Konica Z-up 150 VP

[Niner]

Not exactly a camera to inspire dreams of photographic adventures and artistic creation. But... for $15 including the shipping....it was one more camera to try out. The Konica Z-up 150 VP was the top of the Z-up line with a 38-150 zoom around 2003 when it was offered. It did all the auto things like load and advance the film, read the film speed and rewind at the end of the roll. It also had a diopter eye correction, flash choices, a remote control as well as a self timer, auto focus with a view through the view finder simulating the zoom coverage. You could add the date to your negatives if you want....and I never want.

Took it for trial. All exposures came out of the 36 exposure Kentmere 100 roll. Some of the scans were a bit dark because of film developing in old chemicals and not bothering to take the temperature of the developer and make an adjustment to time and thus producing rather undercooked negatives. The down side of the experience was that the max 320 potential shutter speed, camera selected must have been pretty slow at zoomed images as the images tended to blur from camera shake. At each exposure there seemed to be something going on with a lens gear movement at the end of each snap which was a bit strange. And another thing that I didn't like was that the view window was on the extreme left side of the camera and I'm used to the view being in the center of the camera.

The camera came with a bill of sale the original owner kept. $323.25 including tax. Bottom line..... as a point and shoot film camera.... it's likely to remain on the shelf going forward but worth what I paid for it ...to me.