Thanks very much for your enlightening discourse.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ray Moth <ray_moth@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Olympus Mailing List <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thursday, January 04, 2001 11:30 AM
Subject: Re: [OM] Re OM 35 SP or XA
>Titoy wrote:
>What would be a better buy, an Olympus 35 SP, the one with a 42 mm F
>1.7 lens and manual or program mode or an Olympus XA?
>=======================================================================
>My 2 cents on this:
>
>A long time ago I owned an XA but passed it on to my wife. I almost
>became the owner of a 35SP, last year, when I ordered one from the
>"Wide Angle" site in the Netherlands. It got as far as the Post Office
>in Jakarta before it "disappeared"; however, I was recompensed by the
>Indonesian Postal Service. I took some trouble to find out what I could
>about the 35SP before I ordered it.
>
>These two cameras are very different, of course, the XA being tiny and
>the 35SP being excessively large and heavy for what it is. Both have
>rangefinders for focusing and both have good reputations for the
>quality of their lenses. There is no doubt, though, that the 7-element
>35SP 42/1.7 lens is better than the 35/2.8 XA lens.
>
>The dedicated flashguns (A11 or A16) for the XA are not so good and
>there is no hot shoe or other means of connecting an external flash
>unit, whereas the 35SP has full external flashgun capabilities. The XA
>has aperture priority only, whereas the 35SP offers the alternatives of
>program mode or manual, as you say. Furthermore, the light meter of the
>35SP is active in manual mode, which is unusual for a camera of that
>vintage. There has been some controversy as to whether the 35SP can
>also be used in shutter priority mode but the general consensus on this
>seems to be that it cannot; Olympus certainly never claimed that this
>feature was available.
>
>I found the XA to be too small and fiddly for my own use but I have
>rather fat fingers. The XA has plenty of devotees and I'm sure it's a
>fine camera in the right hands, especially if flash is not required. I
>understand that some vignetting can be expected with the XA but I never
>noticed it on the one I owned.
>
>Regards,
>
>=====
>Ray
>
>"The trouble with resisting temptation is
> you never know when you'll get another chance!"
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Yahoo! Photos - Share your holiday photos online!
>http://photos.yahoo.com/
>
>< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
>< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
>< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
>
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|