Canon ELPH update

This is the corner of 86th and Main in Owasso looking north along Main Street. It's just a snap shot through the windshield. That mini-van is about to turn right at the stop light, but wait! Who's over on the corner pushing the pedestrian crossing button? Why, it's the ubiquitous sidewalk cyclist!

Actually, he stood there waiting while the light cycled. The van turned right, and when the pedestrian signal said 'walk' the kid walked his bike across the intersection! Brilliant! He was a pedestrian with that oh-so-chic bicycle accessory.

Snark aside, what the kid did was both smart and legal. That's a busy intersection at rush hour.

The photo was taken with the Canon ELPH LT that I found in the local Goodwill store for a whole dollar. The film is Kodak APS 200. The upper image is the full frame, reduced to fit here as the original is over 3K pixels wide. The lower image was taken from the original and it's about 400 pixels wide.

I think, however, that I'll carry the Olympus XA2 instead of this Canon when I need a small, unobtrusive camera. While the Canon is clearly more sophisticated since it has an infrared rangefinder, a flash, and 3 different formats, I prefer the simplicity and lower film cost of the 35mm Olympus. Still, despite all that, I've been carrying and using the Yashica Electro 35 GT all summer because it has an outstanding lens. Sure, it's bulky and heavy, but so am I!

Everyone likes a bargain

Olympus XA2

While I was out and about today, I stopped at our local Goodwill store and found this on a shelf in the back. This is an Olympus XA2, very similar to the XA I wrote about last week. The lens is one stop slower and it uses zone focusing rather than a rangefinder, not that it's a big deal with a 35mm lens. It has good depth of field.



The camera was inoperative when I picked it up. No shutter operation. The film wind didn't work, and a flick of the battery check switch revealed a dead battery. The XA series simply will not work without a battery, so when I got home a fresh pair went into the camera. Whaddaya know! It works! Of course the seals are shot and the self timer doesn't work, but other than that it's OK.

I haven't checked the A11 flash unit yet, though I did manage to get the battery cover off. It uses a single AA battery, and this one was slightly corroded. I'll clean that up before trying another battery. One thing I've discovered it that while vinegar is excellent at removing corrosion from leaky batteries, there's another chemical called Cramolin that protects the metal after the corrosion is removed. Better still, it facilitates conductivity.

Don't hate me, Steve. Here's the other good part.

Yep, it set me back the whopping sum of two dollars.

Olympus XA 35mm pocket camera

How do you like that? I took a macro photo with flash and had that lovely little reflection where it says 'OLYMPUS' with a ghost image. Dunno how it happened.

I bought this XA on Ebay a few days ago. The seller, furniturefire, said it had a stuck f-stop lever and that he didn't check it out other than that. He wanted $15 for it and $6 for shipping. I've always liked the XA, and since I'm trying to learn more about cameras, this was an excellent opportunity to learn.

I received an email saying the camera had been shipped. Shortly afterward, another arrived telling me that my money had been refunded! I contacted Dylan (furniturefire) about it. He replied that when he was boxing the camera, he realized there was a name inscribed on the back, and since the camera wasn't precisely as he'd described it, he couldn't take my money in good conscience.

He's a man of honesty and integrity. I really like that.

The camera arrived this afternoon. I think he took packaging lessons from my late mother-in-law. Her mission was to see that the good people at 3M worked lots of overtime and she did so by using their packing tape in large quantities. I couldn't help but smile, remembering her as I opened this box. Dylan filled it with styrofoam peanuts and he placed the camera in bubble wrap. Inside the bubble wrap was a layer of paper. Inside the paper, a plastic bag contained the XA. Each layer had its own tape holding it closed. Marvelous! Mom would have been proud of him.

The camera shows the usual problems for one of this vintage. The seals need to be replaced. The rangefinder needs to be cleaned. And that f-stop lever is definitely stuck. Fortunately, I have the Olympus XA maintenance manual and I'm hoping it's a straightforward job. I scrounged a couple of batteries too, finding that the meter, exposure system, and shutter release work. This camera uses an electromagnetic shutter release, so absent a battery, the camera is inoperable.

As for the name inscribed on the camera back, some judicious sanding and a coat of aircraft flat black should take care of it.

I'm looking forward to this project, though there's another camera in the queue ahead of it. I'm replacing the seals in a Canon AE-1 Program for a friend. It needs a bit of lubrication too, but that's a job for a shop with far more experience than me.