Customer Reviews

Polaroid PDC 640 Plus Digital Camera Creative Kit 8MB SmartMedia Card

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

High quality, reasonably priced camera. Could wish for brighter display outside. Easy to use. Recommend to also get the FlashPath adapter for computer (makes it easier and faster). Good buy for the money.

This camera is very easy to use. You can select different picture quality. I use it a lot to put picture on my website and find this camera very handy. Little problem, you cannot see the picture in the little screen if the light outside is too bright and the batteries doesn't last long. This is a great camera.

Keep in mind while your reading my review that this is my first digital camera so, i have nothing to compare it to.

*QUALITY OF PICTURES*
When I first got the camera I took a picture of my friends tattoo. I had it set to the highest level of quality, and enlarged it a bit before printing. From far away the print out looked very detailed and clear. But if you take a close look you can see that it is quite blurry, although it's not very noticable at first glance. If you want to get this camera I recomend it for web site and sending pictures through e-mail only. Don't replace your film camera with it, because the quality isn't as good.

*PROBLEMS*
-The batteries will go dead rapidly. You can only have it left on for about half an hour at a time, before they're completely dead and need rest.
-The photo editing software that came with the camera gave me problems. It worked for about a week, and then it wouldn't let me download pictures, let alone edit them.

*PERKS*
-Download time is considerably fast, it takes about 30 seconds per picture.
-It has an option where you can display your pictures on your TV (although I have tried numerous times and never have gotten it to work)
-It has a tripod socket, allowing you to take less blurry pictures because the camera will be still (doesn't come with the tripod though)
-It has 3 distance settings, allowing you to shoot anywhere from .5 ft through 10 ft.
-It has 4 image quality seetings. With the lowest quality you can store 330 pictures, and with the highest you can store 45 images.
-It has 4 flash settings. No flash, Red eye reduction, Autoflash, and Fill flash (which fires for every single picture.
-It has a self timer.
-It has an LCD screen, which allows you to look at all, or just one of the pictures you have previously taken. If you don't like how it turned out you can delete it to make room for other pictures.

All in all I think this camera is well worth the money if your a beginer looking to have some fun with a camera. I only use this camera if I am making a web page, sending pics through e-mail, or taking a picture I know I am going to need 3 or 4 copies of. But for the rest of the time I use my old fashioned film camera.

I purchase the Polaroid PDC640 about 6 months ago. It replaced my former Kodak DC200.I wasnt wanting to spend more then 200.00 on the camera itself because I also wanted to order a smartcard reader and an extra smartcard....I chose this camera because I knew it came with an AC adapter,LCD,smartcard,TV cable,PC Cable, and a camera case.Upon getting the camera I was very happy.I must say I was very impressed with the qaulity for the price.I often print photos of my son that I take with the camera and they turn out pretty great! The camera is light and durable. It does about average on batteries. ( All digital cameras have a tendancy to eat batteries if they have a LDC).It also features a timer so that if you want to take a family picture you can run and get in it too. I would reccomend this camera to someone that doesnt want to spend alot on a digital camera but still wants the luxury of having a nice looking camera that takes great shots.

However just a word of advice, when buying ANY digital camera be sure to pick up a smart card or flash card reader, transfering pictures via the PC cable and using software takes forever.With the readers its just like sticking in a floppy disk and they only cost about $25....

I actually got two of these (one was a gift) so I returned the other. I read the reviews below and started using this camera with some doubt based on a few of the reviews. I needn't have doubted. This is a great little camera.

First, to address some of the negative reviews. The camera is not a battery hog. It does, however, give that illusion since the battery metter reads empty well before the batteries are actually drained. If you use the batteries with the built in tester the batteries still register a near full charge even though the meter reades low. Just keep using the camera until it doesn't flash and only then change the batteries.

Picture quality is very good. When printing, as with any photo, be sure to use photographic paper and use the settings the paper recommends. If you don't use a good paper and the correct settings (the printer won't set itself) the picture will look grainy. But that goes for any photo from any camera. Also, take the pictures with the highest resolution setting, not the default setting.

