So, uh, we now own an Olympus XA2. The meandering road that led to owning the little Olympus began with my forays into the point and shoot camera world with the little half frame H35N that I’ve written about here a few times. But more to the point, it began with my wife’s experience with the H35N. She took to it the first time she shot it and was immediately drawn to the shooting experience of the fixed aperture and shutter speed and the dead simple see-point-click operation that helped her keep from overthinking the process and just stay in the flow of making photos. However, to some degree the very simplicity of the H35N is the very thing that I began to find frustrating about it. The limitations of the H35N become apparent pretty quickly after a couple rolls given the limited conditions in which the fixed aperture and shutter work well and pretty soon I wanted to find something for her that would be more capable across a broader range of conditions. So, the search for a better point and shoot began.
In all honesty I had completely forgotten about the XA lineup of cameras until I began Googling about point and shoots and came across a listicle that mentioned the XA2. I had looked at them fondly in the past, especially the original little XA with the rangefinder and the XA4 with the 28mm. But the XA2 was a eureka moment. It was the same dead simple shooting experience of the H35N but with some important additions. It has a nice Olympus 35/3.5 lens made of real glass elements for pretty capable image quality, but more importantly it has variable aperture and shutter speeds and a built in meter which allows the camera to pick the exposure settings for you! The end result is a surprisingly capable camera that maintains the super simple shooting experience of the best point and shoot. And to top it all off it comes in a package you can fit in a pants pocket. So I jumped on eBay to hunt one down.
I will admit I was a little shocked at the price of these things. Some of these cameras were listed for almost two hundred dollars, which seemed insane for such a tiny antiquated little camera. And models like the XA4 were even more expensive. I guess I shouldn’t be too shocked by this. It seems like every time I look at cameras I haven’t looked for in years they just keep getting more expensive. Have you seen the cost of a Mamiya 7 lately? Anyways, I was able to find an untested model that was still covered by the eBay guarantee and selling for less than half the price of the pricey “MINT TESTED GUARANTEED FUNCTIONAL” style listings. So, I sent the seller my money and waited for the camera.
The afternoon that the camera arrived we loaded a roll of Arista in it and headed off to the woods for a ramble in the forest, as we do. We were both pretty stoked to run a test roll through the camera to see what it was capable of. Our excitement gave way to trepidation when after about the sixth frame the camera suddenly decided it didn’t want to wind any further. I gingerly urged it to wind before hearing the telltale crunch of the sprocket holes ripping. Not wanting to admit defeat I opened the back of the camera and ripped off the exposed frames and tore a hackneyed leader in to the film and loaded the camera again. Thankfully it ran through the next 33 frames beautifully. The film advance was buttery smooth and has been since. I developed the film in Ilfotec HC when I got home and did find that it was pretty severely underexposed, but mostly salvageable. I replaced the batteries and for the second roll I shot half with the camera set to 1/2 the film’s box speed and the second half at box speed. It definitely prefers to be lied to and setting the camera to give you that extra stop of exposure gives you the best results. According to the internet this is not uncommon with the XA2.
One of Jess’s photos from the second roll we shot through the XA2
So far we’ve only put two rolls of film through the XA2 but both times (aside from the film tearing hiccup) it’s been an absolute joy to use, and most importantly my wife has really enjoyed using it. It seems to have basically fulfilled the role I was looking for from a point and shoot camera. It is the best parts of the little H35N and all the upgrades that you need to make it a more useful camera companion without becoming too complicated and annoying. If you’re able to find one for a decent price I’d definitely recommend snagging one.
Below is a little gallery of some wonderful photos from my wife using the little XA2
