So I went ahead and got the Toshiba PDR-3300 on clearance at Walmart for a mere $155 (it's a 3.2 MP cam).
The only feature that doesn't show up in the specs anywhere is custom white balance and I really really wanted that feature. I didn't give up though, come to find out the feature exists although it's hidden. You just have to hold down the joystick for 2 secs when selecting white balance settings and you're set. Full manual controls, Shutter or apperture priority, exposure bracketing, 2 and 10 sec timer, remote control And best of all I still have about $850 in my bank account (as opposed to buying a Canon 300D). Ok, this is no 6 MP camera, but it's a pretty darn good for a 3.2 MP camera. Some people complain that it doesn't look stylish... I don't give a crap about that as long as it takes the kind of photos I want.
So far I'm a happy camper.
For me it's not about whether the camera looks stylish, but I'm wanting to do freelance professional photography..and even though the newest models of point and shoot [most non slr's] take great photos, no one will hire me if it doesn't have that pro 'look'. If I showed up on site with anything but an SLR I'd be laughed out, atleast fired [except for the sony F717, because the large zoom lens just looks impressive].
Those are the breaks.....
Coolhar,
I think the image quality is quite good especially outdoor lighting. In some low lighting conditions, images tend to have a reddish hue if underexposed, but if I allow them to be exposed properly that's not a problem at all. The only thing is that in many cases (moving subjects) it's not possible to do longer exposures. Flash photos tend to be a bit reddish also. The tungsten white balance setting seems to be very good, as well as the "cloudy" setting. With fluorescent lighting I've had some instances where it has trouble finding the correct white balance. Incidentally I found that the custom white balance setting works quite well with some types of fluorescent lighting.
I found out about the hidden features from a review on Steve's Digital Camera Reviews website:
//www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/pdr3300.html
There are also sample photos on there.
By the way, I found another undocumented feature:
not only does the camera have custom balance, it has manual focus too. I think these are probably features that ended up in the latest firmware upgrade so they're not documented in the original owner's manual. The manual focus is a bit hard to use because the lcd resolution isn't quite high enough to really tell, but the feature is there. I wish they had the good ole split screen focusing... you just can't beat that period.
WTG Whidbey. I think it is cool as crap that you are finding out things about your camera that the maker didn't bother to tell you. Reminds me of some models I read about at Dell (or was it Gateway) that seemed like relatively high megapixels but sort of a dumbed down feature set so it could be sold very inexpensivly. The Canon 300d relates to the 10D the same way, sort of. And by posting your finds it will spread to other owners. So cool.
