Rating: 
Summary: A Camera
Review: Regardless of any other braindead reviews, here's the only one you need to read: I purchased this camera approximately 6 months ago, and I must say I am not mollified with the product. The bad stuff: The green LED indicator light gets in the way of aiming your shots, forcing you to use the blurry, battery-draining LCD screen which is among the worst I have EVER seen on a digital camera. The battery power is terrible at best; rechargeables are the only way to go. Being a digital camera salesman, I can say without doubt...this camera is not worth its price tag. While other reviews may state that the camera is easy to use, it is merely due to the fact that the camera has almost no features: no manual control of shots, no zoom, and is only able to support up to a 8mb memory card(45 pictures max.) The picture quality will suffice for monitor viewing only. Printing out the pictures leaves something to be desired; using photo quality paper on my brand new Lexmark printer gave me mixed results. While printing out smaller image sizes(3x5) resulted in fair quality pictures, attempting to print larger size images produced very grainy pictures. Also, the flash on the camera is not powerful enough for many low-light situations. There are much better cameras on the market in the $200-300 price range. Please don't disappoint me buy purchasing this camera.
Rating: 
Summary: Are we taling about the same camera?
Review: I bought this as a first time digital camera purchase- about two years ago. I am very pleased with both the quality of this camera and the ease of use- especially for the price. The few negative reviews I read posted here have me a little confused, though- there are various selections for the settings on this camera, which could explain some problems. I have lots of really nice shots using this camera. None would work to enlarge to poster size, though- so don't buy it for making really big prints. I like the way my 5x7 prints and smaller turn out for my scrapbooking and crafts needs.Of course, another consideration would be the printers the negative reviewers used in printing their images, ... they don't mention the paper type, either- all very important in the quality of the end product. As for the "grainy" images- the flash is a little less than perfect for indoor shots sometimes- but not always. Lighting is important in any photography, and my favorite shots were nearly all taken outdoors, with natural light. You definitely cannot rush the recharge on the flash- you'll get dark images every time. Also- the "video" function on the LCD monitor is a huge battery drain. Skip using it. I bought an optional FlashPath adapter that allows me to use the SmartMedia memory card in my floppy drive- excellent way to go- instead of using cables and power suppplies directly to the camera. I really don't see it as a battery hog, unless you use the "video" option- which isn't needed to take pictures at all. I will look for a date stamp in my next digital camera, as well as an on/off switch NOT connected to a sliding lens cover. Still- great shots at reasonable print size, for a bargain price--- a good deal, in my opinion (a Mom of 4 who takes a LOT of kid pictures!)
Rating: 
Summary: That green LED
Review: The Green LED in the viewfinder and fast drain of batteries are my only negative comments. I have had the camera for 6 months. It just is easy to use and I love the LCD preview screen. My first digital camera did not have that. The PhotoMax software is OK. I use another software package to store and sort my pictures. I am going to order the 8 M chip to store my Summer vacation shots till I get home
Rating:
Summary: Literal Garbage
Review: I bought this camera approximately 2 months ago. After much use, I found this product to be literal garbage; as if someone had literally packaged a piece of garbage and sent it to me. The refresh rate on the LCD is horrible, not even worth using. Sometimes to get the LCD screen to work it is necessary to bang on the side of the camera. The viewfinder is blocked by an annoying green light and is off by a few millimeters. The supplied AA's last only about 15 to 20 mins. If you are unfortunate enough to buy this camera, get rechargeables. The picture quality is horrid at best, pictures turning out grainy and pixelated. Overall, buying a disposable 35mm is a better choice.
