Decent Camera at a Decent price
Written: Apr 09 '03
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Pros: PRICE!!! You can take 30 second video clips, decent pictures
Cons: No optical zoom, internal memory very small, rather bulky
The Bottom Line: Stand alone decent camera , but once you factor in the price, it becomes a great camera.
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| ericwcha's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Photosmart 320 Digital Camera |
I bought this camera around Thanksgiving of 2002. It was around $150 then and I'm rather annoyed that the price has already dropped to $132.
2.1 Megapixel
Nowadays you don't want anything below 2 megapixels. So this camera just edges the bare minimum of taking decent pictures. The pictures come out just fine. For the price you are paying, $160 or below, I think the pictures will suit you just fine. If you are a professional photographer, stop reading this review right now and look at something more expensive.
Video
Someone had complained about not having sound with the video clips. I think that would probably take too much memory to do so, and if you really wanted sound, get yourself a digital camcorder. As for the quality of the digital video... it's decent. Not very sharp, but clear enough so you can see what's going on. It is true that the clips are only 30 seconds long, regardless of the size of your memory card (basically you can take more 30 second clips if you have a huge memory card instead of a long video)
Memory
The 8 MB memory is pathetic. Simply a joke. You will probably need to go buy a smartmedia card along with the camera if you plan on taking more than a few pictures. The upside is that smartmedia or MMC cards are rather cheap nowadays so it shouldn't be too bad. I got a 32 MB card for $30 (I'm sure it's much cheaper now)
Size
This is where I wish I had paid a little bit more for a smaller camera. This camera is just really bulky compared to most digital cameras. I compared it to my friend's kodak, and his is relatively smaller. I recently took my camera to a club during spring break and it was a total pain in the butt. You can't put the camera in your pants so you have to carry it all the time. But once again, for the price, it's worth it.
Zoom
The most annoying thing about this camera is that there is no optical zoom, only digital.
What is the difference you ask? Well digital zoom is similar to putting a picture on your laptop and just zooming in! While optical zoom is where you actually zoom in on the thing you're trying to take a picture off. So digital zoom is like a "fake" zoom in my opinion.
Battery life
I sheded out a bit more cash and bought myself some lith-ion rechargeable batteries for my camera and they lasted pretty long. I highly recommend them if you are going to get a digital camera, unless you plan on spending a lot of money on batteries.
Software
Very easy to use software. You just plug your camera to your computer via usb, turn on your computer, and presto pictures instantly download onto your computer. Your camera even turns itself off when you are done. The software is quite easy to use and should cause no problems even for the most unsavvy computer people out there.
Price
Well I've mentioned this like ten times already, I think this is the best camera you can get in this price range. It's good enough to satisfy most people who take pictures for fun.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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Epinions.com ID:
ericwcha
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Reviews written: 18
Trusted by: 1 member
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