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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 6 reviews
- See all user reviews
Product summary
The good: Fast 10X zoom lens; excellent 2.5-inch LCD; high-speed continuous-shooting mode; full range of manual exposure adjustability; live histogram.
The bad: Noisy images; automatic white balance often produces blue cast; slow start-up and shot-to-shot times.
The bottom line: We like the great big LCD and the manual exposure adjustability on this megazoom model, but its so-so image quality is frustrating.
Specifications: Digital camera type: Full body ; Resolution: 3.2 megapixels ; Optical zoom: 10 x ; See full specs
Price range: $14.95 check prices
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 12/19/2003
- Released on: 07/03/2003
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 The power switch, the shutter release, and the simple mode dial are all you'll find on the camera top. |
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Decked out in a mostly plastic, champagne-colored finish, the mini-SLR-shaped M700 has a classic look, "like a real camera," as one traditionalist commented. The solid build and the rubberized finger grip gives the model a well-balanced feel when you're shooting, and it will add only about 14 ounces to your bag--fairly light considering that includes four AA batteries and a memory card.
Camera functions are easy enough to figure out, but the process isn't entirely intuitive. Occasionally it feels more like you're operating a computer than a camera. Though the mode dial on top allows you to quickly select basic functions, access to most settings is split between one menu system that you access via the Menu button and a second one that you call up with the OK button. Remembering where settings are located and getting to them efficiently is a process that takes some time to master.
 The Menu and OK buttons call up separate menu systems on the LCD. The arrow buttons let you adjust exposure quickly. |
 You can display image information in playback mode with the i button or use it to activate the self-timer or included remote control in capture mode. |
On the other hand, we really appreciate the control layout when shooting in manual capture mode. Depending on your selected exposure mode, you use the arrows on the four-way controller to adjust aperture, shutter speed, or both. In automatic mode, the arrows let you apply exposure compensation. An onscreen data display and a live histogram provide real-time exposure guidance. And when you're composing on the big LCD, there's plenty of real estate for displaying all the info.
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 The M700 comes with a 16MB starter SD card, so put a larger-capacity one on your shopping list. |
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The Canon-made, all-glass, f/2.8-to-f/3.1 10X zoom lens is unquestionably this camera's biggest selling point. Given the absence of any image stabilization technology, that relatively wide f/3.1 maximum aperture at the telephoto end (equivalent to 370mm in 35mm-camera terms) is particularly handy since it lets you use faster shutter speeds to help reduce camera shake. But even with the fast lens, you'll likely notice jostling when you zoom all the way in. When shooting, keep an eye out for the shaking-hand icon, which adjusts with the focal length, providing a helpful reminder to crank up your shutter speed or grab a tripod.
Other highly touted features include the 2.5-inch LCD and a high-speed continuous-shooting mode (more on that in the Performance section). Exposure is fully adjustable via programmed, aperture-priority, shutter-priority, and manual modes, and you can select center-weighted or spot metering. Budding video directors can shoot 15fps, 320x240-pixel movies with sound, limited in length by only the space available on your SD card. The camera even has an input for an external mike to capture better-quality sound.
In the box, you'll find a handy infrared remote control and an adapter ring for attaching 52mm lens converters and filters. However, avid shutterbugs should note the absence of a hotshoe or an external flash terminal, as well as the M700's inability to save uncompressed TIFF or RAW files.
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 You can power the M700 with four AA batteries or two CRV3s. |
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The extralarge 2.5-inch LCD offers quality as well as quantity: it's clear, colorful, and accurate, even in bright sunlight. From the opening, customizable splash screen to the animated closing shutter shown when you snap a photo, you're reminded that this is no ordinary screen.
And although you'd expect the big screen to take a lot out of your batteries, our test unit held up quite well. With four rechargeable nickel-metal-hydride AA cells, we captured 1,060 shots with the LCD on and the flash firing half the time. You can improve on that by using the EVF instead, although it doesn't provide the battery-saving help that an optical viewfinder would have. Another strategy is to press and hold the Display button that you use to toggle between the LCD and EVF; this puts the camera into sleep mode so that you can conserve battery power without shutting down. We had mixed feelings about that EVF. In moderately bright and even light, it's serviceable, though its coverage is a bit limited. But in very bright or dim light, the LCD is far, far superior.
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 The M700 has an electronic viewfinder instead of an optical one, which shortens its maximum possible battery life a bit. |
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The M700's fancy opening splash takes time; you'll need more than 7 seconds to power up and snap a shot. In good lighting conditions, the shutter lag is typically on the long side at nearly a second. You'll need to deal with a slightly lengthier delay when shooting with flash, which can be a problem when you're shooting a candid portrait of your friends, or when attempting to focus and shoot in dim light, as there is no autofocus assist lamp. At more than 4 seconds and close to 5 with flash, shot-to-shot time is sluggish. We liked the high-speed continuous mode, though our test results were closer to 3.5fps than the 4fps that Toshiba advertises.
Inconsistent image quality is the biggest mark against the M700. Exposures were sometimes questionable; for example, the camera would often expose for the sky in cityscapes, leaving most of the image in shadow. This was doubly upsetting due to the higher-than-average noise levels visible in many of our images, especially in darker areas. Focus was unreliable as well; the camera often had difficulty with mildly challenging scenes.
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Although images look pretty clean at ISO 70 and ISO 100, the already mediocre sharpness and detail become muddied by noise at ISO 200 and ISO 400. |
What's more, photos taken with automatic white balance in natural light often had a bluish cast. Manually setting the white balance sometimes helped, but our results were inconsistent. We found image detail and sharpness acceptable, if not particularly good. The camera's default sharpness processing appears to be set fairly high, although that is adjustable. You might find a more acceptable sharpness-to-noise ratio by experimenting.
Our wide-angle images occasionally revealed minor barrel distortion, though we found no evidence of pincushion effects at the telephoto end.
User reviews
- Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 6 reviews
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
Toshiba PDR-M700:
