I just have to post about my Luck. Post your Lucky stories too

<p>I went to Goodwill with my son yesterday and I found an Olympias XA in the box in pristine condition for $2.99 oh I got a 10% discount for being old and retired from the Military. I took it out today and shot a roll, the negatives are hanging to dry and look great.<br>

I will post them after they dry and I scan them.</p>

<p>Congrats.</p>

<p>Wow, that's excellent. I've never even seen an XA. I lucked into the XA-3 and XA-4 (with the oddball flash) for under $20 at pawn shops during the 1990s. Tough cameras - I dropped the XA-3 onto concrete about 15 years ago, it still works fine, barely even nicked.</p>

<p>As my son said. You will always beat me on the subject of cameras in Trivia. I showed him the going prices on ebay and Amazon. He told me I should now go to Goodwill and give them something in return. :-) Lex It was the first one it came out in 79. It is still considered the best of the series by many. I would though love to have that 28mm lens and not the 35mm in it but you are correct this thing is built well.<br>

JDM Thanks.</p>

<p>I remember reading about the original XA back in the day when I was studying journalism in college. Some reporters were carrying the XA because photographers weren't always available for assignments and reporters could easily tote the XA and snap their own photos. I even recall a few grumbles from PJs about it, sort of minor versions of today's too-familiar "versus" cliches.</p>

<p>It wasn't the sort of camera I'd have sought out for myself. But after getting lucky with the XA-3 and XA-4 (which I sold - dumb), the XA-3 has turned out to be a longtime favorite. Meanwhile other cameras I deliberately sought out, like the Canonet GIII QL17, didn't hold the same long term appeal for me.</p>

<p>BTW, cool trick with the XA-3: It has DX code contacts for automagically setting the film ISO. Not my favorite feature. With all-auto-everything cameras the only way to influence the exposure is via the ISO control. But if you tape over the DX code bar on the film cassette (or use reloadable cassettes for b&w film), you can manually adjust the ISO from 25-1600. This gives you more flexibility than the +1.5 EV lever doodad for nudging the exposure as desired. Also, the +1.5 EV setting is a mite too close to the battery check beep, which can be annoying in a theater, opera or ballet. Easier and safer to use the ISO lever to tweak the auto-exposure for plus/minus EV exposure compensation.</p>

<p>Yes I love the +1.5 and the XA does not beep just an LED... Yes ISO 800 only for the XA but I think I can fudge a stop even with an Auto with my developing. :-)</p>