1 USB driver update for XP
I have used this digital camera for several years and LOVE the large hard drive for saving images. I have now taken over 5000 pictures of my daughter (from birth to 2 1/2 years of age.) I have used ONLY three SuperDisks, and I haven't had to delete anything yet. This is a GREAT feature.
Recently I updated my computer to Windows XP and I found I could no longer locate the SuperDisk to download images using the USB cable. I was able to find a driver update on the Panasonic website. For those having similar problems downloading using the USB cable with newer versions of Windows, try this website for the updated driver:
http://www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/digital_cameras/software.asp
I would HIGHLY recommend a SuperDisk digital camera to anyone in the market.
2 Great General Use Camera- Easy to Use
Bought this camera used based on another review at this site. If you like itsy-bitsy cameras, this one is not for you. If you like a decent-sized camera (that can't get lost in your wallet!!!) this is for you.
Not great for sports or high speed shots. Great with posed pictures, pictures around the house, we use it at the botanical gardens a lot. It usually comes with Super Disks- these are expensive and rather hard to find. Then you have to use a converter to get them onto your computer (they don't work in a floppy drive). Use a floppy instead, it's much easier to click and then put the floppy in the floppy drive, attach, and send.
Even though the resolution is only 1.3, it has been useful when our big, fancy 35mm camera failed at the Grand Canyon. You know instantly if the picture turned out or if grandma blinked. The colors did not turn out as strong as a higher resolution camera...but then again, we didn't have to spend 10 minutes setting up for the shot. The slide-button zoom is extremely easy to use. We got several beautiful pictures of the largest crows we had ever seen -the size of cats- right down to the gleam on their feathers.
I take a lot of pictures of our garden, the house, the dogs, the cats, my husband being goofy on the lawn mower, and I am always able to go right in and attach it to an email and send them to my mom within minutes. A cheap old floppy is waaaay more accessable for us than the SuperDisks, and in normal mode, holds about 10 pictures. I always walk around with a few floppies- at a buck each, I can afford to! Super Fine mode holds about 5 pictures on a regular floppy.
It is easy to hold and easy to use. For what we spent on a used one, <$200.00, we couldn't be happier. We bought ours from someone who wanted at least 3 megapixels and decided to get rid of it. We will definitely be trying the PV-SD5000 (3.3 megapixel model) as soon as the prices come down and we can get one that has been gently used, probably from someone who "needed" 6 megapixels (why?!?!?!) and wants to get rid of their camera. Then we will probably dispense with a 35mm permanently.
3 A sad day... YES this item has been discountinued.
I bought this camera back when it was brand new and paid over $750 for it. It has served me well. I have take over 5,000 pics atleast with this camera... recently I upgraded my MAC OS to 10.3 well my super dish external drive no longer worked... but I pulled out my USB cable and turn it to PC and was able to still use my camera to down load my images. I spent a couple of hours today looking at replacement digital cameras (before I relize about the USB cable). I was really disappointed really with what is out there. Most used AA batteries which will only last a couple of hours and you throw away. The only thing close to this camera is a CDR/CDRW camera by SONY sd350 and higher... problem is the same with this camera... it uses special 3" disks... which might be outdated in a couple of years... if that. All the cameras out there use those cheap little memory chips... I can just see me losing a $100 chip now or breaking the stupid thing. Yeah this camera is BIG but it is rugged for a digital... I plan on using this camera for as long as it last.
I wish Panasonic made a newer version of this camera.
4 A great worker!
I bought this camera without a lot of knowledge about digital cameras because of the ability to use the Super Disk or any 3.5 floppy. It also copies pics, holding them in memory until you insert your target disk! The Super Disk can hold hundreds of pics depending on the mode you select, I have yet to put a dent in the count. I have to photograph houses and this camera is a real worker - it has never let me down. The battery charges quickly, too. After a recent OS crash I installed XP and was bummed out to find that the included software does not support XP. But my disappointment was short-lived when I remembered the copy function. I just copied my pics from the Super Disk to a regular floppy, inserted in my PC and the XP viewer took it from there. It may even have been faster than downloading! This camera's a little bulky, well, really bulky, but the performance and ease of operation more than compensates! I guarantee you'll like it - even if you, like me, are not a "techie". Great price, too!
