Digital Camera Review

Digital Camera Review

Nov 12, 2004 - By Christina St. Pierre
The HP Photosmart 435 is the “little black dress” of digital cameras; it is elegant in its simplicity, and works for just about any occasion. Plus, with an MSRP of $129.99, it’s economic and affordable. Containing a sleek metallic front, sliding lens cover, 3.34 megapixels of resolution, and an internal 16MB memory, the HP 435 has appeal and substance. Created for budget consumers and novice photographers, this point-and-shoot has a 5x digital zoom lens, intuitive features, and a movie mode that captures video at 15 frames per second with audio. Beginning photographers will find the Photosmart 435’s direct print and e-mail options attractive. They allow the user to select photos to send to specific destinations and printers as soon as the camera is connected to a PC or printer.
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Auto Mode (7.0)
When in auto mode, the user literally has only to point and shoot to have correctly exposed, properly focused images. In order to achieve this, the auto mode selects the ISO, aperture, white balance, and the shutter speed. The camera, when turned on, is in auto mode by default. It is only through selecting the self-timer mode or action mode that the user exits auto mode, although manual changes can be made by going into the menu and adjusting the ISO or white balance separately.

Movie Mode (6.0)
What is interesting about the movie mode on the Photosmart 435 is that it is isolated from all the other options and features, having its own separate button. Most cameras have the movie mode included in their menu, but the Photosmart 435’s system works well to simplify the feature. Simply press the movie button near the shutter to start the camera recording at 20 fps, and then press it again to stop. The movie mode can also be used in conjunction with the self-timer so that the camera counts down 10 seconds before recording. The Photosmart 435 has an onscreen counter that counts down the remaining amount of time left to record, depending on available memory. While the movie mode does record sound, it cannot zoom and is obviously no replacement for a camcorder.

Drive / Burst Mode (0.0)
The Photosmart 435 has no continuous or burst shooting modes, but there isn’t any significant lag time while shooting single frame shots, either. In general, it will take about 3½ - 4 seconds between shots.

Playback Mode (4.5)
Pressing the playback button initially brings up still images with no information except battery and “1 of X” where “X” is number of total photos. By pressing Ok and selecting the photo, all the statistics of that image, such as direct printing, image quality, digital zoom setting used, and date, appear in the lower right-hand corner. Options are displayed as small icons in a vertical, left-margin menu: view thumbnail, rotate, delete, audio note, magnify, and settings.

While it is always convenient to have a thumbnail mode, a bit of the concept is lost on the Photosmart 435, because while nine thumbnails appear, the only way to navigate them is by using the up/down buttons, which force you to scroll through them one frame at a time. Some systems like the Fuji FinePix 330 utilize up/down and left/right buttons, making navigation significantly faster. This lack of directional controls comes into play more dramatically when in magnification mode. When choosing magnify mode, you cannot zoom in and out to see detail; you are suddenly zoomed in at either 3x or 6x, and you can only scroll up or down to look at the photo. If you want to either zoom in or out more, or scroll from left to right, you have to exit and choose “left/right” or magnify again. This is ridiculous and could have been avoided if there were four navigational buttons. Also, it is confusing that there is inconsistency in the menu on how to exit; sometimes there is an “exit” option that you select onscreen, and other times you have to press either Ok or the Live View button. Considering there really isn’t a whole lot to navigate in this camera, it is a bit worrisome that navigation is so difficult.

Custom Image Presets (4.0)
Using the mode button, the user can toggle between self-timer mode and action mode. The self-timer mode can be used to count down 10 seconds before both still shots and video recording. When in action mode, the Photosmart 435 selects faster shutter speeds and higher ISO settings in order to freeze motion. What is not explicit about the Photosmart 435 is that, although there is no specific ‘auto’ mode in the capture mode list, the default mode of the camera is essentially automatic shooting. Therefore, while in the “normal” mode, the camera is selecting aperture and shutter speed. Similarly, while there is no “manual” mode, certain options such as ISO, white balance, and exposure compensation can each be changed manually while shooting “normally.” To indicate the capture mode, the LCD display will show a timer, an action figure, or “normal.” Considering that the Photosmart 435 has the capacity to make manual changes, it would have been much clearer (and probably a better selling point) to have separate “auto” and “manual” modes rather than a “normal” mode that can be manually tweaked.

Design / Layout Page 6 of 12 Control Options
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