Toshiba PDR-M61

Toshiba thought this digital camera would be cheap, easy to use and give good results. It doesn't quite make it.

Anybody who considers switching from 35mm to digital photography wants a camera that is easy to use, relatively cheap and offers results on a par with 35mm film. Toshiba's PDR-M61 is intended to be ideal.

The PDR-M61's manual says ease of use is a key feature but this is belied by the fact that all the information needed for set-up is buried in the supplied CD-ROM.

It also appears compulsory to use Toshiba's transfer and image-viewing software, which was too awkward and inflexible for our liking, especially for first-timers. The zoom lens also obscures part of the viewfinder, which is annoying.

In its favour, the included 8Mb SmartMedia card can store between seven and 112 images, depending on resolution and compression settings. Most users will be satisfied with a maximum resolution of 1792 x 1200, which gives around 14 images on the 8Mb card. For bargain hunters, Toshiba is throwing in a 16Mb SmartMedia card for free while stocks last.

For the price, the Toshiba has a lot to offer. It's fast - the shutter resets within two seconds and it can transfer images to a PC quickly, thanks to its USB connection. There are many of the features you find on more expensive digital cameras nowadays too. Among them is a 3x optical zoom, a 1.8in LCD screen, manual exposure control, close-up focusing and white balance controls.

There's no escaping the fact that the most important thing to novice users is image quality, however. We were disappointed with the results using a flash, which lacked sharpness and produced dull colours.

Pictures taken outside were a considerable improvement, though. Images captured were clear, even using the zoom on an overcast day.

Toshiba's attempt to persuade novices to switch to digital photography, while impressive, just doesn't hit home enough to be a prize-winning purchase. Using the camera should have made us want to point, shoot and print. It didn't. We were left shooting off for a pint instead.

Contact
Toshiba: 01932 828828 www.toshiba.co.uk

ALSO CONSIDER

KODAK DX3500
An excellent general-purpose camera.
£300 ****
Reviewed in Computeractive, Issue 88