Rating:
Summary: First Time User of A Digital Camera
Review: My wife gave me this camera for my birthday. I only had 1 sereal port on my computer, so shopped around for the disk to use, so I could down load pictures without using the sereal port. Have enjoyed the camera for the last month, cannot wait to take pictures at a zoo. Have taken some of our animals (Dogs and Casts) and they are clear I realy enjoy the camera, however the battery life is to short. Will invest in rechargable ones for the summer. Where can I buy extra memory cards. Thank you Poloraid for a great camera.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best DC but, for the money, I like it
Review: The camera itself is great for the money you pay. No it's not as good as the $900 super-loaded 1.2 mega pixel giants but it is a very nice purchase. Yes, the little colored monitor follows the action with a huge blurry delay but most cameras this cheap don't even come with one so, you get what you pay for I say. That in mind, you aren't recording video here so why would the display need to follow the movement like a camcorder as long as, when you stop moving, it focuses clearly? I'm no photographer so I say this from a novice point of view, the camera does not take pictures well in low light situations. Its best performance comes from good ambient lighting such as outside or in a brightly lit room. I'd also like to see it come with more then 2 megs of memory but that would up the price so I wont complain too much. Those little static RAM cards are way too expensive. All-in-all the camera did as advertised and did it well enough for my taste but keep in mind I'm no photographer. I really hate, though, the stupidly place green LED in the viewfinder! It all but forces you to waste battery life and use the LCD to find the right picture angle. I think they could have found a better place for that dumb little light that seems to have no purpose other then to be an annoyance. I say the camera was good but the included software was a nightmare to get working. It took me 2 days of tinkering before I got the camera to upload images to the PC. I'm still not sure if my software disk wasn't messed up, like it could have just had a bad installer. I finally tried a custom install to make sure everything was getting installed properly and that worked. But before that I contacted the tech support at Polaroid and they were absolutely no help, telling me to try things I had already tried and I even stated that I tried them in my original e-mail. I still don't think they even read my whole message. They just saw "my camera wont upload images right" and assumed idiot. When I finally did get the software working it did everything it was suppose to. Though I haven't tried everything it offers yet. When the pictures came through to the PC they looked nice and crisp. So, all things considered, you might want to shop around for a better low price camera but this one is fine once you get everything to sync right. If you're not a pro I'd say keep this one in mind because it does just as advertised quite well and thus far Polaroid is the only company offering low priced digital cameras with LCD color monitors, which I like a lot.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than some very expensive cameras
Review: I have had this camera for about a year and I love it. It takes wonderful close-up pictures of people and images, but doesn't well on distance shots even 10 to 12 feet. It will hold from 12 to 96 pictures before having to download, depends on the resolution that you use. But I print my pictures on a gloss photo paper and use a cannon bubblejet 5000 with a photo cartiage. You can't hardly tell the difference between one of mine and a photo store. I love being able to take pictures of my grandchildren and going straight to the pc and printing them out without having to wait. The price has come down about $100.00 since I bought mine. It was $299.00 then and it was a GREAT buy even then.
Rating: 
Summary: Happy customer unhappy...TWICE
Review: I am sorry to say this is my third review. The camera changes so much this is necassary. I recieved the camera about a month ago. Read my other reviews for a deeper explanation(happy customer unhappy ones) Here we go: The LCD barely works anymore, most of the time you have to hit the side of the camera just to use the LCD. And when you hit it, the camera goes off, so you have to turn it off then back on. That's all that has changed since I bought it. The picture quality is grainy, reguardless of what anyone says. However, if you shrink the size of the picture to standard 35mm size it is crystal clear. Other than that, everything is okay, I 'll let you know if it changes.
Rating:
Summary: Software incompatibilities
Review: I was given the camera as a gift by a friend who loves it. My PC runs Windows NT for reasons no one out there needs to know. I called their Tech Support. NO SUPPORT FOR NT and they did not even know if it was compatible with WINDOWS 2000. This to me, just shows, poor/lazy software engineers and bad planning for support. Otherwise, the camera itself was pretty cool, if you could hook it up to your household AC and save on batteries.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good, but not quite my expectations
Review: You probobly wont like this review because its coming from an eleven year old. This is a great product, exept for the bateries. Now to an 11 year old, 200 buck is a heck of a lot of money. I know theres those super fancy 1000 doller cameras that are way out of my budget. ( no i didnt get help from my parents writing this review ) I used to have a POS camera called a JamC@m. Believe me, never buy it. Anyway, this camera quite good, but i thought a little to much i guess, cause the pictures were only 640 by 480 pixels. This was quite the disapointment. I still have fun making slide show like movies with the TV port. Oh, and, if you have a mac, dont buy this product. If you are a profetianoa photographer, but dont have tons of money, buy this camera. The little screen on the back of the camera is a little slow though, like if you move the camera fast, the screen will blur. thats all I can think of right now so, i hope this was helpfull.
|