5 Great for sharing photos
I purchased this camera last year for my art business and have found it to be a great investment. This was my first digital and I could use it right out of the box without even reading the manual. I like the fact that it uses floppies, so you can hand them to friends and family, or can save them for future use yourself. It worked great for printing flyers when we were selling our vehicles, snap a couple shots, insert them on your flyer and print them out! I also am able to get real close shots, at about 4" away. Unless you are looking to be a professional photographer, this camera will fill your needs.
6 We love it.
My husband's folks got this for us for Christmas. We used the camera a ton while we were home on leave, taking all kinds of different pictures of everyone. Now we are here in Germany and are able to take pictures all day of everything in sight. Our family loves being able to see such great pictures of the kids and the sights. The only bummer is that when our computer arrived, the installation software was not able to use the computer as a super disk driver (we have Windows XP), so we have as yet to figure out some way to retrieve all the photos we took on the super disk. The floppys are working fine for now though. This is the most fun I have ever had with any camera.
7 Smile!
I couldn't be happier! I've tried others through my employment but this one is great. We used this instead of our 35mm for vacation pics (heresy) and loved it. I tried to fill the SuperDisk using the Super Fine mode and couldn't. Battery life is excellent. I've yet to wear it down. I would have had to take pictures constantly. I just smiled and clicked away as I would watch other tourists (we went to Disney World) replace memory sticks/cards or floppies (Sony Mavica). We also sent short video postcards to friends which was great. Very user friendly with a wonderful software bundle included. The quality of prints rivals that of my Perntax 35mm SLR. When we upgraded our new computer we downloaded a patch from the Panasonic website ([...]which solved our XP/2000 issues.
8 full of functions, but not good
It has all of the function you may expect. But,
1. Pictures show incorrect tune, some unpleasing blue and pink.
2. Slow writting, sometimes failed writting. If you like to catch some moments, you won't be happy with it.
3. Slow start up. To save battery, it automatic shut down after being idle for 1 minute. Once you want to wake it up, you have to wait for 15 seconds. You may miss everything during this time.
4. Battery lasts shorter than described in manual.
Other than these, it is good.
9 great digital camera
I own a pv-sd4090 in which I use in graphic arts used in a printing shop. This camera is used with both a PC and Macintoch G4 and I-MACs. It is a completely versitile piece of equipment as my G4 has a superdisc drive but currently this driver is not available, so the Palm Cam works wonders and is the easy way to use superdisc media on all my computers, and also allows me to utilize it for some great camera shots and short movie clips, hundreds of snapshots equally as clear when using zoom. By the way, this is my second 4090, I traded my first one for an offset AB Dick press. So you see, I'm not the only one who sees the value of a great buy. This camera ROCKS.
10 Impressed
I have an Olympus and to be honest never thought I would ever purchase anything else. I walked by the Panasonic PV-SD4090 while looking for my wife a computer chair for her office. I read all the information and was really impressed with the fact that it held so many photos. I decided to risk the purchace even though it was not an Olympus. I took side by side pictures both inside and out and was very impressed with the results. Not only is the image quality outstanding but the fact alone of the storage space and super fast downloads off the super disk even amazed me more. I do digital photography. I cant express how impressed I am with my new Panasonic Camera. Everyone wanted to buy my old camera for the results it had but I will keep them both, well for now that is. Until I decide to buy yet another Panasonic :) Thanks Panasonic you converted me Mr.Powell
11 2COOL
SIMON IS A HIGHSCHOOL STUDENT EVEDEDINCE SHE HAS NEVER DONE THE DIGITAL THING ..THIS CAMERA IS COOL ONLY BAD THING IT DOESNT DO THE DATE STAMP THING..OTHER THAN THAT ITS GREAT HIGHLY RECOMEND YOU CAN USE IT AS A ZIP DRIVE IF YOU DONT HAVE ONE ..SO THAT HELPS I HAVE KIDS POINT AND SHOOT IS GREAT NAD YOU GET GOOD PHOTOS
12 Super Digital Camera with Super Features.
The Simon Said review is a "Real Bummer"! I doubt Simon has ever held this camera. I found it very easy to use. It is of very good quality and has so many features. The sound byte feature is great for pictures for the internet. The battery is very impressive since it lasts about 3 to 4 hours and charges in about an hour. It can even be used as a usb zip drive to save data from the computer. I can't find any fault with this digital camera. It would be nice if the zoom feature was stronger but it does everything I need.
