Olympus XA2

Katastrofo · Expire: 2013-11-19

Not as illustrious as Koji's XA, but it's a great camera to use in places where
cameras are frowned upon:

I live in a place where there is hardly any street traffic downtown, except
at the park. The hospitals, malls, libraries, etc, have security and cameras
all over the place and if they see you with anything larger than a point and
shoot will tell you to not take pictures of structure, or people.

The XA2 looks like a blackberry or cell phone in hand, has zone focusing,
and is quite handy in those situations:

Film was expired TriX and Arista Premium 400, dev'd with HC-110 and
Diafine, respectively, both rolls pushed to 800

Schnauzer · Expire: 2012-03-08

The camera looks great Bill and takes nice pictures.

My wife has one that looks a lot like that. Can't remember what it is though. I'll have to ask her to find it. Every one she had until she went digital she threw in the trash when she upgraded except the last one. I never knew until after the fact.

Katastrofo · Expire: 2013-11-19

Ron, if it's a little XA series, give it a try! Thanks!

Excalibur · Expire: 2014-04-21

Well I bought the XA2 with matching flash XAII for 50p, but haven't used it because I read here:- "that the XA is better" so waiting to find that one (for 50p).

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

I've been telling myself lately to dust off my XA and take it out and run a roll or two through it. Thanks for the nudge, Kat. Cool

Some of those photos of yours remind me of hospital complexes we have here in Houston, which are combinations of hospitals, professional suites, and shopping malls. Smile

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Katastrofo · Expire: 2013-11-19

Well, a couple of the shots above were shot from the waist along with
these:

(Yep, needs work, but hey, first time I tried it.)

and I adjusted the zone to closest setting, a simple click of a switch,
paused by Dustin while he was playing a 5-string bass, snapped it
and walked on, took not much more than a second. Try that with the XA,
with it's fiddly focus lever under the lens:

koji · Expire: 2012-12-27

It is much more fun to look at someone else's photos, Bill.
The camera is a tool, the eye behind the camera counts most.

Actually the lens of this ZA2 is better than XA's, but cannot prove it yet.

Someday, again....

Katastrofo · Expire: 2013-11-19

Koji, thanks, although what was directly behind the camera in some of
these I can't talk about in polite company. Wink

I always thought the
XA2 was a good performer. I'm still looking for the XA4, the only one
I'd want with a focus lever, but love that wide lens. The XA3 meters to
1600, a desired thing, but seems to have problems. All the auctions I've
seen on US ebay have issues of one sort or another. Like darling Karen
says at Photoethnography, the XA2 is not capable of fine art work like
the XA, no way to control DOF. But what it can do is give you a picture
where the XA couldn't, or would be extremely difficult.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

Katastrofo · Expire: 2013-11-19

CT, I owned the XA and it's a given that Maitani was an engineering genius,
but he didn't make the XA idiot-proof. I would get rolls back where some
frames had good exposure and others would be way off the mark. Dumkin Bill
sometimes fiddled with the ISO lever above the focusing one and didn't double-check
when he did. When I'm out shooting I tend to concentrate on comping the frame, don't
want to think about ISO if I already selected it, if there's meteorite that's gonna kill me
or if I have clean underwear on, I just want to take the damn photo! Laughing

XA2's zone selector
is far enough away from the ISO switch, yup, no problem.

I have two Trip 35s and reminds me one of them still has a color roll I need to finish. I bought
it from a Japanese seller so wasn't driven to hurriedly check to see if it worked. I know that sounds
biased, but never ever had a bad auction from that country.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

Interesting you should mention the ISO lever. As part of my back therapy I'm supposed to get in some walking, and what I've been doing lately has been walking around the block in my neighborhood once a day for a minimum level of exercise, but I've been taking cameras with me and shooting up some of this ancient Plus-X pan I've had in the freezer forever.

So today, I'm walking with the XA and at one point I'm reaching for the focusing lever and I hear "click-click." Sure enough, I'd bumped the ISO switch a couple of steps.

As for the XA vs. the XA2, it don't matter a bit to me. I bought my XA at a garage sale for $5, came with the manual and a non-functioning A11 flash. I reckon if I'd have bought an XA2 or 3 or 4 for the same price, I'd have been just as pleased.

Katastrofo · Expire: 2013-11-19

CT, you're in Houston, don't they light up the town at night like Vegas? This is where the Trip 35 can be some fun, these are just my first try at
NightTripping:

Set the camera to its mountain setting, stay back at least 16 feet,
aperture at f2.8, and snap away. Off 'A' setting the shutter fires at
1/40sec, if I remember. Use Fuji Xtra 400 film, too.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

Thanks for the tips, Kat. Very nice looking shots, and well exposed.

Well, I dunno if I'd go so far as to say that Houston is anything like Vegas at night. We have areas of the city where there is quite a bit of evening illumination, but this is mostly because these areas are popular night spots. I would not describe Houston as being a neon-heavy city at all. Still, there are certain scenes that could make for some good shots.

Have you ever used Fuji Superia 400? If so, how would you compare it to Xtra 400? I have several rolls still of Superia, and really don't care for it. It's much too grainy for my tastes. Honestly, anything grainier than Ektar is too grainy for my tastes. Cool

Guess I should get over it.

Katastrofo · Expire: 2013-11-19

Yes, grain is good, but in moderation. Wink

I didn't encounter a big
difference between Superia and Xtra, thought it mostly a marketing label
thing. Underexposure will serve up lots of grain no matter what you use.

I've gotten some bipolar results with Xtra 800, not a fave.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

What annoys me mostly about Superia's grain is, even when the images are well-exposed, when I scan it, the grain just seems to intensify and/or increase in size. But this is because I routinely zoom in to 100% after scanning to check for sharpness of an image.

Katastrofo · Expire: 2013-11-19

I do the same thing when I check for sharpness. A friend sent me several
rolls of Superia 100 in 120 and only shot one so far:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4101/4850575967_a581dfa79c_o.jpg

Some have liked the colors in this, but I think I would have had better
results with Fuji 160s or 400H. And the grain is more prominent for a
100 film.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

Not bad at that magnification, though. Not bad at all. Hehe. A Mack Bolan fan, I see! Cool

Superia 400 works okay at Web resolutions. Colors I thought were pretty accurate. (Pics taken with a Minolta Hi-Matic F)

Katastrofo · Expire: 2013-11-19

Nice ones, they have punchier colors than I thought possible with Fuji. Here
are a few of my flickr faves from others which reminds me I need to try
some more color film, perhaps slide, in this camera. Some of these are
xpro, redscale (need to Google that) but really highlights this little cam's
capabilities in the right hands: