June 02, 2004
#113 :: Rangefinder Film Camera
It's begun. Pentax denies it but you know it's only a matter of time before film technology vanishes. With it will go shirt-pocket axes like this Olympus XA, a little fistful of Swiss-watch precision. Designed and built in the early 1980s, it's about the size of a pack of cigarettes, comes with a teensy little flash unit and has a quirky 35mm lens that captures crisp, bright images, then viciously vignettes their corners like a bad case of cataracts. Shooting with it reminds me of my Dad's old 1950s-vintage Zeiss Ikon 35mm rangefinder, which he bought in the Navy PX and let me use. Two images appear - a yellow ghost of your picture floats in the viewfinder and you shift the focus ring back and forth until the images reconcile - and you squeeze the button in a split-second flood of excitement, anticipation and hope.