13 Great!!
This was my fist digital camera and I love it. It takes great pictures, although it could have a little better zoom. This is also my first camera with a zoom so only having a 5x zoom (3x optical and 2x digital) doesn't bother me that much. Only thing about this camera that I have found that I don't like is the LCD screen, the camera has a very good flash, I have taken pictures in the dark and they turn out perfect. But you can't see what you are taking a picture of through the LCD screen. All in all I like this camera a lot, and I would recommend buying it.
14 PV-SD4090 is good, the battery is so so.
I bought this camera from TriState. Overall, I like most of the features that this camera offers. I was pretty pleased that you can use the regular floppy disk in this camera, in addtion to super floppy. The only thing that I am not happy with is the battery, Panasonic does not offer more options on the battery. I really wish the battery can offer longer recording time, and also memory free!
15 I just LOOOOOOOOVE my new digital Camera!
Merry Christmas to Me! I bought this camera for myself on December 17th, I've had it a little over 2 weeks and have taken almost 500 images already including .jpg's and .mpg's! This is a dandy camera! I am so pleased with it! The storage capacity (120mB memory SuperDisk drive) is fantastic! The rechargeable battery pack is very long lived: at least 200 images before it needed recharging. Plus, I was so tickled to show off my new toy I additionally drained the battery to show off the images I had already taken to everyone within reach...including museum guards and the lady at the baggage x-ray machine at the airport! Quality at the highest density is excellent! But most of my photos were taken at the lowest resolution and are perfectly fine for e-mail. Automatic flash is excellent, and can be supressed in manual mode for taking museum pictures. Takes good low-light .jpg's. The QuickTime Movie mode (limited to 10 secs) is an added bonus with this camera: what fun to send a moving, speaking Christmas greeting!
16 Simple, Rechargeable, Massive storage, good pictures!
This was my first digital camera. However, I have bee using the Mavica that belongs to a friend for some time. After seeing its debut, the Palmcam as Panasonic calls it...I knew I wanted one. Once you connect it via its USB port, Windows sees it as another disk drive. From there its easy to copy to the hard disk for speedy printing or processing with the included photodeluxe from Adobe - or you can leave the photos on the superdisk to do with as you please - 1500 photos at normal resolution, 800 at medium and 400 at high resolution is a lot of space - you don't have to carry ten floppies with you anymore! Batteries? One recargeable battery pack is all you need, it recharges in less than two hours - unless you plan to take photos nonstop for more than an hour - then get a spare if you can't use the direct DC adapter which gives you unlimited power. It may be slow in terms of waiting for the photos to write to the disk, but that's what the burst mode is there for if you need it. Mpeg movies are limited to ten seconds though, I would have liked to see more time available in this mode. Otherwise I have had no complaints.
17 excellent!
IF! your going to buy a digital camera but dont want 2 spend more than 200,wait save your money.120 megs for 10 bucks?those mem sticks are real expensive. So are AA batteries my old cam eats them up quick!this one has a 7.2volt thats fully charged in only 2 hrs.If your going to take 1 cam on a vacation take this one ,or spend less and buy 200 bucks worth of memory and batteries and still spend 4 to 600 .....its got great features like several different capturing modes and sound! I didnt see a better ALL AROUND camera.Find a place that has an S.D. you can see and keep in mind all the reasons why this is how all digitals should be but fall terribly short[mem].Its bigger than most, it doesnt look like a 90 dollar35mm! so it also feels like your getting something for your money!! good luk ggggggggg
18 This Product is Truly Everything They Claim and More!
The Panasonic PV-SD4090 is the second digitan camera I have owned. I was somewhat hesitant to purchase it because it is pricier than most on the market today coupled with the fact that my first camera was a $800.00 piece of junk.
It isn't even necessary to read the instructions before you start. The camera uses a Super disk capable of haoding 1500 pictures - unbelieveable. The pictures can be imported to any program very easily and the quality of what you get with sizes up to 8x10 is surpurb.
Motion an sound is also available with each picture you capture. E mailing to friends if easy and fun.
Few major purchases I have ever made have been considered as money well spent. This one was. You will not be disappointed.
