I'm looking for a new camera to replace my DC-210 (god rest her soul. 17 months, and 2600 shots later; she's about to be sold). I've been looking pretty hard at the Toshiba PDR-M5, but haven't seen much information about it. By far the most important thing to me is image quality/accuracy. Next would be speed of shots, next would be tinkering. Low-light shots always annoyed me too. The use? Crazy enthusiast who loves to be cutting edge.

First I was pretty solid about going to grab a CoolPix 950. Then I saw the MX-2900 (no RAM? Ugh. 640x480 Continuous? Slow lens?), then I looked at the Olympus 2000Z (not bad!). The Toshiba PDR-M5 intrigued me however, so I'm looking for anyone here who has experience with it (or can point me to any reviews, I've only seen one on Steves), especially compared to the CoolPix 950.

Why not the CoolPix 950? It's design reminds me of a cross between the old DC20 I had and a QV10 I've used. A little old fashioned (but it works). The CoolPix 950 is heading toward 6 months of age, whereas the PDR-M5 has been shipping for about two weeks now. I also wanted something with USB. I'm probably not going to be the most hardcore tinkerer, so some of the advantages of the CP950 over the PDR-M5 are lost on me (some I'm not sure about).

One thing I wish the PDR-M5 used was CompactFlash, it just seems weird to me that SmartMedia is getting some of the better cameras. (am I missing something?). I also wish it had an uncompressed TIFF mode, but I can manage. External flash capability would of been nice, but probably won't be made use of by me anyhow.

Any ideas, suggestions, comments, or flames welcome!

-- Thomas Stromberg (tstromberg@rtci.com), October 12, 1999

Answers

The m5 can't take external flash. The lens lets in half as much light as say the oly 2000, perhaps not good for low light/existing light shots. I haven't been able to compare image quality yet, that's what really counts. Also waiting for comparison shots from epson 850z and canon S10.

-- benoit (foo@bar.com), October 14, 1999.

The m5 sample pics sure look nice: http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/pc/docs/article/991014/yamada.htm

The S10 samples look awesome too. Decisions, decisions.

-- benoit (foo@bar.com), October 14, 1999.

I bought a PDR-M5 a couple of weeks ago and I truly think Toshiba did a great job on this camera.

I have taken a lot of low light pic's and they all look great.

Most of my pictures are taken in auto mode and the camera does a great job in most situations.

You don't have the same control over app settings but that is not a big issue for me.

As to the flash issue, this camera takes great pic's in the lowest of light conditions.

I would recommend it.

-- Gavin McKinlay (gav1@srktech.com), November 06, 1999.

I tried the Toshiba PDR-M5 for a week or so, returned it. Focusing was very erratic, sometimes good, sometimes bad. When focus was good quality was excellent, seemed to miss the mark too often. I've been in photography professionally for 25 years and know how to use autofocus and get focus point right. Not with the Toshiba. I bought Olympus 2000Z, focus is almost perfect every time, seems to do better in low light, has pc flash connection, will also photoslave with external flash as the Toshiba will too. I would like full manual of 2020 though. Long shutter on aperture priority doesn't seem to harm the final image. I'm very pleased so far. Seems a little hungry for batteries and I miss the USB connection.

-- Wayne Smith (waynsmith@hotmail.com), November 18, 1999.