Toshiba PDR-3300 3.2MP Digital Camera w/ 2.8x Optical Zoom

I'll start with some of the negative aspects of this camera. It has no AF illuminator lamp which is a little light that is used to help focusing in dark situations. Now its focusing performance is reasonable but will not be as dependable as say the Sony or Canon cameras that have this feature standard. The bundle it comes with is very average . . this includes a dinky 8MB SD card and is only saved by the inclusion of a carrying pouch and remote control. You also have to purchase a rechargeable battery kit as only 4AA alkalines are included. This camera is made in China so the plastic feels a little coarse and the words are painted on. It does feel solid though. The LCD is bright and very useable outdoors but the pixel count is a little low, meaning you will not be able to determine if things are in focus and some detail is lost, but you should be able to roughly figure out if the exposure is right.

Now for the good. This camera takes very nice, very sharp outdoor pictures. To get great shots I had to change two of the default settings out of the box. I changed the color to VIVID and the ISO to 100 (default is 200). When the color is set to NORMAL things look slightly under saturated. The good thing is that these settings will be saved even if you turn off the camera. This is great cause I have some settings saved in automatic mode (for general point & shoot) and I have other settings saved in manual mode for indoor shots or shadowy situations which are typically under exposed by most cameras automatic mode. I believe outdoor shots on this look sharper and overall slightly more pleasing than on the Sony DSCP72 or the Canon A70. However in darker situations the Toshiba reveals a bit more noise. The Canon and Sony give smoother shadows with less noise in the dark (probably because of their noise reduction system and/or processing). The pictures on the Sony and Canon appear little softer however. A major part of the reason this Toshiba takes such nice pictures is bacause it uses a Canon made lens. Now if you like to play with settings or would like to learn more about photography then you have the option of a wide range of manual controls (full aperature and shutter speed control) along with settings for sharpness, color and contrast. Manual focus is however only limited to a few presets. Ease of use is where things get exceptional. Very easy to use and you can very quickly change settings with the mode dial and 'hat switch'. No need to press menu buttons during photography as the hat switch controls all major functions. This means your thumb is the only thing you need to quickly cycle through settings like focusing, shutter speed, aperature etc. I was very pleased with the Canon A70 and it was my primary target but I managed to get this camera at a much lower price. Of course everything is relative to the price you pay and for the price I paid this is a very good value. Happy hunting.

*** Exciting update: There are hidden manual focus and manual white balance functions. For manual focus just press and hold the 'down' button in the menu with focus options until 'MF' appears and then select it. To manually focus press and hold the 'disp' button and use the zoom controls to focus. For manual white balance do the same in the WB menu until 'Pre Set' appears and then select it. Point the camera at your reference white color (paper etc.) press the shutter button and then select 'ok'. You can also disable the power off timer by holding down 'Disp' while turning on the camera.

This digital camera is a GREAT little device!

Pros:

Its [low] price! I bought mine for about 300 where most 3.2 pixel cameras are around 350-400

Awesome quality! This camera takes great quality pictures, and if it's teamed up with the right photo printer it can print some amazing photos. It takes great shots in pretty much any light because the camera automatically adjusts the settings in different light.

It's good for an beginners because it has an easy interface, and it's good for the advanced because you can change it to manual mode where you edit the settings.

It comes with a remote that is a pretty useful device for taking group photos when you want to be in them.

Cons:

I have nothing really to complain about. The only thing i noticed was that the batteries seemed to run out a bit fast although i have never owned another digital camera, so I'm not sure how long a digital camera is supposed to last on batteries. Though i don't have much of a problem because i went out and got some rechargable batteries.

Review:

*****

This digital camera is great and I'd recommend it to anyone. It competes up there with any digital camera on the market when it comes to the picture quality, and you can get this camera at an unbeatable price!

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This camera is an excellent value. We bought ours at Thanksgiving and have been very pleased. The pictures have been excellent in quality! Make sure you go out and get rechargeable batteries for it or this thing will eat alkalines like nobody's business (it does say in the manual to use rechargeables). Also, make sure you get a bigger memory card, 8MB is not very much space. Even with a 32MB card that we have, you're only lookin' at about 27 pictures before you have to erase or download them. I only have a few complaints, one is you must be very careful not to touch the lens when grabbing the camera with the lens cover open-maybe its just me...The accompanying software (ACDSee) is not exactly intuitive for editing pictures, there is much better software out there. It would also be nice to have some kind of pouch on the camera case to carry extra SD memory cards. Even though Toshiba is not the first name you think of when looking at cameras, I would still (and have) recommend checking this one out!

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I've had this camera for a couple of months now. The quality of pictures is perfect for me. Use a photo printer to get great looking pictures. Navigating to different menues is real easy. The best part of this camera is the Remote Control. You hook the camera to your TV. Have the camera set to take pictures. What you have the camera aimed at will appear on the TV. You push the self-timer button on the camera. Now you can get in front of the camera by yourself or with others and use the Remote control to snap pictures. You can snap one right after the other without touching the camera again. Just use the remote control. When you push the remote control....a number count down appears on your TV. 5-4-3-2-1 SNAP! Your Picture is taken! Hit the remote again....5-4-3-2-1SNAP! Also, when you connect the camera to the PC..your pictures pop up fast.

The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was that the memory card is located with the batteries at the bottom of the camera. Having the memory card accessible from the side of the camera would be more convenient. But I'm very happy. I haven't messed with the 'movie-clip' much yet. But turning it on and off is very easy too.........as is the playback. Very easy!

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Despite my list of complaints, I'm not disappointed with this camera.

Things I liked.

1. Zoom. It's good. Opticial zoom is great. Digital zoom starts pixelating but far less than other cameras I've played with. You can't see the pixelation if you don't zoom in further on your computer.

2. Manual controls. I appreciate the aperature priority, shutter priority, full manual, burst, etc. options.

3. Batteries: I'm glad it takes normal batteries, I can buy more if I out of power.

4. Has both viewfinder and LCD (which you can turn off if you want)

There are a few complaints/things I don't like about this camera:

1. Lack of AF (Autofocus) helper light. I've played with lots of friends' camera and they all have this little built in light (little flashlight) that helps the camera autofocus in dim or dark conditions. This camera doesn't. I've experimented and, sure enough, if I point a little flashlight at the center of the image, even in the dark the camera can focus. But the by itself the camera has a hard time focusing even if it's not that dark.

2. Manually focusing is only limited to the follwing options: macro, 1m, 3m, infinity.

3. It seems to cause redeye easily. It has a redeye reduction flash option and it does reduce the redeye but it's still there.

4. You have to buy a larger memory card. You have to buy rechargeable battery kit (it uses 4 AA). It says in the manual the included batteries are for testing only.

5. I didn't really like the pc software. Windows xp will automatically recognize the camera and you can use any software you want with for playing with pictures. No stiching/panorama software.

6. Movie mode is not really special. No microphone.

7. A little bigger than I thought it would be (Room probably needed for the 4 AA batteries).

8. LCD: If you're out of focus or over/underexposed, the LCD will not show this to you.

One day in the future I'll probably get a fancier camera but this is great for everyday stuff.