Have you any history on the olympus XA range.

thankyou

-- damian hodgkiss (damian_one@hotmail.com), November 19, 1999

Answers

The Olympus XA was introduced in 1979 as a high spec compact camera.

XA1 and XA2 models followed in 1980. The model XA3 and XA4, which both had DX coding, appeared in 1985.

The top of the XA range of cameras is the XA itself, which has an f2.8 lens and rangefinder focusing. The bottom of the range is the XA1 with an f4 lens and limited shutter speed range. The XA2, XA3 and XA4 have f3.5 lenses. The XA3 is basically the XA2 with DX coding added.

The XA4 has 28mm focal length lens, all of the other models have 35mm lenses. Also the XA4 has close focusing and is sometimes called the XA4-Macro.

The XA2 came in black, white, red and blue. The other models were only made in black.

-- Ray Moxom (raymoxom@tpg.com.au), August 15, 2001.

Correction to my earlier posting.

Greig Warriner (UK) sent me a photo of his red Olympus XA3. It seems that the XA 3 was also made in red for some markets.

Ray Moxom

-- Ray Moxom (raymoxom@tpg.com.au), October 02, 2002.