Toshiba PDR-M70 3.2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

The Toshiba PDR-M70 gives you advanced photographic controls, including two levels of recording images. Shutter speeds can be set from 1/2 second to 1/1000 of a second, while the camera's five-mode flash system is easily adjusted to any lighting condition up to 13 feet from the subject. It offers autofocus and macro focus with a slower shutter speed and includes a built-in dioptric corrector to focus the viewfinder to the user's eyesight.

An exciting movie function capable of recording up to four minutes of video with audio keeps your friends and family up to date. These videos are excellent for e-mail attachments, documentation, demonstrations, or Web pages. The PDR-M70 provides fast connection to your PC or Mac via USB at 12 Mbps, or about one high-resolution image every three seconds.

Accessories include a 16 MB SmartMedia card, lithium-ion battery, AC adapter, USB and video cables, neck strap, soft case, lens cap, CD-ROM, and optional filter-ring adapter for 52mm optical filters or lens covers.

I spent about a month checking out many reviews on digital cameras and came to the conclusion that the Toshiba M70 was the best for the money. The only other camera that seemed as or perhaps a bit better was the Olympus 3000/3030, but they were $100/$300 more when the rebate is included. Everything you need is in the box, assuming you have a USB port and run WIN98 or higher. This camera can be used as a point and shoot or in AE or Shutter Priority. Even manual is avbl, but not explained in the well written manual, you must read from the toshiba page of FAQ for how to set this up.

I checked out Technical Support ahead of time and they answered their phone in a reasonable amount of time, with only 1 voice mail option. The people on the other end were very helpful even though I had not yet purchased. I called back after the purchase and got the same response.

I/ve only had the camera a couple days but have tested it quite a bit and pictures are high quality. Printing on a Canon 620, the print quality of 5 x 7 was excellent (supposedly I should be able to print up to 8 x 10 but have not yet tried.) TIFF is not available but the best quality JPG on the camera gave the high quality pictures I wanted.

If you are looking for professional reviews and opinions go to megapixel.net They are one of the best digital camera review sites I have found.


Toshiba PDR-M70 -mostly praise!   October 4, 2000
33 out of 35 found this review helpful

This is a nice camera with good photo quality. Easy to use - even my "non-photographer and not interested" husband is snapping dozens of fantastic shots every day. I take mostly outdoor scenery and this compares in quality to my 35mm Pentax K1000 manual photos. The choice of an uncompressed mode would have been great, but for most photos I can't see the need. In fact, the difference between the full(2048x1536pixel) and half(1024x768)is not noticeable for most photos printed at 8x10 on Epson stylus color 600. In photos with lots of flat blue sky some slight effects of JPEG compression can be seen - even at 5x7(sky looks sl grainy rather than perfectly smooth). Also, shooting indoors under incandescent light, my grey cats were brown - easily corrected with photo software, and maybe I need to try different settings on the camera. Also, for some reason the photos print horribly with Adobe Photo Deluxe 3.0, which probably is more an Adobe problem than a camera problem. The Image Expert software that was shipped with the camera is easy to use and gives great prints. (An upgrade allowing more neat stuff like "cloning" & a panorama feature would be nice.) Outdoor macro mode gave me some great sharp photos of Mountain Holly berries & leaves and Blue Gentian even with the wind blowing! What more could I ask? Well, maybe...It would be great if the camera came with the lens adapter so you could screw on a UV lens as protection for the main lens, AND a sturdier camera case. I have ordered both(the adapter is on backorder). A 32 or 64 MB smartmedia is also a necessity and an extra battery pack is a good idea. And last, but in my case not least, why aren't there more "splash resistant" cameras available? The only one I found was Kodak DC5000 which unfortunately seems to have some quality control problems (mine was defective out of the box as was one my son in law purchased around the same time). All things considered, the PDR-M70 is a nice, easy to use camera which gives good quality photos and has some whistles that I haven't tried yet (like video & sound).


