Weakness: Frequent odd behaviors: Lockups requiring you to reset the clock. Spontaneous flash when turning on or off. Construction is not "Top Shelf". Lens Cap is a pain. LONG recharge time; up to 15 hrs!
Yes, I grade a little harshly, but this is not a 5-Star product. (I wish I could have given a 3.5) With that said, the beautiful pictures and multiple features make this a sound buy at its pricepoint. The 8X zoom alone trumps most other choices as long as you are willing to put up with the temperamental behaviors. Be aware that you're going to spend additional $$$ for larger memory,(stock card gets you only about 12 pictures) rechargable batteries, and the PC dock/charger. Construction is not great. After only 3 months the sides of the flash are badly worn from flipping it up & down as it rubs against the body. The switch has a lose feel & does not always stop where you want it to. The lens cap has no strap clip & annoyingly dangles while you shoot. Don't expect to be able to attach any normal lens adaptors. The form factor may fool you on this as it looks like a normal SLR, but the center lens extends well beyond the threads when turned on. Aftermarket cup-shaped solutions are available. HP suggests that lock-ups may be due to corrupt data on the memory card & reformatting may help. ...my experience is that it "helps" for a while.
!HOWEVER! When you finally get your 8X10 photo printed out you are rewarded with the great color, resolution, and zoom capabilities of this camera. ...and that's 90% of what you're looking for, right? Look for rebates! I got $75 for combining this purchase with my new HP printer. (which is a 5-Star product)
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Strengths: Picture Quality was amazing. Easy to use, great pictures right out of the box. Controls simple but adequate.
Weakness: Auto Focus can be tempermental, works better with flash. Slight delay between pressing shutter and capture, but I'm able to adapt in most situations. Not for fast action photography.
I have a Nikon N65 SLR but I have taken more pics with the HP 850 since I got it. The pictures are gorgeous, and I think they mimic the quality of my Nikon. I've taken thousands of baby pictures and enjoyed every click. I would never consider a zoom less than 8x after this camera. The macro focus and digital zoom take closely detailed pictures that are like nothing I've ever seen. My whole family can use this camera, and because of the ease of use, and gorgeous pictures, I would buy this camera again.
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Strengths: Excellent zoom, easy to use, LCD is super sharp and high quality pictures for nice prints.
Weakness: Short battery life and 16 MB card.
You can rememdy the weaknesses by purchasing a 128 MB card which will hold 119 pics in 4 megapixel mode, plus you can buy NIMH batteries with a charger from HP. These two add ons make for a nice set up. The camera is excellent.
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Strengths: Megapixels, 8x Optical zoom, clear pictures good for 11 x 14 prints, powerful manual exposure controls, fast zoom, clear EVF, good design and grip, battery life long with NiMH batteries.
Weakness: Slow autofocus at times, locks up frequently, EVF freezes while focusing, no manual focus.
At such a low price, there is no camera to match the features that you get with the Photosmart 850. Pictures come out crystal clear if correct exposure controls are used and if camera is held steady while clicking. Definitely recommended!
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Strengths: Awesome zoom capabilities, Excellent menu system, beautiful and high quality pictures
Weakness: Small SD card included
Great camera, great software package included. The only thing I could possibly complain about would be the small SD card that's included with the camera.
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Strengths: 8X zoom, superb lens and picture quality, intuitive and well designed menus
Weakness: no manual focus, no indexing of photos
Manual focus not important as it does an excellent job of focusing in light and dark. One can control depth of field and other manual controls for most situations. Very comfortable in the hand and light enough considering it's large zoom range. Battery power with rechargables is plenty long.(A days worth of photos with movie mode and sound clips as well). Camera has no competition in the 4 megapixel category for quality and zoom. Highly reccommended!
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Strengths: The looks, the feel, the operation and the results. In a nutshell, the package is complete.
Weakness: Plan on purchasing at least a 128 mb Secure Data memory chip to replace the provided 16 mb chip.
I did a lot of research before I purchased this camera. I wanted plenty of optical zoom. The ability to expand the memory for a reasonable price. I wanted the option of movie clips and I wanted a camera with better than average resolution. I wanted a camera that was not small enough to fit in a shirt pocket because being very active I knew that it would be easy to drop and break or just lose. I needed a camera that would not be a battery eater. With NiMh batteries at 800 mah. I can take photos and movie clips for days at a time before recharging, and that really comes in handy when you are on vacation. I can actually say that I got more than I expected.
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Strengths: Very user friendly, georgous high res pics
Weakness: viewfinder "blanks" when you actually take the picture for a second or two, but you get used to it.
I felt the PC World reviewer was a bit critical here... many other cameras offer a charging and synching dock as a separate purchase. And may high end cameras also require you to "turn on" the flash. It's not a big deal. The reviewer also notes how you can take pics with one hand while in the "overview" review they note how clunky it is. (the reviewer doesn't make sense) The camera takes very nice pics and large pics I might add... just remember to use a tripod for low light pics when you aren't using the flash. The video mode is fun but remember that using the zoom while in video mode will cause the zoom motor to be recorded by the built in microphone. In my opinion the video option is just a "fun option" and doesn't take away from the fact that this camera is awsome! Yes, it's larger than a lot of other cameras but remember it has 4 megapixels and an 8x optical zoom lens. It's a very good value for the money!
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HP (Hewlett-Packard) Photosmart 850 Digital Camera
Strengths: 8x Zoom, Resolution, Battery Life, SD memory format. Price. Sound video clips.
Weakness: Frequent odd behaviors: Lockups requiring you to reset the clock. Spontaneous flash when turning on or off. Construction is not "Top Shelf". Lens Cap is a pain. LONG recharge time; up to 15 hrs!
Yes, I grade a little harshly, but this is not a 5-Star product. (I wish I could have given a 3.5) With that said, the beautiful pictures and multiple features make this a sound buy at its pricepoint. The 8X zoom alone trumps most other choices as long as you are willing to put up with the temperamental behaviors. Be aware that you're going to spend additional $$$ for larger memory,(stock card gets you only about 12 pictures) rechargable batteries, and the PC dock/charger. Construction is not great. After only 3 months the sides of the flash are badly worn from flipping it up & down as it rubs against the body. The switch has a lose feel & does not always stop where you want it to. The lens cap has no strap clip & annoyingly dangles while you shoot. Don't expect to be able to attach any normal lens adaptors. The form factor may fool you on this as it looks like a normal SLR, but the center lens extends well beyond the threads when turned on. Aftermarket cup-shaped solutions are available. HP suggests that lock-ups may be due to corrupt data on the memory card & reformatting may help. ...my experience is that it "helps" for a while.
!HOWEVER! When you finally get your 8X10 photo printed out you are rewarded with the great color, resolution, and zoom capabilities of this camera. ...and that's 90% of what you're looking for, right? Look for rebates! I got $75 for combining this purchase with my new HP printer. (which is a 5-Star product)
100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?