HP PhotoSmart 850 Review

This is the typical record screen when using the color LCD as the viewfinder. There is a small status line at the top with the image quality, number of pictures remaining, flash mode and battery condition.

Pressing the 4-way selector right or left activates the Exposure Compensation setting, the results of which are seen on-screen as it visibly darkens or lightens.

This is the aperture priority record screen. You select the desired aperture and the camera automatically selects the proper shutter speed. Shutter speed priority is the inverse, you select the desired shutter speed and the camera automatically selects the proper aperture.

The HP 850 can get as close as 3.9 inches in macro mode with the zoom at wide angle. The optical zoom is limited to a maximum of 3.5x when in Macro focus mode.

After you reach the maximum optical zoom position, the camera begins stepping through the digital zoom levels from 1.3x to 4.0x. Digital zoom can only be used when the color LCD is enabled as all framing must be done on the screen. There is no menu option to lock out the digital zoom. Digital zoom is not the same as optical zoom, it simply crops various sized "chunks" of the frame and saves them as an image.

The PhotoSmart 850 captures up to 60-second video clips at 20 frames per second with audio at 320 x 240 resolution. The zoom can be used while recording although you will hear a certain amount of "motor noise" when you do zoom in or out.

Record Menu:

Exposure Mode - Auto, Action, Landscape, Portrait, Aperture Priority or Shutter Speed Priority

White Balance - Auto, Sun, Shade, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Manual

AE Metering - Average, Center-Weighted, Spot

ISO Speed - Auto or 100, 200

Color - FUll, B&W, Sepia

Resolution - 4MP 2272 x 1712 or 1MP 1136 x 848

Compression - Best, Better, Good

Setup - Enter the SETUP menu

Setup Menu:

Audio Record - Enable audio recording with still images

Instant Review - View image after capture (2, 4 or 6 secs or OFF)

Camera Sounds - High, Low, Off

Eye Start - If ON the micro-display turns on and off automatically when camera is against your face

USB Configuration - Digital camera or Disk drive

TV Configuration - NTSC or PAL

Language - English, German, Spanish, French, Italian