Toshiba PDR M1

I bought this camera for $185 at a pawn shop several years back. I did not want to invest a lot of money in a high end camera, and felt this would give me some experience with digital cameras before I spent a lot more. It has been a great value for the money, though I have indeed learned a few things to look for in my nexzt camera.

Uses standard AA batteries. I use rechargable NimH batteries, and they have a good life. I like being able to buy batteries anywhere, rather than needing to use a proprietary rechargeable. The camera is a reasonable size. I do a lot of bicycling, and it is small enough to fit in my jersey or hydration pack pocket. As I bought it used, I did not get the connection cable with it. I have not missed it though, as I simply use a card reader on my PC and I don't think it could get too much simpler to retrieve the pictures.

the wheel that selects the operating mode is too easily turned and many times I have found myself not able to take a picture because i did not realize I was in a non- picture taking mode. The camera turns itself off after 3 minutes of inactivity to save battery power. this has occasionally been frustrating while waiting for a shot to come along. Long recycle time between shots, though I understand this is a characteristic of many lower end digitals.

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I bought this camera a few month ago, and i very pleasent with it. It´s a great camera.

It´s a great camera for the price I bought it. It´s compact and small, so everybody think it´s an ordinary camera.

It´s flash is underpower a little. But i experienced no other problems.

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Toshiba's first generation digital camera, the PDR-M1, is a quality 1.5 mega-pixel performer. The images are sharp and well defined, in the many thousands of pictures I have taken over the past year. The camera is light, well made, and has has survived a couple of tumbles on the road, thanks to my little nephew. If you want dependability, and beautiful images, you can't go wrong with this camera.

Sharp, vivid colors come alive with the PDR-M1. Sturdy and well made, this is also a very attractive and light weight camera.

Like many digital cameras, the PDR-M1 is a bit slow. Once you have made the shot, it seems like an eternity before it cycles back to green. That's my only complaint with the Toshiba PDR-M1.

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Bought digital camera at Best Buy store. We researched other cameras and found the Toshiba PDR-M1 the best in not only price range but in picture quality.

Takes good quality pictures close up or at a distance, even when you enlarge pictures, they don't tend to be grainy and the photo cards are more resonable then some of the other type.

Eats batteries up when you have the display on, so you need to take extra along.

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It was the perfect first digital camera for me, but after using some of the more expensive cameras available, a few weaknesses have become apparent to me. But first, the strengths: You can find one of these for a very good price on Ebay or www.Ubid.com. I purchased mine from Ebay for $220 with an extra 16mb smartmedia card. For the price, you get excellent image quality, a very simple interface (operation is a snap), and durability. It is very sturdy and well-built. The weaknesses: It takes a bit of time to focus, so candid shots are more difficult to obtain than I had hoped. The M5 has a button dedicated to switching image size/quality right on its back panel, which I found to be extremely convenient. With the M1, you have to go to the settings menu, which takes a few seconds, swith the settings, go back to picture-mode, which requires the camera to warm-up again, and then take a picture. So in order to switch to another picture size, it requires that you wait a total of about 6-7 seconds before you can shoot another picture (a very very long time when you're trying to actually take a picture of something). Now that I've tried using higher-end cameras, I realize that there is a whole new world of higher-quality, higher-speed digital imaging. But the point is that within its price range, the PDR-M1 is still excellent. It is also a bit power hungry, I usually go through 4AA's every 50 pictures or so. Otherwise, if you're looking to start playing with digital photography, this is a good place to start. I'm planning on giving mine to my nieces when I upgrade (it's that sturdy and simple to use).

Decent Low-light sensitivity. Very easy to use. Very good fit and finish. Good image quality for the price.

Must go into set-up mode to change image quality/size settings. Lack of internal rechargeable battery. Lack of Optical zoom. Lack of USB support.

Toshiba PDR-M5 Kodak DC260 Olympus C2020

Have not tested it yet.