HP's Photosmart 812 has good image quality, but anyone familiar with digital cameras may find the lack of fine tweaking features a problem.
The Photosmart 812 uses rechargeable NiMH batteries for power, although you'd be advised to have some AA cells handy as well. Initial charging of the batteries takes up to a whopping fifteen hours, and must be done in-camera. We simply set up the unit and left it overnight, but you may want to use it straight out of the box -- hence the need for the AAs.
HP touts the Photosmart 812 as a camera suitable for enthusiasts, but accessible to newcomers as well. For a camera whose target market is still new users, it has a suprising number of buttons and controls; twelve on the back of the camera alone. We initially found the button complexity something of a chore to deal with, and we're still not sure we like a zoom function with buttons that are side by side, rather than in an up/down arrangement. The Photosmart 812 is capable of 3x optical zoom and 7x digital zoom. When in digital zoom mode, a small cross-section of the LCD is bordered to give you a better idea of where the image will be interpolated from -- a neat touch.
The Photosmart 812 has a 4 megapixel CCD. When you select image quality on the camera, you'll see no mention of resolution whatsoever. Images are graded on a star scale from 1-4. This is accompanied by a message telling you that 1 star images are suitable for emailing, and 3 star are suitable for printing. It's only if you delve into the camera manual that you'll find the equivalent resolution rates. 1 star equates to 1136x848 pixel 250KB images, while four star images are 2272x1712 pixel 2.5MB images. The supplied 16MB SD card can take up to five four star images, and 56 one star shots.
Image quality was quite good, although we found that dark images presented something of a problem; the camera often had slightly blurry focus unless we used the flash. As could be expected, the blurring problem was much more accentuated when using digital zoom.
It took us a while to get used to the fact that when the Photosmart 812 is turned on, the preview LCD initially displays an HP logo, then switches itself off. It's a good battery saving mechanism, but it can be a little irksome if you want to use the LCD as the viewfinder in a hurry. For those instances, you can always use the traditional viewfinder.
Connection to PC is via USB, utilising either a cable or an optional dock that also allows for one-touch image processing in a similar manner to docks offered by Kodak. For a camera at the semi-professional level, a lot of the supplied software is still very much in the keen amateur space. That's not necessarily a bad thing; anyone wanting the high quality without the software overhead can just opt to have the PhotoSmart 812 appear as an SD Card drive, and import into their favourite application, while the new users tinker around with with the supplied HP software, which concentrates on things like easy printing and the creation of web photo albums.
The Photosmart 812 has a number of automated features that some enthusiasts might find a touch limiting. It's not possible to set exposure modes on the camera itself, although HP's software will let you alter exposure after the event. Whenever the camera is switched on it reverts to default flash settings -- automatic -- which could be a problem if you're in an area where flash photography is a no-no.
The Photosmart 812 does take acceptable pictures, and comes recommended to anyone who wants an easy ride into semi-professional digital photography. Those already in the know, however, may feel stifled by its lack of customisable features.
HP Photosmart 812
Company: Hewlett-Packard Australia
Price: AU$1,299
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 13 13 47
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