Minolta ZOOM 60 > Reviews (1)

Introduction

One of the more startling results of the digital photography revolution that has taken place over the last decade and a half is the almost complete removal of film photography from the mainstream. These days, almost nobody in the ordinary consumer market chooses film unless they are using a disposable camera, and with mobile phone camera quality having come on in leaps and bounds even those are beginning to become less of a special case. One result of this change is that charity shops now frequently sell off really quite decent compact film cameras for an absolute pittance – as little as a couple of pounds – and this is one I've seen there, although my own is actually one bought way back when film was still fairly common.

This camera was produced at the time of the Konica-Minolta merger at the start of 2003, and as such you may see it branded either plain Minolta or – like mine – Konica Minolta. Only minor cosmetic changes such as the position of the "Zoom 60" logo distinguish the two, and as far as I am aware there is absolutely no difference between them in terms of operation or functionality.

Looks and handling

As you might expect from a (nearly) last-generation film compact, the Zoom 60 is quite nicely packaged. The silver colour makes it look rather more like a digital camera of the era than many of its competitors, which kept with the black that was once – and now is again – the colour people expected no-nonsense cameras to be. The proportions are quite attractive too, with the zoom lens placed almost centrally, and the flash unit up in the top corner next to the large viewfinder. This isn't large on the back, however, so people who wear glasses might find it just a little awkward to compose a picture. I do, but only very slightly. A basic mono LCD panel on the top of the camera tells you how far through a film you are, and whether flash is turned on.

By film camera standards the Zoom 60 is very compact, and in fact it's not that much larger than the digicams of the day. Minolta had the decency to include a reasonably good grip, allowing fairly secure one-handed shooting, but you will need to be careful if you're not used to film cameras as the weight of batteries, film and unit together is fairly considerable. As is the case with almost all relatively recent film compacts, there's a little window on the back to allow you to check what type of film you have loaded, and while I'm on that subject I'll mention that loading the film itself is easy... provided you've done it before. If not, you might want to ask someone with a little film experience to show you how it's done to avoid messing up the film itself.

Optics

The Zoom 60, as its name does rather suggest, is a zoom compact camera, though with a rather limited range of 35 to 60 mm. It's a bit of a shame that there isn't more of a wide-angle option at the near end – a 28-60 lens would be much more useful, to my mind – but if you try to think of it as a fixed-zoom camera then the 1.

7x zoom will become a pleasant little bonus rather than the frustratingly limited thing it is compared with units boasting fuller zoom ranges. Minolta's lens isn't a work of art, but it's not a mess either and you shouldn't have too much trouble getting clear photos through it at any focal length; sharpness is not a real problem and the autofocus is quite reliable in most conditions.

Features and settings

We've become rather spoilt in recent years in terms of the options we expect even the most basic of digital cameras to provide. It wasn't like that in film days, and although the Zoom 60 is fairly well-featured given its place in the market, you mustn't go expecting too much. As well as the zoom (which is operated by two buttons next to the shutter release) all you really get to select are the flash settings or a basic self-timer. That's it: no white balance, no exposure compensation, no shutter speed or aperture control. This really is a "point and shoot" camera, and other than framing the shot, pressing the shutter – and remembering not to open the back until the film has finished rewinding – there's not a great deal that users really need to do for themselves.

Photo quality

I must admit that I tend to be a little bit disappointed in the results from film cameras these days. SLRs are a different kettle of fish, but the relative lack of control – and even more so the inability to get an immediate check on what you've taken – do make it trickier to get things right. That may be good if you're a real hobbyist who enjoys that challenge, but those who simply want to take straightforward snapshots will probably get better results with even a low-end digital camera. That said, the prints I've got out of the Minolta are perfectly acceptable, at least at the usual 6x4 dimensions, and the sort of film you can buy in Boots – Fujifilm Superia, for example – is quite adequate.

Consumables

The Zoom 60 takes two AA batteries, which go in a dedicated compartment; this has a horribly stiff cover which takes some effort to remove. Battery life is extraordinarily long when compared to the average AA-powered digicam, unsurprisingly so given that there is no need to power a screen, but the effort needed to operate the zoom does mean that they're not quite the near-everlasting things that you find in really basic compact film cameras. Even so, a pair of Duracells will happily last through quite a number of films, and so I don't see any sense in using rechargeable batteries. In fact, given how long one pair will probably remain in the camera, NiMHs with their tendency to lose charge over time even when not in use may actually be worse than alkalines here.

Buying and verdict

Don't bother with eBay when it comes to these units: almost all sellers have a wildly unrealistic, hugely inflated sense of this camera's worth. Just because it has a zoom they seem to believe that it will sell for as much as a zoom digital camera, and to them I'd have to say – bluntly – you've got no chance, squire. A hunt around the quieter charity shop shelves may pay dividends, or you could try an actual bric-a-brac shop if you're lucky enough still to have one. Either way, the absolute maximum you should be paying is a fiver, and probably more like £3-4. Most people won't want to go back to a film compact, but if you're an exception and can live with the restricted focal range, you could do worse than the Zoom 60.