The Photosmart 635 is equipped with a 3x optical zoom lens, 5 - 15mm (equivalent to 37-111mm on 35mm camera). Its maximum aperture is f2.9 - f4.95 and the auto focus range is from 0.5m to infinity in wide angle or telephoto. Macro mode covers from 0.1m to 0.8m (wide). There is also a 4x digital zoom feature.

The real image optical zoom viewfinder is large and bright with central focusing and closeup framing guides. It shows approximately 80% of the captured image. There is no diopter adjustment. The LEDs indicate movie recording, focus and flash status.

The built-in auto-adjusting flash has settings for Auto, Forced Off, Auto w/Red Eye, Forced On, Night, Night w/Red Eye. The coverage is about average with a maximum range of 0.1 to 2.5 m in wide angle.

Controls on the back: Upper right is the zoom lens control rocker switch. The Flash mode button, the Monitor button to the right of the 1.6-inch color LCD, turns the display on or off. Below that is the PLAY button. The PRINT button is for attaching DPOF (printing) info to pictures. The SHARE button lets you select printing and emailing options. The OK button calls up the onscreen menu system and accepts selections. The 4-way selector is for navigating menus and selecting pictures for playback.

Controls on the top are few, just the on/off switch and the still and movie shutter releases. No need to bring up a menu or flip a mode dial when you want to capture a movie, just press the small shutter button.

The Photosmart 635 comes with 16MB of internal memory and can use optional Secure Digital memory cards, compatible up to 256MB.  It's also compatible with MultiMedia type cards.

The I/O ports are located on the side and includes a USB 1.1 port for downloading data to computer. It can also be used to directly connect the camera to most HP printers.


The DC IN port on the bottom is for an optional AC power adapter.

On the bottom of the camera is an 8-pin connector for the HP 8886 Digital Dock that carries audio, video, USB and power.

The Photosmart 635 is powered by two standard AA type batteries and comes with a set of alkaline batteries. We recommend using high-capacity NiMH rechargeables which are more environmentally friendly and pack 3-5x the power.

The optional HP 8886 Digital Dock includes a set of Maha/PowerEx NiMH batteries and charges them whenever the camera is docked. The buttons on the front of the dock let you quickly download images to the computer or display a slide show on your TV set. The dock can be placed on top of your TV set and you can control playback with the included remote control.

The HP Digital Dock has I/O connectors for power in from the AC adapter, video out to television and USB I/O to computer(cables included).