Design
The HP 850 has a fairly unique appearance, the front
is dominated by the large 8x optical zoom lens which is surrounded by
a soft rubber ring (this doesn't move). The curves are stylish but progressive,
the hand grip is large and has a nice rubber soft rubber coating. The
front of the camera is distinctive because it doesn't have a viewfinder
window, the only other objects on the front of the camera are the microphone
and AF illuminator. The rear features a video camera style electronic
viewfinder which contains a high resolution, sharp microdisplay (of the
type used on the Minolta DiMAGE 7, but better).
Side by side
Beside Canon's new PowerShot G3 (four megapixel, four
times optical zoom) you can see that the 850's body isn't that much bigger
but that the lens is considerably larger (hardly surprising). Both styled
differently but both modern looking in their own way.
In your hand
In your hand the 850 feels comfortable, primarily thanks
to the chunky hand grip and fairly wide girth of the camera body. The
soft rubber coating on the hand grip means that the camera always feels
steady, the matching rubber ring around the lens barrel adds to the 'prosumer'
feel of the camera. Balance is good with the batteries located in the
hand grip.
LCD Monitor
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The 850's large 2 inch LCD monitor is bright and fairly clear,
HP haven't yet given us specifications on the pixel count but resolution
seems fairly good.
Just like the 812 the 850's LCD monitor was no where near bright
enough in outdoor situations, you very often found yourself giving
up and going for the EVF. Pretty poor.
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Electronic Viewfinder
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The 850 features a 'Microdisplay' Electronic Viewfinder with 76,800
pixels (320 x 240). This kind of display is fairly unique because
it has the ability to reproduce full colour at each pixel (by quickly
flickering red, green and blue output). This is the same type of
display was first used on the Minolta DiMAGE 7, at which time we
weren't too impressed with its performance. However, HP have managed
to provide a better image, the viewfinder image is clear and bright
and delivers respectable resolution. The rubber ring around the
edge provides dioptre adjustment.
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Battery Compartment
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In the base of the handgrip is the battery compartment, the door
is of the sliding click-lock type with a small locking switch. The
battery contacts themselves appear to be either brass or gold plated,
I'm not sure why... As you can see the camera takes four AA batteries
(no high-tech Lithium-Ion's here, for good or bad).
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Storage Compartment
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On the right hand rear edge of the camera is the small SD / MMC
compartment. The door slides outwards from the body and then hinges
open. Cards are inserted with the label towards the back of the
camera and are removed by pressing them inwards, a spring loaded
eject mechanism pops them out. A year or two back SD / MMC storage
was a bit of a gamble, with 512 MB SD cards already hitting the
shelves it's really beginning to establish itself as a mainstream
storage format.
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