Olympus XA

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The Olympus XA was a 35 mm rangefinder camera built by Olympus of Japan. It was one of the smallest rangefinder cameras ever made, together with the Contax T.

The original model, the XA, was sold from 1979 to 1985. The original XA features true rangefinder focusing, a fast 35mm f2.8 lens, and aperture priority metering. Later cameras, models XA2 to XA4, featured scale focusing instead of rangefinders. Model XA1 used a fixed-focus lens. Compared to other rangefinders, the Olympus XA is small and light in weight and well designed, made with a protected lens for pockets.

• Olympus XA: small rangefinder with aperture priority
• Olympus XA1: simple mechanical camera with a selenium meter
• Olympus XA2: scale focus camera, automatic shutter
• Olympus XA3: Same as XA2 with "DX" automatic film speed recognition
• Olympus XA4: distance focus camera, 28mm wide macro lens

[edit] Specifications

[edit] XA

• Lens: 6 elements 5 groups F.Zuiko 35mm
• Aperture: f/2.8-f/22
• Shutter: 10s~1/500s leaf shutter
• Focusing: 0.9m to infinity rangefinder
• Exposure: aperture-priority metering with +1.5 exposure compensation for backlighting
• Battery: 2 LR/SR44
• Size: 102x64.5x40mm
• Weight: 225g
• Year: 1979-1985

This website [1] gives the details of the various models and opinions on using this camera.