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Hewlett Packard is branding a whole raft of products with the PhotoSmart banner. While this can help reinforce a unified image, it does make things somewhat complicated because there is no quick and easy way of knowing that a PhotoSmart 1218 is a printer while a PhotoSmart 315 is a camera.
This time around we've got hold of the latter, HP's budget 2.1megapixel snapper. Spec-wise, it has a lens rated at an aperture of f2.8 with a focal length of 5.8mm, which is equivalent to 38mm in a standard 35mm camera. This is protected by a sliding cover that, when opened, also switches on the device.
Sensitivity is rated at ISO 100, and there's a 10-second auto timer, so you can put yourself in the picture, so to speak. Connection to the PC is via USB.
A well-balanced 227g and about the size of a box of kitchen matches, the 315 is comfortable to hold and use. The minimal number of controls means you quickly get the hang of things, and the on-screen menu has just three top-level entries, so it's impossible to get lost.
There's no optical zoom, so you have to rely on the digital alternative, which crops and zooms the image to create the effect of a 1.5x, 2x or 2.5x magnification. A couple of years ago you'd have given this feature a wide berth, but with higher-resolution models like this, it becomes a more viable option. Even so, we'd still recommend leaving this kind of work to your image-editing software.
The 315 takes only Compact-Flash Type I memory cards (so no IBM Microdrive), and the card supplied stretches to just 8Mb. HP claims this will hold 10 Superfine images at 1600 x 1,200 with low compression, and our tests showed this to be pretty much the case. Up the compression to the Fine setting and it'll stretch to 20, while dropping the resolution to 640 x 480 will squeeze in up to 80 low-res images.
Exposure and focus are both automatic, but we found the latter to be poor. We took images at a range of distances, and in almost every instance there was evidence of some blurring to the edges of many subjects. There was also some graininess, particularly where there is a considerable expanse of sky that you would expect to feature smooth transitions between areas of tonal variation.
Moreover, jpeg compression was poorly handled, and where contrasting colours met, say at the edge of a light building against a blue sky, there was an undesirable halo effect.
Images were sadly not up to the quality of those produced by the lower specified (and lower priced) Epson PhotoPC 650 reviewed in our January 2001 issue. This won't be a problem if you're going to shrink your results for emailing or use on a website, but if you're going to print them - and the 315 features an IR window for wireless printing on a PhotoSmart printer - you may be disappointed.
You can review your images on the 1.8in LCD, and you can also use it to frame shots if you don't get on with viewfinders. This screen has a fast refresh, which is a great improvement on HP's early digital cameras, but it is difficult to view outside. You can increase the brightness, but this isn't really the problem - it's more one of contrast.
It can't be faulted when used inside, though, and the review function has some handy features, including thumbnail views, or zooming in to 4x magnification so you can scroll around and examine every detail. It's from here that you can also create a DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) file. A DPOF file keeps track of the photos you select so that when you next drop the card into a compatible printer, it will send just those to paper without any further work from yourself.
In the box you'll find a set of alkaline AA batteries, and you can invest in an optional power cable. PhotoImpression and PhotoMontage software, both from Arcsoft, also make an appearance. The driver software is quick to set up and easy to use, but the default installation runs to 117Mb and even the minimum stands at a rather chunky 63Mb, dropping a camera detection icon in the system tray.
We were disappointed that, having chosen to go for the minimum install, the interface still showed unavailable options, and when clicked they threw up an error. We'd like them to at least be greyed out, or for the popup to say something other than that the application had been "moved, removed or corrupted".
HP is a big name in digital imaging, but the PhotoSmart 315 left us cold. It's not expensive, but even at this price we expected better.
Contact
Hewlett Packard 08705 47 47 47; www.hp.com/uk/ PROS Inexpensive; DPOF functionality CONS Image quality could have been better OVERALL It feels good in your hand, but doesn't perform as well as we would have liked.
All Digital Cameras
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