Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good digital camera at a great price, December 17, 2007
I mostly shoot film, but a good digital camera is good to have. And this is a good digital camera, especially for the price.
Out of the box you get the camera, charging cable, battery, and USB computer cable. Not included is a secure digital (SD) card. You'll have to get that. A 1 gig SD will set you back only $20 and is a worthy investment, enabling you to take anywhere between 300-1,000 pics.
The camera is pretty basic, but has some nice features. A slider bar on the back lets you choose between still shots, movies (saved in AVI files) and view photo mode.
Easy to navigate menu button and four way navigation button enable you navigate the menus, choosing photo size, red eye removal, and cropping and photo border options.
There are also advanced photo options letting you choose between portrait, landscape, night, sunset, and action shooting modes.
Pictures take quickly and there is only about a half second shutter lag.
I do not have anything to say about the HP software. I don't use it. I use a Mac, and iPhoto. Hooking up the camera to your Mac in this way automatically downloads photos and movies to iPhoto.
The pictures are clear and beautiful.
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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
HP - R742 Camera - Performance and Value - A great deal, November 7, 2007
My recent purchase of the HP R742 Camera turned out to be a fantastic experience. I have researched many cameras before deciding. This camera represents and wonderful value filled with performance of higher priced cameras. Size was a major consideration for me but the other features packed into this small wonder are excellent. The red eye removal, the cropping function, ability to select "shooting modes" quickly worked great. Picture quality is outstanding as well as the optics.
I recently took the camera on vacation to Florida. It fit nicely into my pants pocked and shirt pocket.
I have since purchased a "PDA holder" to click on my belt.
Great product. You won't be disappointed.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Little Camera, February 24, 2008
This camera is a neat little guy. I have a Nikon CoolPix 880 (a 3.3mp digital which is going on 7 years old) and I thought I would upgrade. The CoolPix still works great, so my wife will use it around the house for shooting the kids.
At least one review of this product seems to be from someone who expects too much from a piece of technology in this price range. One of the complaints is that the pictures come out dark. Well, if you are shooting in poor lighting conditions and relying on the little flash on the camera to make up the difference then of course you will have dark pictures. But that is where Photo Shop or an equivalent program comes in handy.
There are very few settings that can be changed. In contrast my 880 can have just about every aspect customized. However, keep in mind that the r742 is a point-and-shoot, not an SLR replacement. There are a number of preset shooting modes that optimize shutter speeds and aperture settings for the most common shooting environments. They seem to work very well.
Here are some of the wonderful camera features. I can remove red-eye from the pictures from within the camera. The camera itself has a design gallery which lets me add frames, change color, rotate, and crop. There is a slide-show setting. It takes movies (more on that later). NOTE: Anytime you are modifying a picture, the camera makes a duplicate of the original picture and applies the changes to the duplicate. The original is still intact. Also note that when editing an image within the camera, some functions will take more time than others. One of the longest is red-eye removal.
On a 2gb SD card and the camera set to full resolution I can shoot over 700 pictures. This camera is SD/SDHC compatible. I'm looking forward to putting in the 8gb SDHC (make sure you get a SDHC compatible card reader if you are getting an SDHC. Transferring files via the supplied USB cable is fine for a small number of pictures, but it can take a long time to transfer for large numbers of files, and you will use up your battery trying to do so). I don't need that much storage, but the cards are cheap, so why not? On a side note, the camera only seems to be able to count to 2000. When looking at various quality settings, it did not matter how low I set the quality, the camera only showed 2000 as the number of photos it could take on that card. It seems to me that a firmware update is in order.
The pictures come out wonderful. I have taken some indoor pictures and the images are clear and sharp. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, the quality will depend greatly on ambient lighting conditions and, if using the flash, how close you are to the subject(s).
Now to the only negative I have about the camera: the movie feature. It seems like it is a great feature to capture a quick moment, but it shoots at 24fps and at 320x240 dpi, which is fine for a camera. What is bad is the audio quality. But, let's face it, folks. This is a Point-And-Shoot still image camera, not a camcorder. It doesn't claim to be a camcorder replacement, nor does it even really use its video capabilities as a gimmick to draw attention to itself. It's more of a "I take unbelievably stunning photos (and by the way, I can also shoot some video)" kind of camera. If you want digital video capabilities in a handy little package, go get yourself a Flip Video.
All-in-all, I highly recommend this camera. It's ease of use and excellent picture quality make it worth the money.
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