Just call me an HP junkie!
Written: Jun 09 '03
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Pros: Is simple to use and takes decent photos.
Cons: If you want a telephoto lens or wide-angled lens, you have to spend additional bucks.
The Bottom Line: This camera is a mainstay for my hubby's eBay selling and more often than not gets the item sold. I've also had rave reviews on family photos.
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| ktryathart1's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Photosmart 315 Digital Camera |
I have always had a thing about cameras, they capture the moment so to speak and turn it into still life forever. I remember getting a Kodak Brownie with a flashlight attachment and I have purchased an assortment of cameras, some excellent film shooters and some duds in the next 30 years. Yeah... those were the days, flashbulbs as big as old-fashioned Christmas tree lights or a flashbar so you didn't have to reload, but I digress.
In February of '99, I bought a Hewlett Packard Pavilion 6470Z computer which came with a Hewlett Packard DeskJet 697C. So next year I bought a Hewlett Packard ScanJet 4200C scanner, which again I've had no problems with.
The following year, I decided it was time for a digital camera, so first I tried an early Canon Elph digital camera that I didn't care for at all due to dark photos and promptly returned it a week later.
My next purchase was a Sony Mavica MVC-FD75 Digital Camera. It was a pain because you had to take the disk out and insert it into your computer to view the photos. I wanted something that I could hook right into my computer and unload the photos. Enter the Hewlett Packard PhotoSmart 315 for $199.
So what did you get for $199?
*The all-important wrist strap
*8 MB CompactFlash memory card
*4 AA batteries
*USB cable
*Photo imaging software
*User's guide-112 pages
*1.8 inch color LCD (the viewer)
*2.1 megapixel resolution
*Up to 2.5 digital zoom
*Auto flash, auto focus and exposure, self timer
*And the all-important quick start poster
What does your computer require to use the camera?
Simple stuff like:
*166MHz Pentium
*32 MB RAM
*150 MB free disk space
*800 x 600, 16-bit color display
*CD-ROM
*USB interface
*Mircrosoft Windows 98, Me, NT 4.0 or 2000 Professional
Some features I could do without or can be a pain:
*The HP 315 PhotoSmart Digital Camera thinks you want to date every photo you store in your computer. NOT! If you don't leave the batteries in or the camera plugged in, it looses track of time. It wants to document everything by the year, month, day, hours, even minutes! Well gee whiz...
*It won't focus unless you slide the lens cover open. I forget to do this sometimes and then scratch my head as to why the LCD viewer won't work.
*Now this feature really irks me, although others may like it: The HP 315 PhotoSmart Digital Camera has an automatic power off. To conserve battery power, it turns itself off when 3 minutes elapse and you don't press the shutter button. Now this is nice if you are just taking the typical "the gangs all here holiday photos" and leave it sitting on the table; but if you are photographing items for eBay and want to rearrange them for a better shot, it can be just one more thing that delays getting the right photo.
*It doesn't come with an electrical adapter. So for another 50 bucks I had to buy one of those.
Features that please me:
*Unlike my Minolta Maxxum 3xi 35mm SLR Camera which can be finicky in autofocus and take forever; the Hewlett Packard PhotoSmart 315 will focus fast and a steady green light indicates within a nano second that its ready when you start to press the shutter button.
*After taking a photo, the LCD viewer will next ask you if you want to keep the photo and you can either ignore it and go on to take another photo or press the 5-way controller button next to it to OK or Delete.
*I can also review the photos on the image LCD that are stored on the CompactFlash memory 8MB card on which I can magnify them, erase, lock them into memory and/or rotate the photos.
*You can change the photo quality from basic, fine and super-fine. I use basic the most, because I use this camera mainly for photos to be put on the internet. The fine and super-fine are recommended if you plan on printing out any photos you take to portrait size photos such as 5 x 7 or 8 x 10.
These are the main highlights and lowlights of the HP 315 PhotoSmart Digital Camera. It has other minor features that you may find useful like a visual indicator of battery life and transferring your photos to any HP JetSet printer. It comes with a 48-page booklet of digital camera accessories featuring a lot of desirable go withs, like different lens and mounts.
I have owned the Hewlett Packard PhotoSmart 315 for a couple of years now and I still find it very adequate for my needs, so it will join the ranks of my favorite cameras along with the Minolta Maxxum 3xi 35mm SLR Camera and my German-made Balda SLR 35mm camera.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 199
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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Epinions.com ID:
ktryathart1
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Member: BJ
Location: Indiana
Reviews written: 249
Trusted by: 307 members
About Me:
Life is what you make it as you are the master of your destiny.
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