Handy little camera with video feature, but old-fashioned
Written: Nov 30 '05
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Pros: Easy to use, excellent close-up pics
Cons: takes long to start up
The Bottom Line: This is a cam for your purse or pocket for everyday use: a good reliable choice. And 4 megapix a plus!
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| sailinglady's Full Review: Toshiba PDR-M81 Digital Camera |
I had this camera for about 3 years now. Upgraded from an 2.0 pix Olympus and paid about $500 online for this Toshiba (in 2002). I decided on this one, because I wanted a high(er) pixel camera with video feature.
After two years the motor broke and some beach sand penetrated through the lens, and we send this camera in. They send us another camera, for a charge of about $50, if I remember right. I thought that was a good deal. So far this second camera --which they said was a refurbished camera - of the same type is doing well, despite me doing THOUSANDS of amature pictures with it.
The batteries hold pretty long, it makes nice pictures, is easy to use.
What I don't like too much is that the video quality isn't very good - tone is fine, the microphone is powerful and picks up noises from far away, but if you want to zoom in an object that's just 20 feet away from you, you don't get a nice clear video: think of a little still photo, which you zoom in 500x and you can only imagine what it might look like! The longest video you can make at once is only 45 seconds long, when it's not set on high quality imaging. The highest quality video you can make is only 30 sec's long. Of course, you can make one 30 sec video after another, depending on the space of your removable memory card, but how fun is that? You might miss something.
The zoom isn't that great and the LCD in the back is too little.
It makes excellent close-up pics (not with the help of the zoom): I have pictures from the precize lines of my hand! Very impressive -- although I imagine, other cameras have this ability too.
It has this "running mode", where you target an object while on the move, make a shot, and the object will be sharp and focused, while the back is all blurry. I tried this several times (with a bike driver), and achieved super results.
The uploading program it came with is very easy to use, and the upload takes just a few minutes. I usually upload up to 100 pics at a time, and it takes maybe 3 minutes - this is with a cable in the USB port (my previous Olympus camera took at least twice as long to upload).
In my opinion, this camera is not hot stuff - in the year 2006 I imagine, there are better option out on the market than this Toshiba - except you get it for free from someone or for very little money!
If you are looking for a 4+ megapixels camera, look for something else, as there are much better ones today!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): about 500
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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Epinions.com ID:
sailinglady
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 1 member
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