Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/07/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Richard, I've had or have lots of really compact 35mm cameras as I like the fact that I can have a camera with me all the time. The lens on the Oly XA is nice, but not only lacks the punch of a Summicron, it also tends to vignette somewhat under certain conditions. I've found the 28mm f3.5 lens on the Olympus XA-4 is better. Best of the bunch are the Minotar lens on a Minox, which has more contrast and sharpness than the Zuiko lenses, and the even better 40mm f3.5 on the Rollei 35 S or SE. The Sonnar on this is right up there with the Summicron, IMHO. I think that the Minox gets the prize for ultimate compactness (at least without the flash) but is not as reliable as some of its competitors. You might also want to look at the Chinon Bellami, which combines some of the features of the Minox and the Olympus. Mark On 7/20/05, Richard <richard-lists@imagecraft.com> wrote: Last week, I > picked up a good condition Olympus XA on EBay. I had one twenty some years > ago and stopped using it only because the rewind crank broke. Always miss > having a small camera that doesn't need much juice, on "immediately," and > allow manual controls. > > Took a roll of Tri X and it seems to work just fine. Only problem is that > the pictures do not have that Leica punch :-) but then at $50 vs. $5000, I > guess it's much better than 1% as good :-) >