Toshiba PDR-M70

Switching the mode dial to the Playback position brings up the last picture taken in fullscreen mode. The upper right info is the folder name (101) and the picture number. Lower right is the time and date stamp.

Pressing the Macro button in Play mode brings up the picture exposure data.

Pressing the Macro button a second time brings up the histogram.

Pressing the Mode button toggles the thumbnail display for quick selection of any picture to be displayed in fullscreen mode.

You can Zoom in to the picture by using the Telephoto switch on the zoom lens switch. Once you have zoomed in you can now scroll around the picture using the 4-way jog switch.

Pressing the Menu button while in Play mode displays these options:

• Slide Show - Turn on the slideshow for playback on a TV
• Protect - Select and protect pictures from erasure
• Resize - Select pictures and then downsize them from 2048x1536 to 1024x768
• Quality - Recompress higher quality images to lower quality
• Copy - Copy images between SM cards
• DPOF - Embed printing info on the card
• LCD * - Adjust the LCD backlight (see next frame)

This is the onscreen LCD brightness adjustment screen, it is available in both Play and Record modes.

Steve's Conclusion

Shooting in "Full" size mode, the camera processes and stores an image in less than four seconds but it can snap another picture before the last one is completely processed. This makes the shot-to-shot cycle time about 2 seconds or less. These times are with the flash disabled and in single shot mode.

Switching to Sequence mode is even faster. The PDR-M70 will let you shoot up to eight frames (in Full size) at a rate of about 1.25 frames per second. You then get an onscreen display indicating the eight frames that are buffered in memory and can selectively store or delete any or all of them. This is the first camera that I have seen that his this particular feature.

The PDR-M70 is powered by a proprietary lithium rechargeable battery and comes with a combination charger and AC power supply. The battery is charged in the camera and it takes about five hours to charge if it has been fully depleted. If the color LCD is used sparingly a fully charged battery will give you enough power to shoot about 150 pictures without the flash or about 90 pictures with the flash. It's always a good idea to purchase a second battery as you can't power the camera with "off the shelf" type batteries.

The physical size and design of the PDR-M70 is similar to the Olympus C-3030 Zoom camera. The placement of the mode dial, shutter release, LCD displays, SmartMedia card slot and I/O ports is almost identical. One of the things that I like about the PDR-M70 is the illuminated data display on the top. This makes changing the image size, quality, flash modes or enabling the selftimer a snap, even in the dark. When the camera is powered off the top LCD displays the current time. All of the afforementioned options can be changed with the buttons next to the data display and do not require the use of the color LCD or menu system. You can also change the recording mode without using the menus via the mode dial.

Using the shutter priority or aperture priority mode requires the color LCD and as such it can be a challenge if you're outdoors in the bright sunlight. The manual mode options are easily changed with onscreen prompts and do not require complex or confusing menus. I haven't yet seen a color LCD that is 100% useable in the sunlight and the PDR-M70's is no exception. In all other lighting conditions the LCD is more than ample.

Besides taking excellent still images the PDR-M70 can record full motion video with sound. The capture rate is 15 frames per second at 320 x 240 resolution and movie clips of up to two minutes can be processed in the internal buffer. Some cameras store their video as QuickTime (MOV) format movies the Toshiba creates Windows AVI movies. The optical zoom lens is fully useable in movie mode unlike the Olympus C-3030 that makes you use the digital zoom.

The shutter lag (time between pressing shutter and actually capturing the picture) is somewhat variable. If you do the usual half-press of the shutter and wait for the green focus light it will average about 1.25 seconds. However if you just aim the camera and fully press the shutter it snaps the picture in a little less than a second. I did this many times and it never seemed to misfocus unless the subject lacked the necessary contrast for accurate autofocus in the first place.

I see the PDR-M70 as a well-armed soldier in the three megapixel camera battle. It has plenty of features, lots of speed and better than average image quality. Size and weight considered it is the kind of camera you can take along on all-day outings without fatigue. In automatic mode it is very easy to operate and qualifies as a "no brainer" point-n-shoot that anyone should be able to use. For those who feel like playing with knobs and dials, there's plenty of manual camera features to stimulate your creative side. I think this camera will sell well against the current offerings from Canon, Fuji, Olympus and Nikon.