Although this camera has a few quirks, after a brief introductory period and the purchase of an SD card, my wife loves it.
Why I bought it: This camera was a gift for my wife who has a very nice camera (a Sony about a half-step below a professional camera) which she uses most of the time. She wanted something small that she could stick in her pocket for those spur of the moment occasions that crop up at children's school parties and such. This camera fits the bill.
It easily fits into her pocket (either shirt or jeans), takes high quality photos, has numerous optional settings, and with an 8 GB SD card has room for over 2000 photos at the highest quality settings. It takes AA batteries, so there is no "I forgot to charge the camera" issues.
Quirks:
1) The first quirk is the way the camera reacts when its memory is full. This is simple to do if you don't buy an SD card immediately. The camera defaults to the highest MP setting (12) which allows about four or five photos on the camera memory. Then the camera displays a message saying that the memory is full. Ours also seemed to have a hiccup the first time it happened and we had to turn it off and turn it back on using the play button on the back of the camera. After this, the camera was fine.
2) The batteries. This camera uses AAs. I have heard arguments against this, but my wife and I prefer this feature. Our reasoning is simple: if the batteries run out, almost every store on the planet carries AAs. We can walk into any of them and buy more. You can't say the same if you forget or use all of a proprietary battery that is unique to a specific camera. For the eco-conscious, you can still use rechargeable batteries, they are just going to be rechargeable AAs.
3) Snap-time. I don't even know if that's a term, but it describes the issue fairly well. This camera takes a while to capture the photo. While this is a bit annoying, the wait seems in line with most of our friends' and families' cameras. I have only witnessed one camera not have this issue and I know for a fact that one cost over $3,000 (i.e. a bit out of our budget.)
NOTE: There may be a setting that changes this that we have not found yet.
Overall: we have had a very good experience so far with the camera. We are extremely hopeful that this will continue. Polaroid CIA-1237RC 12MP CCD Digital Camera with 2.7-Inch LCD Display (Red)
The pictures from this camera are very sharp and for the money can't be beat. This camera comes with software cd, 2 duracell ultra AA batteries, and usb cable. All that is needed is an SD card for picture storage. Night pictures with flash and anti-shake look very clear and detailed. Can't say enough about this camera's features along with Amazon's price of roughly $50.
After reading mixed reviews, we chose to order this camera due to the low price and seemingly comparable quality to other 12mp cameras. After receiving it very promptly, it worked well for the first 2 days, as others mentioned and then decided to suddenly turn off with the lens stuck out. We tried changing the batteries and pushing the power button several times, but nothing worked. We set it down and hours later, the lens had retracted and it worked again. I told my daughter if it happened again we would return it. Within 12 hours it did exactly the same thing with the lens again stuck in an out position and no buttons would work. All of this is very sad because the picture quality is excellent. We were at my brother-in-law's wedding and lost a lot of shots because of the lack of dependability.
Hopefully Polaroid will address this issue, because if it weren't for the camera shutting down, I would highly recommend it! It isn't happening to everyone who buys it, since some of the reviews don't mention it, but enough that it is cause for concern...
Regarding the return, it was very simple and Amazon is paying the return shipping. I highly recommend ordering through Amazon!
I read the reviews before I ordered this camera, there were some good and bad, but the bad had me concerned, but I ordered it anyway and sure enough it dit just what the negative reviews said. It took one test picture and shut off and didn't come back on. It came with Duracel batteries so I thought they were pretty good batteries so surely that wasn't the problem, but it was. I bought Energizer Lithium batteries and the camera came right on and I've been taking pictures all day long. I also ordered a 4gb memory card along with the camera so I would have enough memory to take lots of pictures. So please don't be afraid to buy this camera, just be sure to have lithium batteries to put in it.
This camera can be a nice, inexpensive option for the casual user. I had read the reviews posted prior to purchase and wanted a backup to my two smartphone cameras (IPhone and IPod) for use when traveling. I installed the batteries with the camera and began taking some test shots. No sooner than my 4th or 5th shot, the camera stopped working. After replacing the batteries and installing an SD card, I tried again and the camera worked perfectly. Clearly, any buyer should begin use with a memory card (of any capacity) to allow for adequate storage and with fresh batteries.
The test pictures were printed using your basic (CVS) service and even with enlargement, I was moderately impressed with the quality of the print.
So the two steps a new user should follow are:
1. replace the batteries included with the camera with fresh high capacity batteries and
2. use a memory card immediately before use.'
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