19 Wow, 120megs, 1megapixel camera for ($)?
I'm very disapointed, because most people want good quality pictures. On the plus side, those who just want to take lots of pictures and don't care about quality to post on a web page, this is almost perfect.
Pros :
-120megs per disk
-Quicktime video with sound
Cons(and now the problems begin) :
-Slow
-Drains batteries without viewfinder
-Takes a lot of bad pictures
-Must buy the super disk floppy drive
-There are some modes missing
-Point and shoot!
-Expensive for 1 megapixel camera(1.3 and 1 doesn't make any difference)(Mavicas are cheaper, but less quantity)
This is a camera that lacks a lot of things, so you must have specific needs. This is a web/personal based camera. Buy this camera if you're a beginner and you like to fill up the 120meg disk, but otherwise, just buy a Mavica.
Buy this camera if you only think of quantity and you have a super disk drive. Remember : QUAN-TI-TY!
If you want quantity and quality, you'll spend a whole lot more(think about more than double or maybe triple the price of this camera). Be sure of your choice!
20 Better than Mavica
I used my employers Mavica for 2 years before deciding to get one of my own. My daughter bought the Panasonic and loved it. After using her camera, I realized the Panasonic was much better than the Mavica. I bought my own a week later and I love it. Easier to use. More storage on the SuperDisk. Picture quality blows Mavica out of the water. I'd recommend this camera to anyone who wants great looking pictures in an easy to use camera.
21 One Great Camera
This is the greatest camera since pop corn! I love it. With it's multi settings, I have found it great for taking pictures while riding as a passenger in a car at speed of 50 MPH set on Burst Rec Mode up to 16 pictures in sequence all in focus 1 Picture every 0.5 sec. This setting is also good when you want to eliminate the flash. Zoom Mode is great as a quick copying for old pictures and much faster than a scanner and who carries a scanner with them? With all settings except for Burst Rec Mode you can record (SOUND CLIPS). Remember it uses up disk space. When visiting family and friends, this camera has a copy feature. So take extra disks. Take your pictures on the floppy, use copy mode and then you can save it on the super disk. Don't delete a part of a set of pictures as it will create a disk error if you do. Do your deleting after you down load to your computer.
The soft ware that comes with the camera can enhance the quality of your pictures when there is poor lighting or you want to crop to enhance the picture.
Finally, the built in lens cover feature alone would be my choice over the Sony without this feature.
22 No USB compatability with WIN NT, but a great camera
The only complaint I have is not with the camera itself, but that I cant upload images onto my Windows NT Pentium III computer because Windows NT doesn't support USB connections. Argh. Other than that, once you are up and running with the techniques of use, this camera is ideal. Mega image storage. Clear, beautiful pictures.
23 All AROUND FUN
This is my first digital camera, and I love it. The first time I picked it up, I knew it was a winner. Mass storage, easy to use, and it doubles as an external superstor disk drive. I love the burst mode for shooting sports action. The 10 sec video mode works great also. The menus are easy to acces and use, and the style of the camera makes it easy to hold and control. The ability to connect right to my tv and view my photos, makes for a fun time and instant enjoyment. Before I knew it I had taken over 180 photos, and never even came close to filling up the provided disk. The quality is great,and the LCD makes for great viewing. The only down side is the 3x zoom, not quit enough zoom, but it does work well. Other than that -- I love it.
24 Just one word "Superb!"
What a beauty! Amazing storage options, both normal 1.44 floppy and 120MB super drive, makes this camera stand out of the rest. A 120MB super drive for storage stores approx 1,500 images, I cannot confirm this because I just dont seem to be able to get one single super drive floppy filled. Its data storag is enormous. Great for people who love taking lots of pics on the fly and later deciding what to keep and what not to. The 10sec video recording option is also pretty good. I fell that using the super drive I should be allowed to take the videos for longer, but the 10secs restriction applies here too. The only down side I have fealt so far is the 3X Optical Zoom/2X Digital Zoom, which may be enough but is much lesser in comparision with some of the other cameras in competition. All in all, a good buy for money, wonderful for the more frequent users.
25 It's great!
I bought one and I love it. You can use it as a standard camera and when your not using it for that it can be used as a disk drive for those disks that hold 120MB. It's resolution is not the highest but it does the job for me. Oh and one last thing. It's pretty easy to use.
