A nice camera for the jump into digital
Written: Jul 24 '02 (Updated Jul 24 '02)
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Pros: Convenient, good price
Cons: Slow shutter, I could use a longer optical zoom
The Bottom Line: If you want to experiment with what digital can do for you, then the 618 is likely to meet your needs.
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| charlesj68's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Photosmart 618 Digital Camera |
Before I even get started, you need to know that I work for Hewlett-Packard. I do not work on the digital camera products (unfortunately!), but some people may wish to apply some quantity of salt to what I say based on that information.
Before last July, we used a Canon Rebel 35mm SLR for our photographic needs. That is an excellent camera, but being film-based, it had a number of drawbacks:
- You had to take up 12 (or 24, or 36) pictures before
you could see how they turned out
- It cost money to develop the prints
- Two to three prints out of the whole set were
worth keeping
- I had to scan the prints in to email them
to grandparents.
It did not take a rocket scientist to look at this list and proclaim, “You need a digital camera!” But, what one to get? Being an HP employee meant I could get some products at a discount, particularly refurbished products that had been returned on warranty issues and fixed. Based entirely on price I chose the 618.
The camera came with a 16 MB memory card, four lithium batteries and a couple disks of software to interface with the camera and provide some manipulation of the images. I loaded only the camera interface software on my PC, as I already use a different program for image manipulation (more on that later).
Over the year that I have now used this camera, I can state a number of opinions:
1. You must have a bigger memory card. The 16 MB card
is okay, but at the Better resolution, you can only
get eight or so pictures on the card. I bought a 64
MB card off eBay and now I rarely am pressed for space.
2. The convenience of a digital camera means you will
take many pictures. Many, many pictures. You will
probably want a CD-Writer on your PC to archive the
many pictures you will take!
3. Action photos are “difficult.” The auto focus on
this camera is not the fastest I have used. If you
are taking candid shots of kids, this can be a pain.
One way around this is to press the shutter halfway
to get the exposure and focus settings taken care of,
then lie in wait for the photographic opportunity to
strike. This, of course, requires some prior planning;
which seems at odds with the whole concept of
“candid,” but I digress.
4. You must get NiMH rechargeable batteries. The
Lithium’s last well, but they are expensive.
Alkalines last not at all, and that gets expensive.
NiMH batteries charge well, last a long time and have
become the juice source of choice in our house.
5. Red-eye is a pain. You will have to edit photos to
remove it.
The camera comes with a 3x optical zoom and a 2x digital zoom. Being spoiled by my 28-105 mm telephoto zoom lens on the Canon, I find myself wishing for more.
The lens unit pulls back and disappears behind a little metal curtain to protect it when turned off. I find this behavior odd and unneeded. I would prefer it stay at the ready so that I could turn things on faster.
In the end, we are happy with our 618. I dream of the day that I can get a digital back for my Canon Rebel and once again make use of the wide-angle and telephoto lens that I have for that. However, for now the convenience of the 618 so far outweighs its challenges that the Canon has not seen the light of day for a year!
I promised to talk about image manipulation. For my needs I have been very happy with PaintShop Pro version 7. It has a number of features designed to help you with digital photo manipulation. You can brighten dark photos; remove red eye and brush out imperfections like a pro. I very highly recommend it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 275
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Epinions.com ID:
charlesj68
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Member: Charles Jones
Location: Loveland, Colorado, USA
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 0 members
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