- Indoor shots over 5 feet away are too dark most of the time (with flash; without flash, they are too blurry).
- The pre-shot focus takes 2-3 seconds, then you actually take the shot (another second). Very frustrating when your kids have learned to walk or crawl fast; they're already gone when you want to take the pic.
- Sometimes if the batteries die while writing the image to the smartmedia card, THE WHOLE CARD REQUIRES REFORMATTING. Any pictures you took on the card but did not download are now gone forever. (The battery meter is useless too, everyone I know just uses a camera until the batteries are dead).
- When trying to take alot of pictures at one time, almost every other time I pressed the shutter to snap the picture, the camera would auto-focus (taking an eternal 3 seconds) but then give error beeps when I tried to snap the shot. This led to up to 10 seconds between pictures, again, an eternity with fast-moving kids.

Conclusion:
- If I were only taking occasional outdoor pictures in bright sunlight with stationary subjects, this camera produces great images. But for fast-moving kids indoors, this camera induces a high level of frustration; many times I have had to resist the urge to throw it across the room.


Good features, with a few drawbacks   November 30, 2001
53 out of 54 found this review helpful

I've been using this camera for about 3 weeks, but have been using digital cameras for 4 years. This camera has all the right features for a point-and-shoot: several flash modes, good zoom, several ISO settings, even a black-and-white option. The menus are easy to navigate and intuitive. The LCD screen is easy to see under most lighting conditions. I love the size of the Smart Media cards! Who wants to go back to 35mm film?

Drawbacks: the focus is slow. The proper way to take a picture is to compose it in the viewfinder, press the trigger half way down and wait for the auto-focus to do its thing. This takes 1-2 seconds. Then a small light in the viewfinder lets you know you can go ahead and shoot your picture. In normal 35mm cameras, this takes a fraction of a second. I don't understand why it has to be so slow on this camera. You do get used to this, but it's still an annoyance to have to explain it to someone who is going to take your picture in front of the Eiffel Tower, and who only speaks French. Better bring a tripod!

The zoom is jerky, not continuous. This was a little irritating at first, but I got used to it in no time. The camera only comes with an 8 MB memory card, which is way too small to be useful. The battery door is somewhat difficult to open and close. The included software is below average.

These inconveniences are relatively small, compared with the resulting images: the clarity is beautiful, the colors saturated, and objects are in sharp focus, at all levels of resolution. There are some manual modes to play with, which yield good results, like the Bulb setting and the Multi Shot.

Recommendation: buy rechargeable NiMH or Lithium Ion batteries, or you'll go through a couple of sets of alkalines before you fill up your memory card.

Overall, this is a fun camera, which offers a lot of features and quality for the money.


Average deal for the price   October 30, 2001
75 out of 77 found this review helpful

After doing some research and with the recommendation of PCWorld.com (Best Buy Rating), I proceeded to purchase this camera along with a 64 Meg SmartMedia card and rechargeable batteries. PCworld.com's recommendation was based on excellent battery life and above average picture quality. While the article mentioned a fews "cons" with the camera, it did neglect to mention that the zoom operation was sluggish and jumpy (not smooth), and actually locked up after 3 weeks of usage. I had to turn the camera off and back on to enable the zoom operation again. The picture quality was very good (for a novice photographer like me), except when I wasn't absolutely still while pressing the shutter button (pictures turned out blurry). I'm not sure if this is normal with all digital cameras. However, this is the main reason why I wanted a digital camera in the first place--so that I can easily discard unwanted pictures without the hassle of developing them. It is however still irritating to find that the pictures you have just taken are completely unusable.

A few other cons that PCWorld.com mentioned were that the zoom lens partially obstructed the viewfinder and difficulty in opening and closing battery compartment. Although minor annoyances, they were hardly reasons for disliking the camera.

As to battery life, the set of rechargeable NiMh lasts for about 200-300 shots. That is far better than most digital cameras on the market.

In summary, I feel that the camera is probably just an average deal for the price. I don't think that PCWorld.com did as thorough a review on the Toshiba PDRM61 as they did on the other ones in the article. It seemed that the reviews on the other cameras provided more information that I could have used. Anyhow, I will be exchanging the camera to the store for either a CANON A20 or Nikon E775. I believe that either one is a better product than the Toshiba.


What a Great Camera   October 28, 2001
Michele Hermann (Santa Fe, NM United States)
38 out of 41 found this review helpful

This is my first digital camera. I bought it because it got excellent reviews in both Consumer Reports and PC World. It takes wonderful pictures, and it is so easy to use!!! The day I bought it, I was able to take photos, load them on my computer, edit them and email them within a couple of hours.... and I am NOT a computer techie. The batteries last and last, the emailing lets me illustrate my letters, and I have had not one problem since I got it. All my friends with digital cameras told me horror stories about inability to get the pix from camera to computer, software malfunctions, battery failures, etc. Not with this camera! I really love my Toshiba and I am having so much fun with it. I highly recommend it.