User reviews for HP Photosmart 720: Digital Photography Review

Opinion: Don't read this review. I selected a wrong model.

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Opinion: It was a great camera for my vacation - the pictures were really very good - better than I used to get with a film camera. I really like the download to my computer. easy.

Problems: Easy to use - I would give it better marks except like many cameras, when you click the shutter you lose the picture in the viewing screen. I discovered this when trying to take pictures of the 4th of July fireworks - had to guess where the bomb would burst because it was dark - and it was still a guess until you saw the picture afterward.

Image quality - unusually good - except for close ups - almost always fuzzy - this is a real problem because the time from focus to taking the picture - you move ever so little - and you are out of focus - it doesn't readjust.

Features - don't try to use the view screen outside on a bright sunny day - you can't see it - gotta use the view finder. Common to all these view screens.

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Opinion: Very easy to use, and so far i'm quite happy with pictures taken. Very often there is some problems with focus thou =( Construction is good! Not too small, which is nice. Images surprisingly similar to Canon A70.

Good buy, thou nowadays hard to get, and there are many other cameras in same category.

Problems: Like said, few times focus was not so good.

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Opinion: I paid $270.00 at Sears last December 2002
I do like the camera. It is a little heavy. I it is my first digital camera so I am getting use to this type of taking pictures. I am not happy with the images outside in the sun. I have to use the flash for fill if I am taking pictures in the sun. To much light and to many shadows. I do like being able to change the picture speeds. I wish it would keep then new setting though. When it is turned off it goes back to Auto. The lens doesn't open well. I have to kind of touch it to get it to open all the way. They told me to reprogram it but didn't help. It is very slow to save to the sd card. I was able to put a 256 memory card in and it works very well. I got the rechargable batteries and the power cord so recharging on a trip is no problem I was going though batteries like crazy! I love the burst feature. the camera is slow to react to focasing. The moves are very good on it, kind of fun. If you are taking pictures of children or grand children don't count on getting the picture you want. It doesn't focas fast enough It does take great pictures if you use the three stars setting with all the right speed settings for the light. I do usally have to change the ISO setting. I did win a photo contest with one of my photos using the cloud setting on a rainy day. It takes very good pictures on zoom or on up close objects. Flowers are very clear and the color is great. My son got the camera modal just up from mine. (4meg pix) I would much rather have this one!. I do love having a digital camera but won't give up my Canon 35mm at improtant events or with my grandchildren. Over all it is a good camera for the money

Problems: lens sticks all the time.
Slow to save.
Slow to focas.
On button doesnt work unless pushed 2 to 3 times. Lighting outside in full sun or bright day is too light on the lights and too dark on the darks.
In low light very slow to focas
zoom is hard to use if you can't see the screen which is imposable to see out side if there is any light. It is off centered if you are looking throught the view finder.

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Opinion: Very Good camera...

Problems: The camera is too big...
and havy

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Opinion: This is my first D-Camera. As far as I can see makes better pictures than my old 35mm (Yashika zoomate). For instance there is no luma dropoff at the corners of the picture and they come out sharper.
- Batteries (4) do last AGES compared to my Friend's cams and I can run a day when they run 1 hour. Also uses standard AA batteries (you can always find some).
- Brilliant daytime pictures with lots of details (setting ***)
- Decent movie capabilities
- Really Rugged, looks more like the military stuff of D-Cams. This is not for trendy-types.
- I would have appreciated a intermediate resolution between * and **. Also more advanced controls (like aperture) would be a nice addition.

Problems: The LCD display is small and a bit slow-fuzzy.

- Problems at night: Shooting in the dark (with flash) seldom results in out of focus pictures. - Shooting in the dark at panoramas with stand and no flash makes often fuzzy&strange coloured pictures (as there is no aperture/esposition regulations all you can do is set to 100Asa equivalent and hope it will come right)

- A bit slow writing to SD card, but I've seen worse (HP 812!)

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Opinion: For this camera, I will give 8 for 10. It is my first DC. After an hour's usage, I felt regrettable that we had not bought a digital camera before. With a 128M SD cards, one can shoot about ~110 best-quality pictures.

Easy to use.

And it is really have a good price. At staples it is 259 with 60 Mail-in-rebate, and some coupon. They also has 60 for two 128M SD cards.

All in all, it has very good quality/price ratio for me.

Problems: 1. It is not those cute style. But it is no worse than the tranditional film one. And I feel all right with this although my wife like a smaller one.

2. In dark enviornment, like cloudy day or indoor in daytime, the auto set does not work. You have to adjust those white balance, exposure, ISO things to get satisfying pictures. But after those adjustment, you can get fairly good quality pictures.

3. It has not much features, like shutter time. But I guess it is all right for this price.
4. You can not close the lense while you just review it or config the setup, which is bad for lense I think.

5. The last thing is about the upload the pictures to computer. It basically pretty easy. But it takes pretty much time. I guess probably partly due to the low speed of our computer. But the HP's software which comes with it is far from nice. It is just a little bit more than enough.

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Opinion: For this camera, I will give 8 for 10. It is my first DC. After an hour's usage, I felt regrettable that we had not bought a digital camera before. With a 128M SD cards, one can shoot about ~110 best-quality pictures.

Easy to use.

And it is really have a good price.

Problems: 1. It is not those cute style. But it is not worse than the tranditional film one.

2. In dark enviornment, like cloudy day or indoor in daytime, the auto set does not work. You have to adjust those white balance, exposure, ISO things to get satisfying pictures. But after those adjustment, you can get fairly good quality pictures.
3. The last thing is about the upload the pictures to computer. It basically pretty easy. But it takes pretty much time. I guess probably partly due to the low speed of our computer. But the HP's software which comes with it is far from nice. It is just a little bit more than enough.

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Opinion: Some BETA

1. Easy to use meniu, but not the camera:
- a viewfinder has an offset (is difficult to frame the picture especially using zoom). Pictures can be croped in PC but resolution is losing.
- exposure settings resets when the camera is turnning off (i hate it). I want for exemple that the ISO always will be 100 for the lowest CCD noise. And I must set it every time when camera is turned on.
2. Pictures are not bad.

Problems: 1. An exposure programm is NOT WORKING in Flash On mode. Shutter speed in all situations is 1/700 s (nonsence) it not various. Thats why the pictures are terrible (underexposed) in this mode.
Flash On mode is unusible I think. (In Flash Auto and Flash anti red Eye exposure programm is working good, shutter speed various in different situations, pictures are not bad. But very difficult to force to fire flash in Auto mode in front of window for exemple or other highlight). I think it is an error in the firmware and I hope HP will correct it.
2. Manual focus.
3. TFT/LCD cannot be turned off when camera connected to the PC. It not shows any important information it only stealing batteries.
4. Focusing in low light.
5. Shutter priority.
6. Aperture priority.
7. No control over contrast. Too high contrast.
8. Colours are little poor, usually with blue cast (but very balanceble).
9. Very poor software.

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