Toshiba PDR-M70 3.2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

by Toshiba

Product Details

Product Manual [1.91mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 2.4 x 4.6 x 3 inches ; 13.3 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004TBDI
• Item model number: PDR-M70
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,433 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 20, 2000

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

With its brushed-aluminum body and high-tech features, Toshiba's PDR-M70 digital camera offers professional photographic quality in an easy-to-use design. It has an advanced 3.37-megapixel CCD, capable of recording 2048 x 1536 pixel images. With the 3x optical zoom and 2x digital zoom, the PDR-M70 can produce sharp color images with little hassle or editing.

The Toshiba PDR-M70 gives you advanced photographic controls, including two levels of recording images. Shutter speeds can be set from 1/2 second to 1/1000 of a second, while the camera's five-mode flash system is easily adjusted to any lighting condition up to 13 feet from the subject. It offers autofocus and macro focus with a slower shutter speed and includes a built-in dioptric corrector to focus the viewfinder to the user's eyesight.

An exciting movie function capable of recording up to four minutes of video with audio keeps your friends and family up to date. These videos are excellent for e-mail attachments, documentation, demonstrations, or Web pages. The PDR-M70 provides fast connection to your PC or Mac via USB at 12 Mbps, or about one high-resolution image every three seconds.

Accessories include a 16 MB SmartMedia card, lithium-ion battery, AC adapter, USB and video cables, neck strap, soft case, lens cap, CD-ROM, and optional filter-ring adapter for 52mm optical filters or lens covers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great value camera, September 20, 2000

By 

R. Stauber "Bob_NJ" (Mt. Holly, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Toshiba PDR-M70 3.2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

This camera should satisfy all but high demand users. It can be used out of the box (after a battery charge) but I recommend you read the manual to get full use of the camera.

I spent about a month checking out many reviews on digital cameras and came to the conclusion that the Toshiba M70 was the best for the money. The only other camera that seemed as or perhaps a bit better was the Olympus 3000/3030, but they were $100/$300 more when the rebate is included. Everything you need is in the box, assuming you have a USB port and run WIN98 or higher. This camera can be used as a point and shoot or in AE or Shutter Priority. Even manual is avbl, but not explained in the well written manual, you must read from the toshiba page of FAQ for how to set this up.

I checked out Technical Support ahead of time and they answered their phone in a reasonable amount of time, with only 1 voice mail option. The people on the other end were very helpful even though I had not yet purchased. I called back after the purchase and got the same response.

I/ve only had the camera a couple days but have tested it quite a bit and pictures are high quality. Printing on a Canon 620, the print quality of 5 x 7 was excellent (supposedly I should be able to print up to 8 x 10 but have not yet tried.) TIFF is not available but the best quality JPG on the camera gave the high quality pictures I wanted.

If you are looking for professional reviews and opinions go to megapixel.net They are one of the best digital camera review sites I have found.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Toshiba PDR-M70 -mostly praise!, October 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Toshiba PDR-M70 3.2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

This is a nice camera with good photo quality. Easy to use - even my "non-photographer and not interested" husband is snapping dozens of fantastic shots every day. I take mostly outdoor scenery and this compares in quality to my 35mm Pentax K1000 manual photos. The choice of an uncompressed mode would have been great, but for most photos I can't see the need. In fact, the difference between the full(2048x1536pixel) and half(1024x768)is not noticeable for most photos printed at 8x10 on Epson stylus color 600. In photos with lots of flat blue sky some slight effects of JPEG compression can be seen - even at 5x7(sky looks sl grainy rather than perfectly smooth). Also, shooting indoors under incandescent light, my grey cats were brown - easily corrected with photo software, and maybe I need to try different settings on the camera. Also, for some reason the photos print horribly with Adobe Photo Deluxe 3.0, which probably is more an Adobe problem than a camera problem. The Image Expert software that was shipped with the camera is easy to use and gives great prints. (An upgrade allowing more neat stuff like "cloning" & a panorama feature would be nice.) Outdoor macro mode gave me some great sharp photos of Mountain Holly berries & leaves and Blue Gentian even with the wind blowing! What more could I ask? Well, maybe...It would be great if the camera came with the lens adapter so you could screw on a UV lens as protection for the main lens, AND a sturdier camera case. I have ordered both(the adapter is on backorder). A 32 or 64 MB smartmedia is also a necessity and an extra battery pack is a good idea. And last, but in my case not least, why aren't there more "splash resistant" cameras available? The only one I found was Kodak DC5000 which unfortunately seems to have some quality control problems (mine was defective out of the box as was one my son in law purchased around the same time). All things considered, the PDR-M70 is a nice, easy to use camera which gives good quality photos and has some whistles that I haven't tried yet (like video & sound).

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great camera if the light is right, January 6, 2001

By 

Michael Willing (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toshiba PDR-M70 3.2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

I have had the PDR-M70 for a few months now and overall I have been impressed with both its ease of use and picture quality. I take most of my pictures on the smaller size, highest quality setting and have had excellent results, even when enlarging to an 8x10 (that is if you go to Walgreens and print at the Kodak kiosk). The camera is probably the most user-friendly of all the digital I looked at because most of the features you would want to use are set up to be accessible like those on a standard film-containing camera. I have 2 complaints, however, which have prompted me to want to send the camera back because they are significant. First, the battery has an extremely short life, even without the LCD on. Plan on 50 pictures without using the LCD and 15-20 at best if the screen is on. For such a good camera otherwise, how could they ship it with such a bad battery. Second, it cannot focus in dim light or at night. I have tried every manual setting possible to get the camera to focus in low light (i.e. in a house at night with one light on in the room) and unless you are pointing at the most well-lit subject, the camera will not focus and the image comes out blurry. If you are planning to take pictures at evening parties and you like to point and shoot, this camera probably will not work for you, even in the auto-focus mode. This is very unfortunate because the Nikon Coolpix 990 and Olympus C-3030 (comparable cameras) do this well and would be better alternatives.