Olympus XA2

The shot above was taken with my newest camera. As I explained in my last blog post I went shopping on “shopgoodwill.com” and snagged an Olympus XA2 for only $14 last week. This is a camera I have wanted for a long time. I wanted one when they first came out back in the 1980’s. In those days however, my budget was dedicated to raising a family and had no room for extra cameras. I had a very nice Olympus OM-1N and three excellent Zuiko prime lenses (wide, normal & short tele) that satisfied my photographic needs for over 30 years. Now I occasionally have a few spare dollars and prices on used film cameras are ridiculously low, especially when you can find a deal like this online for a great camera that has become a cult classic.

I never intended to become a camera collector but if you have followed this blog from the beginning you know that I now own about a dozen film cameras. All of them were bought used in the past 3-4 years and I never paid more than $30 for any of them.  More importantly, I have no regrets. All of them were in great condition and worked fine. 

The XA2 is an interesting little camera. It’s about the size of a deck of cards but a little thicker and a lot heavier. In fact the weight of this little gem is what first impressed me. If weight and feel is any indicator this camera must be built like a tank. The clamshell design protects the lens and adjustment devices when not in use and makes it possible to fearlessly carry it with you everywhere you go in pocket or purse.

Functionally is it a “point & shoot” but with the really sharp 35mm Zuiko lens your photos will look like they came from a much more “serious camera,” (whatever that means). There are three zone focus settings and upon opening the “clamshell” it defaults to the middle zone which covers everything from about 4’ to 20’ and perhaps more depending on aperture.

Some folks think that a 50mm lens will give you what is called a “normal view” on a 35mm camera and a 35mm lens is a wide angle lens. The general “rule of thumb” however, is that a lens with a focal length matching the diagonal measure of the film will give you a “normal angle of view.” In the case of a 35mm camera that would be a 35mm lens, not a 50mm lens. By that standard the 35mm lens is perfect for this camera and makes it easy to quickly compose a shot as you see from the photo of the Amite River below.

“Quick” is maybe the best way to describe the XA2. With ISO preselected when you pick your film, the exposure settings handled for you by the excellent onboard metering system, focus more or less automatic (unless you need to adjust it to close up or infinity with the flick of a finger) and the wide-to-normal angle of view in the bright viewfinder, all that remains for you to do is to compose and shoot.

The lens aperture possibilities run from f3.5 to f14 and the shutter can vary between 2 and 1/750 seconds, but the camera keeps its exposure selection to itself except for a warning light that appears when a shutter speed below 1/30 is selected, presumably so you can take the appropriate measures to use a tripod or otherwise brace the camera.

As you can see the photos, all taken on Kodak Portra 400, came out great. Not bad for a camera that is likely at least 25 years old. If you zoom in these scans look a bit “pixely.” I was anxious to see if the camera worked properly before I start shooting anything that really matters with it so I used the 1 hour photo center at the local CVS instead of sending the film out to The Darkroom and getting high res scans. Even so, it’s clear that this camera is a keeper.