Rating Summary
“Aside from one minor flaw, it's an _ideal_ travel companion”
- Pros
- Compact, convenient, cost-effective
Polaroid A801 Point-And-Shoot Digital Camera —
A few months ago, when my wife and I were about to embark on a short vacation that would take us around Florida and to the Bahamas, I decided, pretty much at the last minute, I'd really like to have a small digital camera for the trip.
Hello, K-Mart!
Popped into the one in Sidney NY (that also bears the Sears name) and headed straight for the electronics department. Though I'd been through that department a few times, I hadn't really noticed before what a nice range of digital cameras it offered.
It didn't take a huge amount of time to settle on the Polaroid a801, both because of its 3.75" x 2.25" x 1") size and because it was being offered at right around $100.00. It's small enough to easily fit in a pocket or purse, equipped with a soft plastic case to protect it, and it offers flexible settings for different levels of quality and quantity of still photos or video. With an extra set of recharable batteries (plus, of course, a charger), I was good to go for whatever kind of memories I might want to capture.
Unfortunately, the extra batteries are pretty much a must with this camera, because of its one little weak point: The on-off switch is so sensitive, it is way too easy to accidentally knock it into the 'on' position when you're putting the camera away. Doing that very likely will result in run-down batteries just when you need them.
So, not only did we -- after a few instances of not having batteries at the ready when a once-in-a-vacation shot presented itself -- carry extra batteries, I took to turning one of those in the camera upside down so there was no way it could be turned on by accident.
Though we did miss a few nice shots, we made up for them with tons of other, really nice ones. (To ensure I'd have plenty of storage space for them in the camera, I not only got a media card for it, I also transferred each day's collection to my laptop computer. That would have been an even easier job if I'd already bought one of the mini-sized netbook computers I've been drooling for!
One other tip: To take best advantage of the a801's 8.0 megapixels, adjust the setting for the highest-density (rather than the greatest number) of photos. You will notice the difference in quality, and be glad you chose that option.
I'd buy this camera again, and I've already recommended it to friends.
Last edited on Aug 11, 2009
Polaroid A801 Point-And-Shoot Digital Camera
