A couple days ago I went and got something I’ve wanted for awhile: a sub-hundie basic digicam that would fulfill my personal directive never to be anywhere without an image capture device.
I’ve been making due and good on that promise with my phonecam, but it’s last resort, at best. Not that we’re deficient in digital cameras. Hell no, we’ve got the Canon Rebel digital and the Canon G4 (currently in the shop after I dropped it last week) and even the Canon ZR200 DV camera (do ya think I like Canons?), which takes stills as well. But none of them have that pocket-it-and-go capability.
Enter the Polaroid PDC5080 as found on the front page of Target’s insert in the Sunday L.A. Times. For $88 you get 5.1 megapixels in a pocket-sized 3.5″ wide by 2.5″ tall by 1.25″ deep package… and not much else. Sure it’s got an LCD display on the back and a flash and its SD memory card-compatible and runs on 2 AA batteries and is capable of stills and video (with rudimentary sound), but fancy and feature-rich it is not.
And that’s fine with me. Sure enough when I hit the Eagle Rock Target they were out of them, but the Burbank store still had three in stock and I made a beeline and got mine.
Not surprisingly, it doesn’t take the best pictures in the world, and certainly not when attempting to utilize its 4X digital zoom. Plus its slow turning on and there’s an ungodly delay after you snap the shutter while it saves the image. But all that is all right. For $88 a got what a cam I can shove in my pocket and roll for a lot less than I expected to pay.
Here’s links to trio of snaps during the dog walk yesterday that give you an idea of what it can do:
• http://static.flickr.com/31/102769235_4410a7debf_b.jpg
• http://static.flickr.com/41/102769234_77a13eb8f3_b.jpg
• http://static.flickr.com/25/102769233_dd343b410c_b.jpg
Follow