First Post From My Olympus XA

J

jyl

Just learning to focus
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Aug 6, 2004
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I've had my little Olympus XA for several months now, and I'm very happy with it. One thing that surprised me, even though I've read about it, is the quality of the images.

I've been meaning to post an example, but only recently got access to a scanner.

Here is a pic of a 70's Alfa-Romeo sports racer, taken at the Monterey Historics 2004. Ilford FP4+. I stopped down a decent bit, probably f8 or smaller. A bright sunny day but the car was in shade, so probably 1/125 or 1/60, I guess.

I scanned the 8x10 print at 300dpi, was horrified at the 7MB file (really bogged down my little Apple iBook), then downsized it to appx 112KB to post. I'll post that little image first.

Then I cropped the center from the original 7MB image, creating a 500KB file. I'll post that partial image next. Notice you can read "1/4-3/8 ratchet".

Hope this works - I've never posted images to this forum before.

By the way, I'd welcome critiques on the pic. I took it because it was sort of abstract and graphic, but some people have complained that they can't tell what it is. (You are in front of the car and the rear bodywork has been raised as the mechanics work on the motor).
 
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Here is the crop

Here is the crop

Now the cropped center of the image. Again, this is directly from the 300dpi scan of the 8x10 print, not downsized.

(Oh, yes, I never got around to spotting the print.)
 
I very much like the tones in this image. I wonder if the composition would be better moving the camera to the left, so that the stripes end in the center of the frame, or maybe not, hard to tell. Overall I am impressed and would put a print in my darkroom workbox to show off :)
 
Great!

I've had my XA a few months now, and it's an addictive little thing. If you hunt through you might find my first shots with mine that I posted here. But the shots that really inspired me to get one were Gene's winter shots in New York.

Now I've fixed the light leak, I'm looking forward to putting some b&w through it.

Cheer,s
Steve
 
Steve I too enjoyed Genes pix. In fact all his galleries have some nice shots. I have 2 XAs, though one keeps giving odd readings about 2 stops over so this one doesn't get used anymore and may end up in the bin.

I wish I was better at the DIY side then I could posibly repair and use it.

Paul
 
I don't know about you, but I figure that if you're just going to bin it, why not try to fix first? You can't really lose, can you?

Or pass it on to someone here?

Cheers,
Steve
 
Merely echoing the accolades. Got an XA a few months ago. It' s a 1978 (I bought it from the original owner who bought it in 1978, that's how I know). Every morning I toss it in a pocket and go about my daily routines. What I really like about it is this: The distance scale on TOP so I can quickly estimate distance, and the easily readable f stop setting. Thus I can estimate distance, set the f stop for the light, and get a shot off in a matter of seconds without having to point the camera at the subject while I fiddle around with the rangefinder.

And they are always in focus and sharp. Great camera.
 
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