Toshiba PDR-4300

Opinion: The camera has nice optics and included accessories, but it had trouble focusing and is also very very slow at everything, such as focusing, start up, shot to shot. Also it's pretty big for a small camera and pretty hefty. Also, the separate lens cap switch is a real pain.

Opinion: Great camera for its price.

Opinion: Picked up the PDR-4300 as an open box item at Fry's for only $150. Camera comes with remote, USB cable, A/V cable, Manual, and software on CD.

I was missing included CD, but Windows XP fully recognizes the 4300 when hooked up via USB without needind to install any drivers.

The 4300 is a 4MP camera with a 2.8x optical zoom. It has digital zoom, but I never touch it so I cannot recall how much it is.

The 4300 stores all images in JPG format.

The 4300 has an extensive manual control letting you control exposure, white balance, aperture, and shutter speed.

Other handy features are a histrogram, recording (no sound), and picture timer (2sec/10sec).

One special HIDDEN feature is an option to change the 4300's default White balance setting in manual mode. Which with the help of a Pringles lid/ White card gets rid of those red indoor rooms and outdoor purple skys!
***NOTE*** This is overwrites the default setting in manual mode you'll have to set white balance yourself every time in manual mode yourself. It does not effect white balance in auto-mode at all.
To change white balance default go into WB setting in manual modes and press down on the control "stick". You'll hit the end of the menu, but keep holding the stick and a new option to set your own manual white balance will appear!

The image quality difference is AMAZING when you set your own white balance. I have white walls in my house now. :)

Opinion: This is my 3rd camera, and is the worst one by far. It takes horrible pictures indoors, and it takes the worst macro shots I've ever seen. Not to mention its the size and weight of a brick.

The only 3 things going for it is that it cost $200cdn on boxing day, it has decent manual settings and I can leave it in the car and not care if it gets stolen.

Opinion: Overall the camera would be good for someone starting out. The auto focus is fairly good. The camera has a good feel to it, and its menu system is easy to learn. For someone looking for a camera a step up from a total point and shoot, it's a winner.

Opinion: This is only the second digital camera I've owned. The camera is extremely easy to use and it has features that are usually only found on cameras costing hundreds more. I like being able to hook it up to the TV for reviewing photos when a PC isn't handy. It also has fairly good manual functionality. I would have preferred if it used CF media, SD is too small. Although the colours may not be as natural as the Canon A300 I had, the Canon images were always underexposed. Battery life seems reasonable, I take about 100 photos with flash and the LCD on using NiMH batteries. I bought the camera new for $249CDN

Opinion: I have real mixed feelings about this camera. I bought one on sale for $399 cdn which is a great price for a 4.0 mp camera with these features. I ended up taking it back after 2 weeks because in the final analysis it just didn't live up to my expections.

This is basically a decent camera but two things about this camera bothered me. First, I hated the fact that one must first open the built-in mechanical lens cover and then power up the camera. I also think that the lens cover mechanism feels cheap.

Secondly, and most importantly, I noticed that the blue sky in all the pictures I took have a slight purple tint. When looking at pictures taken with the Toshiba, the purple tint is not immediately noticable but it becomes noticable when compared to pictures taken by other cameras. I ended up taking identical pictures with the Toshiba 4300, my own Canon A10 (1.3 mp) and a friend's Minolta S414 (4 mp). I had 4 x 6 prints made of all the pictures and in side by side comparisions, while the pictures from all three of the cameras were generally excellent, the purple tint from the Toshiba was obvious.

To be fair to this camera, it does have a great set of features, appears to be fairly well constructed, is quite easy to learn to operate and generally takes excellent pictures. If one is not concerned about the two things that bothered me, then this camera is an excellent value.

One other thing that I noticed is that the movie clips taken with this camera are without sound, and compared to those taken with my friend's Minolta S414, vastly inferior. This aspect of a digital camera is not real important to me personally but to anyone wanting decent movie capability, well, this just might not be the camera for you.

All in all the Toshiba 4300 is a decent camera, especially considering its price, but it does have its flaws.

Samples can be found at http://www.pbase.com/brian55/toshiba_pdr4300

Opinion: This is my first camera, I was going after long search to buy the A60 from Canon, but for 2 reasons I choose the PDR4300, the price was the same and the 4300 got 4Mb pixels instead of 2Mb for the A60. After 2 weeks, I am able to manipulate all fonctions, the manual is complete.
Pics are really nice but in interior, red look dominant color!
1 big bad thing, the memory is in the same place as battery compartiments and the door looks very fragil...
For a first camera at low cost and comparable options for this branch ,I am very satisfy for now..!