National Train Day in Albuquerque provided a nice opportunity to put my newly refurbished XA 2 through its paces. I couldn't find anything to complain about in its performance; it handled a variety of circumstances with aplomb.
Some of the day's events took place at the Wheels Museum which is housed in one of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Shops buildings. The big old buildings which are mostly empty now all have a marvelous quality of light due to the banks of high windows. The shops were famously photographed in the '40s by FSA photographers including Jack Delano.
I don't recall having much previous experience with a three-zone focus camera in the past. I wasn't sure how well such a system would function in low light at medium and close distances. The little Olympus seemed to take it all in stride. I'm thinking I may even like this simpler XA 2 better than the XA rangefinder model, which is a nice camera, but a little fussy in use compared to the XA 2. The XA 2 also has a simpler lens design which seems less prone to vignetting. Four bucks well spent.