Great camera if the light is right   January 6, 2001
Michael Willing (Cincinnati, OH)
20 out of 20 found this review helpful

I have had the PDR-M70 for a few months now and overall I have been impressed with both its ease of use and picture quality. I take most of my pictures on the smaller size, highest quality setting and have had excellent results, even when enlarging to an 8x10 (that is if you go to Walgreens and print at the Kodak kiosk). The camera is probably the most user-friendly of all the digital I looked at because most of the features you would want to use are set up to be accessible like those on a standard film-containing camera. I have 2 complaints, however, which have prompted me to want to send the camera back because they are significant. First, the battery has an extremely short life, even without the LCD on. Plan on 50 pictures without using the LCD and 15-20 at best if the screen is on. For such a good camera otherwise, how could they ship it with such a bad battery. Second, it cannot focus in dim light or at night. I have tried every manual setting possible to get the camera to focus in low light (i.e. in a house at night with one light on in the room) and unless you are pointing at the most well-lit subject, the camera will not focus and the image comes out blurry. If you are planning to take pictures at evening parties and you like to point and shoot, this camera probably will not work for you, even in the auto-focus mode. This is very unfortunate because the Nikon Coolpix 990 and Olympus C-3030 (comparable cameras) do this well and would be better alternatives.


Best graduation present I've ever gotten!   October 24, 2000
Lisa Gansky (San Francisco, CA)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

My parents got me the Toshiba PDR-M70 for my college graduation. I can't say enough good things about it! I'd tried out several at university and could never find one I liked. It's compact, has a great zoom, and the picture quality is incredible! Even with shooting at half (as opposed to full) the quality does not differ much at all. It's also very easy to use, unlike some other models I've tried out.

One of the niftiest "extra" features of this camera is it's capability to record .avi movies with sound. I've caught a lot of my friends off-guard with that!

The only real complaint I have about it is regarding the software. It wrote over Photoshop as the default to open .jpg files, which is a pain since I use Photoshop to edit. If you have Photoshop (or any other graphics program) on your machine, you'll want to make sure you have the disk handy so you can reinstall it after installing the camera software.

A wonderful camera for any photobuff!


Comment on the service and battery   November 9, 2000
9 out of 15 found this review helpful

I can only comment on the service from Toshiba and the battery. I've used the PDR-M5 for more than half year. It uses the same battery as PDR-M70.

Here was my experience with PDR-M5 and Toshiba service. I bought this camera for more than half year. The battery went bad last month and can not be charged anymore. I took it to one of the service shop appointed on Toshiba's web site. They called me and said the battery was bad. However, they said the battery was only covered for 90 days, although the warrenty card did not mention anything else besides standard one year warrenty. I called the Toshiba customer support line and was very disappointed with their attitude. The lady named Stacey told me to take whatever the service shop said as granted. In short, she did not want to go into any discussion about the warrenty coverage. In the mean time, she couldn't provide me any Toshiba's contact to discuss it. The service shop that I brought the camera to called IMTEK (located in LA). They claimed that Toshiba told them the battery was not covered as the camera. When I called another service center, they told me that the battery was covered as one year, same as the camera. I am disappointed with Toshiba for their irresponsible on making warrenty clear to consumer. There was nothing I saw showing me the 90 day coverage on Battery and they refused to clearify with customer. This battery was Toshiba's special item. Cost is high .... You can probably get it cheaper from a search on CNET. But, if it is true that Toshiba only covers it for 90 days, that might explain why mine went dead after 180 days. I'll try to get this problem resolved. If you encountered the same problem, please let me know. BTW, the battery performance was not impressive. If you want to take the camera outside for somthing like more than 32 pictures, you might want to consider getting extra battery (extra cost!).

If you are interested in what I feel of the PDR-M5, here is the summary:

1. It was relatively a good deal when I purchased it. Not now, especially if you are paying more than $400. It does include everything I want to start with.

2. The functionality was nice. USB was great. Interface was good.

3. The auto-focus was not very good. When it works well, the picture quality was very nice. However, I get probably a 50~70% chance for good focusing pictures. The problem was worse when the lighting was poor.

4. The shutter is a bit slow. When I try to catch my 2 year old's move. It is not satisfactory. But the standby time between two shots was short which makes this problem less painful.