XA the best Night Time RF

XA the best Night Time RF

  • Spot on, the XA takes some beating

    Votes: 34 19.1%

  • Not bad but there are better

    Votes: 55 30.9%

  • Keep taking the medicine Mick

    Votes: 41 23.0%

  • I've never used an XA at night

    Votes: 48 27.0%
  • Total voters
    178
lxmike

lxmike

M2 fan.
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I've used and sold far too many cameras than I care to admit, but by far, the XA on a tripod with the self timer is the best night toime rf compact out there
 
Pardon my ignorance as I don't do tripods with XA (yet). Is it as simple as setting up the tripod, set the aperture and let the camera decide the speed ? Don't you need a shutter-release cable as well ?

I haven't considered the mighty XA because of the 2.8f lens but I have tried the XA with both elbows on the table and going down to 1/15s.


raytoei
 
Focusing at night is a little tricky, but if you shoot at iso 800 in ordinary street light you can hand hold it at pretty slow speeds. This one was taken w/ Neopan 1600 @ 800:

4246525775_ab4f3f8bf3_o.jpg
 
raytoei@gmail.com said:
Pardon my ignorance as I don't do tripods with XA (yet). Is it as simple as setting up the tripod, set the aperture and let the camera decide the speed ? Don't you need a shutter-release cable as well ?

I haven't considered the mighty XA because of the 2.8f lens but I have tried the XA with both elbows on the table and going down to 1/15s.


raytoei
Click to expand...

You need to use the self timer to trip the shutter, as there is no means to attach a shutter release cable to an XA. Otherwise the steps are what you mention, set the aperture and let the camera do the rest.

I'd like to get my little XA going again, the shutter is locked up for some reason.
 
Another neat low light trick with the XA is to use it with the flash, but still stop down the aperture. The flash will fire, and also drag the shutter for the available light exposure if you set it to a regular (non-flash) setting. Presto- fill flash! With fast film and a still wide-ish aperture of f2.8 or f4, in average night time (but still not pitch black situations) you can even hand-hold it like this, and get some very cool results. Of course a tripod always works, too, with the self timer as others have mentioned. You can get away with a tiny (flimsy) tripod, too, since the camera is so small- even with an A11 flash!
 
Haven't done much night work with my XA, but it works in surprisingly low light. Night is my next attempt.

Like your shots Mablo and Bingley. Nice.
 
Electro 35 is better from what I've seen.

I went out the other night with both cameras and took some shots, so I'll be able to decide soon enough.
 
My xa focusing patch is so dim it's real hard to focus in low light, so I can't really consider it a great night shooter.
 
Tripod aside, the two niggles I have with the GA when shooting at night are focusing as my rf patch is not the brightest, and weight - for slow exposures handheld, the GA is just too light. At night I try to brace the camera against something which usually works. I haven't tried a gorillapod yet but it sounds promising; I might give it a go next time I'm out?
 
A lump of blu tak will work instead of a tripod, if there's something to put the camera on and then secure in the right position with the blu tak.

Or one of those little clamp on things with a B&S head.

Regards, David
 
I would say that the XA, a fine camera, is not the best night shooter. It is too light in weight, which makes it difficult to shoot. Of course, if you use a tripod, many cameras will be fine shooting at night.
 
XA is a great camera for it's size... I adore mine, no doubt... It has its very own strengths... For example, although not by night, it allowed me to do a shot that was almost impossible to do, and a very important one to my heart these days...


On February I visited my mother for a couple of weeks (she lives far away) and I went out with her one morning to help her look for furniture for one of my sisters' new house that my mother's helping to buy, so she was especially happy that sunny morning... When we got there, it was a bit early: the store was about to open, in ten minutes, as we read on the door from inside the car when we parked in front of the store. Then with a big smile, glad about being there with her son and about to get things for her youngest daughter, she told me she felt completely happy, and I told her I felt just the same, and then I said OK, let's walk a few minutes under the sun... It was a store surrounded by trees and parks, with no one there by 8:50 AM...


Then she opened the car door, went out, and stood under the sun, closed her eyes, and with a calmed, very gentle smile, raised her arms opened, and for a moment kept them with the palms of her hands up, facing the sun... I remembered instantly the only other time I saw her do it: we were, many years before, in Paris one early morning, waiting for a cab to go to the airport... That day I had a Nikon with me hanging from my shoulder, and when I came out of the hotel with our luggage a few steps behind her, I found her doing it... And it took me then a few seconds to set exposure and focus when I tried to get close (with a 20mm) to photograph her in that position... I failed, it all happened in a few seconds, and I felt very sad, but when she saw and heard me shooting in front of her, I just smiled, and did not let her know I was sad... I had time to shoot once, but she was just starting to take her arms down and turning back to face the hotel... I asked her -a bit later- what she was doing, and she told me “I was receiving through the sun the next gifts God is sending me soon for my children...”


I had never seen her do it in my life, and I didn't know she used to do it... And she never taught me to do it either... Well, back to the recent day, when I saw her there doing it again, time froze... I hurried up, ran to her from the other side of the car, took my XA out of my pants pocket, opened it while taking it up, and shot just in front of her with the sun behind me, all in two seconds... She didn't hear the shutter... She was so concentrated, so away... I knew I had got her, so I stayed there, quiet, took the camera down without advancing film, and without closing the camera, and put it inside my pocket again: she didn't ever notice me this time, and I enjoyed looking at her for another few seconds... Then she opened her eyes and I embraced her, and we both smiled...


The camera was prefocused at 8 feet and f/8 and loaded with Tri-X, and the shot is perfect... I printed it with deep emotion, and now it's the only photograph in my bedroom...


My XA is priceless.


Cheers,


Juan
 
Last edited:
Juan, that is beautiful and a perfect example of the magic that photography can (and sometimes cannot) bring into a life. Thanks for sharing that.
 
Eric, maggieo, thanks a lot for your words... Well, I guess the shot is not a great shot at all: it was done in one second, with a horrible background in a parking, and I was just trying to have a physical memory of my mother doing that... So I guess it's one of those shots that only the photographer can enjoy, and not because of photographic, aesthetic reasons, but because of more important, loving reasons... I think a lot and I learn every time I see the image in front of my bed... And it makes me feel like a child again... OK, I'll share the image, even though I know everyone imagined a nicer shot after the story... I don't care : this is photography too, and I was not creating in any way, and this is indeed an interesting subject, far above the more usual and arrogant conception of photography as art that I respect... But I've warned you: my mother won't look like your sweet mother, and the place won't look beautiful, even though it was for me! I'll scan the print and link it in a few minutes. Thanks again for giving me this strange oportunity!


Cheers,


Juan
 
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