XA rangefinder problem/question

dsiglin · Jan 29, 2014

I have a XA rangefinder I'm borrowing (possibly buying) but I find the shutter speeds very very hard to read. I have excellent eye sight so it's not that. They just disappear on me when I'm not facing a very bright light. Is there supposed to be a backlight to illuminate them?

pdeeh · Jan 29, 2014

That's just how an XA is.
Or, it's exactly how mine is too,so I suppose that's how they all are.
As one has no direct control over shutter speed anyway, I don't find it a problem.

dsiglin · Jan 29, 2014

Ok just wanted to make sure something wasn't wrong.

pdeeh · Jan 29, 2014

I completely love mine.

Poisson Du Jour · Jan 29, 2014

Can't get my head around that even as a long-time (three-decade-plus) XA user with much less than 20/20 vision! It might be dirt partially obstructing the backlight window at the front of the camera.

pdeeh · Jan 29, 2014

What do you mean you "can't get your head round it"?
Do you mean you haven't ever experienced this problem ?

Poisson Du Jour · Jan 29, 2014

pdeeh said:
What do you mean you "can't get your head round it"?
Do you mean you haven't ever experienced this problem ?

That's right, a) I have never experienced any such problem you describe, or anything remotely to do with visibility of the shutter speed line and I have owned around 5 XA cameras over three decades (the first in 1981) from perfect vision then to not-so-perfect vision now; and b) it's a quite robust little camera and I cannot think of anything that would knock the viewfinder out of alignment (other than a pretty serious drop). I have come inside from viewing my XA in bright sun; everything is still visible, so ... ?

bobwysiwyg · Jan 29, 2014

I use a couple, and this can happen. I have found you have to move your sight slightly left/right on occasion to make the display visible sometimes. Still love them as a pocketable, go anywhere camera.

pdeeh · Jan 29, 2014

Ok.
Well I can't speak for the OP, but I'm not suggesting the viewfinder is knocked out of alignment.
In my case,I simply find the shutter speed scale difficult to see clearly without a bit of head-wiggling.
I've read a few other people elsewhere mention a similar experience.
Perhaps there is something wrong with the way I use my XA, after all I've only ever had one and that for only a year.

gone · Jan 29, 2014

I had a Bessa R2a like that. If you just casually put your eye up to the viewfinder you could barely make out the speeds. But if you made sure your eye was perfectly centered, they were plainly visible. After a while you got used to where your eye should be and automatically put it in the right place. Great little camera by the way. Poor man's Leica M7. Sorta.

Poisson Du Jour · Jan 29, 2014

bobwysiwyg said:
I use a couple, and this can happen. I have found you have to move your sight slightly left/right on occasion to make the display visible sometimes. Still love them as a pocketable, go anywhere camera.

That slight movement from left/right is something I have to do in order to accurately ascertain the focus overlay; in years past, it was just raise the camera, point, focus and shoot! Not so easy now, but I still love the camera for the memories it brings back as one of the few easy-going, pocketable inveterate travel cameras that preceded a great many big and bulky SLRs in my bicycle touring days. I'm taking the XA to the big smoke today in lieu of the digital and will photograph some gritty graffiti that seems to be all the rage in dark alleys between tall buildings. It's loaded with ACROS.

oldlincoln · Jan 29, 2014

Good luck on your outing. My XA does this when I am wearing my glasses.

horacekenneth · Jan 29, 2014

I've used an XA for a few years and never noticed until recently that the shutter speed indicator was even there. It obviously can be a big help in some situations but generally speaking I never needed it.

summicron1 · Jan 30, 2014

it is entirely possible that the silvery stuff that the numbers are written with has oxidized, or faded, or something.

Something to keep in mind--I was curious about the speeds on one of mine and read up the tech data and discovered that the needle doesn't necessarily show what speed the shutter is really firing at -- the two functions are not linked and even have separate electrical drivers. So, use the needle as a guide, don't sweat it if you can't tell, the camera holds pretty steady anyway.

Poisson Du Jour · Jan 30, 2014

I'm playing with my XA here tonight and I still cannot find any evidence that the left of the viewfinder is hard to see, or not visible at all.
But....oxidised?? How ... scary.

I thought the XA has a stepless shutter; the indicators are only an approximation (?), pretty much like the EOS 1N, and others of its ilk, e.g. 1/125 could be 1/118...

I didn't get any pics on the XA in the big smoke today; lab work, collecting prints, putting in new jobs, paying invoices, finding long-lost friends walking along a street I simply chose to ride along as a 'change of scenery' (an amazing coincidence) and a debacle with mixed up trains saw me time out from a big of exploring. Back next week, but will take the car to avoid the stupidity of an archaic rail system.

dsiglin · Jan 30, 2014

So sounds like for some people it's definitely a problem but for others the shutter speeds are not hard to see at all. Odd.

dsiglin · Feb 1, 2014

SO, anyone want to buy an XA? I have the option of sending this back to the guy I bought it from but it's just going to sit on a shelf somewhere. I bought it from him with the flash and case all in very good condition (some wear on the bottom edge of the camera) for $70.

Chan Tran · Feb 1, 2014

dsiglin said:
So sounds like for some people it's definitely a problem but for others the shutter speeds are not hard to see at all. Odd.

they faded out. Both the yellow rangefinder and the shutter speed scale. So if you get a good one you can see easily. I had one when it was brand new and had no problem. I bought 4 of them recently and all have the problems with varying degrees.

Fixcinater · Feb 2, 2014

I wear glasses, fairly young eyes (29), have no problem seeing the rangefinder patch or the shutter speed scale, but due to glasses my eye is too far back to see them both clearly (as intended) at the same time. Wearing contacts, I can get my eye close enough and can see them both and use the patch at the same time.

I suppose this means I have a good copy.

Poisson Du Jour · Feb 2, 2014

Chan Tran said:
they faded out. Both the yellow rangefinder and the shutter speed scale. So if you get a good one you can see easily. I had one when it was brand new and had no problem. I bought 4 of them recently and all have the problems with varying degrees.

Yellow?? :confused:Mine is silver. Always has been, so too those before it.

elekm · Feb 2, 2014

My rangefinder patch also is silver. Well, maybe not silver, but definitely not yellow. I guess "whitish."

I picked up my XA at a church sale. The meter needle is a bit sluggish, although exposures seem to be correct.

dsiglin · Feb 3, 2014

Huh, mine is definitely yellowish.

XA rangefinder problem/question

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