New XA-4 on the way! Got a ?

L

Lemures-Ex

Jared S
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Jan 16, 2006
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Well I have an XA-4 on the way. My one question is: Can I manually set the ISO on DX coded film? The manual doesn't cover this and I develop most of my film in Diafine (1 stop faster) so it would be useful to set the speed manually. Of course I could just tape off the DX contacts...

Thanks,
Jared
 
Lemures-Ex said:
Well I have an XA-4 on the way. My one question is: Can I manually set the ISO on DX coded film? The manual doesn't cover this and I develop most of my film in Diafine (1 stop faster) so it would be useful to set the speed manually. Of course I could just tape off the DX contacts...
Click to expand...

Hi Jared,

The XA-4 is a very nice camera, equipped with a great lens, but it is only usable in full-auto program mode. Except for the +1.5 EV backlight compensation, you have no control over shutter speed, aperture and... film speed. If your film is DX coded, then the ISO selector is disabled and you won't be able to select another film speed manually. My suggestion: try using film at nominal speed and soup it in Diafine as usual. You will get a slightly denser but perfectly usable negative and you might like it. I do :D

Cheers,

Abbazz
 
There is no DX override. As you suggested you'll have to tape the contacts in the body, or over the coding on the film cassette. I'd do the latter so as to avoid any gooey residue developing over time.
 
Thanks Abbazz. Never thought of shooting at normal film speed for Diafine but I'll certainly give it a go now.

I think I'll just end up taping over the DX contacts anyways so that I can use the ISO settings as an exposure control when needed.
 
The little XA 4 is a top shooter Jared and the lens is one of, if not the best in the XA series. Check out it's close focus capacity too, whcih you can measure by extending the XA strap to it's full extension - that equals the minimum focus distance - .03m or 12" - neat!
 
jmilkins said:
The little XA 4 is a top shooter Jared and the lens is one of, if not the best in the XA series. Check out it's close focus capacity too, whcih you can measure by extending the XA strap to it's full extension - that equals the minimum focus distance - .03m or 12" - neat!
Click to expand...

All reasons I bought one. The most important thing for me though is the size. I wanted something really portable.

Anyone have any example photos?

Jared
 
Xmas said:
Jared

I can be discrete with XA4, even photo people wont spot, last pic in posts.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36033&page=4

Noel
Click to expand...

I actually have sort of a thing for taking pictures of people taking pictures. Everyone I have photographed walking the streets with a digi SLR have never noticed me. They are clueless it would seem. I have stood practically in front of people with both my TLR and RF's and they have never noticed. I wonder if that is some kind of commentary on pepople who only shoot digital? Perhaps the "shoot lots of photos and pick out the good ones" mentality makes one not so observant?

XA-4 should be here today (it's 2am, so I still have a while :p )!

Jared
 
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