Is the Olympus XA efficient for street photography?
- Thread starter baboonish
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its got a wonderful fixed focal length lens and yes it is an EXTREMELY suitable camera for 'street' photography..... very pocketable
However of course it is old and no longer in production so make sure you get a working copy with clean lens
Do some research as there are several variations of this camera ....
Good luck..... wise choice
However of course it is old and no longer in production so make sure you get a working copy with clean lens
Do some research as there are several variations of this camera ....
Good luck..... wise choice
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Thanks. I chose this over some other rangefinders because it is very tiny and can be concealed easily. However, this is my first attempt at street photography with a rangefinder.. Had been using a DSLR..
I am getting the 1st XA version of it.
I think it should be good.
Never used it before but heard that many are using it now.
The only thing is that it's a manual focusing camera.
Yeah, considering as an alternative from the expensive LCA+! It is AP I think
Mountainlight
Member
This is a great camera with aperture control and short-base rangefinder focusing so you do have some control over DOF, but not much with a 35mm lens. Keep the window above the lens clean as that's where the meter is and a clean lens with smudged up meter window will mess up your exposures. I used to use this a lot in the old days and here are some tricks to using this baby:
- The auto exposure is supposed to go down to 10 secsbigeyes but I've achieved 30 sec shots with quite accurate results
- Setting the lever to Flash setting gives (I think) 1/30 or 1/60 sec shutter speed at f4. So if you need to fix your shutter speed high, you can use this.
- If you have a flash attached, you can activate the flash, then bring the lever back down to f5.6, and this allows you to do an ambient light shot with flash synchro fill-in!
- There's a +1.5 stop exposure compensation, but you can also use the ASA/ISO dial for compensation control (provided you're not using the extreme ends ASA25 or 800
If you can find the XA4macro, that's got a sharper 28mm lens but less control as it's fully programmed. Here's more info on the XA series:
http://www.diaxa.com/xa/xa.htm
http://www.cameraquest.com/xa4.htm
Happy shooting!
:thumbsup:
- The auto exposure is supposed to go down to 10 secs
bigeyes but I've achieved 30 sec shots with quite accurate results- Setting the lever to Flash setting gives (I think) 1/30 or 1/60 sec shutter speed at f4. So if you need to fix your shutter speed high, you can use this.
- If you have a flash attached, you can activate the flash, then bring the lever back down to f5.6, and this allows you to do an ambient light shot with flash synchro fill-in!
- There's a +1.5 stop exposure compensation, but you can also use the ASA/ISO dial for compensation control (provided you're not using the extreme ends ASA25 or 800
If you can find the XA4macro, that's got a sharper 28mm lens but less control as it's fully programmed. Here's more info on the XA series:
http://www.diaxa.com/xa/xa.htm
http://www.cameraquest.com/xa4.htm
Happy shooting!
:thumbsup:
night86mare
Deregistered
i liked it when i had it, but i didn't like that it was literally "too light", still prefer dslr/slr style of grip.
anyways, it is really sharp:
build quality is very good too. but yes, it is old too.
some days i wish i had more money, then i don't have to let go of my copy.. it was near perfect.
anyways, it is really sharp:
build quality is very good too. but yes, it is old too.
some days i wish i had more money, then i don't have to let go of my copy.. it was near perfect.
gommy
Senior Member
Glad I still have mine.
Bought new donkey years ago & still unused:lovegrin:Glad I still have mine.
Wah new unused...:bigeyes::bigeyes:
power...keep...
its a treasure
Thanks for the advice guys! I've ran a few rolls of film through it, took some pictures in local streets.. It's a pity it does not allows any filters for it.. but the results are exceptionally sharp I must say!
For a tiny body, it really is superb
Heres one of the picture i took!
For a tiny body, it really is superb
Heres one of the picture i took!
Edwin Francis
Senior Member
Glad I still have mine.
What a waste! Do it a favour and run a roll through it lah -- poor little camera must be sad :cry:
KBsnaps
Member
Ah, the XAs were my fav day-to-day camera. What fond memories...
I started with a worn-out XA, from eBay. Thrilled by the pictures and luck has it, I found a perfectly working (with original "pass" sticker on the body) XA that came in the original box also on eBay. Even more enthralled, I have to collect the rest, XA, XA1,2,3,4. They are brilliant, well designed, cute and very very under-rated cameras. Every time I received one from the mail, I would at least put a roll in to test. I would love to go back in time, to actually buy one from the shop again, and that should be the 80's. So I was hooked on eBay.
Then one day after a squabble, my wife smashed the XA4 which was lying proudly on the bedside table. That was a few years back.
Sadly, the remaining rolls of film were never exposed. And I never found the broken parts of the fantastic shooter XA-4:embrass:
I started with a worn-out XA, from eBay. Thrilled by the pictures and luck has it, I found a perfectly working (with original "pass" sticker on the body) XA that came in the original box also on eBay. Even more enthralled, I have to collect the rest, XA, XA1,2,3,4. They are brilliant, well designed, cute and very very under-rated cameras. Every time I received one from the mail, I would at least put a roll in to test. I would love to go back in time, to actually buy one from the shop again, and that should be the 80's. So I was hooked on eBay.
Then one day after a squabble, my wife smashed the XA4 which was lying proudly on the bedside table. That was a few years back.
Sadly, the remaining rolls of film were never exposed. And I never found the broken parts of the fantastic shooter XA-4:embrass:
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