The pluses for this camera when compared to others in this class are the macro settings, the large number of photos that will fit on the SmartMedia, the four mode flash, the four resolution settings, the optical and LCD view finders, the second LCD screen for settings, the video cord for displaying your pictures on a TV and the included photo software.

I think some of the negative reviews come from people that expect this camera to compare to a [$] camera. Well, it's not a [$] camera but, compared to cameras in this price range, it's a champ.

Just received this camera for Christmas and I love it! I happen to have a alkaline battery charger that I can use for the ones that came with the camera. I may purchase the other type rechargables later though.I personally like having the AC adapter to use for inhome use, as it saves batteries. I like the quality of the pictures. At first some were too dark, no matter what I did with the lighting, till I moved the lens selecting button to the middle or to the far right. Now the pictures are very nice. I don't care for the software program that is supplied. I want to save my pictures onto floppy disks and don't like how I have to do that with the "Photo Max Image Maker", so I use Paint Shop Pro for saving. Also, had a bit of trouble getting the "PC" message in the status panel and the beep when hooking up to transfer the images from camera to the album the first time. But once I got that hurddle crossed, it IS easy. I like that the pictures are already .jpg compressed for easy use in emailing. Although the manual leaves a lot to be desired, I highly recommend this camera kit, as the price is good, the camera is easy to use, and the picture quality is very good.

I just purchased this camera for my daughter. I wanted something inexpensive but with a lot of features and decent quality pictures. This camera has surprised me by being better than any of us expected. I own a 3.3 megapixel Canon that I payed a substantial amount of money for. This polaroid has ALL the features the canon has except zoom. Features it has like lcd VIEWFINDER/display, video out, macro, 4 photo quality selections, tripod mount etc. are usually not available anywhere near this price range. Another nice feature is everything you need is supplied. I had to pay quite a bit for an ac adapter for the canon. As everyone knows, an ac adapter is a NECESSITY with a digital camera since they all consume batteries FAST!

What has amazed me most about this camera is the quality of the pictures. I had serious reservations about a camera with only 640 X 480 resolution, but in the highest mode the pictures are a lot nearer my 3.3 megapixel pictures than I expected them to be. In fact, the color is great and the resolution is very good, without the grainy look I expected. Without tweaking them in the computer, we even printed my daughter's pictures out in 4X6 on photo paper and they are great! We put them in the photo album.

The only drawback I have found is the battery life. My daughter took 11 pictures then the batteries died. This may be because she used the lcd display with every shot, but why have it if you don't use it? There is a battery monitor that tells you the charge left, which is a nice feature.

My only suggestions about possible add ons to this camera are a card reader, which made transfers easy and avoided using the slow serial cable, and also RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES WITH A CHARGER. You can get them so cheaply now there's really no reason to hesitate.

All in all, this is a super camera! In fact, I'm going to get one for myself to use as an extra camera. At this price, why not?

I bought this camera as a Christmas gift for a family member. It is well worth the price paid. It is very easy to use and it's also easy to download pictures to a PC (once you install the software and realize you must first turn off your computer before connecting the camera - then turn on the camera, followed by turning on the computer). The TV connection is very helpful in selecting pictures to keep and those to delete. It is also nice to take to family gatherings and take the small TV connector with you to share your pictures with your family. It's a lot of fun to manipulate your pictures with the various options available on the software.

I am a long time analog (Flim) photographer. I think the PDC640 is an excellent "first time" digital camera. One feature that is very much welcomed is its capacity. It holds a lot of pictures. They are very easy to download and it has proven to be very durable. I take a lot of nature shots, so I have it with me on the trails. The only thing I could ask for is higher resolution, but everyone I have shared the images with is very pleased with the results. It is not a waste of time or money folks.

For the price, this camera is inexpensive and easy to use. The tech support at Polaroid is helpful if you have any problems and the website is useful as well. I use this camera for auctions and taking pictures of family members. It eats batteries quickly, and the flash takes a long time to get ready. The picture quality however, is very good. It doesn't look cheap or feel cheap, which is important for making a purchase like this. The good news too is that the price will be going down as with all new technology. You can't go wrong with this camera.