Olympus XA

Yoshihisa Maitani, who had already done the Pen, the Pen F and the OM-1, began by setting the size of a full-frame 35mm camera small enough for a shirt pocket. Sources give his thickness target differently: his own Olympus lecture says about 30 millimetres, diaxa.com and Wikipedia say 4 centimetres. The finished camera is 40 millimetres deep. The size led to a reverse-retrofocus lens, only 33.6mm from front element to film plane — shorter than its own 35mm focal length — fixed in place rather than telescoping out, and to the sliding clamshell cover, which does away with the case and lens cap and doubles as the on-off switch. diaxa.com adds that rare-earth magnets were used in the shutter to reach the precision its 10 s to 1/500 range required. On sale from 1979. Olympus says it was the first camera to win a Good Design Grand Prize. The thing to understand before buying one is that the XA is the only one of its family with a coupled rangefinder. The XA2, XA3 and XA4 are zone-focus cameras with a programmed automatic and no aperture control; the XA1 is fixed focus with a selenium cell and no battery at all. Cameraquest describes them as simplified and cheapened versions of the XA. Check which model a listing actually shows. The lens is the usual point of praise — a 35mm f/2.8 in six elements. Reviewers note a little barrel distortion and some vignetting, and say you seldom notice either.

Pocket carry, genuinely. 102 by 64.5 by 40 millimetres and 225 grams without batteries, and no case to open. Street and travel, where aperture priority with real rangefinder accuracy in something the size of a pack of cards is hard to beat. Low light on a steady surface. The shutter runs to ten seconds on automatic. Anyone who wants to choose the aperture. This is the one XA that lets you. Where it falls short: no manual exposure at all. f/2.8 is not fast. The top speed is 1/500. The rangefinder patch can grow dim with age, and a dim one can vanish in bright light. The release is a feather-touch pad that can fire in a pocket. In flash mode the aperture is set to f/4, and owners report a speed of about 1/30. The only exposure compensation is a single fixed plus one and a half stops for backlight. And it is entirely battery-dependent.

The clamshell cover is the power switch. Slide it fully open and let go: it must stay open and stay put when you tilt the camera. One that will not latch fully open is a dead camera, and a lost ball or bearing under the cover is a known cause, covered under What goes wrong. Then the battery check. Two fresh silver-oxide cells, control lever to CHECK. A beeper and a lamp mean the circuit is alive. Silence means dead cells, cells in the wrong way round, or bad contacts.

That is what it feels like. The release is a pressure-sensitive pad that responds to very light pressure, by design, and gives no physical feedback. Judge it by result instead: fire ten times at a range of light levels and listen for the shutter each time.

Focus on a distant vertical edge with the lever at infinity: the two images should merge there. If they never merge, or merge at the wrong distance, it needs adjustment. The diaxa.com FAQ warns that the rangefinder is delicate and advises leaving that to a repairer.

The light seals, and any XA of this age should be assumed to need them: the foam between the door and the body goes gooey with age. Open the back and run a fingertip along the door channels. Black smear means they are gone. Also look for dents in the sliding cover, which passes very close to the curved front element of the lens.

A known complaint. The diaxa.com FAQ suggests a gentle tap first; if that fails, the top cover has to come off, as the counter may simply be stuck or dirty.

Fit a fresh AA cell and check that the flash charges and fires. If it does not, look at the battery contacts first: the diaxa.com FAQ names corrosion there as a cause and says it can be cleaned. That is a flash fault, not a camera fault.

The sliding cover is held open or closed by a tiny part beneath it that clicks into indentations. The diaxa.com FAQ calls it a small metal ball; a Noisy Shutter review describes a little cylindrical bearing. If it is lost the cover will not stay put — which, since the cover is the power switch, means the shutter will not fire. The diaxa.com FAQ describes lifting the cover carefully away from the body, over something that will catch the part if it jumps out, and replacing a missing one with something similar. It is a home fix, but it needs a steady hand, and lifting the cover is exactly when the part gets lost.

Two opposite complaints. It can stop working: with good batteries, the diaxa.com FAQ puts this usually down to the cover interlock switch under the sliding cover, reached by removing the bottom plate and the cover. The red release pad is glued on and can come loose, and then needs re-gluing. Or it can act as a hair trigger, firing frames in a pocket, which is a known complaint about the camera rather than a fault of one example. Re-gluing the pad is a home job. The interlock switch needs a small Phillips screwdriver, tweezers and patience.

The diaxa.com FAQ notes that the contacts corrode easily and can be cleaned up. The built-in battery check is the quickest test of whether the cells are making contact. Light deposits clean off with isopropyl alcohol; corrosion that has spread beyond the chamber is a technician's job.

The patch can grow dim with age; Jim Grey reports his disappearing in very bright direct light. The diaxa.com FAQ advises against opening the camera to clean the rangefinder yourself, because it is delicate. There is also a non-invasive trick, described by a commenter on Jim Grey's review: a tiny square of sticky note on the front of the viewfinder, which darkens the patch area and makes it easier to see.

The black foam between the door and the body degrades to goo on old examples. Replacement foam kits are sold for the XA, and fitting one is a home fix once the old residue is cleaned out.

Two 1.5 volt silver-oxide cells, SR44 (Eveready EPX-76) or equivalent. That is what the Olympus manual specifies, and it says a pair lasts about a year. Stick to it. The cells are still made. Rechargeable button cells are not what the camera was specified for.

The diaxa.com FAQ names corroded battery contacts as a reason an A11 stops working; they can be cleaned. The flash takes one AA cell and has a guide number of 10 at ASA 100 in metres, per the XA manual. Not a fault but worth knowing: diaxa.com quotes a recycle time of 5 to 10 seconds.