Customer Reviews

HP Photosmart E327 5MP Digital Camera

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I purchased this camera for my 14 year old son. I soon began to like it better than my old Sony digital camera. It held more pictures, was always charged and ready to go, as well as I could see the pictures we had taken just a second after takiing it.

One day last summer (in Maine) we were out on our boat, just docking it for the day. All of a sudden, the camera slipped out of my son's hand and straight down into the water. We needed to recover the memory stick in it, even if the camera was no good. about 3 hrs later, we managed to get the camera from the bottom of the lake. We dried it with a blowdryer for an hour, and believe it or not ... the pictures came out beautiful. We use this camera today as the Family Camera, although, I bought this 2nd one from Amazon. It's the best camera I've ever had.

I know very little about cameras. Honestly, I've learned most of what I know by reading reviews, etc. That can be dangerous. The big information I've taken away is that more megapixels are a Good Thing. More megapixels are also more expensive.

I wanted a digital camera so I could take pictures and send them to people without resorting to a scanner. I was also putting together a property inventory, and I thought it would be ideal (quick, clear, and I could burn a disk with everything when I was done). That project is still in progress, but it's working pretty much the way I thought it would.

A couple of things I've discovered:
When your object is clear on the little screen, it might not be clear when you look at a full screen view on your computer.
When the object is blurry on the little screen, it might be great in a full screen view.
When the picture looks washed out (too much light) on the little screen, sometimes it's OK on the full view screen on the computer.

I'm still working on figuring out how to get the picture clear at all times.

That said, this is a very easy camera to use. The buttons are all pretty intuitive (although I did have to resort to the online manual to figure out how to turn off the flash entirely).

Transferring the pictures to the computer with the USB cable is a snap. Even organizing the pictures into an album on the computer is fairly easy (although I renamed half the pictures before I noticed the "caption" option in the software). Haven't decided which I'd prefer to do.

I think that this camera might eventually become a hand-me-down to one of my kids as I improve my skills. I didn't feel confident using a digital camera (and the accompanying software) until I upgraded my computer. The camera is inexpensive enough (until you add a memory card of course) that I don't feel that I've wasted a lot of money on a camera I'm taking bad pictures with.

One thing I might have been better off choosing would have been more zoom.

I'd also like to know whether there's any battery that is ideal for digital cameras, or am I stuck keeping a large inventory of AA's? How do I find out what is typical battery usage? Is 90 pictures on 2 AA's good, bad, or indifferent? Would a more expensive camera be any better in this respect?

All in all, this was an excellent choice for me at this time.

Right away I was surprised how high the quality of the images was with this camera. I had expected the lens quality to be the limiting factor, but the photos were tack sharp. This is a basic camera so you have to make sure it has enough light for a photo (flash won't illuminate everything), make sure the ISO speed is set as high as possible, e.g. 400 (scroll through the menu to set it so that it will be able to use a higher shutter speed in poor light), hold the camera very steady, and don't try to photograph moving subjects. Phew! sounds like a lot of caveats, but the truth is a microchip won't do everything for you. You have to know a tiny bit about 'real' photography - buy a book on it. This camera will produce great prints in the hands of someone who does not expect it to do miracles on low lignt, wobbly, moving, backlit, too far away, mirror in the background, impossible to focus shots. I think this is a great buy in cameras.

This is a good camera, considering the price...very cheap.It is very user friendly. You don't really get anything special on it, but after all you only paid $120. The LCD screen is a bit small, and kind of hard to see the images when you are taking pictures. But if you want a point and shoot camera this is it. Great for a teenagers first camera, b\c its not that expensive if its lost or something. I love the fact that once you click to take the picture it takes it, unlike some cameras that take 3-5 seconds.(this is a bonus for this camera) It also had a recorder which works well. Make sure you buy a memory card for it, you will need it. So overall, nothing fancy, a point and shoot camera. If you want fancy stuff, spend a bit more money.

I have to say this is a great camera with beautiful prints every single time you snap a picture. I have had this camera for almost 9 months and I have not had one single complaint scince I got this. It's extremly simple to operate with not that many buttons or meconisims to use to get confused with. I recomend this to every one and you wont even know that you paid so little for this camera once you see the beautiful prints it delivers.

For the price, ease of use, compactness, and pics which for the most part are OK, I doubt you can beat this little camera. I was just a little disappointed in the quality of the pics generally, as I guess I had expected more with the 5 mp capability. My last camera, an HP 320, which cost about $80 and which had a 2.7 mp rating, seemed to produce pics just about as good. A feature that I really like is the video, which apparently will play for as long as you want, or at least until the batteries run out. Great fun.

I really liked the looks and features of this neat little camera - especially the lens cover/ on-off switch. The software that came with it.. was somewhat confusing - the red eye correction feature there was very nice though.Ahh but the pics.. I contstantly got blurry images-- even of a still subject -- the camera is very sensitive to hand motion .. it was nearly impossible to hold it still enough for a good shot.I ended up using my ancient HP 1.3 MP to get pics on Easter morning. I am returning this camera and buying a slightly more expensive Panasonic with image stabilizing system.

After reading through a lot of the reviews here I have to chime in. I have owned this model now for 2 years, having said that I have taken hundreds of pictures with it, many of these were very good and will be cherished. This is a great little camera for still photo's, let me repeat STILL photo's. It does a fantastic job of it, if you want to take photo's quickly (as in turn on and take a pic) forget it, it takes as long to turn on as Martha Stuart on dirty sheets. The flash recharge time isn't good so if you plan on taking several pics indoors in short order... forget it.
As I have put here it looks like a mixed bag of feelings, on the one hand I have kept it and used it for hundreds of photo's, on the other I have missed/deleted hundreds because of the slightest movement on my part or the slightest movement of the object. I'm a patient man but I have steadily grown to hate this camera over 2 years. I have always had a higher priority than buying a new camera. As I get older I would rather not put up with some things and this is one I chose to put up with no longer.

I hope this helps someone see it for what it is, fantastic for shooting stills, yet terrible for all around use. And please these cameras are horrific with standard batteries, use energizer e2 lithium you will see an difference beyond belief in the number of pics you can take (and they are lighter). IMHO

I read the other reviews and the majority of people were satisfied with their camera, so I'm not sure if my camera in particular was just a dud.. but I extremely regret buying this camera. When they say it goes through batteries quick, thats no joke. In fact, I've never been able to take a picture with my camera because 10 seconds after I put in brand new batteries, it gives me a message saying "not enough battery power to take a picture." I'v tried a few types of batteries too. The first time I turned it on, I went through the initial set up steps and set the date and time, and then got the message. There is a docking station that is available for the camera, but it costs just as much as the camera, which kind of ruins the point of buying an inexpensive camera. Well, I lost the receipt for it, so I guess I don't have much of a choice- I plan to buy the docking station and try rechargable batteries. Hopefully then I can see what the pictures actually look like.

Purchased for my 10 YO and she finds it very easy to use and take great pictures. The only drawback so far is that if you use the flash often it really drains the batteries quickly