The Bottom Line: I don't recommend this product over anything else. I'd say go with a "SONY" or "CANON" camera, for they'll satisfy you more than this one did.
chrish495's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Photosmart 435 Digital Camera
My friend and I always like to take pictures. Whatever the occasion may be, taking pictures seems like a good way to go in many aspects. My friend owns this HP PhotoSmart 435 Digital Camera, and yesterday at a concert I got to finally use it. I had seen him use it many times before, but not gotten a hands on opportunity to use it yet.
Unfortunately, like my friend, I'm pretty dissatisfied at the quality of this product. I did some research on various sites and the reviewers there say the same things. "Very unintuitive," "LCD screen is second hand," "Shutter speed is very slow," and it shames me to say this about an HP product, but I must agree.
There are so many quirks with this camera it's hard to decide where to start. First off, the look / feel of the camera isn't as sturdy as you'd want. It is very boxy and has too much of a plastic feel to it. The 'ON / OFF' switch doubles as the lens cover, like a lot of Olympus cameras, which in some cases is an advantage, but I find that a simple 'ON / OFF' button makes more sense. It has a button for the movie mode that is right on top of the camera, which means you can't be in the designated movie mode except to start and stop it, which feels peculiar.
The flash on the camera is nothing more than mediocre. It doesn't reach any more than ten feet, and when flashed on the subject, produces a very dark image, most of the time, blurry. Only in very high lighted places will you receive a clear shot. Even when the flash is 'OFF,' you'd think that could be a redemption from bad shots, but it certainly isn't. In the dark, concert hall, I found that it would take 2-3 seconds to take / process the picture. When the picture was finished, it would be a complete blur, nothing else.
As for reviewing / playback menus, I find these to be some of the only positives. You click on a little ">" button to the left of the screen, above the printer button and below the original picture taking camera button, need I say, to get to the playback of picture menu. If you click the "OK" button, you can get to some options such as 'delete,' 'magnify,' 'rotate,' and the printing / sending options. The 'magnify' option is very good, in my opinion, for a camera with such low features other than this. It takes about 1.5 seconds to load the magnification, and when it does you can actually see the quality of your picture. Scrolling through the previous pictures is in a standard manner, I suppose you could say, with the previous one disappearing behind the new picture that shows up.
Now then, as for the LCD screen, I'm not sure about how high resolution it is, but it definitely did not suit me for as much as I'd expect. It just doesn't show the pictures as well as you'd hope. It will do for a camera that originally runs at $150, so you can expect a screen that isn't crystal-clear perfect.
I don't have much experience with the software, upload, or battery life, but I'm sure they're nothing more than average. I see that I've gone over pretty much everything I can think of, and to sum it up, the HP PhotoSmart 435 Digital Camera doesn't have anything special in a digital camera for what it offers. For the price, it's something you can expect. 3 MP for $150, even lower nowadays, usually doesn't give you the highest quality. All in all, I'd say avoid this camera and branch of to some of HP's higher models, or Sony's, Canon's, or Kodak's cameras; they'll all probably give you a little better of an opinion than I had of this one.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 149 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Fool-Proof for Absolute Beginners
3.1 megapixel sensor captures enough detail to create photo-quality 8 x 10 prints and medium-quality prints up to 11 x 14 5x continuous digital zoom S...More at Amazon Marketplace
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