Digital Alternative to the Olympus XA2?

I had it all planned when I purchased an Olympus XA2 camera. My only preparation was to learn how the simple 3 position focus system translates to distance in feet. An online search helped with that information. I have a roll of Fujicolor 200 ready for when the camera arrives. 

The camera arrived and tested well. The shutter worked, flash fired, and looked fine cosmetically. Ready for a stroll around the neighborhood to shoot a test roll with the Fujicolor film. 

Only one problem-I cheapened out! I got the hair-brained idea to use a compact digital camera and PRETEND that I'm using the Olympus XA2 with these rules.

• Don't shoot anything closer than 3 feet away
• Leave the camera at the 35mm focal length (equivalent)
• Try finding subjects at various distances to practice estimating which of the 3-position focus settings on the XA2 I would have used
• Shoot subjects that I would have taken with the XA2 on this neighborhood stroll
• Post process the way I would have for scanned film

I decided to use a Canon S100 custom set to the 35mm equivalent focal length which turns out be 7.49mm on this camera with a 1/1.7" size sensor. 

Similar sizes, but I do miss out on the OVF 

The Canon S100 photos were shot in RAW and auto exposure with auto white balance.

When the images were imported into Adobe Lightroom the photos did not look as if they were shot with film, but I made some edits to the tone curve, reduced the sharpening, added grain, and set the white balance to daylight. From these values I created a film preset. I liked the preset results better anyway. A bit more grain was added on the black and white conversions. 

I don't know what shutter speed and aperture the XA2 camera would have used, but many of the Canon S100 photos were shot at ISO 80 and f4 with the differing shutter speeds depending on the light. As I write this article, I notice the final color shots probably resemble Ektar 100 film more than Fujicolor 200.

You can perhaps visualize which one of the three focus settings you would have set on the XA2 for these subjects,

Minolta Freedom Escort First Roll Review (Riva Mini).

Let's get started with the least obvious feature of the Minolta Freedom Escort, the function of the green light in the viewfinder.  A steady green light indicates you're good to go with focus, and it also indicates that the shutter speed or auto-flash is fast enough to give you a sharp picture. A steady blinking light indicates the shutter speed may be too slow to hand hold or you should turn on the flash. A rapidly blinking green light indicates that you are too close to your subject or the camera cannot find focus. 

The Minolta Freedom Escort is a clone of the Leica Mini II. I would have liked testing the Leica Mini II, but the only advantage of the Leica Mini II is that it has B (bulb) setting. Aesthetically, the Leica looks more refined, but I did not want to spend $200 more for those attributes. 

The Minolta Freedom Escort has most of the point and shoot features that I like. I can manually control flash, the lens is a four element prime, I can lock the focus, and the shutter speed range is quite broad. It would be a perfect point and shoot for me if it had manual ISO capability instead of just DX. 

The first thing I noticed when playing with the camera is that turning the camera on extends the lens, but the sound it makes is a bit annoying and it moves out rather slowly. No big deal, but I'm surprised it was not a smoother "turn on" experience. I decided when I go out shooting I would leave the camera on and set the flash to off because once I turn the camera off and on again the flash defaults to double flash, yuck! Leaving the camera to the on position will hardly drain the batteries and it is not too different from pulling out the lens on a Rollei 35 so that it's always ready to go. 

The Test Roll

On day one with a roll of Fujicolor 200 24 exposure film loaded in the camera we decided to walk one of the trails in The Presidio. Photos are from that walk. One thing I learned about the camera is that it shuts off automatically after about five minutes and the lens retracts. So my idea about leaving the camera on and always ready like a Rollei 35 did not pan out. I just had to remember to set the camera back to my preferred "flash-off" setting every time I turned on the camera. The image of the toyon berries was shot with forced flash, all others were flash off.

Frame #1 was to see how accurate the auto focus
 is on close subjects. The subject is sharp and
the background is blurry - as it should be.

No flash

With flash

The following day photos are from a walk in Noe Valley, a photogenic neighborhood in San Francisco. I became more comfortable with the camera on day two. The rhythm and sound of the focus and shutter experience felt better than day one with the camera. Although I later realized that I messed up one shot and did not take the photo because I thought the flashing light was for out of focus range, but it was the steady light for low light, not the rapid flashing light.  

Technical Specifications

For whatever reason the instruction sheet tech detail section does not indicate that the lens is a four element lens. The Minolta Freedom Escort was released in 1991.

Final Thoughts

Lightweight, pocketable, affordable full frame 35mm point & shoot cameras with high quality prime lenses are missing from today's digital cameras. There are a few compact digital cameras with excellent prime lenses, but only three of them have full frame sensors, Sony RX1, Leica Q2, and Zeiss ZX1. All wonderful cameras, but quite heavy and expensive compared to most premium 35mm compacts.

The Minolta Freedom Escort is not in the same class as any of these prime-lensed digital cameras, but if you are looking for a lightweight, pocketable camera that is fun and relaxing to use, the Minolta Freedom Escort produces consistently well exposed and sharp images.