John,
I had the same aversion to the plastic when I purchased my XA for a climbing
trip to Canada in about 1981 or so. After years of faithful (and hard) service
I no longer have a issue with it. I was uncomfortable taking mom's Rollei and
I didn't want to haul the OM on some of the climbs so I bought the XA. It has
performed very well all these years, and the plastic body gave me a little more
cavalier attitude toward it than the Rollei (even after the 35S was mine.) The
XA has turned out to be a truly useful tool, and many of my best climbing
photos were taken with that camera. I think it depends on the use and your
ability to scale focus, but both are good cameras. The Rollei has the better
lens, but if you are not able to accurately focus it (and some people never
can) then the lens is pretty much wasted on you. Some folks also find the LH
wind lever awkward, but It has never bothered me, and in fact I never really
noticed it being different until it was pointed out to me by someone who did
not like it. Certainly the build quality is much better on the Rollei. The
flash setup has never been much of an issue, as I rarely use a flash on either
camera. One interesting note about the Rollei is that it loads the film 'upside
down & backward' so to speak. It is easy to figure which shots were taken with
the Rollei, by looking at the negs or slides.
Jim Couch
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