Originally posted by KJon Gene, that is a nice shot (and nice job developing, too - still haven't ventured into that arena myself).
Gene and Titrisol, how does the Stylus compare to the XA? I've been thinking about the XA since I saw Stevebrot's winter shots with it. My local Craigslist has Styluses crop up periodically, but I've yet to see an XA.
Best,
Kevin
I actually had the zone-focus XA2, rather than the rangefinder XA. Both have nice little 35mm FL lenses. For outdoor shots in bright light at infinity, the XA2 was better than the Stylus. However, get something closer in, or actually need a stop wider than F/8, and the autofocus on the Stylus will leave the XA2 zone focus in the dust. If I recall, the XA2 did not even have a separate shutter and aperture and the flash was separate.
On an emotional level, the XA/XA2 was about the coolest little piece of point and shoot you would ever want to hold in your hand. It was small--smaller than any digital point and shoot I have owned. It was metal. It felt like a serious camera in miniature. I gave it to my mother when I bought the Stylus. The plastic Stylus worked well, but never begged me to take it along in quite the same way.
Ebay has a ton of XAs, as does KEH. I'm tempted, myself. The rangefinder model seems to go for $100-$140, which is not all that cheap for a 20+ year old pocket camera.