Customer Reviews

Polaroid i834 Purple 8.0 Megapixel Digital Camera

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I just bought this camera after buying a really expensive one that broke with in the first month. It is really easy to use and great for point and shoot. Hard to find a camera with great zoom for under $150.00. Would definitly recommend for everyday use and for teen's or first time camera buyers. If your a pro photographer obviously this wouldnt work for you. But for the average person, its a great camera.

I work in a college A-V department, for which I've been able to advise on the purchase of high-end digital cameras - Canon pro dSLRs and the like. I bought this little Polaroid primarily as a joke: its bright plastic casing is almost the exact shade of purple as our official school color. The joke has turned out to be a rather pleasant surprise. The 8.0MP i834's image quality is perfectly acceptable for most situations, particularly small print and Web use. Bear in mind that using the camera's settings - such as keeping ISO to 50 or 100 max - and shooting in bright sunlight produce the best quality photos; that's nothing unusual in the point & shoot digicam market. As a professional photographer, I especially appreciate the Polaroid's manual overrides and mostly stick with the shutter-priority mode; aperture priority isn't as useful, since the camera seems to pick only about two or three aperture settings and not always the optimal ones for my situation.

The i843's photos tend to be slightly grainy in shadow areas (the noise looks a lot like film grain, so I don't mind) but certainly capture plenty of detail. Colors generally are bright, vivid and nicely saturated, almost like Fujichrome slide film. Expect well over 700 images (at 8PM, Super Fine settings) per 2GB SD card. Marco mode works well for flower close-ups; framing via the bright 3" LCD is relatively easy but - as is the case with most LCDs - more of a challenge in strong sunlight, where the screen image washes out. The 3x optical zoom lens is fairly standard but offers a good amount of sharpness for this price range.

Operation is quick, although focusing can take longer than anticipated for far-off subject or ones lacking contrast. (Helpful red and green markers appear on the LCD to indicate when focus and exposure are ready for the the photo to be taken.) The flash cycles in a respectable amount of time and is of average brightness. Using rechargeable AAs is the way to go, but since the large LCD eats a lot of power, having several spare Ni-MH AAs on hand will save headaches when out for a day of photo fun. The easy to navigate menus - one of the strong suits of Polaroid's digital cameras - offer tons of features and shooting modes, plus the nice option of color effects after an image has been taken - the camera will make a B&W or Sepia file of a color image, for example. Auto white balance performance works very well in daylight and seems about average in other circumstances. Playback is quick, too, as is deleting unwanted photos. Good control layout on the back puts everything within easy reach.

So, while not top of the line, the Polaroid i834 offers a lot of enjoyment for the price. Judging from other reviews, reliability appears to be dodgy, to say the least, but as of this writing, I can report that after two month of moderate use, the i834 continues to work like a trooper. It's a good fit in the hand, responsive and just all around a blast to take with me. Besides, where else can I find a decent digicam in this shade of grape purple? If the friendly little Polaroid i834 makes folks smile even before I take a shot, I'm ahead of the game already.

I got this camera on my 13th birthday and it works really great. I haven't had any problems with it and there are so many options on the camera to choose from. There is an effects part where you can change the picture to black and white and other colors. A great plus is that there is a setting where the date will show up on the picture. It has a great zoom and the pictures come out in really fine quality. There is a setting on the camera that makes it real easy for beginners to use. I would definetly recommend this camera to anyone who would like a nice and easy camera to take pictures with.

The camera was wonderful at first. I loved the large screen, the ease of use and the pictures were pretty good. But then I realized how quickly it ate batteries and 8 short months after buying it, it died. I have sent it back and not heard anything. I will be camera shopping and will be looking for a new brand.

I purchased this camera from Target in March 2008. I have only taken about 50 pictures. It goes through batteries like crazy. I turned the camera on last week, it beeped, extended the lens, then froze up. Customer service will not return my emails, phone calls or letters and will not give me a refund or repair my camera (because they can't?) since I no longer have a receipt. The pictures are not all that great; but not bad for the price. But since I can't take any more picture with it ... I have since read reviews where over 60% of the commentors have a broken camera with a stuck extended lens and no recourse. :(

We purchased this camera as a Christmas gift and it froze up after 20+ pictures. To our dismay, Polaroid, is charging US to ship it to them to be fixed! The camera isn't even a week old!

I LOVE the color Purple and that was one of the main reasons I purchased and the fact it was Polaroid was also a contributing factor. A GREAT BUY because it's easy to use, takes fantastic pictures and the large display screen is a big plus for me.

I purchased this camera for my 17year old niece for a Christmas present. As with similar stories, the camera is not good! The screen went black, and the lens froze. DO NOT BUY THIS CAMERA! Amazon was very helpful, they gave me phone numbers to call. When the numbers they gave me were not helpful, they refunded my full purchase price. Thanks Amazon!

This is an excellent camera for anyone trying to find out what they want in a camera. The menu offers features that would make a Digital SLR proud. This allows a great deal of experimentation. The controls are straightforward and very intuitive. Which also helps in the learning process.

In use, I have found the camera reliable and fairly rugged (but it is not a sport camera). The camera comes with a great silicone skin that gives a little extra protection from the occasional "unplanned drop test". The optics are very good for a $100 camera. There is very little noise except at high ISO levels.

One nice feature is the dedicated anti-shake button, so image stabilization is available in all modes. Most of the controls are accessed through on-screen menus. The zoom rocker switch is quick and responsive. The macro feature is wonderful. The only real flaw the camera is that the digital zoom can't be permanently disabled, you have to turn it off every time you turn on the camera. If you don't turn it off, the camera goes from optical zoom to digital zoom without any warning. But all-in-all a very good little camera.

If Polaroid made a 12x superzoom that was as good as this, I would buy it tomorrow.

I bought this for my daughter, she loves it. I like it too, I should buy myself one soon before they dont exist no more. If purple is your color, this is the camera for you.