Olympus XA2 light seals replacement.

sanardo22

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Picked up a Olympus XA2 recently and ran a roll of film thru it. Fun little camera. The pictures showed a light leak (dark lower corners). The foam light seals were musch. I am looking for a reasonable source of foam material. Please don't say check ebay.
 
Picked up a Olympus XA2 recently and ran a roll of film thru it. Fun little camera. The pictures showed a light leak (dark lower corners). The foam light seals were musch. I am looking for a reasonable source of foam material. Please don't say check ebay.

I got foam seals for my XA from an ebay seller "Interslice" - Jon Goodman. He has good instructions with the kit and they are online on the Classic Camera forum. This is the one you want -

http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/seal/Olympus_XA.pdf

There is usually plenty leftover for another camera.

Cheers,
-Gautham
 
I'm doing seals for my cameras from mouse pad, before that I uset felt. XA2 has felt flavour. Works well.
 
I vote John Goodman

I vote John Goodman

John Goodman no longer sells on eBay. I do not think he uses the name Interslice any longer.

I bought two Canon GIII QL17 seal kits from him a couple of months ago, and I think you can search him on Google or Yahoo. If not, PM me and I will look up his contact information for you

His kits are the proper foam, he has excellent step by step instructions, AND as a bonus he has instructions on cleaning and adjusting the rangefinder Canon GIII and he sent them along with my two kits. No extra charge. John has been doing seal kits for a long time and the best part of his kits... He's spent a lot of time getting the foam right.

Easy install and nice tight door closure.
 
I'll add my vote for John Goodman, a nice bloke and the seal kits are superb. I used one on my XA.
 
Yeah, Jon Goodmanis is a real gentleman. I've used his kits a number of times and they all worked great. I exchanged few emails about other topics as well, and he's a funny as hell. I can definitely recommend him.
Giorgio
 
I bought Jon Goodman's reseal kit for my XA and it works great! Easy install with Jon's super easy to follow instructions. I have also bought several cameras from Jon. I will PM his address to you.

Kent
 
There's also self-adhesive presto felt available at most craft stores. Easy to cut and stick, no need for glue. $3 gets you enough to do dozens of cameras
 
I recently purchased the entire tool set from a 90 year old retired camera repairman and he had a fairly large supply of leather, felt, and self stick Foamies ....available today at most craft stores for under a $1 a sheet.
Apparently he was using Foamies back in the 80's and 90's to replace light seals.
 
Another double-plus-good vote for Jon Goodman. I used one of his kits to refurb my Mother's XA a while back and everything fit perfectly. IIRC I used the felt version that was available as an option rather than foam.
 
so craftstore felt and contact cement?

My felt came from fabric store (imagine seller's surprise when I asked to cut only about 4"). I use various glues, but they all work for metal, plastic, glass and fabric. What I've learned is to apply necessary minimum of glue, let it dry a little and then apply fabric so it immediately sticks but don't soaks. When fit, close film door for some minutes to attach felt and then keep film door open to let fumes evaporate. Afterwards keep door closed for a day or two to break felt in. Maybe looks long and complicated, but I'm better safe than sorry.

With mouse pad strips there's nuance - if camera has slits, I just tuck strip into and it keeps in place by tension. Some traces of glue just to be sure strip stays in place. Nit also works like that.
 
so craftstore felt and contact cement?
OMG NEVER contact cement. NO epoxy, no crazy glue, no cyanoacrylate, no elmers. If you want to keep it reasonably close to "factory" use brown rubber cement like Pliobond or "Goo" (NOT Goop). I've seen lots of cameras made "beyond repair" due to wrong glue used. John
 
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