Sinar announced today a new architecture camera called "arTec".

It was developed together with architecture photographer Rainer Viertlböck who gave his input for the necessary features for his ideal camera.

Some of the features of this new camera:

- Revolving Adapter
- Sliding Back for ground-glass composing
- Lenses 23mm to 135mm (Sinaron Digital)
- 5° Tilt/Swing, in all directions
- Shift V +25/-15mm
- Shift H +20/-20mm
- 360° turnable tripod mount
- 1.5 Kg

Availability shortly after Photokina 2008.

More to follow.

Best regards,
Rainer & Thierry

Interesting!

Congratulations.

What is the expected cost?

Interesting indeed..

Looking forward to more information on this one. Pricing, more detailed specs and the most interesting question for me: Will I be able to use my AFi DB on it?

Rainer V,

Please share your field-testing experience with us.

Thank you,
Billy

This is quite exciting. The arTec looks like it will fit nicely into this growing niche of the marketplace. I look forward to seeing it at Photokina.

I feel like I should congratulate you! Very Impressive!

Regards,

Jordan MillerDTG

I have been secretly wondering why people would go to the extra hassle and expense of a camera like the Cambo, yet miss out on tilt movements. This seems to address that omission.

Tilt movements also opens up the possibility of losing exact plane-parallelism.
Looking forward to hearing how Sinar has implemented the tilt mechanism.

Further exciting would be if a Rollei-mount lens could be used
for those invested in the Hy6 platform.

Imagine if a Rollei 90mm Makro Apo Symmar could be mounted,
and used with multi-shot digital back for still life work.

i was invited today to SINAR in swiss to accompany the announcement to distributors. the first prototype together with some lenses was finished last thursday and i received no.1 for testing it now on real work .....


to my surprise there was not a single compromise made regarding the specifications i gave to SINAR. in contrary the camera can do more than i was asking for.... looks great. Eventually a camera which can do all i am asking for in digital architecture shooting.

Nice work everyone. Rainer, hope we can finally meet at Photokina!

Rainer,

Of course you have an open invitation to write a hands on review of the camera for this site!

Michael

hi michael,
i would be pleased to do this.... liking your forum here very much.

probably will shoot at the aral sea at that time ......

Ooh looks great... I'm assuming that the lens board is stationary for all shift movements? .. great news for stitching if so.....

Ros

Is it geared rotation, Thierry?

Also, is its rotation point lined up with the center axis of the lens?

Dear Rune,

The AFi digital back can be mounted on the arTec, since it uses the same mount as the Hy6.

Best regards,
Thierry

Will digital backs in fixed Hasselblad V and H mounts fit?

Rainer,
I'm very impressed!

This is certainly the Alpa,Horseman etc killer!

Does the 23 mm lens mean 24 or 28?
Just curious wether Sinar is now also using Schneiders beside the Rodenstocks.

And I can use e-75 Hy6 back as well?

Regards,

Willem.

Not yet planed, Billy.

Thierry

hi Willem,

- the 23mm is not a typo: there is a 23mm lens in preparation.

- Yes, you can of course use your eMotion 75.

Best regards,
Thierry

Quick question for Thierry and Rainer,
as I already have a revolving adapter with my e-75LV,
how does that work with the revolving adapter for the arTec?

Regards,
Willem.

This looks great but will it be possible to use a Phaseone back on this camera?

Cheers,
Bernard

Very Good...now something to spend even more $$ on


Murray

There is a 0-click and locking system to avoid this.

Thierry

Willem,

no problem, you can use it directly on the arTec, it is the same mount.

Thierry

I think there will be some Alpa's for sale in the near future!

Thierry,

I'm trying to figure out if a simultaneous tilt and swing is possible.

What is that lever at the top of the camera for?

Thanks,
Billy

Dear Bernard,

Not any plans yet to mount PO backs.

Thierry

Thierry,

for those with Alpa mounted lenses already, will there be an adapter plate for those lenses? If not will they be 'easily' re-mounted for this camera and would that be cost effective?

Murray

Wow,

I like that even better!

