Over the weekend I picked up an Olympus XA (what a glorious testament to tiny cameras) at an estate auction. It was part of a rather ecclectic lot including a flip phone, a heart rate monitor, and an Exa (ihagee dreseden).
My interest in the Exa was picqued a few years ago when I saw a post on Filmwasters about doing a collaborative blurb book where the only requirement was that the images be shot on an Exa. I was first interested in them because of the WLF and unusual shutter (the mirror is the first curtain).
Mine is version 6, and will be a repair project (shutter automatically fires when you wind the film, and the mirror is in bad shape). But I'm interested in picking up a lens for it (or maybe a lens and a working body).
Reading up on the lenses, I'm really surprised by the quality of lenses. Perhaps it was simply that my first exposure to exa images were taken by a lomo-style photographer, but I expected optics from the lower end of the FSU spectrum. Reading up, that really does not seem to be the case. I've already got a full set of FD primes, I don't need any more excellent glass. This is a characterful camera, so I want a lens with character for it. I'm most interesting in something between 35mm and 90mm (walk around, standard, or wider portrait - all are good). So if you had to recommend a lens in that range that produced unique results, what would you recommend?
My interest in the Exa was picqued a few years ago when I saw a post on Filmwasters about doing a collaborative blurb book where the only requirement was that the images be shot on an Exa. I was first interested in them because of the WLF and unusual shutter (the mirror is the first curtain).
Mine is version 6, and will be a repair project (shutter automatically fires when you wind the film, and the mirror is in bad shape). But I'm interested in picking up a lens for it (or maybe a lens and a working body).
Reading up on the lenses, I'm really surprised by the quality of lenses. Perhaps it was simply that my first exposure to exa images were taken by a lomo-style photographer, but I expected optics from the lower end of the FSU spectrum. Reading up, that really does not seem to be the case. I've already got a full set of FD primes, I don't need any more excellent glass. This is a characterful camera, so I want a lens with character for it. I'm most interesting in something between 35mm and 90mm (walk around, standard, or wider portrait - all are good). So if you had to recommend a lens in that range that produced unique results, what would you recommend?
