Olympus XA - faded, nearly invisible rangefinder patch

[hoot]

Anyone else have this problem? I bought an Olympus XA in February. Its previous owner had it lying in a drawer for many years. Everything works perfectly, but it seems to me that the rangefinder patch, which appeared fine at first, is becoming less and less visible - even in broad daylight.

I'm considering taking a bright red felt pen to the rangefinder window, but since the change might be indelible, I wanted to hear some opinions and experiences first.

Thanks!

 

[Solinar]

It is now a Zone Focus camera. Try it out. There is gobs of wiggle room with a 35mm focal length.

Rather than using a pen, try taping on a yellow or orange colored filter instead. If anyone laughs, just tell them Andrew has an orange OKARO filter on his Leica IIIf and if it is good enough for a Leica then it is definitely good enough for an XA.

Have fun shooting with the little RF.

 

[richard_l]

The same thing happened to my XA. Just use zone focus.

 

[Hlynur]

I cut out a tiny (2x2mm) square piece of black tape and put on the viewfinder window over the rangefinder patch and it worked. Made the patch darker and visible.