Just to clarify, is the rotating adapter the means by which rotation is possible? In other words, the camera itself doesn't support rotation, just the adapter? This would seem like an elegant solution.

although i am still not thierry... but:

you can tilt the lens in two directions ( +/- ) and turn around the tilt mechanism 360 degrees.
so all tilt and swing possibilities are at the same time possible ,- till +/- 5 deg.


the lever at the top is to unlock the sliding back. it also has the function, that horizontal movements which have been applied during the image composing on the ground glass, are automatically taken over at exactly the same position if you slide the sensor in front of the lens. great feature i.m.o.

Rainer, I'm sure your jumping in to answer questions is welcomed by everyone.



Sorry, I don't quite follow
since I don't see a second rotation point for swinging while tilting.

A side view:

Graham,

there are actually 3 rotations we are speaking about here:

- revolving of the back with the revolving adapter

- rotation (360°) of the whole camera at the base/tripod mount

- rotation (360°) of the lens board where the tilt/swing is located

Best regards

if you rotate the lens board e.g. for 45 degr. the result is a Scheimpflug
in horizontal and at the same time in vertical direction, so this equals a combined tilt and swing.

Sorry if I wasn't clear, I meant rotation of the back. The other two seem straight forward.

no problem, Graham.

Thierry

Hi Thierry,

any answer on the Alpa lens query?

Murray

Lovely looking

all you need now is an attractive way for me to trade my H and 4 lenses over to the Hy6..

S

I don't think there will be many Alpa's for sale if Sinar doesn't support any back mounts other than the Hy-6 mount. No Mamiya back adapter? No Hassy V back adapter? No Hassy H back adapter? How hard can it be to provide purely mechanical interface plates for the other back mounts?? It's not like the proprietary Hy-6 electrical interface will be used on this body.

The Alpa's, Cambo's and Horseman's all provide back adapters for all the different camera bodies, including the Hy-6. That's Sinar's competition on this camera. I would find it extremely unusual and disappointing if Sinar decided to support only the Hy-6 back interface. Thierry, please tell me I misunderstood!!!

hi Murray,

I have no answer for this possibility at this stage concerning an adapter plate.
However, a re-mount of those lens should be possible, mechanically.
I have no further information yet.

Best regards,
Thierry

Mort,

at this stage only Sinar eMotion and Leaf AFi backs are supported. I can't speculate further.

Best regards,
Thierry

Hi Thierry,

please pass this as feedback to Sinar that I (and I'm sure many of the other architectural photographers) would find it very attractive to move to this camera if there was a way of bringing over the lenses already owned (in my case in Alpa mounts). Without that it is really cost prohibitive...

Murray

of course, Murray, you should know me.

Thanks,
Thierry

What's the expected cost for this new beauty?

Will it work with the 54H/eyelike M22 and will it require any cables?

what i heard today is that the 23mm Sinaron will be a rodenstock lens with an image circle off app. 70mm. what would mean one can shift it 10 -12mm, which would be fantastic for us. finally a lens which equals the good old 47xl on a 4x5" camera. no idea about the price and exact specs.... but so far this is more as a rumor as the info comes from sources closed to the font.

Very nice!!

Two years ago, I had a long conversation with Thomas at Alpa, and basically begged for a camera with these specifications. He told me the XY was the answer, and hinted at the possibility of the MAX. But really, this is almost exactly what I was asking for!

Looks very nice, Rainier--congratulations on this to you, and to Sinar, of course!

Now let's hope we're not disappointed with a crazy price tag!

Now that I'm on Hy6, I obviously don't mind the fact that my back works natively with this camera... But in terms of longevity for the system, it would be nice to see solutions which allowed other backs to play too... I know you're probably already working on them Thierry!

Thanks for the great head's up. And I look forward to your article, Rainier. Let me know if you need anyone to help with the fact-checking--just send the camera on over and I'll confirm everything you write!

Will my Rollei Hy6 lenses mount to this?

-Brad

Thierry,

Thank you for the status. Although I can understand the situation as far as the Hy6 is concerned, my personnal feeling is that Sinar would be shooting itself in the foot were it to support only Sinar + LEaf backs for this tempting camera.

Regards,
Bernard