XA Lens Quality?

[DwF]

Good points David...as usual 🙂 and

jrose125, I agree the RF patch can be dim and dimmer as my two show. The one is better (less dim) than the other but that would certainly be something along with the seal to look at when picking one of these up.

 

[littleearth]

For such a tiny lens it's pretty sharp, but can't really say the results wowed me in anyway !

 

[Pál_K]

My XA surprised me with its sharpness at all apertures - I've critically focused with it wide open and was not disappointed.

My XA2, which I bought new in 1981 - decades before my used XA - needs to be f/5.6 or smaller.

 

[David Hughes]

Years ago I was putting the lens on my M2 when I realised that the Summaron and M2 had the same spec (apart from the electronics) as the XA. So I put a film in both duplicated every shot and took the films in together for a pack on 5 x 7's. Here they are:-

Afterwards I wondered why I bothered with the M2 but we all know the answer to that.

As for the XA2:-

it's great for travelling light.


Regards, David

 

[David Hughes]

Good points David...as usual 🙂 ...

Cor! TYVM, I'm flattered, David

 

[Brian Atherton]

A brief teardown and rebuild of the XA is here:

https://aylo6061.com/2014/04/13/olympus-xa-teardown-and-rebuild/

 

[Jeremy Z]

To me, the problem isn't the LENS itself, but the camera's compact design, which puts the lens so close to the film that it vignettes and gets soft in the corners.

The Rollei 35 (Tessar) blows it away and it's probably not as good of a lens, technically speaking. I don't have any of my old XA photos left to compare.

In case the guy is still around that can't keep an XA working, I think the trick is to buy one, get it serviced, and with regular use, it should keep going for 20+ years. Sitting idle kills cameras.

 

[skucera]

Actually, I like the vignetting. It's one of my favorite features since I got mine in about 1984.

I totally agree... sitting idle kills cameras. That reminds me, I have to exercise about a dozen cameras. I've been using only my iPhone since the lockdown began. I need to get out and shoot some film.

Scott