Good camera for your money
Written: Jul 03 '03
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Pros: Reasonably priced, picture quality settings, self timer
Cons: HP parts must be purchased directly from HP, Zooming in reduces quality
The Bottom Line: It's a great deal for your money and those seeking a camera for leisure use will find the pictures to be of great quality.
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| bizkitchik's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Photosmart 320 Digital Camera |
I did not purchase this camera new, but bought it in very good shape. It's behind technology, with many other $300 cameras exceeding its properties by far. There is no optical zoom on this camera, only a 4x digital zoom. Since I use the camera for my own leisure, I find the 4x digital zoom to accommodate me just fine. It works very well in dark places. The flash works very well in illuminating the object/person in the picture.
When using the zoom, you may be subject to compromising quality. There are 3 quality settings, but zooming in may pixelate the picture somewhat, but nothing horrid. I have used the 4x zoom and come out with great pictures. Your options are using the normal setting, 2x zoom, and 4x zoom. Also included is a self timer, so you have time to get into the picture as well. This camera has a bit of a lag, so action pictures may not come out as well as you had planned.
I have not yet experimented with the video clip feature, but I believe the capacity is for a 15 second clip, perhaps 30.
Like most digital cameras, this will eat your batteries alive. I opted to just use rechargeable ones, but even with a brand new set of batteries, they will drain in no time. With the indicator on 'empty' you can still get in some pictures if you don't leave it on constantly. You will also find it to be costly if you need new parts. For instance, I purchased my camera at a very low price, but needed to purchase my own USB cable and software. I had to buy them online, since HP cameras need HP parts, no exceptions. The software was reasonably priced, but I wound up paying 4 dollars for a USB cable, only with a 13 dollar shipping fee. I find that to be insane to charge 13 dollars to ship such a small cord, but I had no choice.
The editing software allows you to flip/rotate, resize, take out red-eye, and alter the color schemes. I've found the red-eye feature to be of great help in fixing great pictures that come out with red-eye. If you plan to keep your pictures organized by date, be sure to reset the date each time you insert new batteries. The memory will not hold the date for you. Using only the internal memory card included with the camera, I have stored around 50-60 images max, but that was using a variety of low, and mostly high quality images. Low quality images take much less space and allow for many more pictures to be stored.
For those who do not need a professional look, this is a great camera. At such a reasonable price, it's well worth the money, and you get great pictures.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 75
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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Epinions.com ID:
bizkitchik
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Member: Val
Location: Houston, Tx
Reviews written: 40
Trusted by: 2 members
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