Olympus XA 2 any good?

[btgc]

Despite lack of RF and "only 4 elements", XA2 is fine camera. Yes, no control over exposure, yes, release button takes time to adapt to.


Café Rouge by mm35exp36, on Flickr
Victory Day, Riga 2011 #3 by mm35exp36, on Flickr

 

[pvdhaar]

The XA2 runs on two LR44 or SR44 batteries. These shouldn't break the bank, and are available at a lot of places.

 

[Bingley]

The OP got a great deal. I've got two XAs, both great shooters. I've replaced the seals on one. The lens is more than good enough. I like to shoot Tri-X and Portra 400 w/it. The RF takes some getting used to, but you can also zone focus w/it. Makes a nice stealth cam:


Street Portrait 2 by bingley0522, on Flickr

 

[68degrees]

The XA2 runs on two LR44 or SR44 batteries. These shouldn't break the bank, and are available at a lot of places.

I was trying to match what was in there KA76 or something? Anyway couldnt find them and what was available was 12 bucks for 1.

So when I got home I downloaded the manual and saw that the correct battery is like you said SR44 which I already had some for my nikon fm so I just used those. And those i got in town at the dollar store for 2 bucks for 8 of them. So thats all fixed now.

Anyway, its all cleaned up now. I put fresh film 200 superia and tomorrow Ill shoot a roll and see if the seals need replacing. Im loving this little camera, this thing is really sweet. Ill still get an XA, Ill find one somehow keep checking the thrift shops and see which I like better. I also have an stylus infinity. I wonder how the XA2 compares to that one.

 

[simonankor]

Yeah, it's fine.

Yeah, it's fine.

 

[IlyaB]

... I also have an stylus infinity. I wonder how the XA2 compares to that one.

The Stylus Epic (bottom) is a tad sharper IMHO:


New pastures by Ilya.Bur, on Flickr


Ein Gev, Sea of Galilee by Ilya.Bur, on Flickr

 

[David Hughes]

FWIW, it's difficult to find any Olympus that isn't brilliant; although we all have our favourites.

Regards, David

 

[Ong]

Minor threadjack, but just out of curiosity to all the XA series shooters here.

When you go out shooting with the XA/XA1/XA2/etc, do you leave the flash connected to the camera, leave the flash in your pocket, or just leave the flash at home? 😉

 

[68degrees]

Minor threadjack, but just out of curiosity to all the XA series shooters here.

When you go out shooting with the XA/XA1/XA2/etc, do you leave the flash connected to the camera, leave the flash in your pocket, or just leave the flash at home? 😉

The thing I like the most about the XA2 is that it is very small, so the first thing I did when I got this little guy is take the flash off and put it in a bag.
I like natural light photos best anyway.

 

[Bingley]

Minor threadjack, but just out of curiosity to all the XA series shooters here.

When you go out shooting with the XA/XA1/XA2/etc, do you leave the flash connected to the camera, leave the flash in your pocket, or just leave the flash at home? 😉

I leave the flash at home. In fact, I rarely use it.

 

[thejameskendall]

I had an XA, and it's true the rangefinder is barely usable. Its like a micro version of the canonet and yashica rangefinders. It takes me at least 5secs to focus it so I just scale focus most of the time. It's hard to miss at f5.6 and smaller. It is good to have though, even if my usage of the rf focusing is only about 10%.

It's not the easiest rangefinder in the world, but it is (i think) the smallest one so you can't be too hard on it. i prefer it for the reason that i forget to zone focus too often on the xa2

 

[yossarian123]

I find the XA rangefinder quite usable. All you have to do is increase the contrast with a little black tape on front of the window and it works great. I love using it, and get great result.

I've tried this in the past - the RF window on the XA is so tiny that cutting black tape to the right size was pretty difficult. So I ended up taking a Sharpie and drawing a black dot in the middle. Use nail polish remover to remove it whenever you want.

 

[David Hughes]

Minor threadjack, but just out of curiosity to all the XA series shooters here.

When you go out shooting with the XA/XA1/XA2/etc, do you leave the flash connected to the camera, leave the flash in your pocket, or just leave the flash at home? 😉

Hi,

I leave it at home. They are all fired once to test and that's it...

