XA2 Tips Needed

[dave lackey]

So, this weekend is a freebie for us as we get to ride along to the beach with our son's family! With an active 2 year old and a 6 year old, we should have a lot of opportunities to photograph both granddaughters.🙂

Taking all the Leica gear with me and expect to shoot slides with the Nikon. But the XA2 will be in my waist band all weekend.

I finished the first roll just checking out the handling, framing, metering, etc. and it has potential. But, the manuals I have found online have very little information about scale focusing.

Tips about daytime photography with the XA2 would be helplful. As would tips on doing long exposures, say in restaurants, on the beach, etc.

Flickr has an awful lot of good images there by users of the XA2. So, I know it can be done and any advice would be greatly appreciated.🙂

 

[ChrisPlatt]

My advice? Bring the XA2 only; leave the other cameras home.

“Forcing yourself to use restricted means is the sort of restraint that liberates invention."
-Pablo Picasso

Chris

 

[btgc]

Dave, probably your more expensive cameras make a barrier between you and XA2 🙂 Generally, you can be fine with mid setting (human figures), as it works from 1.2m to infinity. Portrait setting is for distances 1m....1.5m, which I'd rather use for closer shots instead of mid position. And finally, if your subject is anything farther than 5-7m, go for landscape mode - it covers 2.5m to infinity.

http://www.cameramanuals.org/olympus_pdf/olympus_xa2.pdf

Sure, the faster the film the bigger DOF, so for bad weather I use ISO800 and ISO100-200 for sunny days.

Long exposures don't require additional settings, as Leicas and other expensive cameras 🙂 Just be sure to put camera on top of glass, table or other suitable surface as I find rather hard to handhold tiny and light camera. Shutter release is special - some feel it very well and some, used to pronounced releases, press it too hard and thus get camera shake. You'll find what works better for you.

 

[pvdhaar]

... But, the manuals I have found online have very little information about scale focusing...

On www.orphancameras.com, there's an XA2 manual to be found..

The information on distance settings and depth of field are scattered all over the manual, but in short it's like this for distance/DOF:

1.2m (4ft) covers 1.0m (3.2ft) - 1.5m (5ft)
2.4m (8ft) covers 1.2m (4ft) - infinity
infinity covers 2.5m (8.3ft) - infinity

From these values it's obvious that Olympus has a rather optimistic view of depth of field; at f3.5 it's really pushing the limits of what you can call acceptably sharp at the borders quoted ranges. Under better light conditions or with faster film, when the lens is closed down a bit, it gets rapidly better of course.

That said, I tend to stay away from the 'snapshot' mode (2.4m/8ft) when shooting outdoors. Infinity gives better impression of sharpness overall unless the subject really is at about 2.4m/8ft. To help remember setting the distance before shooting, I've taped a small distance/DOF table under the viewfinder.

When it comes to shooting indoors, there's a neat little trick for shooting with flash. Normally, when you turn the flash lever under the lens (must have flash attached, or it's blocked), the camera resorts to its fixed sync speed (ca. 1/60). But if you turn the flash lever under the lens back to normal, the flash continues to charge, and goes when the shutter is tripped, but this time at the correct speed for ambient. In the manual, this is adviced against probably because it can give unexpected results (trails from slow sync) for the intended audience for the XA2.

Finally, here's my way to do load and advance an already partially exposed roll of film. Ordinarily the camera's AE adjusts exposure up to 2 seconds, so it's difficult to skip frames without getting double exposures. But if you turn the flash lever under the lens and pop-out the battery from the flash, the XA2 goes to sync speed (ca. 1/60) while the flash won't go. With the camera lens covered with a piece of dark cloth, I can now wind/trip/wind until I'm at the desired frame count.

 

[G1DRP]

I repair a lot of cameras with sand in them at work. I would never recommend taking a camera on the beach. Airbourne sand particles can penetrate and cause all sorts of problems.

Sent from my GT-S5830

 

[pvdhaar]

I repair a lot of cameras with sand in them at work. I would never recommend taking a camera on the beach. Airbourne sand particles can penetrate and cause all sorts of problems.

Sent from my GT-S5830

That's why an XA2 is so great; it can be replaced for about $20..

 

[btgc]

Peter, thanks for tips with flash and mid-roll change, too. I'll try indoor flash.

 

[dave lackey]

Wow...good stuff here!🙂 thanks!

It is a bit of a different experience with such a simple camera so I have a lot to learn. Giving tips like these are what makes the RFF membership so great as I would spend a lot of time and money on film and developing and possibly never getting to where most of you experienced XA body shooters are already!😀

 

[dave lackey]

BTW, is the meter on the XA2 a center-weighted or other type?🙂

 

[pvdhaar]

Center weighted.

Exposure runs from 2 seconds at f3.5 to 1/750 at f14. These are the extremes. What it does in between, I don't know for sure. It appears that the aperture and shutter share blades, so what I assume, is that it keeps f3.5 until the shutter speed reaches the point where the low-light warning goes off, and then adjusts shutter and aperture values simultaneously.