| Product: |
HP Photosmart M627 |
| Date: |
07.01.08 (47 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Great screen, zoom and menu . Easy to use
Disadvantages: OK but not great pictures
8 Months in and this little camera is still going strong, despite some rather rough treatment from a ragamuffin 3 year old.
This was, thankfully a device that worked fine straight out of the box. I came with the usual collection of USB cables, battery charger and 2 batteries. No SD card though :-) And you'll need one - it'll only hold about 10 full-resolution pics on the internal memory. The software was in there too on CD.
Software
The camera cam with an array of the usual pic download and editing software. It's OK but I'll never use it. I have psychological problems at being steered towards a way of working by outside agencies. Big brother and all that. So it has been quickly uninstalled. Before I did, I can confirm that it did download pics from the camera with a minimum of fuss and then catalogued them all. That's the bit I hate. I want full control. If you want the software to do that for you then you won't be disappointed.
Buttons and stuff.
Not too many and nicely positioned. On the top, a separate button controls the flash settings, one flicks between camera and review mode, one starts the video and one takes a snap. Oh and there is an on/off too. All easy to get at and big enough not to miss. On the back their is a two-way zoom button, a delete button and a menu button surrounded by 4 way direction buttons for navigation. All very neat and tidy.
The Zoom lens seems well made, has 3x mag . It moves smoothly and fairly quickly. No complaints there. One irk I have is that the macro function is either naff or I'm doing something really dumb. The closest I can get and stay in focus is about 30cm. I could get my last Fuji camera to within about an inch and still get focus. Now I have to edit afterwards and resize the pics and the results aren't great. If I'm being dumb then there is a flaw with the instructions or the intuitiveness.
A tripod mounting hole is placed on the bottom, which I use a lot.
Camera software.
Is great. The menu system is so intuitive you will be up and running asap. It just makes really god sense. The screen is huge as well which really helps - 6cm viewing diameter! you can fit a lot in that and the on-screen graphics are really clear and the colour is used well. there are automatic settings for timer,fast shot, landscape, portrait, action, night, beach and snow, sunset, burst and macro as well as full control of exposure,white balance and iso speed. There is a range of software built into the camera as well do do on the spot editing and audio recording. The camera has also got a set of help pages, which are easy to read on the large screen.
Pictures
Are OK. Just OK. Indoors on automatic settings, I was disappointed. The colours just don't seem right. Outdoors they are OK but you have to keep as still as possible. The pics seem to blur at the slightest movement. You can fiddle with the settings to improve it but I don't want to. I just want to point and click. This is not to say they are always bad, just sometimes. More than I expected. The camera can shoot in a wide range of resolutions from the settings - 7MP, 5MP, 2MP and VGA. It is quite hard to tell a 5MP from a 7MP so I tend to stay on 5.
The battery life on the camera is pretty good. It gets sed a lot but I only seem to have to charge the batteries on the supplied charger about once a fortnight.
As to build quality. My 3 year old hurled this out of the back of the car onto concrete. A button on the top got depressed and is now slightly askew. The camera however still functions as it did before its little accident, even the depressed button. So no complaints there!!
Anyway, I paid £80 for this in an argos sail and I think it's worth the money. It has plenty of features and is easily the simplest camera to use that I've ever had with the versatility to fiddle around a bit if you so desire. I'd recommend it.
Originally posted on Ciao by myself - dhillcrest
Summary: Lots of good bits - not the best pics!
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