Home > Consumer Reviews > Polaroid PDC-700 0.8MP Digital Camera Creative Kit

Pluses: 1 Great price for what you get (Camera, case, software, cables to connect to computer) 2 Picture quality is very good.

Minuses 1 Slow to download to computer. (You can start it loading and leave it alone, though.) I have a very fast computer and could take 30 seconds to dowload a picture from camera. 2 Uses batteries up quickly. You can use up 4 penlites in an hour of heavy use (especially if you use the view-screen on the back - that is what really uses the power up). (Not any different from other digital cameras from what I read.) 3 Very little documentation, not a problem for me, since I wouldn't read anyway, but others may want to read more about it.

NOTE: I searched around and other online retailers had lower prices up front, but after you add shipping and taxes (yes taxes on some sites) you end up paying more than on Amazon. So I bought from Amazon! Plus, Amazon delivered quickly of course, and I don't know how the other guys would do as far as customer service.

Number of pictures: With the 4 megs built in, you can take 12 XGA superfine, 25 XGA fine, 50 XGA normal - 22 VGA superfine, 45 VGA fine, 90 VGA normal.

Extra pictures: It uses CompactFlash Cards. Can buy to add Megs of memory to hold more pics. (approx $ per meg for the CompactFlash cards) Amazon and others also sell these.

I bought the PDC 700 with all kinds of limitations in mind, first and foremost being cost. I was not going to pay over $300 for a digital camera and I wanted the highest resolution for the least amount of money. I found exactly that with the PDC 700. I also bought three Sandisk 16 mb flash cards, a 32 mb flash card, a battery charger and sufficient nimh batteries, and a Datafab compact flash reader (parallel). This last weekend, I started taking pictures of everything around my house and office. EVERY picture I took on medium resolution far surpasses the picture quality I ever had with 35mm SLR cameras. The printed pictures were also fantastic on my Lexmark Z11 printer.... Bottom line, I can take an infinite number of pictures at a wonderful resolution, crop them if necessary using the Photoshop LE look-alike software included with the camera, and print great pictures the quality of which I have never seen before at a wonderfully low price. This camera is indeed a quality product. The only drawback is the case - it is too small for anything but the camera, so I bought a larger camera bag that holds all the accessories.

Polaroid did a pretty good job on this camera. Let's break it down step by step:

ADVANTAGES:

1) 4 MB built-in memory - this is a fair amount compared to other comparable cameras.

2) Compact Flash compatible for adding more memory - Compact Flash cards are relatively inexpensive - it's like film you can use forever! Just drop it in, take the pictures, and when the card fills up, replace it (or use the 4 MB built-in).

3) The LCD display is great. Not choppy - you can even adjust the brightness. It can be turned off to decrease battery drain. Also, immediately after you take a picture, it will display the picture on the LCD (whether you have it on or off) and ask if you want to delete it now? This is great when you take a picture and look at it and immediately know you don't want it.

4) Menu functions. Once you figure it out, the menu is really cool. You change what type of light you will be taking pictures in, you can format the memory, erase all or one picture in the camera, etc.

5) The software is great. You can actually hook your camera up to your computer, and from the software you can change the camera settings without ever touching the camera (you can take a picture, turn on/off the lcd display, change flash formats and picture quality, etc.).

6) Accessories. The kit comes with a TV cable, a nice camera case, a wrist strap, a serial (RS-232) cable for camera-computer connection, BRAND-NAME batteries (that's a shocker - I got Duracell ULTRA with mine), AC Adapter, and software. There is also a USB port as well - I'm going to look into this because serial transfer is SLOW....

DISADVANTAGES:

1) Slow downloads. I have a PII-400 w/ 128MB RAM. Still, I downloaded 15 1024x768 (Fine quality mode - read more about quality modes further down) pictures that I took, and it took almost a minute per picture.

2) There are 2 settings: 1024x768 (they call this XGA), and 640x480 (they call this VGA). Each of these settings also has 3 quality modes (SuperFine, Fine, and Normal). SuperFine is the only one worth taking pictures with. Other modes are grainy.

3) Battery Life. Actually, every digital camera on the face of the earth drains batteries almost instantly - so this really is just a disadvantage among ALL digital cameras. That's why I'm glad this thing came with an AC Adapter. Just be sure to use the AC Adapter whenever you can (especially when you are first playing with it and fooling around with the LCD - that thing REALLY drains batteries!).

4) I wish this thing came with a USB cable. It has a USB OUT on the camera, but it's a tiny little connector and I have no idea what type USB cable to buy for it. Yeah, it comes with a serial cable, but that is SLOW. USB has GOT to be faster.

5) As everyone else has said, NO documentation whatsoever. Just get on the Polaroid website and pull off the product manual - that. Strangely enough, the product manual doesn't come with the camera!

All in all, a GREAT camera. Buy it and you won't be disappointed.

Apart from the fact that the manufacturer failed to give a more in userfriendly manual. It took me a short time to figure out the mechanics of this camera. Once mastered I was surprisingly pleased with the clearity and quality of my shots. The software is realitively easy to use and highly enjoyable. The more I played around the more I was thoroughly satisfied in my choice. In just a few short clicks I had a picture of my horse as wallpaper on my computer. (And it was taken after dark in her stall with low light! ) This is a great alternative than the more pricy cameras designed for professional photographers and is well worth trying out!

This is a very good vlaue for money and the camera comes wiuth some extras that the comparable C200 from HP does not include. Specifically, the AC adapter is a big plus. The matching carrying case makes it even better of a pacakge deal. Make sure you buy rechargables though, and make sure you do not get NiCd batteries as they drain a little too fast to make anyone happy. Either get a four pack of NimH AA batteries and charger for about $27 total (NexCell brand). The unit also has a USB connection that is not documented anywhere at all. Overall, this seems to be a nice package that I've not heard bad things from anyone about.