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HP PhotoSmart 945 5.3MP Digital Camera w/ 8x Optical Zoom

HP PhotoSmart 945 5.3MP Digital Camera w/ 8x Optical Zoom

List Price: $449.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: SAVE $ BUY THE HP 707
Review: AFTER SPENDING $ 500 BUCKS MY CAMERA STRAP CAME OFF AND THE ZOOM MOTOR BUSTED! I found out through the camera guy at Costco that they stopped selling them because " THEY R JUNK " IM NOT KIDDING THAT IS WHAT HE SAID.
Now I don't agree but you get so much more from the 707 because it has biult in MEMORY ! as well as plenty of zoom, it is so much more durrable to( hard metal! not plastic shell) I picked one up in the box and I am verry happy w/ the results I get from the H.P. 707............BOTTOM LINE the 945 looks so much more like an s.l.r. but it's too bulky and cumbersome.........the 707 fits in your pocket too and so you don't have to lugg it around your neck lookin like a TOURIST !!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Camera, Great Features
Review: Great camera with great features. The sepia and BW features are cool. Also, the zoom is really useful. When doing the digital zoom, make sure to use a tri-pod or put the camera on a stable device as it can be blurry. The 5.3 MP makes the images really clean and clear. I also bought the docking station and the HP photo smart printer. Great accessories. You will need much more than the 32 MB memory card. I bought a 256 MB and it gives me 90 or so photos at the top resolution. That plenty for me, but if you plan on going on a 2 week vacation, you may want the bigger one.

Overall I highly recommend this quality HP product.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: MP and Battery Life issues
Review: Having already purchased a HP 3.2 MP camera and being completely happy with it, the 945 looked like a perfect upgrade.
For the most part I liked the camera however when my concern for the battery life became an issue (I couldn't shoot 25 Best pictures and I did try different batteries)I began to look at other settings which would require less drain on the batteries. It was at this point that I realized there are no options. At 5MP your files are huge 2.25 to 3MB which is fine sometimes when you want large files but if you don't you then have to go down to 1MP. That's quite a drop, who shoots in 1MP if they don't have to anymore. As for other options, you can change the compression but then your picture quality suffers because the original resolution stays the same. As far as I am concerned this is too big of an issue to ignore. I returned the HP945 yesterday and am very disappointed that HP would put out a camera that would be so limiting in this respect.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This is a dog!
Review: I bought this camera and spent weeks trying to get it to take a decent picture. I had previously used an Olympus which was an excellent camera.

The HP will not tolerate even slight movement in the AUTO mode, and the quality of the photos is poor. I complained to HP and they sent me a replacement. The replacement was no better.

You had best avoid this camera and I will never again buy any HP camera product.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Beware of battery life and pic quality
Review: I bought this camera expecting superb resolution, having previously owned a 1MP Sony Mavica that was powered by a rechargable battery. My new HP camera's battery life is horrible! I can, literally, only take 4 (FOUR!) pictures with standard AA batteries before the camera rejects them and demands fresh batteries.

Imagine how many AA batteries I've gone through, I should buy stock in Energizer or Duracell. I picked up some rechargable high-capacity AA batteries and can get about 20 pictures out of them, much better but still lacking! The included memory card is of course a joke, buy a large capacity one or you'll regret it.

A note on picture quality - be VERY sure that you have a completely steady hand or your pictures will be terrible. Not only that, but you need to hold the camera steady even AFTER the little "picture" sound goes off, otherwise you'll ruin your photo. I have no idea why this is.

I had called HP customer service about the battery problem and was promptly transferred to India, who barely understood me and ran me around in circles for a good hour. Bottom line: I would recommend a different manufacturer, stay away from this HP camera.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Camera
Review: I got this camera for Christmas. What a great present. It's easy to use with very good quality. I would recommend HP camera's to all of my friends it is much better than the previous digital camera I had.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This camera does the job
Review: I had a chance to compare this camera with Toshiba M700 and Kodak DX4690. I rate this camera as much ahead in image quality than two above, so that HP 945 comes at the top, then Toshiba M700 and the last one is Kodak DX6490. I haven't bought this camera at Amazon, I bought it at Business Depot. To be short, I would agree with almost all negative reviews about lacking some features in this camera but it does the job.
About a negative review given by Steven Kozuch. Steven, you probably got a camera with a manufacture defect. I had something like this with the first Kodak DX6490, everything was wrong and it was freezing every few minutes. The second one was okay. Steven, I tried to reproduce you problems and I couldn't. I had reviewed more than 300 pictures/images (from the internet, my friends and myself) taken by all three cameras and the HP 945 was the best. Indeed, non of the digital cameras can give you the same quality as a film camera in the same class, so you can really compare them when you have a chance to put one next to another under the same conditions.
The HP 945 was the fastest in getting focus and it was the best in white balance and it was the best in image quality and it was the best in taking pictures in low light and without any light at all (only flash).
Sure, there are better cameras, but as many people are excited about Kodak DX6490 I can say, take the pictures and compare them, be very picky about image quality, the rest you can live with.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very convenient, excellent qualitty images!
Review: I have been holding off buying another digital camera until the price tradeoff and quality was right. This was a good deal for the image quality and ease of use. The 8x optical zoom is a pleasure. With or without the Digital Flash feature, this camera does an amazing job figuring out appropriate lighting situations and adjusting accordingly. The macro mode delivers beautiful crisp close-ups.

I compared many shots at 5MP between the top two compression settings and it's very hard to tell the difference, both are excellent. It does not provide a "raw" format, however, but it does not seem necessary.

I'm disappointed is the slow reaction times after pressing the shutter. I knew this ahead of time, but you have to get used to it. This seems typical of affordable digital cameras. The autofocus speed is less than stellar. Also, the "burst" mode seems almost useless. It's a good idea, but because of variable focus time and SD-card write times between shots, you have no idea what's in frame or whether or not it's in focus. Again, only big-bucks gets past these issues.

I took several hundred photos on the first day, at least half of which were action shots outdoors in fading light. Most of them were surprisingly impressive quality and focus, only a few had out-of-frame or out-of-focus subject due to the shutter lag.

Overall, I'm very pleased. This camera will hold me long into the next generation of affordable digital cameras (I'm still drooling to replace my Nikon SLR, this camera does _not_ do that!).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Love The HP-945
Review: I have had mine for about 3 weeks.I am still using the batteries that came with it.I have taken about 300 pictures.It takes very Sharp pictures.The 8x Zoom is outstanding.The Auto-Eye start EVF and large LCD are very good in Low light or Sunlight.LCD Gains Up so it can be used in Very Low Light.Even the digital zoom seems to be sharper than usual.Very low red-eye,uses 4AA Batteries,Aperture Priority,Shutter Priority,Low light Focus Assist Lamp.Lots of Advanced settings Video with Sound,and just Plain Fully Automatic.I also bought one for my Wife.I think it is a Very Outstanding 5.3mp Ultra-Zoom Digital Camera.Lots of Very Nice Features.Other Family Members also own HP-945 and They Love it too.It is Very Easy for beginners.Advanced settings for Advanced users.Help is built into Camera Menus.I Highly Recommend the HP-945.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Photosmart 945 is unreliable.
Review: I have owned this camera for a year and it has malfunctioned twice requiring it to be replaced with a refurbished camera. It's autofocus function does not take clear pictures consistently. My son's Canon takes much better pitures. I would not recommend this camera to anyone.


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