HP Photosmart 812

Opinion: The Cam. takes great picture, and a thing that made me buy it--were the videomode, which also applies sound!! (Poor NIKON 885 Owners, they can only see the movie)
:-)
The batteries most be RECHARGEABLE, otherwise the camera is very quickly out of power!!
I have now been taken 550 pictures with this camera, and max. 5% of them is no good for any use!!
So in comparing to other 4,13-million pixel cameras, this one provides A LOT Value for money!!
(The optiks are exactly the same as the Pentax Optio 430RS-But the price is 100$ less)

Opinion: The camera provides photos of very and very poor quality. Total absence of any adjustable features in conjuction with weak optics neutralizes potential advantage of the four-megapixel matrix. Materials the camera is made from are sincerely cheap: scratches appeared on the body after the first weeks of careful use, and the icons disappeared from the rubber buttons respectively. However the price of the product promises a bit more...

SD-chips of other than HP brands can be used only if the happy owner has a great patience. So for instance the SD by Siemens required 5-10 attempts to turn on/off the camera before it was recognized.

My 'enjoyment' has been stopped by the fatal breakdown. One day (two months after the purchase) my HP Photo Smart 812 just died: it just stopped to give any signs of life (without any assistance from the outside world).

I have nothing to add.

Alexander Chaikin
(Alexander.Chaikin@gmx.ch),

former customer of Hewlett-Packard.

Opinion: I was able to buy this camera including the dock for 669 euro, a very good deal !!! (A Canon S40 is 330 euro more !)I have taken about 200 pictures now under all conditions.
I was amazed by the sharpness and correct colours of the pictures, the fully automatic camera did his job very well (although macro focussing is a bit tricky), no manual adjustments needed (and not possible : there aren't any)
The software works perfectly.
In bright sunlight you can't see the display, the sound quality is poor and an extra (expensive) SD card is needed : those are my only remarks, but for a price like that I can't complain. (pm : The camera was updated with the latest firmware)