Help for future XA user, please?

[akptc]

Hi, I am eyeing this Olympus XA but the seller says "... IN EXCELLENT COSMETIC CONDITION. SOMETIEMS IT DOES NOT WORK, WHEN I OPEN AND CLOSE THE SLIDING COVER LITTLE HARD IT WORKS AGAIN. I DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS THE PROBLEM. SELLING AS IS. OPTIC IS IN MINT CONDITION. RANGE FINDER IS CLEAN AND CLEAR. IT WORKS FINE TOO."

Is this a typical problem with this camera (having to open/close the clam shell "hard")?

Thanks a bunch,

 

[amateriat]

Andy: Here's the story. I have an Olympus XA I scored on Craigslist about a year ago. It's my second, and this one has been around the block more than a few times (and looks it). Only problem is with the sliding cover: the little cylindrical "bearing" the keeps the cover locked when fully open or fully closed was missing. The problem with this is that the camera's metering/shutter electronics is goverened by the cover's open/closed position. You have to make sure, in the absence of this bearing, that the door remains open "full stop" in order for the metering system to properly do it's thing. This isn't quite as dire as it sounds: you need to find yourself a tiny (but not too tiny) ball bearing to put in place of this missing bearing, allowing the cover to lock in position when open and closed.

(Shameless Plug: I'm actually letting go of my XA, with flash, pretty cheap. PM for details)


- Barrett

 

[akptc]

PM sent. (any plug that comes with good advice is a good plug, I'd say 🙂

 

[whereshaldo]

Its actually a small steel cylinder. I think a good option, if you have a working XA without the bearing is to find a broken one on ebay and scavenge the parts. There are some other parts worth having, including the spongy conductor that provides resistance to the shutter.

Otherwise, if you want, I can measure the bearing for you. A small piece of aluminum rod could work (I don't think electrical conductivity is required for this part).

Hal

 

[sleepyhead]

This is such a commonly found camera, why bother fiddling around with an iffy example?

 

[akptc]

Barrett, who's sending me his spare XA, said he'd put the bearing in place. But you are right, if I need one in great condition, there seem to be hundreds of XAs on ebay.

I've been carying my 35RC as my "pocket" camera but seeing how tiny and less "boxy" the XA is, I want to try it instead.

 

[wtl]

Indeed the XA is a great camera, only if it works every time. Mine does exactly the same - if I don't slide the cover hard and firm enough, it refuses to fire. It happens one out of 10 times but that one time always seems to be the most critical. I heard that it is dust that's collected on the sliding bearing that causes this problem which can be easily resolved. But I have never tried to fix. That once-in-a-while failure to fire got me to fire the camera permanently. For a street shooter, I cannot afford the camera to stop working when I need it to, despite the images taken from the camera are beautiful.

Unless you can afford "occassional" missing your shots...

 

[whereshaldo]

I have a problem where the focusing doesn't work every time I slide the cover open. I just close it, whack it on my palm, and reopen and it works. I guess I should bother to fix this, but the rangefinder is so dim, I rarely pull it out anymore.

Is this typical, or does my XA just need cleaning?

hal

 

[Nick R.]

I have a problem where the focusing doesn't work every time I slide the cover open. I just close it, whack it on my palm, and reopen and it works. I guess I should bother to fix this, but the rangefinder is so dim, I rarely pull it out anymore.

Is this typical, or does my XA just need cleaning?

hal

This is a manually focusing camera. So how exactly does it not work sometimes?