As part of the new Used Camera sales, Alfie Cameras have listed a selection of Konica pop cameras. So, what are these interestingly named and brightly coloured cameras?
First released in 1982 by Japanese camera company Konica, this camera comes in the most colours I’ve ever seen; red, blue, yellow, pink, green, silver, black, and olive green are all colours this compact camera was made in. It is fixed focus, with a 36 mm f4 lens. It has manually selected ISO options of 100, 200 or 400 and a fixed shutter speed 1/125 s. It gets its name from the built in flash that ‘pops’ up. This small camera is powered by 2 AA batteries, although the camera will still work without batteries, you do need them for the flash. It’s a simple, point and shoot camera. The autodate model came out in around 1988 and prints the date or time onto the film.
Sample images taken on Wolfen NC400 colour film
The camera is capable of taking sharp images, although distant subjects do seem to loose a little clarity. The lens copes well with direct sunlight as expected from a multicoated lens.
Here are some tips for getting a better experience out of the Konica Pop from Alfie Camera’s Dave Faulkner:
“Changing the ISO settings actually changes the aperture of the lens. When set to ISO 100 the lens opens up to F8 and at ISO 400 closes down to F16
It only truly shoots at F4 when using the flash with the ISO set to 100.
You can use this to your advantage to create images with more depth of field (minimising the risk of out of focus shots) by shooting with ISO 400 film.”
Looking at the camera itself, it feels good in the hands. My fingers can reach all the controls easily. However, you have to be careful if you don’t want to be surprised when you put the flash up. It also has a good grip to it, and is easy to keep steady in your hands. As for the film door, it opens and closes easily. The film rewind leaver is placed, rather excitingly on the bottom of the camera. It flips out and is strangely satisfying to turn. The film number is not too hard to read considering that the camera isn’t that big.
It can, surprisingly, fit in a back pocket, though there isn’t exactly oodles of space for your wallet with it in there! As a whole, the camera looks extremely good. I can see how these cameras would have appealed at a time when most cameras were either black or silver.
If you are interested in purchasing your own Konica Pop we’ve usually got at least one listed in our Used Cameras section of the shop.