Product Review: HP Photosmart 935 Digital Camera

HP, best known for it's line of Pavilion and Compaq lines of laptops, has launched an extensive line of consumer cameras in the Photosmart series. The Photosmart series of cameras are marketed specifically towards those who enjoy printing out their photos, and is meant to go along with HP's line of photo printing printers.

The 935 is one of the newest Photosmart digital cameras, and attempts to increase the quality of the series over past models. It is a point and shoot compact and can be found at multiple online realtors and stores.

If you're looking for a digital camera that can be easily paired with a photo printer, then the Photosmart 935 may be the right camera for you. Read on to find out about this camera, including features, image quality, and issues you may need to be aware of.

Body

The body of this camera is plain and doesn't make the list of most attractive. It appears very similar to popular compact film cameras in the 90's, with a small handle and square, stocky body. It is light gray in color, and has a small lens in the center of the front of the camera. The lens is dwarfed by the large size of the camera.

The back of the camera has a distinct look to it, and appears oddly familiar to the Minolta line of cameras.

Features

The HP Photosmart 935 features all the basic features you need for average shooting. The ISO goes to 400, there's six shooting modes, focus is infinity or macro for close shots, and the lowest zoom is 35mm equivalent. There's six white balance settings: auto, sunlight, shade, tungsten, fluorescent, and manual.

The movie mode can shoot MPEG 1 with a resolution of 288 x 208, which is an obscure resolution. It can record at 15fps for no longer than two minutes at a time.

Image Quality

Image quality with the 935 is a very good improvement over the previous versions of the camera, and is more than adequate for snapshots. The white balance is excellent when used in auto mode, so you won't need to understand the fine art of configuring shots. Colors are moderately saturated, and noise is kept fairly low, though it is definitely present in lower light settings.

Problems

Users have frequently complained that the macro mode does not work very well, and you can get as close-up shots as you can with other cameras.

Conclusion

If you want a camera that goes with the Photosmart line of printers, then this camera is better than all the previous models. Photo quality is good, and you can shoot anything you want without having to make adjustments to the white balance.

With that said, if you aren't looking to get a Photosmart printer, there's no point in getting this camera. You can get a different model cheaper that has the same or better specs.