Topic: XA woes

[Indofunk]

Sorry for all my "Indofunk's woes" posts lately, but I figure I have a knowledgeable community available to me, so why not use them?

Back in July, I sent my XA to a guy on Long Island who was recommended to me as an XA expert. After sitting on it for 16 weeks (his posted turnaround time is 8-12 weeks), I finally received it back. He fixed 90% of what I needed to be fixed, but 1 problem remains and another problem suddenly appeared.

1. The shutter speed indicated in the viewfinder window seems to be consistently +1EV off. That's actually better than when I sent it to him and it was anywhere between -3 or 4 EV off. The actual shutter speeds, though, seem to be consistent with my meter readings, so it should just be a cosmetic issue (as it was before). I'm only able to "test" speeds of 1/60 and slower, because I'm doing it all by ear (just like how I play trumpet! )

2. The new problem is that I was testing it without film, pointing it at a consistently-lit off-white wall in my apartment. Click, advance, click, advance. Meter read 1/30th, fired at 1/15th. So far so good. After maybe a dozen or more clicks, suddenly it fired at 1/500th. Nothing changed, not the light nor even the meter reading (read 1/30th, fired super super fast). After well over 100 shutter actuations, I've reproduced this problem a few times, but it's very inconsistent, maybe happens 2 or 3 times every hundred shots. Any ideas what's going on?

I think my first step is new batteries, since I think it takes readily-available watch batteries. The battery check says it's fine though.

[02Pilot]

The XA uses two separate meters, one for the stuff in the VF and one for the shutter. No, I don't know why anyone would design it this way, but that's my understanding of how it's set up. Inconsistencies between the two are apparently common. As to the second problem, it could be an intermittent voltage issue, so new batteries and a visual inspection of the contacts would be a first step. I'd be more inclined to suspect a cracked solder joint or some similarly annoying electrical fault, but of course that means a trip back to the tech.

You sure you don't want that Yashica back? The shutter and meter are working fine (need to adjust the RF though)....

[Indofunk]

WHAT??? Two separate meters? No wonder they don't get along nice with each other. Can't someone just hotwire one to the other? (kinda actually serious here)

I already wrote back to the guy (giving him a nice little passive-aggressive jab about the 16 week turnaround time) so assuming he doesn't go all postal on me as repair techs sometimes tend to do (present company excluded, natch ), maybe he'll take it back and look for electrical faults. And I'll be out an XA for another 16 weeks 

The Yashica is probably even heavier than my Pentax with its lens, so thanks but no thanks Sell it if you can, give it away if you can't

[Indofunk]

Oh, speaking of rangefinders, the one thing the tech did was to clean the rangefinder and now WOW like magic I can actually see the focusing patch again! (at least in good light) I thought it was gone for good. Could that be because I tend to carry the XA in my pocket and my pocket lint might have gotten into the RF mechanism and made it hard to see? And (I hesitate to ask this), how difficult would it be for me to clean the RF myself? I'm assuming it will be nigh on impossible, given the fact that I am scared to death of opening up any camera

[Francois]

I haven't cleaned the finder on mine but remember that opening the camera is not too hard.
The bottom plate pretty much keeps 70% of the camera together.
Just don't forget that under the top of the sliding lid is a small metal rod that acts as the click stop for the lid. When you take it apart it tends to drop...

[02Pilot]

Yeah, I recall my XA4 coming apart quite easily. Door pops off, a few screws, and you're in. I suspect the improvement in visibility came more from removing haze than dust, however, so you should be good for a while on that score.

[Indofunk]

Well, as predicted from my previous email exchanges with the tech, he was rather rude to me and basically brushed off my questions. He said that the shutter speed was correct because he uses a $5,000 shutter tester. Now, I'll admit I can't tell the difference between 1/500 and 1/250, but the difference between 1/8 and 1/4 is the difference between an eighth note and a sixteenth note at 120bpm, and I really don't think I would've made it this far in the music industry (nor out of 5th grade) if I couldn't tell the difference between an eighth note and a sixteenth note. Imagine playing in a symphony orchestra? Conductor: "principal trumpet, that's a sixteenth note in measure 389." Trumpet: "how the bloody hell am I supposed to know that? I don't have my $5,000 note tester on me!!" Hmm, maybe that's why people buy expensive instruments? They play more in time?

He went on to say that for negative film one stop doesn't matter. Of course, we all know that, but what's the use of precision machinery if it is off by one whole unit of measure? "I'd like to return this yardstick because it's only a foot and a half long." "Well, it really doesn't matter, does it?" Anyways, I suppose I'll deal with it as long as the meter that controls the shutter is correct, which it seems to be.

On the subject of the random misfiring, he said that it is due to a worn out shutter block, in which case he would need to replace the entire thing, which he then said he would not do. Umm, ok, thanks? At least one misfire per roll is better than the time last week when I accidentally set my Pentax to a fixed 1/125 shutter speed for half the roll I was wondering why I was getting such fast speeds for my nightshots

Time for new batteries and cleaning the battery contacts

[imagesfrugales]

Hi Satish, this is a known issue of the xa, unfortunately, and it gets probably worse with further aging. CDS cells are not very reliable today anymore, thats my experiance. I have 2 XAs and both have the same problem with different times showed in the finder and fired by the shutter, they are also off by about 1 stop. I doubt it will be possible to adjust both meters properly and long time stable.

[Indofunk]

Oh damn! Well, the meter controlling the shutter was working fine before the repair, so I hope that keeps going for a while longer. I've resigned myself to a non-working VF meter...

[Francois]

Too bad those cameras are so cramped inside. Changing the cells would be an easy fix if it was the case.

You might want to start considering maybe getting a Stylus Epic. It's two generations newer than the XA but designed by the same guy.
The only problem I find with the Epic is that you have to reset the flash to off everytime you close the cover. But on the other hand it's about the same size... though you don't get to choose the aperture anymore.

[Indofunk]

Too bad those cameras are so cramped inside. Changing the cells would be an easy fix if it was the case.

Getting rid of one of the meters and hotwiring the other one to the VF would likely save some space!

You might want to start considering maybe getting a Stylus Epic. It's two generations newer than the XA but designed by the same guy.
The only problem I find with the Epic is that you have to reset the flash to off everytime you close the cover. But on the other hand it's about the same size... though you don't get to choose the aperture anymore.

I'll look into it, but I do love the aperture priority of the XA. Also, I can see myself screwing up the flash pretty often ... I'm not good at remembering to do things before every shot Case in point, I know that my SLR680 has to be set to 100% dark when using IP film (it resets to 0% when folded), but I only ever actually do it about 25% of the time 

[Francois]

You might want to look into the Minolta AF-C... while it's all automatic, it doesn't have a flash. It's about the same size as the XA but has autofocus and autoexposure. The clamshell is very nice, the lens is tack sharp, shutter is super quiet and it's built using metal...

If you want I can take a photo of all of them side by side.

[Ed Wenn]

Satish: Your "Well, as predicted..." post above had me chuckling away to myself. I particularly love a good analogy as I spend a lot of my working and parenting life searching for them as means of explaining technical IT stuff to business people and "The World And Everything In It" to my kids.