Of Festivals, Rangefinders and Olympus XAs
I’ve been a busy bunny this weekend, having gone to V Festival 2008 which was utterly tremendous. A very good time indeed, the weather was not that bad, it only teamed it down Saturday evening (which was somewhat assuaged by the high of hearing The Guillemots live at last and the anthemic finale of Sao Paulo!) so it was very good overall. Still rather dismayed as the sheer mess people leave behind them. So I set about documenting a bit of it, the unsung festival story shall we say.
Which neatly leads into:
Rangefinders and my new Olympus XA. Those who follow my blog or know me should know I have a big heavy SLR, it’s a Canon EOS 3. The EOS 3 is a great camera, one that is dependable, tough and built to last. It also makes a good emergency mallet… (another story) But despite the fact that it’s great for so many things, it fails on discreteness and size/weight.
SLRs in general aren’t particularly discrete but you could get away with something like a Nikon D40, Canon EOS Rebel which might just about be small enough and quiet enough in some cases. Either way a rangefinder is a good bet. They’re smaller, quieter (no mirror slap) and offer in the better examples excellent fast glass.
They’re also great for quick focusing in low-light situations such as gigs and parties etc. because of the way a fully coupled rangefinder works. Also at wider angles focusing becomes less important to a degree.
I’ve always liked the idea of having a decent rangefinder and as fixed lens ones go, the Olympus XA is a great start. It’s a 35mm f/2.8 F.Zuiko lens which is regarded for being particularly sharp at f/8-11 but also good wide open. It’s small, waterproof and fully coupled which is so unusual for such a small camera. Finally it at Around-The-Lens metering (ATL) and works in Aperture Priority mode (unlike say the Canon Canonet QL17 which whilst an excellent 40mm f/1.7 lens, it’s shutter priority… rather like the AE-1 SLR.) so all you have to do is focus if need be and make sure the viewfinder’s shutter speed needle is within an acceptable shutter speed range and fire. Done. Wind the advance crank and shoot again. Dead simple but very effective.
I really enjoyed using my XA at V Festival and I hope to post these results soon along with the SDW ones. they are coming, I have just been so busy! Sorry!
