Sick Olympus XA

ambaker · Aug 7, 2014

Ok, I bought fresh silver batteries, and popped in a new roll of film.

If I shoot wide open, the camera seems to act normally. If I close the aperture at all, the shutter hangs open for a couple of seconds.

Battery check says the batteries are good. Camera is clean and appears to be in good shape.

This is my first trip out with it, so I can't say it was working yesterday, and just died this morning.

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darkosaric · Aug 7, 2014

Sorry o hear that. I had also bas experience, so I switched to Olympus Mju - but it was autofocus, so I went to cheap plastic nikon F65 - to have full control.

XA has great lens, but same as Minox and Mju - you simply newer know what you will get, when it will go down on you ... Get some full mechanical camera - the are more reliable. I know many will say that they did not have problems with XA for many years - but this is not helping you.

frank · Aug 7, 2014

I've had bad luck with 3 XA's. rangefinder, shutter button, and meter.

That being said, I was given the simpler xa2 and like it a lot. The XA was too small and fussy with all its controls. The xa2 is just right for what it is: a tiny film point and shoot.

Richard S. (rich815) · Aug 7, 2014

I've had three XA's and an XA2 and all have been perfect. Guess I've been lucky.

summicron1 · Aug 7, 2014

may be stupid, but did you check to make sure the asa setting is correct? It's that little switch on the bottom of the lens adjacent to the focus lever. Set it at 400 and see if the shutter still hangs.

And you don't say what shutter speed the needle inside the viewfinder points to.

Poisson Du Jour · Aug 7, 2014

Check you have silver oxide button batteries, not alkaline. A lithium CR1 3N is a good substitute. The XA has a known predisposition to faulting with alkaline batteries, particularly irregular exposures or failure for the shutter to trip.

ambaker · Aug 7, 2014

Batteries are definitely silver oxide. I had alkaline on hand, but went out and bought some fresh silver ones, because I had read that there was a voltage sensitivity.

The indicated shutter speed seems to work properly. Changing the aperture setting gets a corresponding speed indication.

I have not tried changing the film speed setting. It was correctly set for the film. Having read that there are actually two metering circuits, one for the view finder and one for the shutter, perhaps exercising the film speed setting might make a miracle happen.

Since, at any aperture, the shutter stays open several seconds, I fear it may be a failure of the photo cell for the shutter. (One of the causes google turned up for me.).

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Chan Tran · Aug 7, 2014

ambaker said:
Batteries are definitely silver oxide. I had alkaline on hand, but went out and bought some fresh silver ones, because I had read that there was a voltage sensitivity.

The indicated shutter speed seems to work properly. Changing the aperture setting gets a corresponding speed indication.

I have not tried changing the film speed setting. It was correctly set for the film. Having read that there are actually two metering circuits, one for the view finder and one for the shutter, perhaps exercising the film speed setting might make a miracle happen.

Since, at any aperture, the shutter stays open several seconds, I fear it may be a failure of the photo cell for the shutter. (One of the causes google turned up for me.).

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Yes there are 2 metering circuits. One is just for the meter needle and the other is for the shutter speed. You said maximum aperture are you sure you not set the aperture level all the way up to the flash mark? In that position it's actually f/3.5 and 1/30 second. If that is the case the switch is dirty and failed to switch over to auto shutter speed.

ambaker · Aug 8, 2014

After another round....

Unless the camera is set to the flash position, shutter open time is as much as 10 seconds, with an indicated speed of 1/250 in the finder. Exercised everything, the aperture setting, the film speed,

All to no avail. Shame to be wasting a fresh roll of ilford film like this.

So.... Anyone want a sick XA, with a working flash?

darkosaric · Aug 8, 2014

ambaker said:
So.... Anyone want a sick XA, with a working flash?

Put it on ebay with explanation and start from 1$ - somebody can maybe fix it and use it .

ambaker · Aug 8, 2014

I'm on the road right now, but I'll move it over to the classifieds when I get home, and see if someone will donate a dew bucks to APUG in exchange.

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Sick Olympus XA

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