Olympus XA2

I got this camera on a car boot sale for 10 pence. The seller said that it wasn't working and true, i couldn't trip the shutter although (according to the seller) there was a fresh battery in. I removed the top part and below the shutter button laid the problem. Be very careful when you take it off, there is a tiny little metal ball that keeps the clamshell open and it is really easy to lose. There is a metal part in the shape of "H" that was not making adequate contact. Took it off, washed it with vinegar and bent it a bit to make more contact and it was working again. It seems that this is a common problem with all XA series but still it is very easy to repair.

The clamshell design is good - really good actually. When you close it it resets the switch on the left that adjust the focus. Very clever. The lens is a Zuiko 35 f/3.5 which is a quite sharp lens but it vignettes. Sometimes too much for my liking. Here are a couple of pictures to show you what i mean.









I don't know if this is something common or it is my sample but i have to admit that i don't like it when it happens. When it doesn't vignette it produces sharp pictures. Here are a couple of them.

[Update]
Part of the vignetting is caused because of the way leaf shutters work. They expose first the centre and then the edge (since they open from centre to edge). In some cameras the combination of a lens (that might be prone to vignetting) and an ageing shutter that tends to stick a bit can exaggerate the problem. I had two Ricoh 500G's, one was vignetting more than the other but obviously it wasn't the lens.

The Olympus has been my carry-everywhere camera for almost half a year. It is reasonably sized and it easily fitted in my jacket's pocket. I suppose that is the advantage of this camera. Having it with you all the time. The light meter is accurate - no problem with the exposure. Due to it's scale focusing, it means that it chooses a small aperture to keep everything in sharp focus.

Conclusion:

The XA series is a kind of cult camera series. It has so many followers who love the clamshell design, the compact design, the zuiko lens and the dead silent shutter. And although all these reasons sound enough to make the camera a keeper, it is the vignetting in my sample that will probably make me letting it go. I am sure though that there will be many people out there who will be more than happy to shoot with this cute Olympus.

[Update December 2017]
Eight years later  i came across another sample of this little camera. It suffers with light cleaning marks on the lens but they didn't seem to affect the performance. For some reason, i didn't notice any vignetting - maybe 400 ISO film is a better idea on dull and overcast days while sunny days benefit from the use of a 100 ISO film in order to avoid the vignetting? (Just thinking loud now).

 

The camera performed remarkably well, eight years later i kinda like the way it renders black and whites - shot a roll of T-Max 400 and developed it in Rodinal 1:50. One think that i failed to report in the original review is the fact that the camera does trigger the shutter even with the clam door closed. Annoying to say at least as it can result in blank pictures if you advance the film and put it in your pocket.

Olympus XA2. Kodak T-Max 400 in Rodinal 1:50

Comparing it with the Mju-II, the look is quite outdated but when it comes to performance the XA2 is nothing to sneeze at. I do think that the Mju-II has the edge in terms of lens resolution but this is noticeable at high resolution scans (I mean the 4800dpi that my canon scanner can offer), in these resolutions you see the D.Zuiko on the XA2 reaching a limit - possibly the aspheric elements on the Mju-II give the edge in terms of performance. But given the price difference - i doubt you will notice.