Polaroid's move into the digital market was just commonsense. After all, the digital camera market in Australia is growing faster than any other non-food consumer item except DVD software, and the days of traditional cameras seem well and truly over.
Polaroid has entered the market cautiously, announcing a range of five models from a basic 640 x 480 'toy' to two 3.3 megapixel models, and even the most expensive is under $500.
The iON 230 is in the middle of the range. At 2.1 megapixels it is a bit lower than the 3 megapixel resolution that is now accepted as entry-level, however, it will still produce good quality 10 x 8 prints and the sub-$400 price compensates for the slightly lower resolution. Latest industry research shows that women are currently the largest first time buyers of digital cameras, and the iON 230 will appeal to them. It is compact, light and its metallic finish gives it a touch of style.
Once you get past the confusing QuickStart guide -- it has too many languages on a single folded sheet for easy reading -- the camera is easy to use.
The five element lens and fixed focus make it relatively foolproof and it does a remarkably good job on close up work, however, it does tend to over expose when there is reflected or brighter light. This can be compensated for by using the simple manual settings and is not such a problem as to detract from the overall general quality.
It has a good built-in flash, can take short, but very average quality videoclips, and the SD or MMC memory card expansion slot in addition to the 16MB of on board storage gives you plenty of room to snap away.
There is no explanation in the instruction manual as to why the docking station should have three additional USB ports, however, it comes in very useful as a USB hub.
If you are running Windows XP there is no need to load any of the software unless you need it to view and edit your pictures and the transfer of photographs from the camera to your PC can be done by dragging and dropping.
Overall, if you are looking for a good general purpose digital camera at a reasonable price it's hard to go past the iON 230.