06/16/2021
Every time we get an Olympus XA in we like to remind ourselves, and anyone who will listen, that these are one of our favorite cameras. Wonderful design, excellent lens, compact, the add-on flashes are effective. The camera has “Easter eggs” - a bulb mode that can be triggered by setting the bottom switch to battery check, and a shutter drag with flash that can be activated by first popping the flash up then changing the aperture to anything other than the flash setting. ⠀⠀
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We wanted to give you all a heads up that two of these XAs just hit our shelves, and if history is any indication, they won’t stick around long. We know that a number of you are on the hunt as we hear from you each time we feature one, so we wanted to give you a fair chance to consider becoming an XA owner before these cameras sell off. One of them even comes with the A16 flash. ⠀⠀
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There were a few different additional flashes you could get for the XAs. The two most common are the A11 and the A16. Both flashes use AA batteries for power, screw right onto the end of the camera and don’t interfere much with its compactness and get the job done, albeit at limited range. There is not much difference between the A11 and A16, but here they are. The A11 uses a single AA battery while the A16 requires two, so it is a bit bigger. But the A16 has slightly more power and thus slightly more range than the A11. Though both flashes are ideally used at relatively close quarters. We have read that the A16 had a slightly faster recharge time as well, but we have not confirmed this ourselves.⠀⠀
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So if you have been hunting for one of these cameras, particularly one with an A16 flash, check out the link in our bio to find them on our website. And we’ll see you next time we get an XA in no doubt.