BTW, they improve if you switch them on and leave on for 20 minutes or so. It reforms the condenser.

Regards, David

 

[btgc]

Speaking about flash - lerned here on RFF - you can do fill flash, yes, keep calculated speed instead of fixed speed. Turn on flash, it starts to charge and then move back flash lever to OFF. Camera isn't aware flash is still on. Now you can go with native ISO or offset ISO to make exposure shorter or longer, depending to your goals.

 

[68degrees]

Heres a pic from the XA2 and a section from the original scan.

 

[kuzano]

Find the LR44's

Find the LR44's

SR44 batteries, as I recall, are alkaline and have a rapidly falling discharge curve which makes the meter relatively "off" on exposure in a short period of time.

LR44's are Lithium and have a "flat" discharge curve and last quite long.

It seems to me that the 376 batteries also work well.

Regarding the "touchy" red shutter button, you don't so much push down on them as put the very tip pad of your finger on the left edge surround around the red shutter, and slide the tip of your finger across the red pad/shutter. After doing this for a couple of rolls, the electronic shutter button becomes considerably more predictable. There is no half stop on the shutter because the exposure is operating and no focus to lock..... Just gently, but smoothly slide across the button. Works great for me.

I prefer the XA2 to the XA,,, and I've owned about 6-7 of both models.

The XA has a tendency to vignette very slightly, and I really like that. A slight vignette keeps the eye from sliding out of the corners of the image.

There is a tendency to use the range finder with the XA and it's really pretty useless, whereas zone focus gets the camera deployed and shot so much faster. I would not consider the XA as good at street at the XA2 for that reason, unless shot in "zone style". However, that is the intended domain of the XA2.

 

[btgc]

SR44 batteries, as I recall, are alkaline and have a rapidly falling discharge curve which makes the meter relatively "off" on exposure in a short period of time.

LR44's are Lithium and have a "flat" discharge curve and last quite long.

Now I can't pass by silently 🙂

LR44 is alkaline battery, they should have called alkaline AR44.
I even don't know if there is lithium ion variety of this size.

SR44 is silver oxide.

 

[David Hughes]

Now I can't pass by silently 🙂

LR44 is alkaline battery, they should have called alkaline AR44.
I even don't know if there is lithium ion variety of this size.

SR44 is silver oxide.

I don't think there is either.

Wasn't there a double version of the SR44/LR44 that was Lithium? Or is the memory going, like everything else...

Regards, David

 

[rfaspen]

I'm unaware of a lithium A76, S76, P76, KR76, LR44, SR44, 375, ... battery. As you can tell, there are actually many designators for essentially the same battery. Yes, there is a difference in chemistry among them (to an extent; silver oxide, typical alkaline, even zinc-air which hasn't been mentioned yet). All will have an optimum discharge at some point during their life and less-than-optimum at other times. That's usually at the beginning and end of life. This was the reason for mercury batteries in the first place...flat discharge curve for most of lifespan.

The upshot. You can use any of these batteries that have the same form factor and nominal voltage of 1.5v to get adequate results. I used silver oxides in my XA for a long time and got perfectly exposed kodachromes and ektachromes every time. I recommend AgO batteries if you can get them for a decent price. $12 for 1 is highway robbery.

Like most people here, I also have many other XA, XA2, and I think XA3. Yes, with the A-11 flash in most cases. Clearly, too many XA's for one person. I'm downsizing....slowly.

Enjoy your new camera. It will become a friend.

 

[Harlee]

You mentioned finding a XA-1 in the "junk" box. I really couldn't see the purpose of picking up an XA-1 since I have 3 XAs, 3 XA-2, and 2 XA-3s, and believe it or not after picking up a XA-1 just to see what it would do, I now have three excellent working models and one for parts. I now carry it on all of my overseas trips and really am astounded at the quality of the pictures they produce. Though it's a fixed F4 lens with shutter speeds from 1/30th to 1/250, it really produces as good pictures as my XA-2 or XA-3. But it's strictly a daylight camera and fixed focus is set for 5 feet I believe. It's also handy cause it doesn't take any batteries. I picked up one for $.99 which works just great. I have a number of shots taken in the FSU downloaded in the picture section.
It's really a good, handy backup camera when traveling. It also does OK with the flash.