How do you use an Olympus XA?

Answer 1

Set the aperture to 5.6. Set the focus to 8 feet. The camera will vary the shutter speed for the best exposure it can manage and the camera is then basically equivalent to a settingless point and shoot camera.

It's much better than that though. The rangefinder double imaging is bright for such a small package and when looking through the viewfinder, one can move the focus control and align the two images for sharp images at any selected distance.

It is an "aperture priority" camera. That is, it allows the user to set the aperture (how wide the lens internal mechanism opens to let light in) and it controls the shutter speed (how long the light is allowed to shine on the film) using it's internal metering. The meter in the viewfinder indicates the shutter speed being selected by the camera and shows changes in the selected shutter speed as the operator makes changes to the aperture.

Many considerations go into setting an optimal aperture/shutter speed combination. Handheld, poor results will be obtained when the speed is slower than 1/60 to 1/30 of a second. Stand the camera on something or attach it to a tripod for slower exposures. Freezing action requires a fast shutter speed. Aperture opening effects something called depth of field. The higher the aperture number you set, the smaller the opening or amount of light allowed in, requiring longer exposures, so also sometimes requiring a tripod for best results, but also giving greatest depth of field so that objects in foreground and background stay more sharply focused. Setting a smaller aperture number lets in more light, and with shutter speed increasing to compensate, makes it easier to take hand held shoots. But with this also comes a reduction in depth of field. Then you need to carefully select the object or area on which to focus the camera. A good general rule is about one quarter of the way into the scene in which you want both foreground and background to be in focus, but be aware, that as the aperture opens wider, this foreground/background range is reduced, so, if objects are to far apart, in distance from the camera, not from each other, the aperture opening imposes physical limits on sharp focus (reduces the depth of field) so even when a good focus point is selected and achieved, some foreground and background will end up out of focus.

You can study general photo guides to see these effects, but you won't truly gain an appreciation of your camera until you've done a little experimentation yourself. You'll find out what your depth of field limits are at various apertures, an what shutter speeds best suit various actions and at what speeds you can hold the camera without blurring the image through your own motion.

Then there's film speed.

At the beach on a bright day you'll get to much light and slightly blue images if you use a high ISO film 400 or more, 100 works best and 200 is good too. Indoors with flash though, you don't get a lot from the three available flash models (A1L lithium, A11 single AA battery, and A16 takes two AA batteries or just stores a larger charge from one battery - I can't recall and don't want to go look - so a 400 speed helps out a lot. The highest ISO setting is 800 but it works well with ISO 1000 speed film and can take great handheld shoots in doors - might be very useful if at a wedding or child's delivery, where flash use might be prohibited

The A1L flash is sold as non-serviceable when the battery quits but there are screws under the rubber pad that cushions the flash to camera body mount. If you or someone you know can handle a soldering iron, a two cell lithium can be purchased, removed from it's plastic body and soldered in place of the two spent cells.

And speaking of batteries, the camera won't work without one. A little button cell underneath the coin screwed cap on the bottom.

I don't shoot any 35mm these days, all digital, but when I did, I had a large Minolta system and some Canon odds and ends. Thinking about shooting and what to take or to take a camera at all, given that I had to be able to travel very light sometimes, could always be an issue. While the XA is nowhere near as flexible as a full SLR system, it is so much more compact and required little thought as to what I might have to leave behind for having to pack it, fit nicely in the red leather magnetic catch XA case on my belt, that it went far more places than any of my other equipment and is the one camera I used to take most of my pictures.

Enjoy.

Answer 2

To use an Olympus XA, load the film, set the ISO, adjust the aperture and focus distance, then compose and shoot your photos. The camera has an automatic exposure mode, but you can also manually adjust the aperture and focus for more control over your shots. Be sure to advance the film after each shot and rewind it at the end of the roll.