Saturday, June 2, 2018
The Olympus XA!
Before I stumbled upon this camera at Goodwill two and a half years ago, I had never heard of it. It wasn't on my radar so I had to do a quick Google search to learn more about it. It is a very compact rangefinder with a clever clam shell cover system. This is one of the few cameras that will fit in your pocket with no issues. For $3.99 (with the attached A11 flash) I couldn't pass it up.
This camera is an aperture priority camera which is a rarity. You select the aperture and the camera will determine the correct shutter speed. There's a shutter speed display in the viewfinder but I didn't know that until recently. (Besides, I'm not sure the reading is accurate in the viewfinder.) The shutter speeds run from 1/500 to about 10 seconds in low light. This is truly an amazing camera that is capable of handling just about any situation you can throw at it.
As with a lot of old cameras, the rangefinder patch is pretty faint on my example. But it's still usable without being frustrating. The focus lever has a very short throw so it's quick and easy to get your focus dialed in.
I have used this camera quite a bit over the past few years because of its size, convenience, and performance. If you have the opportunity to pick one up, you definitely should.
Film: Expired Kodak BW400 (C41 processed black and white film)
Developer: Unicolor C41 Kit
Scanner: Epson V550
Next month's camera: Petri 1948 Folding Camera (120 Film)
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