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HP PhotoSmart 812 Review
By Movable Type Admin
Features and Controls
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The lens extends when powered up and when powered down it is retracted back flush to
the body and protected by a built-in lens cap. There are no filter threads or any
other visible means of attaching anything to the lens.
The real image optical zoom viewfinder is large and bright with central focusing and
closeup framing guides. It shows approximately 78% of the captured image. There is no
diopter adjustment. The LEDs indicate focus and flash status.
The built-in auto-adjusting flash has settings for Auto, Fill, Red-eye reduction and
Off. Its coverage is about average with a maximum range of 0.5 to 2.8 m in wide angle
and 0.5 to 2.0 m in telephoto.
Controls on the back: Next to the optical viewfinder is the Flash mode button with
3 yellow LEDs to indicate the selected mode. Next to that is the Macro focus button
and another yellow LED above it that illuminates when macro is selected.
The MONitor button to the right of the 1.5-inch color
LCD, turns the display on or off. The SHARE button lets you select printing and
emailing options. The MENU button calls up the onscreen menu system.
The 4-way selector is for navigating menus and selecting pictures for playback.
The OK button accepts selections.
Controls on the top: the Mode Dial around the Shutter Release, it has positions
for Movie record, Self-timer and Still image record. And the Power
on/off button. Off to the left is the speaker.
The PhotoSmart 812 comes with a 16MB Secure Digital memory card and is compatible
with SD cards up to 256MB. It is not compatible with MultiMedia type cards.
 The I/O ports are located on the side and include 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 the optional AC power adapter.
On the bottom of the camera is an 8-pin
connector for the HP 8881 Digital Dock that carries audio, video, USB and power.
The PhotoSmart 812 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 8881 Digital Dock (street price $79.99, as of 08/2002) includes two sets of 2
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, output to a HP
photo printer or display a slide show on your TV set.
 The HP Digital Dock has I/O connectors for power in from the AC adapter, video out to television, USB out to printer and USB I/O to computer(cables included). It has a neat little sliding cover over the USB ports which keeps you from having both connected at the same time. |
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