stevegrant's Full Review: Konica Minolta Z-up 110 VP 35mm Film Camera
Buying a new camera is never and easy task! The main problem is that you have to buy it, use it and then process the film - and then you'll know if it's good!! This was the problem I was faced with when my old camera broke and it wasn't an easy choice. After hunting through magazines and the internet I came up with the Konica Z-up 110 VP.
What drew my attention to this camera was the lens. Most other sub-$100 point and shoots have lens that allow very little light through them, this is a called the "f" number. Typically, the lower the "f" number the more light gets onto the film and this means less use of the flash. Most modern cameras start at f4.5ish and go up to f13 at maximum zoom which means the flash is always going off except for in really bright light. The Konica though starts at f3.6 and goes up to f10.6 at maximum zoom - no match for even a cheap SLR - but great for this type of camera. So going on this and the advice from the magazines I dived in and bought one. Once home we quickly ran a film off in all sorts of conditions, inside and out, and sent them off to be processed. The results were great. There weren't any badly exposed or misfocused pictures - except where we, the picture takers, had been dumb!
One year on and both my wife and I have really enjoyed using this camera. During this time we must have put at least fourty rolls of film through it and 95% of the time the pictures have been sharp, well lit and full of colour. There have been the odd times where it hasn't worked properly - like in the cold - where the pictures just haven't focused at all. The best results we've have had are since we started using 400 ASA film rather than the normal 200. It really suits the camera to use this speed film.
So plus points:
- Great zoom lens
- Functionally simple to use, all the buttons are in a proper place.
- Very bright flash for it's size, I still have blue spots on my eyes from it!
- Very, very long battery life. More on this later!
- Decent size making it easy to hold.
- Easy film loading
So to the battery life, this is amazing! It takes just one CR-123 lithium battery which we have changed once in over fourty rolls of film! Most of these pictures where taken using flash and zooms and still the battery lasted incredibly well. I can't believe it only takes one battery too. For once the marketing is right, Konica say it has "Flash Power Management reducing power consumption by 50%" and it does!
Gripes with this camera, well the major one is the time between pressing the button and the picture been taken. It is just too long sometimes, which just isn't good enough trying to catch superquick kids! After using it for while I have got used to this, but it is annoying sometimes.
That aside I like this camera and would recommend it to other people. Also find a decent film processor as a bad one will make even an excellent picture look rubbish, as I have found out. I use Jessops here in the UK and I haven't had any problems with them.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.