HP PhotoSmart 850 - Expert Reviews

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.

Review summary: A well specified 4megapixel camera ... but can it perform?

Pros: Big, fast zoom lens.Good value.Reasonable level of control. Bad points:Bad colour fringing effects.Image noise. Overall:It's remarkable that HP has managed to get such an excellent lens on a 4megapixel camera for this price. Easy to use and flexible ; ...

Cons: Bad colour fringing effects.Image noise. Overall:It's remarkable that HP has managed to get such an excellent lens on a 4megapixel camera for this price. Easy to use and flexible ; for the money, the 850 is currently alone in the marketplace

Verdict: It's remarkable that HP has managed to get such an excellent lens on a 4megapixel camera for this price. Easy to use and flexible; for the money, the 850 is currently alone in the marketplace.

Review summary: Somewhere in the depths of the huge HP corporation there is a team that desperately wants to develop a 35mm film camera. Instead they've been told to sort their act out and develop a digital camera ...

Verdict: This is a relatively large digital camera that has an impressive specification to match its size and weight. It delivers excellent photos and offers fair value for money too. This is one to take on holiday with you, rather than, say, snapping away at ...

Review summary: There's no TIFF or RAW mode available on this camera. The camera names files as HPIMyyyy.JPG, where y = 0001 - 9999. The camera maintains the numbering even if you erase the memory card.

Pros: Very good photo quality ; 4 Megapixels, 8X zoom for $499? Wow ; Excellent Instant Share system + software bundle ; Electronic viewfinder is choppy, but usable, in low light ; Has an AF illuminator lamp ; Plenty of manual controls ; Robust performance

Cons: Some chromatic aberrations + jaggies in photos ; Lousy bundle, aside from software ; Zoom + audio recording in movie mode = major lens noise ; Limited playback mode

Verdict: The first complaint is about the skimpy 16MB Secure Digital card that's included. You'll soon want a larger one, and I recommend 64MB at the very least. The 850 works with both SD and MultiMedia (MMC) cards

Review summary: WHAT'S HOT: The Photosmart 850 has a great menu system. You press the big OK button on the back of the camera to enter the menus and then press the left edge of the large thumbwheel that surrounds the button to select a setting from easy-to-understand ...

Verdict: An optional, $80 dock comes with a set of nickel metal hydride AA batteries; the dock will let you transfer images and will recharge the battery. You can print or e-mail images quickly by pressing a dedicated button on the back of the camera--it works ...