy, $7,000 mounting plate with a $4,000 lens mounted on one side and a $25,000 digital back mounted on the other side.
My question(s) is: What is the reason for having rise/fall and side/side shift and no other movements? The Alpas and some other uber high dollar cameras like the Cambo Wide, Silvestri and some others where you can mount either a 4x5 or 6x9 or 6x7 or a digital back and have provision for some rise and fall and maybe left and right shift and that's it. Wouldn't you need to have some tilt and/or swing to make this a worthwhile architectural or otherwise perspective correcting camera? What about lenses longer than 47mm? I know some of the Alpas can mount up to 180mm lenses, but I sure can't see how you can focus something that long on a flat panel with no bellows of any kind.
Can some millionaire architechtural photographer who might can afford to actually own one of these maybe fill me in on the benefits of the modern WA camera?
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