Help I love all the features of the PDR-M4 and it has almost double the pixles. But yet on the test photo's I've looked at, nothing compairs to the A50. Not even the Nikon. Something must be wrong.

Can someone who has used both tell me which is the best one to purchase? I am going to buy one this week. I'd also be interested in any other camera in the $400-$500 range.

Thanks, Mike Kaylor sargo@home.com

-- Mike Kaylor (sargo@home.com), September 06, 1999

Answers

I am trying to decide on the same thing, but I am forcing myself to wait for the Canon S10 which is the replacement for the A50 and will have more features than the PDRM4 like support for the 340 MB IBM Microdrive, yet I am not sure how the new PDR-M5 will compare to the S10 in other ways as I have yet to see much information at all on the PDR-M5. I think you mentioned the important consideration which is of course picture quality, although USB support is a great feature in the PDR-M4.

If I had to buy now, I would go for the A50, it has Optical zoom and goes for as low as $415 compared to the M4 at $487. Those extra pixels aren't too important since I will be using it mostly for posting to a website. Not sure what you will be using your camera for. Only thing I hate is that I have to spend another $100 for AC adapter and battery recharger.

If at all possible I suggest you wait since it definitely looks like the S10 will be the one to have, I just hope it can be found for below $500 when it comes out in about 4 weeks. Anyone know of any generic AC adapters and battery rechargers for the A50/S10. By the way, how does the picture quality Fuji's shirtpocket cams compare to Canon and Toshiba? Anyone?

Email: deprenda AT pair DOT com

-- Michael DePrenda (seethebody@ofthemailmessage.com), September 07, 1999.

About Fuji Mx-2700 vs. Toshiba PDR-M4

My friend has the Fuji; I have the Tosh. (You can see which one I'm going to find better can't you?)

Anyway -- guess what? The Toshiba PDR-M4 images seem to be slightly crisper at default settings. You can see stones & grass on the ground, twigs in the trees, etc. better on the Toshiba printout (same printer, same paper.)

Here's a sample shot from the Toshiba at second-best (8:1 jpeg compression). Best quality is 4:1 compression, but that's twice as big in bytes and no one has the patience anymore....

-bruce

http://members.xoom.com/bkomusin/Image014.jpg

-- bruce komusin (bkomusin@bigfoot.com), September 07, 1999.

I recently bought the m4 and can't locate a spare battery in stock for it. They go for b\t 45 and 80 dollars. I'm ready to bring it back for this reason alone.

-- Mike Jablonski (jabber59@excite.com), December 27, 1999.