Olympus XA Film Camera Review

[@tobiasash]

I remember reading somewhere that the self timer "lever" was designed to act as a stand so the camera wouldn't topple forward when it was sat on a flat surface. For its size its just brilliant. Definitely one of my favorite cameras.

[@UnderexposedwithAlastairBird]

I could see that. Another brilliant design feature!

[@SteveMillerhuntingforfood]

It does work as a stabilizing leg, on page 10 of the manual, it states the lever is used to stabilize the camera.

[@SteveMillerhuntingforfood]

Designed by one of the most famous camera designers, Yoshihisa Maitani at Olympus. This was his last project there. Check out the PEN F, also an incredible, small camera (when paired with the 38mm f/2.8 pancake $$$), except it is a Half-frame, so 72 images per roll. The PEN is all metal so it might feel better in your hand. I'm ok with the plastic, I like the convenience of everyday carry. It's my understanding that XA is designed for only silver oxide batteries (still available). Got that from John Hermanson who is an X-olympus tech and still repairs the XA (as well as other Olympus cameras). He's in New York and has worked on all of my XA's, five of them. I keep mine loaded with different film stocks.

[@luc5798]

I love this little camera. Did some great pictures with it! I’m lucky to have too with very good rangefinder patches, yours looks faded unfortunalely...

[@xoio]

Take the front and bottom off & you'll be stunned how premium the internals are... Metal --- There's tonnes of it inside. Gears, sub-frames, levers, interconnects, even the lens assembly is made of brass. There is surprising a lot of electronics in there as well. It's a Masterpiece.

[@carlosgrajeda1986]

You mentioned you didn't know if there was an A through E Zuiko lenses. I recall reading some where that the letter corresponds to how many elements the lens is made up of with the letters position in the alphabet. The XA's F Zuiko would indicate it is a 6 element lens. Great review and I really liked the black and white photos. I'm glad you got your hands on one and got to try it out, I think everyone should. I love that little camera! (Although now that you mentioned it, I think the one thing I really dislike is the advance wheel, but I do feel the camera was well thought out in order to give us this great of a camera in such a small package.)

[@UnderexposedwithAlastairBird]

Thanks for the feedback! Interesting to know about the naming on those lenses. And the advance wheel is something we can suffer with, I suppose... ;-)

[@randallstewart175]

You are correct as to number of lens elements, however in this case there is no correlation between the larger number of elements and better quality. In fact, the XA lens sets a standard for most distortion, most vignetting, and poorest resolution of any fixed lens 35mm camera made after 1950. (And, contra the video, it does not sharpen up significantly as you reduce the size of the aperture, like most lenses.) The reason is that Olympus required that the lens fit into the fairly thin body without the added expense of a mechanism to "pop out" the lens to expose an image, like for example the Rollei 35. The puts the lens so far into the body that its rear element is almost touching the film. Olympus accepted this poor optical performance because they saw the buying market as made up of family snap shooters and vacation travelers, who would take their film to the drugstore and get the two set package of 3x5 inch prints. It does fine for that limited purpose, but it ain't no Leica, as so many of its fans like to suggest. The viewfinder is tiny, the rangefinder base so short as to make it practically useless, and you have no practical control over the exposure, but then some of those objections could be made to many of its contemporaries. The XA2 looses the rangefinder and adopts a conventional 4-element Tessar copy lens, overall a much superior picture taker. The optical design for this lens was unique. No one else ever used it. Fuji abandoned the design except in the XA. As for its film advance wheel,. that was a design carry-over from Oly's popular and hugely profitable half frame cameras made in the 1960-68 period, sort of a company trademark.

[@UnderexposedwithAlastairBird]

@@randallstewart175 Another treasure trove of info. Thanks for sharing. Now I really need to scan in the film I shot with the Klasse and the XA. I'm rather intrigued to see the difference in quality. 6300dpi on a Hasselblad X1 will hopefully be a little more critical than a 3 1/2x5 print from the local camera mart.

[@terrywbreedlove]

Think I want one of these as a pocket street shooter. Every once in awhile I drive over to the big city Seattle and have fun shooting. Plus for travel it would be nice

[@UnderexposedwithAlastairBird]

It is a great camera for walking around, for sure. We're working right now on a shootout between the XA and the (much more expensive) Fuji Klasse-S. More examples in that video to come!

[@Glazehikes]

Thanks. Loved the video

[@finn4240]

Great review! thanks a lot

[@SinaFarhat]

Nice! :) Have a good week!

[@UnderexposedwithAlastairBird]

Thanks! You too!

[@IainHC1]

Watching this..... `I've just dug my AX out...... I purchased the flash separate.... and the flash has never worked!! I have just found out that you have to push with more force to get the camera to flash mode!! Flash works a treat now and Im a happy chap (if I'm allowed to say chap) now 🙂

[@UnderexposedwithAlastairBird]

Good to hear! I haven't ever used my flash, either. Might want to try it out.

[@kennethhancock2433]

I had to use 24 exposure rolls as 36 would jam near the end of the roll. The lens is pretty good and the camera will expose slide film well. There is a hyperfocal setting on the camera as well.

[@UnderexposedwithAlastairBird]

I forgot to mention the hyperfocal setting - thanks for bringing that up. I'm in the middle of a shootout between the XA and the Klasse-S. It'll be interesting to see which one exposes better.

[@randallstewart175]

@@UnderexposedwithAlastairBird Wouldn't that be a bit like comparing a Model T with a Toyota Camery?

[@UnderexposedwithAlastairBird]

@@randallstewart175 Yes! Your analogy is rather apt, I think. I'm not too far into the scanning from the comparison shots I took but I will say that so far it feels like the XA holds up surprisingly well.

[@markrussell624]

Nice video! do a review on the rollei 35 :D

[@UnderexposedwithAlastairBird]

I'll have to track one down!

[@markrussell624]

@@UnderexposedwithAlastairBird i have found im selling actually!

[@UnderexposedwithAlastairBird]

@@markrussell624 send a link - [e-mail]

[@markrussell624]

@@UnderexposedwithAlastairBird sent it!

[@UnderexposedwithAlastairBird]

@@markrussell624 Saw it! I'll let you know if I can fit it into the budget... Thanks!

[@ChrisVidouras]

I suffer from scratches with my XA4 as well. I am bulk loading my film but I've been meticulous with the canisters and their loading there's one little something somewhere that does just enough damage to drive me crazy! Hahah Oh well, great little cameras. After receiving mine I have had a much easier time shooting the streets.