Compare Prices : HP PhotoSmart 850

Review summary: The HP PhotoSmart 850 has a huge protruding lens, and a fairly fast-responding display and a clever feature that turns off either the viewfinder or the LCD if not required (depending on which one you're using at the time).

Verdict: Functions like video recording and review are available and offer a variable volume level in playback mode. The optical viewfinder's response was strangely slower than the LCD panel on the back of the unit, and although a little more power consumptive ...

Pros: Powerful 8X zoom lens ; logical, straightforward menu system ; solid ergonomics ; reasonably priced ;

Cons: Slow performer ; records JPEG files only ; limited accessory compatibility ; some compression artifacts in images ;

Verdict: Its big zoom lens and 4-megapixel resolution come at a reasonable price, but its slow performance may tax your patience.

Review summary: It is a feature-packed camera with a large zoom lens. It also offers enough manual and automatic options to allow nurturing from novice to advanced users.

Pros: 8x optical zoom ; proximity sensor on viewfinder ; pretty good feature set ;

Cons: Quite heavy with batteries in ; lens cap ; full use of the dial is not exploited ; only 16MB included ;

Review summary: The Hewlett Packard Photosmart 850 marks HP's first entry into the prosumer digital camera market since the ill-fated 912. The 850 has a very distinctive design, the front dominated by the big F2.8 - F3.1 eight times optical zoom lens and soft rubber ...

Pros: Good color reproduction, some of the best automatic white balance we have seen, Good resolution performance, at least as good as the 'best of the rest' four megapixel, Accurate metering performance, processing makes good use of total dynamic range, ...

Cons: Jagged diagonals / poor demosaic algorithm, Some chromatic aberrations at or around maximum aperture, Dim LCD monitor difficult to see in outdoor situations, Few controls for shutterbugs, no control over image processing (tone, color, sharpness), Half ...

Verdict: The HP 850 is a flexible and easy to use offering, easy to learn controls, a big eight times optical zoom lens and a four megapixel sensor.