XA the best Night Time RF

XA the best Night Time RF

  • Spot on, the XA takes some beating

    Votes: 34 19.1%

  • Not bad but there are better

    Votes: 55 30.9%

  • Keep taking the medicine Mick

    Votes: 41 23.0%

  • I've never used an XA at night

    Votes: 48 27.0%
  • Total voters
    178
It is spot on at night. For this one I held the XA out my window, pointing it downward with only one hand. Shutter speed was something crazy like 1/8.

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I know its only a small JPG but trust me I almost fell off my seat when I saw the negs and how sharp they came out considering the situation.
 
I like a heavier camera for night shooting and found the Kodak Retina IIIS or IIS with their large, bright viewfinders to be quite good. And with the Retina IIIS, you could pair it with the f/1.9 Xenon.
 
@juan
That image is a great one. It reminds me of a close friend I had in S. Florida with a similar upbringing. She loved the Sun, and believed it was a great healing balm to reach to the sky.
Thanks for sharing it.
 
I love my XA. It goes with me everywhere and it's on a short list of greatness in the camera world.

But the best night RF? That's confusing something you can do with something you should do in my book. And what about the fact that it sounds like a truck backing up when you use the timer, which is key for reducing those finger-clicking-induced vibrations? :)
 
ElectroWNED said:
Electro 35 is better from what I've seen.

I went out the other night with both cameras and took some shots, so I'll be able to decide soon enough.
Click to expand...

I am debating which to use today, but the Electro weighs 4-5 times as much as the XA.
 
Juan Valdenebro said:
XA is a great camera for it's size... I adore mine, no doubt... It has its very own strengths... For example, although not by night, it allowed me to do a shot that was almost impossible to do, and a very important one to my heart these days...


On February I visited my mother for a couple of weeks (she lives far away) and I went out with her one morning to help her look for furniture for one of my sisters' new house that my mother's helping to buy, so she was especially happy that sunny morning... When we got there, it was a bit early: the store was about to open, in ten minutes, as we read on the door from inside the car when we parked in front of the store. Then with a big smile, glad about being there with her son and about to get things for her youngest daughter, she told me she felt completely happy, and I told her I felt just the same, and then I said OK, let's walk a few minutes under the sun... It was a store surrounded by trees and parks, with no one there by 8:50 AM...


Then she opened the car door, went out, and stood under the sun, closed her eyes, and with a calmed, very gentle smile, raised her arms opened, and for a moment kept them with the palms of her hands up, facing the sun... I remembered instantly the only other time I saw her do it: we were, many years before, in Paris one early morning, waiting for a cab to go to the airport... That day I had a Nikon with me hanging from my shoulder, and when I came out of the hotel with our luggage a few steps behind her, I found her doing it... And it took me then a few seconds to set exposure and focus when I tried to get close (with a 20mm) to photograph her in that position... I failed, it all happened in a few seconds, and I felt very sad, but when she saw and heard me shooting in front of her, I just smiled, and did not let her know I was sad... I had time to shoot once, but she was just starting to take her arms down and turning back to face the hotel... I asked her -a bit later- what she was doing, and she told me “I was receiving through the sun the next gifts God is sending me soon for my children...”


I had never seen her do it in my life, and I didn't know she used to do it... And she never taught me to do it either... Well, back to the recent day, when I saw her there doing it again, time froze... I hurried up, ran to her from the other side of the car, took my XA out of my pants pocket, opened it while taking it up, and shot just in front of her with the sun behind me, all in two seconds... She didn't hear the shutter... She was so concentrated, so away... I knew I had got her, so I stayed there, quiet, took the camera down without advancing film, and without closing the camera, and put it inside my pocket again: she didn't ever notice me this time, and I enjoyed looking at her for another few seconds... Then she opened her eyes and I embraced her, and we both smiled...


The camera was prefocused at 8 feet and f/8 and loaded with Tri-X, and the shot is perfect... I printed it with deep emotion, and now it's the only photograph in my bedroom...


My XA is priceless.


Cheers,


Juan
Click to expand...


Great story Juan.. thanks for sharing p.
 
Time to give this thread a bump... I took my XA along on a trip back east a couple of weeks ago. It may not be the "best" nighttime shooter, but it was the camera in my pocket at the time...

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Great story Juan! The photo is nicely composed too, especially considering the lightning quick reaction time it required. XA seems to have paid for itself that day by providing a priceless pic!

Cheers,
Rob
 
I think the XA is a great little camera. My only concern is that the camera is too light in weight to be able to hold steady for longer exposures.

Plus, I think the inability to set exposure manually with the XA wouldn't make it my first choice as a night shooter.
 




if i remember correctly those are shot wide open at 1/15 and 1/8 respectively..

it's a nice small camera that takes great photos, but i believe there are better low light performer.. this one is my number one for day time shooting..
 
This calls for a large measure of personal opinion based on personal experiences. For my money, the XA is a great camera. I prefer to use it at night because of the great lens and exceptional light meter. Many times I don't use a tripod because I can usually find a surface on which to set it. If need be I can wedge something under it to to raise or lower the field of view. I've attached three samples.
 

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rovnguy said:
This calls for a large measure of personal opinion based on personal experiences. For my money, the XA is a great camera. I prefer to use it at night because of the great lens and exceptional light meter. Many times I don't use a tripod because I can usually find a surface on which to set it. If need be I can wedge something under it to to raise or lower the field of view. I've attached three samples.
Click to expand...
Love the shipyard one :).
 
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