Olympus XA1 first impressions

[petronius]

I visited a fleamarket with the family today. Since the raise of the digital cameras always a source for nice opportunities. The first one was a pack of expired Orwo NP 15/22 films (expired 1989, -,30 Euro each). Then I found a Olympus XA1 with flash, which I had often heard to be the ugly child of the XA family. The camera was very clean and a quick test showed, that the selenium cell was alive. The seller asked 10,- Euro and accepted my 8,- Euro offer. While having a break and a coffee I put a NP22 in the XA1 and shot it during the rest of our visit. All functions worked smooth, the front door is a bit loose. It has only two settings for the film speed (100/400), no other extras.
I developed the film this afternoon (Adox APH09 1+40/9mins) and was positively surprised. The finder shows much less than the film records, the lens quality can be seen here:

 

[petronius]

This examples show the image and a 100% crop. Scanned with a Canoscan 8400F using the original software @ 3200 dpi.

 

[Steve Bellayr]

The Olympus XA's have good lenses. They generally go far to high on ebay. Two things: Their seals wear out over time and when keeping them in pockets, etc. they are not as dust resistant as the later Olympus mini-pocket cameras.

 

[robridge]

I echo Steve's comments - great lenses but the seals will probably need replacing. I used Jon Goodman's kit with great results on my XA2 - go to his website to order and to download XA series instructions and you cannot go far wrong. All in all a great camera and so pocketable.

Roger

 

[petronius]

I own a XA and a XA2 too. The seals were no problem, but the electronics have sometimes bad moments.