XA Lens Quality?

XA Lens Quality?

  • it's always sharp!

    Votes: 96 30.8%

  • by f4

    Votes: 47 15.1%

  • by f5.6

    Votes: 93 29.8%

  • by f8

    Votes: 41 13.1%

  • by f11

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • it never really gets that sharp

    Votes: 35 11.2%
  • Total voters
    312
My very first camera ever, given to me for Christmas by my OM-loving photographer father. I learned everything with this little gem. Exposure, focusing, composition etc. All my friends were into the P&S 126 film Kodaks and such. It became second nature to use the little RF patch and such. But now it is more work than I remember because I have been SLR'd.

I took it elkhunting in the snow and got a picture of my best friends first elk that I brought to the "real camera store" to get enlarged in 1989. I remember coming to pick up the print (16x20 i think) and the counter guy pulls it out to show me and asks "exactly what camera did you use to take this?" I told him and he nodded in acknowledgement. He said "That's a very sharp photo." Made my day for a lomg time.

I still have that camera and I pick up any I see in thrift stores, garage sales etc. I own 3 xa, and a xa2 that I keep in my tool bag on my motorcycle. Just a great little camera, thats all. And it doesn't eat batteries.
 
The one I bought is in the mail. I hope the lens is good. I got it because I need a 35mm rangefinder lens and can't afford a decent LTM right now. Besides, it looks like fun..
 
Great lens/ size, but electronics are prone to failure. I spent a fortune on mine over 7 years and it just died forever. R.I.P

I'll not buy another.
 
I sent mine for a repair some weeks ago as the shutter wouldn't fire. It's been fixed, serviced and the meter recalibrated and is now ready for collection.

I've got to admit I'm looking forward to collecting it!
 
Sample Photo

Sample Photo

Olympus XA; 1/6oth second at f/4 and taken a couple of weeks ago as a sample of what it will do.

Olympus-XA-Sample-f4-30th-XL.jpg


Regards, David
 
Bill58 said:
Great lens/ size, but electronics are prone to failure. I spent a fortune on mine over 7 years and it just died forever. R.I.P

I'll not buy another.
Click to expand...

I now have two, and will try to keep one working. But the electronics is the reason most of my older cameras are mechanical -- the OM1, rather than the OM2, etc. I had nothing but electric problems with my many OM-2 cameras, and finally gave up. But so far I'm loving this little XA (both of them). I always keep a camera on me, and sometimes this pocketable film camera (yes the lens is sharp) is just what the doctor ordered.
 
Bingley said:
It's a lot of fun!


Birds in Paradise by bingley0522, on Flickr
Click to expand...

What a nice photo!

I have an XA and for the about 4 years I have had it, it has worked fine. One does have to take care where you put your eye, but the viewfinder and rangefinder are good if one dies. I know that isn't the case for many, but it is for me. I like it.

I also have two different flashes for it (there were 3 that I know of). I repaired a minor problem for a friend of mine on one he got from a thrift shop. I had no front clam shell, so would not work. I had to acquire a parts camera and so fixed it.
 
I had a XA at the same time as a Minox ML and the XA was quite visibly disappointing compared to the ML. The dealer thought maybe I got a bad one as I did as I loved Oly lenses. The 2nd had a substantially higher s/n so suspected it was from a different batch or run. It performed the same against the ML so I gave the XA to the partner in my brother's law firm who fell in love with it when he saw it. He was using it well into the late '90s when I last saw him with a camera and he told me he had it repaired 1 time in all those years and had traveled thousands of miles with it and shot thousands of frames with never a problem.

I did prefer the feel and layout of the Minox over the XA but it did not influence me as I used a tripod for the test shots.

Oh, to put it into perspective (hopefully will not get yelled at), when I went looking for a dslr, I went with an Oly because the kit lenses were better than the more popular competitors' so, never lost my love of Oly glass.
 
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