[rollei_list] Re: OT Olympus XA (was Re: Rolleiflex 35mm Cameras)
- From: Eric Goldstein <egoldste@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:30:06 -0500
Good point, Allen. When you touched the shutter on the XA, it fired
instantly. The shutter was very light and the camera easy to hold
steady...
Now, how about that cat-eye iris? Talk about bokeh...
Eric Goldstein
--
On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 5:14 PM, Allen Zak <azak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Although the vignetting was quite noticeable at wider apertures, from f4 on
> down the lens was sharp enough for my purposes, and I kind of liked the
> falloff. It imparted a certain "signature" to the images, similar to a
> 1950s-'60s European vogue of heavy edge burning. On my sample, @ f11 or so,
> the effect was minimal. After its demise I replaced the XA with a Stylus, a
> nice enough camera with a better lens, but not as flexible and with an
> annoying shutter lag that was totally absent on the XA, a true "decisive
> moment" machine I consider equal in that regard to Leica and Rollei. One
> example of XA capabilities can be found in a book of photographs by Lou
> Stettner, who used one exclusively for personal and poetic street
> photography. Unfortunately, I don't remember the title and can't find it on
> an internet search.
>
> Allen Zak
>
> On Nov 12, 2009, at 11:07 AM, Eric Goldstein wrote:
>
>> I have an XA bought new in the 70s. Highly innovatived design for the time.
>> Performance-wise, it is a decent camera, but the focus travel is about an
>> inch from inf to 3 ft and the rangefinder patch is fractional. Lens-wise,
>> big time fall off in the corners and not the most highly corrected optic.
>> It's fine for what it is...
>>
>> Eric Goldstein
>>
>> --
>>
>> On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 10:07 AM, Allen Zak <azak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Nov 12, 2009, at 2:23 AM, Mark Rabiner wrote:
>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> use a decent hotshoe RF that's calibrated to a Rollei 35...
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Eric Goldstein
>>>>
>>>> My XA rangefinder was 100%.
>>>> I never missed my focus;
>>>> like I would with my Rollei 35.
>>>>
>>>> I liked that lightness of the XA.
>>>> Sometimes plastic instead of metal is a good thing.
>>>>
>>>> The Rollei felt like it was made of lead or uranium.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Mark William Rabiner
>>>
>>> Likewise. The XA was one of my favorite cameras ever. Once, due to back
>>> miseries making it physically impossible to carry my usual 500 lbs of
>>> camera gear, I covered a news event using only an XA and XA2, and did a
>>> fair job, at that. For years I never left home without it, and when the
>>> light meter finally died and no spare parts available anymore, I was very
>>> sad. Then I moved on.
>>>
>>> Allen Zak
>>>
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