Polaroid CAA-330UC 3.0 Megapixel Digital Camera with 1.5-inch LCD Display (Plum)

Polaroid CAA-330UC 3.0 Megapixel Digital Camera with 1.5-inch LCD Display (Plum)
Rating:
We received this 3.0 Megapixel camera as a gift for our 4 year old’s birthday. She wanted a camera, but the reviews on the cameras marketed specifically for kids didn’t look so great. This way she has her own camera so I don’t have to worry about her dropping my $300+ camera when she wants to take pictures. The display screen is adequate. It didn’t look like the flash was working at first so I had to take it into a dark closet to try it out, but then worked fine. There are 6 buttons on the back of the camera: MENU, MODE and one to move UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT as indicated by arrows which was easy for me and my child to figure out without reading the camera’s instruction booklet. This camera uses 2 AAA batteries and it eats batteries. We’ve had to replace them once a week and my child uses the camera every 2-3 days so we’ll look into getting rechargeable batteries. There’s a simple switch on the side to move from “Mountain” to “Flower” mode. USB plug in on the side. We used an SD 1GB card we had laying around and it works great. The cover for the SD compartment is rubber and just lifts away while being connected on one side so not too impressed with that. The color of the camera was true to monitor color which was great since my child loves purple. Did not come with a camera strap, but has a place to put one. Has a space on the bottom for tripod (not included).

Overall: Easy to use for both child and adult. I would recommend it for children rather than adults since I think it’s rather simple.

Polaroid CAA-330UC 3.0 Megapixel Digital Camera with 1.5-inch LCD Display (Plum)
Rating:
This was a gift for my 9 y/o nephew. We had previously bought the kids some of the one-time use cameras, but often never got around to getting the film developed. I thought it would be great to get my nephew and his sisters digital cameras so they could see pictures instantly and print via the computer. The girls (ages 6 and 7) got the inexpensive Vivitars, but I thought since he was older we would get him a slightly “better” camera. Boy was this a big disappointment.

First off, it has a little hole slot for a strap, but it doesn’t come with a strap! I looked everywhere for the Get Started manual, there wasn’t one. The screen is very small 1.5″, but you could still see the objects okay. The camera has some internal memory, which was about 25 photos. It did not come with an SD card, but we placed a 1GB SD in slot. The camera would turn on and show the “Loading” screen, but never got past that, even after 10 minutes. When you tried to turn off the power, the power button would not work. I had to remove the batteries while the SD card was in to get the camera to turn off. I changed the batteries thinking the supplied ones were old. Still the same problem. Basically, putting in the SD card made the camera inoperable.

Taking out the SD is incredibly difficult. There’s not a press and pop-out sort of function, you have to get a finger in and try to pull it out by grabbing the ridge in the SD card. I tried about 5 times and could never get it out. My husband had to remove it…terrible design. The SD card slot has a little rubber cover that looks like it may last a day or so before being pulled off. I was pretty P.O.’d. While the girls were snapping away, taking pictures with their 2GB SD cards installed, I was messing around with the Polaroid trying to get the card out. Unfortunately, since it was Christmas, I could not return it that day.

I decided to get the photos off the internal memory of camera and return it. I plugged the camera with supplied cable into the USB port, the camera would light up, but it never displayed on the computer as an input device. Inserted the CD that came with camera, thinking maybe you have to install the software first. Behold! The manual is on the software. The instructions on the CD said that once the cord and camera are plugged in, the device should show. It doesn’t. I have a MAC and a PC, it did not work on either one. There are instructions for copying photos from the internal memory to a card, but because I can’t get the camera to work when a card is actually inserted, I guess I am going to be out of luck. The photos he took looked liked some turned out okay, some were kind of grainy.

There is a digital zoom within the camera. My nephew kept looking for the optical zoom. I think the next one I try will be more upgraded because he seemed to really like it.

I would not recommend this camera to anyone, there are better inexpensive cameras out there.

Polaroid CAA-330UC 3.0 Megapixel Digital Camera with 1.5-inch LCD Display (Plum)
Rating:
You could get a much better camera for $60-80, but I wanted the cheapest “adult looking” simple-to-use camera for my kid in case he lost or broke it as it’s his first digital camera. It takes decent pictures and video, better than his phone. Simple interface he figured out w/o the manual. If you don’t have a card reader, then the usb cable option works fine. For XP and above, you don’t need any SW driver. If he gets into taking pictures, then I’ll buy him another camera with optical zoom and more advanced features.

Polaroid CAA-330UC 3.0 Megapixel Digital Camera with 1.5-inch LCD Display (Plum)
Rating:
Ordered for my niece and is good for a low cost digital camera. Pictures are acceptable and not the best quality as expected. Would recommend to younger users as it’s very simple.

Polaroid CAA-330UC 3.0 Megapixel Digital Camera with 1.5-inch LCD Display (Plum)
Rating:
Paying $25 for a digital camera did not expect much and was pleasantly surprised – bought 4 of these as gifts – three went to grandchildren ages 10/8/6 – they all got into taking pictures and even videos – some of then were terrific and the ones that were not were deleted…..we have a video of our 89 yr old patriarch that will be as valuable a gold one day when he is no longer with us…..drawbacks – yes – you must be close to the subject and hold still – and need to buy rechargeables batteries as it eats regular ones quickly – overall got more than what I expected and our grandchildren had much fun…..actually one picture our 6 yr old took was almost as good as a professional…..pure accident and wonderful