Olympus XA2 vs Ricoh FF1(FF1s, Sears Mini 35 Programmed)

grain elevator said:

I was probably being overly dramatic calling it severe. But I definitely see it, and it bugs me in photos like this:


However the pincushion distortion of the XA-2 is indeed more severe!

Click to expand...

If you look at that picture, the distortion you see may be a building issue. Because the stucco/stone line on the left does barrel out, but the door line inside it does not. Nor does the stucco/stone line on the right.

FYI I am not saying there isn't any distortion - I am sure there is from a lens physically that small which needs to cover 35mm film - just to me it never has been an issue.

XA2

I looked into the Minox-35-alikes recently. The FF-1 has the reputation of being the best incarnation of this type of camera. There are a number of very similar German zone-focus + auto exposure cameras: Voigtländer Vito C, Balda CA/CE/CS 35 and the Revue 35 XE and 35 CC (the latter has a Voigtländer-style trap door mechanism for the lens while the others have the draw-bridge type). All of these have Tessars and all are supposed to be good but the Ricoh is supposed to be the "best".

Here's a source that lists all of the different models that are based off of the Minox:


This site also lists the LOMO LC-A/Cosina CX and others as being similar designs.

I had both the LC-A and the Cosina CX-2. I couldn't really get comfortable with either as I realized I was not their target audience. The lenses were neither sharp enough to give me 'normal' pics, but also neither funky enough to give me fun pics. If that makes sense. So I just got kinda blah pics out of them.
The stuff you see online taken with them tends to be cross-processed etc for that 'look'.
The Cosina especially was a really nicely designed camera, and fun to use. But I was surprised that the lens was pretty much the same as in the Lomo.

Taken with the CX2. While it looks ok as a web image, it just doesn't have the quality I'd want beyond that. The XA2 is quite a bit better, and the FF1 way better