Pink Ribbon Review | Raising Breast Cancer Awareness

The Polaroid i631 6.0 Megapixel Digital Camera

by Karen Lynch on June 4th, 2008

Recently, the folks at Polaroid sent me a demo model of their i631 6.0 megapixel digital camera to review (I’m not keeping it, for the record, I’m sending it back tomorrow).

As part of Polaroid’s Pink Camera Campaign benefitting the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the Polaroid i631 is indeed pink — hot pink to be precise — and is adorned with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation logo. It also comes with two interchangeable designer faceplates, allowing users to customize the look of the camera.

On paper, it has some great product features: a 2.5″ bright color TFT LCD (for previewing images before you shoot), a 3x optical zoom, a 4x digital zoom, 16MB of built-in storage, it’s SD compatible for expanded memory. It takes video clips, allows for audio tags, has ultra red-eye reduction … again, on paper it looks great. All for an MSRP of approximately $80 - $100.

In reality? MAN, is this camera a toughie to figure out. I’ve taken dozens of shots with it and very few have come out. I just can’t decipher the options. I read some Amazon reviews of the product as well to see if I was way off base, and guess what? I wasn’t.

However, one guy mentioned “the sheer number of photo options is remarkable for the money.” He’s right. I just don’t find it user-friendly and would need a photo class to find out just how to utilize all those options.

I did take a cool pink ribbon photo of a pine tree outside my house just after today’s rainstorm — however, I couldn’t recreate those settings if you paid me.

You have to know that I had as a comparison the pink Casio Exilim digital camera. (I say “I had” because I dropped my pink Casio Exilim last month and broke the lens. Huge bummer for me. Huge.) Last October, Casio partnered with the National Breast Cancer Foundation and earned Pink Ribbon credibility in my book. Here’s a snippet from my review of that camera:

“The large 2.6″ LCD is indeed a good size (in case you’re measurement challenged, that’s about the size of a package of tic-tacs turned on its side.) Great for anyone having trouble seeing the smaller LCD panels many digital cameras have. But, the images appear grainy on the screen. I worried about the quality as I was taking them. But once they were imported into iPhoto, they looked okay …

The 3X optical zoom is, well, fine. Just fine. See, I have to put this camera into context. We’re not talking about a camera meant for professional quality and use. And that’s my caveat: I am not a professional photographer. If I were a professional, I wouldn’t use this camera. Because I’d want more zoom and greater resolution. But I’m looking for a camera that I can take with me anywhere, easily, so I can snap photos of my children and my friends or places that catch my eye and capture memories … mainstream use.”

If you’re interested in reading that review in its entirety, here’s a link for you; the pink Casio Exilim, by the way, had a MSRP of approximately $180.

Back to the Polaroid … would I recommend it? Maybe, for someone who wants a less expensive camera and is really proficient with camera settings. But I’m not sure that person exists! (To qualify: most people completely proficient with photography settings are willing to spend the money on a higher end camera, right?)

Now … this might be of interest: Polaroid is still running their ‘Picture a World Without Breast Cancer‘ program. Submit your story to them and you could win a free pink camera, making it a no-brainer in terms of value.

But enough from me. I want to hear from you … what is your favorite camera to use? And would you want the manufacturer to go pink?

(Images: Polaroid and Karen Lynch)

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