HP PhotoSmart 318

I thought the HP PhotoSmart 318 camera was junk. It ran out of batteries within 2hours. If you buy this then carry at least 16 batteries. The zoom is awful. ad when it doesnt have enough battery you cant see live view. kit takes a longggg time to upload

Ok i am finnish dude so my english isn't the best, but i try to tell as much as i can.

The camera is normal sized digital camera. Package includes 4aa batteries, strap and the camera. Really bad that HP didn't include lens protector to this camera because the lens is only protected by plastic shield which is not replaceable.

I gotta really tell you about the photos. Two and three star photos... well... you cant really say wich one is wich. They look the same but three star photo takes about 800kt per picture. The compression isn't big in two star so i dont really recommend anyone to use the three star photo since i didn't see any difference between them (size not counted ;)

The underexposure is a real bummer in this camera since the finware looks up the brightest bit on the picture. Then it exposures it by the brightest point. Even my lousy webcam has better exposure. There is a way to lock the exposure where you want (I use it everytime). Just place it somewhere dim wich is at same distance as the object or person you want to photograph and press the button halfway down. When the camera is focused and exposured move it to your object and press the button all way and you have nice photos.

CCD is really really good in this cam! I gotta tell you that. Some higher price cameras that i was looking at which had about 3.2MP had very bad image quality. The pictures just wasn't sharp. The bad thing in this CDD (or is it the lens) is that sometimes you can see how fuzzy the edges are.

Conclusion: In good conditions (cloudy but still bright) the camera is at it's best.

This a great camera with no frills and a fantastic price as of Dec.,2002.

The camera has three picture quality modes and 8 megs of internal memory. More can be added with a compact flash card.

The picture quality is superb at the highest quality and only fair at the low quality. On the low setting you can store over 100 pics. Only 8 on high. Get a 128 meg card for $50 to store more at high quality.

I have two other digital cameras. I use this one to take with me and not worry about. I paid $79 with a rebate so it is my "not to worry camera".

I expect good pictures from a camera and this does a fantastic job. I don't print my pictures, however I know someone who has one and the prints are great too.

The case on the HP photoSmart 318 is plastic and fragile. A metal case would be so much better.

The camera tends to underexpose. It is difficult to force any form of over-ride of the exposure. If you set the exposure to a darker object, the focus also locks - normally wrong.

No matter which ones you buy, the batteries run out far too soon. (I know a cheat for this if anyone's interested)

The HP PhotoSmart 318 digital camera is great outdoors, good indoors and takes great close ups. No bad points.