Need immediate help...should I buy this camera?

[Bires]

My pics for my case showed me that I need to buy a REAL digital camera, but money is tight. With the cheap compactflash from amazon deal ending tomorrow, I was thinking of buying this camera:

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=C8455AR

Anyone have any thoughts about this? I figured 30bit color CCD must mean quality, but I have no experience with HP digital camera.

Please help. I'll make my decision about 8:00PST.

Thanks

[Merlin]

I have that camera. Got it back in Jan/Feb from Staples thanks to the deals page. The camera does a fine job. If you want, I'll snap a few pictures and e-mail them to you so you can get a feel for what it can do.

Keep in mind that this is a very basic model. No optical zoom. No taking short movie clips. But it does snap fairly decent pictures.

I can't really say that I have any complaints about it but then on the other hand my needs are extremely basic.

Like all digital cameras it does go through batteries but the four AA will get you lots of pictures.

For $100 it is a good option if you only have basic needs.

[Bires]

Originally posted by Merlin
I have that camera. Got it back in Jan/Feb from Staples thanks to the deals page. The camera does a fine job. If you want, I'll snap a few pictures and e-mail them to you so you can get a feel for what it can do.



Thanks. That's what I was looking for. No need to snap some pics-personal recommendation is good enough for me. It would be nice to have an optical zoom, but the checkbook says "no" this month.

I do have very basic needs: family pictures, pictures of case mods, pictures of lab equipment and experiments during class.

[Bires]

Thanks for the info. I went for it. I ordered the cam from compgeeks (with a bunch of cheap toys, too) and the compactflash from amazon.

I'll have better case mod pics next week.

[Devhux]

You should be pretty happy with that camera. I own the same one myself, and overall it's served me quite well. Here's a few shots showing the quality:

http://members.shaw.ca/gurux/motherboard.jpg (Best macro shot I've pulled off with this camera. While it doesn't have a dedicated macro mode, you can get acceptable results with the right lighting)

http://members.shaw.ca/gurux/neon.jpg (Low-light photo -- still handled it quite well).

I've taken quite a few outdoor pics as well, but none of them are on my webpage yet.

[irwin]

Originally posted by GuruX

http://members.shaw.ca/gurux/neon.jpg (Low-light photo -- still handled it quite well).


Notice the graininess present in this shot. All of your photos taken at the max res of 1600x1200 will have this "pixelated" look to it. It'll be to a lesser extent in direct sunlight though. If you resize it's dimensions down by 50%, everything will fine. Also, for outdoor shots in the sun, forget about relying on the lcd display because you won't be able to see shizzle. For $100 though, it's nice. ;)


^---- All of that stuff is based off my experience with a hp318. Basically the same cam, but with 2x digital zoom compared the the 315's 2.5x.

[ribitch]

i have the same camera. Check out a local microcenter if you have one. They sell the camera with a printer for 159 i believe. I got mine in the printer bundle from a traget clearance rack for 139. I cant complain, especially since the printer does an ok job for my current needs. I really didnt want to pay 60 bucks for the ink for a free lexmark z32 that I had recieved.

Passwird pointed out the graininess in the one shot. I have expereinced this a few times at full res, but not in every shot. It all depends on what is going on in teh shot.

I wish it had manual shutter control. I have been taking some nighttime pictures of my pet lizard in its tank, and the shutter stays open extremely long with ho flash. the picturs come out with the light trail effect. i need to get a tripod i think

as a side note, the camera has infared to transfer to printers (photosmart series) and to other camera. Its a nice feature to have

[Devhux]

I will admit some shots do have a fairly high amount of graininess, but I also should point out that the neon pic was a worst-case example.

I actually used the flash in that picture, but held my hand over the flash so that it wouldn't illuminate my case. Without the flash, I experienced the "light-trail effect"