serena21's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Photosmart 315 Digital Camera
First off...please forgive me, I'm feeling a little rusty, because it's been a really long time. :)
I have been looking for several weeks now at digital cameras. I was having a really hard time trying to justify getting a digital camera, because I have used some digital cameras before that really couldn't be used as the only camera.
I was wandering wal-mart on my day off when I came across a display that had a camera/printer combo deal. It was all one box and it was marked for about $200. I wasn't too concerned with the model of the printer, because I've had good dealings with HP printers (I have one that is 8 years old and it still works). I noted the model and headed over to the camera display. I was trying to find the model in the package, but it wasn't on display.
I talked to my friend that works in the photo lab at wal-mart. I asked her what she thought about the camera or if she had any information. She took out her little camera book and we compared the 315 model with the 318 model. We actually came to the conclusion that there was little difference between the two of them, but the differences actually leaned toward the lower model being the better camera.
The camera comes standard with the usb cable to connect it to the computer, installation software, a strap, and an 8 MB memory card. The software is easy to install and when it is done, you connect the camera to the computer. A box with come up and ask where to download the pictures. Each time you download pictures it is put into a time stamped folder for that particular download.
The software itself is actually really nice. There is a printing software that will arange as many pictures as will fit onto the page. These pages can contain multiple pictures and multiple sizes. This is great for making the most of photopaper. The camera also comes with a picture viewing software which is nice because it automatically will open all the pictures for a slideshow type of display, but most computers have a program already installed to view pictures. I actually unistalled the program, because it was taking over all of my pictures and graphic files.
As for quality. There are 3 different levels. Level 1 is lowest quality, about 640x480, and an 8 MB compact flash will hold roughly 80 of this size. Level 2 is medium quality, resolution is 1600x1200, and on an 8 MB card you can fit about 20 pictures at this size. Level 3 is highest quality, which is still 1600x1200, but only 10 fit on the 8 MB card. After close analysis I couldn't find much of a difference looking at the files themself, but according to the book, the higher quality is for printing bigger than 8x10, and medium will print up to 8x10. The higher quality is about twice the size of the medium file.
Overall, I am impressed with my purchase. I did buy an extra memory card, because after using the camera the first time and seeing the results of the camera, this is a replacement for my old Advantix camera. I got a 128 MB card which will do about 650 low quality, 160 medium, and 80 high quality.
Another nice thing that I would like to note is that you can take your compact flash card and put it into one of the kodak picture maker machines directly. You can then edit a picture and print it out. Locally it costs about $0.40 for a 4x6 print. This isn't that much considering that you may not print out every picture you take.
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