A Very Competent Camera
Written: Oct 14 '02 (Updated Sep 06 '05)
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Pros: Beautiful resolution; very easy to use; fast USB load times; small size; excellent macro feature
Cons: Long shutter lag in auto mode; long lag between pictures
The Bottom Line: Excellent quality images at a good price. The camera can be set for foolproof automatic use and also has lots of manual settings.
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| pvreditor's Full Review: Toshiba PDR-M81 Digital Camera |
Toshiba's digital camera line is the best-kept secret in the business. Although several magazines have reviewed various Toshiba cameras and praised them highly, everyone seems surprised to see me use a Toshiba PDR-M81.
I bought this camera in November 2001 for about $600. In addition, I purchased a 128 MB SmartMedia card and three sets of NiMH rechargeable batteries. (I always carry a freshly charged set of batteries with me.)
The PDR-M81 comes with a ridiculously small 8 MB SmartMedia card, good for holding about seven images at the highest resolution. This is not unusual among digital cameras, though... all manufacturers ship cameras with far too little memory.
The camera has an optical viewfinder that is tied to the 2.8x zoom lens, so the image in the viewfinder will change as you use the zoom. The PDR-M81 also has a 1.8-inch diagonal LCD screen. Although having the screen is handy (and you have to use it for macro shots), it barely shows a fraction of the camera's resolution.
The camera uses four AA batteries. As I mentioned, I use NiMH rechargeables but it's nice to know I can buy a set of alkalines at 7-11 and pop them in if necessary.
I have taken more than a thousand pictures with this camera and more than 100 have been published in the magazine for which I work. (In one issue alone, 32 pictures I took were published!)
Several of the pictures that I took with this camera are on my Yahoo image site at http://photos.yahoo.com/pvreditor. A couple of the pictures on this site were taken with my old Toshiba PDR-M1, but most were taken with the PDR-M81. Of course, the Yahoo image site will only show you low-resolution versions of these pictures but this gives you some idea of the color rendition and exposure range.
The PDR-M81 is small enough for me to easily carry in a little fanny pack and I use it (the camera and fanny pack) for both personal and professional photography. At the normal quality settings, I get about 125 pictures on the 128 MB SmartMedia card... not bad for 2400 x 1600 pixel images!
The camera is rated at 4.2 megapixels but the arithmetic works out to 3.84 megapixels. Other manufacturers play similar confusing games with these numbers.
The 2.8X zoom lens is barely adequate but it is better than no zoom lens. The camera is okay -- but not terrific -- in low light. Some of this is because of the small lens that it uses... it simply can't collect much light with such a small lens.
The PDR-M81's lens has an excellent macro capability. You can get beautiful images of flowers and other small objects with this camera. Just the other day, I took a really nice picture of -- of all things -- a Corvette cylinder head using the macro setting on the PDR-M81. The resolution is outstanding and the picture is quite artistic.
I get about 150 shots or so on a battery recharge. If I use the LCD monitor and flash more often, it reduces the battery life. Alkalines seem to last a bit longer than my rechargeable NiMH batteries.
The PDR-M81 does not have a hot shoe, so you're stuck with the built-in flash. The built-in flash is positioned such that it can create big, ugly shadows behind the subject of your picture, depending on the situation. The flash does have an effective red-eye setting and works beautifully in many situations. It does a very nice job of filling shadows in bright sun photographs and the light quality of the flash blends well with sunlight.
I often use the camera's USB port to load images into my computer and it works quickly. Just the other day, I loaded about 70 pics (at an average of 950 KB each) in about two minutes. Now that I have upgraded my camera's firmware to Version 1.13, I can use an external USB SmartMedia reader; initially, the Toshiba's file system was not compatible with most SmartMedia readers. I downloaded Version 1.13 of the firmware from Toshiba's Web site and installed it in my PDR-M81. Installation was not difficult, but it reset my manual settings back to the factory defaults. This was not a big deal, however.
Now that I've gained some experience with the camera, I find myself switching among the various focus options. For a long time, I used the camera only in autofocus mode. This works well, except that it is slow; it seems to take forever to take pictures, although it is probably just 2-3 seconds. The problem is that the camera has to do some calculations to adjust the focus and then take the picture.
By setting the camera to one of its manual focus modes (1 meter, 3 meters and infinite), the PDR-M81 takes the picture MUCH faster. It's not instantaneous, but it is no more than one or two tenths of a second.
The infinite setting is perfect for outdoor sporting events in the daylight. The three-meter setting is ideal for flash use, as the flash has maximum effectiveness at three meters.
The one-meter setting is really good for shots where you want to be close without using the flash. If you want to get really close, there is a macro setting. However, the macro setting puts you back to automatic lens focus, as the camera calculates the correct focus.
Okay... a synopsis: The Toshiba PDR-M81 is a very compact, lightweight, high-resolution, point-and-shoot digital camera that takes pictures well beyond the minimum needed for most professional publication applications. Prints made on my Epson 780 printer are excellent.
Since the camera is so small and compact, it is easy to carry with me and I get shots that big cameras often don't get. The PDR-M81 could use a better lens but then it is built to be a high-resolution point-and-shoot camera. It works very well in this regard.
Don't ignore Toshiba when it comes to considering digital cameras.
July 20, 2004 Update:
I now must have taken more than 50,000 pictures with this camera and it is still working well, although I'm starting to get the itch for a fancier, eight-megapixel camera. On one 10-day trip alone, I took more than 1,000 pics with this Toshiba camera. In one three-hour span when Ronald Reagan's casket carried to the Capitol for a state funeral, I took 135 pictures. I have now had more than 400 pictures published, including a couple dozen in a glossy car magazine.
The macro-focus feature on the PDR-M81 is superb and takes the most amazing pictures. By very carefully setting the focus and using the zoom judiciously, I have composed some very nice pictures with this camera. Yes, it is a point-and-shoot camera, but climbing the learning curve for its advanced features has rewarded me with some fine pictures.
After 2.5 years of very heavy use, I still like the Toshiba PDR-M81 and it still works well.
Sept 6, 2005 Update:
Although I bought a new camera nearly a year ago and it has received extensive use, I still have the Toshiba and use it occasionally. Last week, my fancy new camera had a problem, so I sent it back to the manufacturer. Meanwhile, I had a couple of pictures to take for an article I'm working on. Therefore, I broke out the Toshiba and took a couple of really good pictures, which will all hopefully be published.
This has been a very reliable and good-quality camera... I still recommend it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 600
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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