The four-megapixel, 21x total zoom, HP PhotoSmart 812 digital camera incorporates HP Instant Share feature, which allows users to snap a photo and then select on their camera where... more
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other electronic appliances. The interchangeable DC plugs included are for center plus and polarity protection. Any setting of the output voltage selector switch is protected against unintentional change of voltage. A power on LED and 2 rubber grips for easy handling rounds off the high specification of a neat, compact and easy to carry power supply for worldwide use. Output voltage in 6 fixed steps 2.4v, 3v, 4.2v, 5v, 6v, 6.5v, 7v, 8.4V to match the voltage specifically needed for most digital cameras. 5 inter changeable centre plus and polarity protected DC plugs included. (Plug dimensions 1.7 x 4.75 / 1.7 x 4 / 1.4 x 3.5 / 0.75 x 2.4 / 5.5 x 2.1 all right angled plugs).
A review by purpleduck on HP PhotoSmart 812 February 12th, 2004
Author's product rating:
Picture Quality
Good
Range & Quality of Features
Average
Ease of Use
Very Easy
Durability
Good
Overall Look & Design
Excellent
Value for Money
Good
Advantages:
Light, Compact, Fully Automated - Easy to use : just point & click ! , Quite Robust .
Disadvantages:
Lacks manual functions such as white balance adjustment, Heavy on them AA batteries ! , Skinny 16MB SD card supplied ! need to buy at least a 128MB as an accessory .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
This is my first digital camera, and overall I am delighted with what I have bought for just under £300 (well, I paid £289.99 about 9 months ago from Staples)
The CCD is at 4.1 million pixels, but delivers an effective 3,8 million.The camera is very small and light at just 95 x 41 x 70 mm and 250 g (so says the tech. spec.).
The curmudgeonly 16MB SD card supplied doesn't hold much - so I recommend you buy a 128M stick as an extra, if you are not buying on-line, try haggling with the salesperson they may do you a deal.
On pressing the power button the Pentax 7.6mm-22.8mm lens pops out, retracting its protective cover, typical startup time is about 2-3 seconds, a little slow – but I believe many point and shoot digital cameras suffer from this. The 32x26mm LCD display gives a good clear picture at many viewing angles, but will conk out when batteries become low (which is frequent) but you may switch this off and use the optical view-finder if required. Optical zoom (X3) is acceptable but a little on the slow side (has a digital zoom as well, but resolution is lost with this). The zoom control is managed with easy to use rubber buttons on the rear of the unit.
This camera is designed at the novice to digital photography, with fully automatic functions. Just, point, press the ‘shoot’ button once (lightly) to auto-focus and set the exposure (you can hear its internal workings doing there stuff!), then again to take the picture. You will hear a digitized ‘Click’ when the photo is took though the cameras little speaker. Shutter lag is a problem, so I would not recommend this for sports photography, also you cannot tweak white balance, exposure compensation etc or manually pull focus.
A neat rotating switch around the ‘shoot’ button selects the three modes, normal, self timer, and video capture. Normal is for standard pictures, the self timer is great if you wish to be in the photo you are taking (best used with a tripod), video mode allows you to take short 30s videos with sound (288x208 pixels). The quality of the video mode is quite acceptable, sound is clear but will distort if recording loud music.
The on screen menus on the camera are very clear and easy to use, with four arrow keys and an OK button. This alows deletion, rotation and magnification of stored images, along with the capability to delete all and format the card.
With regards to picture quality settings, four can be set in the ‘setup’ menu , '1' is ok for E-Mailing, '4' designed for quality prints. I prefer '3' that gives you great quality with about 95 shots on a 128M stick. The '3' and '4' star settings will let you print 11" x 17" photos of you want. As can be seen from the table below, obtained from the manual '3' and '4' star settings give same resolution but '3' star has greater JPEG compression.
• ****(2272 x 1712 JPEG 5:1) • ***(2272 x 1712 JPEG 10:1) • **(1136 x 856 JPEG 15:1) • *(1136 x 856 JPEG 30:1)
A two second sound clip (.Wav format) can be recorded as a memo for each picture took, but this will take up space on the memory card.
A macro (close up mode) is featured, I have found it a tad fiddly at first, but great once initiated. The built in flash is brilliant for most general applications, includes red eye reduction facility, and forced flash for zapping out shadows, the flash may also be disabled. As with most other cameras is this price bracket, there is no facility to connect an external flash.
Bundled software and USB lead make downloading pictures very simple, with Hewlet-Packards own viewing editing software and ACD-See. You can set the camera to act as an external disk drive and pull your photo’s off this way, it is my preferred method since it is quicker.
This camera has an optional docking station, and TV scart lead, but these must be bought separately. The docking station will also allow direct connection to HP printer and internal charging of batteries (I do not own one of these).
Power to the camera is from 2xAA batteries – beware these won't last long! 1700mAh Ni-MH re-chargeable are highly advised, if you prefer alkaline- Duracell M3’s are best. Normal alkaline last a matter of minutes, the operator’s manual recommends to completely avoid these.
Instruction manual supplied in excellent, although the one I got was in German ( blame the shop I bought it from), but I downloaded an English Adobe acrobat version from HP website no problem! The camera firmware can also be upgraded this way if you are technically minded.
General wear and tear should not be a problem, it's a pretty robust little camera, made from tough molded silver plastic (that 'mock' aluminum stuff!!). I took it to the Glastonbury festival with me last year and it was dropped a few times when I was worst for wear - IT STILL WORKS PERFECTLY!! Which is more than could be said for myself.
IN GENERAL: A good all round camera, ideal for everyday use.
Advantages: Good quality pic, easy to use, easy connection direct to hp printer, looks good. Disadvantages: eats batteries.
This is a very nice easy to use compact camera, in most outlets it is very well priced compared to other cameras with the same spec. if your looking for a first digital camera then they dont come any easier, the menu system is very simple. the quality of the pictures is outstanding. it is quite a neat compact camera with not to many awkward and confusing controls. the only thing that lets this unit down is the fact that it uses standard AA batteries, ...
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Expansion Slot(s): 1 x MultiMediaCard, 1 x SD Memory Card
Environmental standards
EPA Energy Star Compliant: Yes
Power
Voltage Required: AC 100/240 V ± 10% ( 50/60 Hz )
Power Device: Power adapter - external
Manufacturer's product description
The four-megapixel, 21x total zoom, HP PhotoSmart 812 digital camera incorporates HP Instant Share feature, which allows users to snap a photo and then select on their camera where the photo will go, the next time the digital camera is connected to a PC, Mac or the optional HP PhotoSmart digital camera dock. Users can select from up to 14 different destinations including e-mail addresses, printers and more. With HP Instant Share, taking, sharing, printing and saving digital photos has never been easier. Users simply take a digital photo and select on the back of the camera that they want to share their photos with by simply pushing a button. When the digital camera is hooked-up to the computer, it remembers whom you've chosen to share your photos with and automatically e-mails and/or prints your photos.
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