Polaroid PDC310 Digital Camera Review

 

Polaroid is a name we all know. Polaroid has been making cameras for a long time and have been a standard name when you think cameras. Well Polaroid is going digital with WWL’s acquisition of the Polaroid brand. WWL (World Wide Licensing) produces and sells digital camera solutions on the Polaroid brand. Today we take a step forward in continuing our Digital Camera segment by providing you reviews of Polaroid’s new digital cameras. Today we take a look at the Polaroid PDC310 model, which is targeted towards users that want to take pictures for email and web purposes plus have fun with using it for a webcam.

Polaroid

Nice presentation

The Polaroid PDC310 arrived to us via FedEx and their FedEx box. The camera was fitted in with some Styrofoam bits to prevent the camera from sliding around in the box. For this model, the Polaroid PDC310’s box is inviting and is a bold statement. It comes in a plastic packaging and the Polaroid brand’s name is printed boldly in the front. The back of the box has the rest of the information and specifications of the PDC310.

Specifications

  • Image Pixel Resolution: 640 x 480
  • Optical Viewfinder: Internal
  • Internal Memory: 8mb
  • Batteries: AAA x 2
  • Sound Annotation: Yes
  • Web Camera: Yes
  • Self-Timer: Yes
  • File Formats: Jpeg, Avi
  • Accessories Included: Camera Stand
  • Software Included: ArcSoft Suite / Netmeeting

The Polaroid PDC310 has 8MB of onboard memory and is capable of taking images (24 high-resolution of 640x480 size, and 99 of the low-res shots of 320x240 size), video (webcam) and recording audio.  You also have a self-timer for those times when you want to take a shot of you and your family.

What you receive with the Polaroid PDC310 are the following items:

  • Polaroid PDC310 Camera
  • Software w/drivers
  • USB cable
  • Stand
  • Neck Chain
  • 2 AAA batteries

The Polaroid PDC310 is a blue colored camera that is circular in looks and is quite different. The unit fits comfortably in my hands and is relatively light in weight with the battery installed. The paint quality of the unit is excellent and the paint does not scratch off easily. The front of the unit has a big shutter button, the lens, microphone, and beside the microphone is your viewfinder.

The side of the PDC310 maintains the USB and sound cable connections

The rear of the PDC310 features a shutter lock button, LCD screen, viewfinder, mode button, and battery door. You also have the circular imprint of where your thumb goes when you handle the camera. The stand is very easy to install as well. All you have to do is line it up with the two holes and press in.

The manual is simple and easy to read. It’s a small pamphlet with everything you need to know.

Other images with caption

Batteries are going in and the cable

Using the camera

Using the Polaroid PDC310 is very easy. Once you have read the manual and learned what each function does you are ready to go. The LCD screen displays how many shots you have remaining, “CL” for clearing your memory, Hr for high-resolution shots and so forth. It’s simple to use and is easy to understand. When you start up the camera by pressing the mode button, the camera will beep two times to tell you that it’s on. When you take shots, the camera makes the sound of a camera taking pictures, which is pretty funky.

The Polaroid lenses are rated at f 5.2mm, F=2.8. The Polaroid PDC310 is a basic point and shoot camera. There are no advanced features such as brightness of the shots or anything like that and the camera does not have flash either, as it is basically a web camera. The Polaroid PDC310 automatically senses if there is enough light to take the shot or else it will not take it.

The audio recording feature (Ar) is one of the good points of this camera. To record sound, your simply hold down the shutter button. Depending how long you record for it will take up the space of the onboard 8MB memory. However, if you recording pure audio with no images taken on the camera, you can record up to 12 minutes worth of audio. To transfer the audio to your PC, you connect the USB camera to your PC and the other end to your MIC port. From there use the software to transfer your files.


Software

CD inserted

Found in "My Computer"

Bundled on every Polaroid camera is ArcSoft Camera Suite. What this basically is, are various programs that help you spice up images, transfer files from your camera, capture from webcam mode, record audio, remove red eye and much more. This is actually a great program that is fun to use.

Just a taste of the software

The results

Here are a set of high quality and low quality pictures I have taken with the Polaroid PDC310. The camera saves them as BMP but these were compressed to Jpeg without or with little quality loss to save some bandwidth.

For the most part, high quality mode is the mode you would want to use every time. The quality for the PDC310 is good. The color reproduction is very good and the sky was not totally bright. The PDC310 has good image quality on high-resolution shots. It was better than those of the OxHipSpot. Low-resolution shots were not anything to write home about. They were average and somewhat distorted.

Proof that webcam works...

Conclusion

The Polaroid PDC310 is a capable camera with very good image quality on the high quality mode. The image quality on the images was very good. It produced nice color reproduction and pictures that you can clearly see. The bundled ArcSoft suite enhances my overall thoughts on the whole package. The ArcSoft Suite program was fun to use and has many uses.

I rate the Polaroid PDC310 Digital Camera a…

8/10!

Pros and Cons

+ Image Quality
+ Comfortable
+ Fit and finish
+ Easy to use 3-In-1 solution
+ Arcsoft Suite
+ Audio recording of up to 12 minutes
- May be awkward to hold for some
- Awkward USB cable to just transfer audio; could be just USB cable

The Polaroid PDC310 is available for an estimated price of $69.99. I feel that this is a pretty good deal for the quality the PDC310 puts out.

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