For a long time, the Olympus XA was my holy grail of compact cameras. Consistently lauded as a compact camera suitable for professionals as well as casual shooters, and championed as one of the most ingenious pieces of industrial design ever conceived, to say the camera's reputation preceded it would be an understatement. At the time of its introduction in 1979, it looked like no camera that had come before it. It featured a brand-new clamshell cover which not only streamlined the body, but also protected the lens, focusing mechanism, and ISO/ASA selector. It also featured a vertical aperture control, an electromagnetically triggered shutter button, and a flush-mounted self-timer, battery check, and +1.5 EV exposure compensation lever. The XA was meant to fit into a shirt pocket and retain full functionality. The shutter button sits flush with the top of the camera, the focusing lever rests in a small crevice underneath the lens, and the aperture selector protrudes just a couple of millimeters from the face of the camera. But the most radically designed component of the camera was not its controls, but its F. Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 lens. Lenses are often the enemy of compact design, as they traditionally protrude out from the camera and telescope in and out in accordance with the focusing mechanism. The Zuiko is designed as an all-new lens whose focusing mechanism is internal, eliminating the need for long lens barrels and that pesky telescoping action. The camera is located in mid-town east of Manhattan. Cash only. (The ad will be removed when the camera is sold, so you don't have to ask if it is available).
