HP Photosmart 812

Opinion: I'm really unhappy with this, because of the problems below and:

- Power and "Take Picture" buttons too close together. Easy to hit the wrong one.
- The picture mode wheel spins too easily, changing from stills to timer mode, or to video. This happens even in the case.
- Won't accept media larger than 32 MB, which means about a dozen pictures.
- The delay between pressing the button and the camera responding is ridiculous, around 2 seconds.

I just bought a new Panasonic camera and I have much better hopes for it.

Opinion: the camera doesn't work with a lexar sd of 128 mb, error: card write protected. also with the verbatim 128 sd 47118 code the camera says card not supported.
tha camera has the last fw but verbatim 128 code 47118 does not work. saturday i have bought a sd 128mb sandisk code sdsdb-128 and now this sd works. now i have a big camera.

Opinion: I got this refurbished a couple of years back for a very low price. Since then I've taken thousands of pictures - some good, some bad, and some exceptional. The best shots (usually taken in bright sunlight) have blown up very nicely to 8x10 size.

The camera is heavy on batteries, but if you invest in a set of good 2500mAh rechargables (such as energizer - $10 for a set of 4 - camera takes 2), it does very well. For most of the time I had it I had lower capacity batteries, and had to be pretty religious about carrying a backup set.

Focus is a bit slow, but if you pre-focus your shots, it's not too slow when taking then. Makes it a bit tricky at times trying to photograph active children.

Camera size and weight is good - fits fairly easily into a bigger pocket - though no where near as neat as the newer HP R818. I still keep it around for (admitedly rare) occasions when I want something small - rather than taking my canon S2IS.

Opinion: so glad this camera finally broke - over the two years I had it - I probably spent $500 in batteries - would take 20 pictures and would need new batteries. and don't get me started on the rechargable battery....

don't buy this camera

Opinion: Extremely disappointed!

I purchased this camera in early 2004 and within 3 months began experiencing problems with the zoom lens. Upon power up, the zoom would fully extend and not retract. HP replaced under warranty, but the next camera had the same problem! However, HP does not acknowledge this as a chronic issue for this model.

In addition, this camera goes through batteries extremely fast. It seems that after taking only a few shots, the display states "batteries too low for view" - (which is a problem if you also can't look through the view finder due to the zoom issue)

Luckily, I had purchased this on my AMEX and had taken advantage of the buyer's assurance program. I received a full credit and I know own a Kodak Easy Share DX 7630 which is great (and a much better value).

Opinion: This camera is a major battery HOG!! Buyer beware it is not what you would expect from a 4.0 camera. Pictures take forever to take (2-5 seconds) under good light conditions and if it is overcast or indoor -- be prepared to wait up to 15 seconds. Image quality and useability are good -- but don't take this camera with you and expect to get spontaneous pictures of moving people or objects!!

Opinion: This camera stinks,

I've had this camera ever since i encountered problems with my old HP750 which was discontinued. Although HP upgraded me to his, it was a lot worse off then the old camera of lower specs.

First it was probably a refirb, not a new camera like they should have given me. I've encountered a lot of problems.

First this camera stopped working right a few months after normal use. It will shut off and not power up unless you take out the batteries and flash card for 24 hours. When i talked to HP, they said tough luck and have known of this issue. But since it works if you ship it to them (because they ask for no card/batteries) they don't care.

Second, during cold weather it compounds the previous problem. It almost always won't work in the cold weather, and instead stays shut down! You will miss many utdoor shots in the winter and so far this winter I haven't been able to use it at all if i'm outside for more then 30 min.

Third, somehow recently the viewfinder zoom has broke. While you can still zoom from the screen, it's annoying. This might be my fault, but still I haven't dropped it or handled it improperly.

Batteries are eaten up very very fast, maybe a few hours tops when using the screen, and not many photos at all. You wil need a spare set, and would benifit from rechargables, the lack of a li-ion chargable is bunk.

photos are alright, but any low light will kill the picture. The flash overexposes things in the foreground, and all your pictures will suffer from red eye.

The time to take a picture is horrible, sometimes up to 2-3 seconds in good light. I've had friends walk off because they thought i've taken the picture already! In low light forget about it, 5 or more seconds, and in very low light it can take up to 20 seconds with a horribly blury image (must use a tri-pod).

you will also get frequently blury images.

Opinion: Do not buy,have taken about 1500 pictures over the last year.Battery life is poor,camera will not even turn on unless they are new.I don't like the battery door,and have to reset the date and time at every change.

Opinion: I do not recommend this camera to anyone beyond those who want an occasional use, point & shoot camera. Startup times, autofocus times, shot to shot times, and recording times are all slower than other similarly priced cameras. Battery life with this camera is attrocious, even with Ni rechargeable batteries.

Image quality is fair, although noise and pixelation are higher than I would have liked to of seen on a 4mp camera of this price.

Having owned an HP C315 prior to this camera (along w/ a Nikon Coolpix 5700) HP as a ways to go if they want to be competitive with some of the other digicams being offered at this price point.