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The XA lens diaphragm blades have a square (really rhombus) shape and produce some unusual out of focus images. My XA was never as sharp as my larger compact rangefinders (QL17, 35 RC, 35 SP, 7sII) but there's no denying the XA package is very compact. In particular the XA images showed some vignetting and the corners were not very sharp.
I had two XAs and I carried them in my pants pocket and in the back pocket of a sweaty bicycling jersey.
(1) the XA doesnt like moisture - it made the self-timer and shutter release electronics weird - like pressing the shutter release would activate the self-timer without the self-timer switched on. let the camera dry out and it goes back to normal.
(2) there's some known problem with the electromagnetic shutter release - if it gets magnetized it stops working. I think having my camera around strong magnetic fields screwed it up.
I know a few people who love their XAs and its hard to beat its small size. I recommend an Olympus 35 RC and Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII as larger cameras that will work without batteries and have better optics.
