Zooming is pricey fun

By CHRIS BARTON

Zoom, zoom. That's the outstanding feature of HP's Photosmart 850 4-megapixel digital camera. With an 8x optical and 7x digital zoom lens, the 850 really can pick out a face in crowd from 30m.

While it does not have camera shake stabilising technology, the lack is partly offset by a very fast maximum aperture.

It helps, too, that the camera is quite heavy and chunky, which encourages you to hold the rubber ring around the lens barrel.

Framing pictures using the big 5cm LCD screen is a snap. But there is also an electronic viewfinder - activated automatically by sensors when you bring your eye up close - for framing pictures like a professional.

The viewfinder has a "diopter" focus correction integrated with the rubber eyecup. Turning the rubber trim helps to focus your eye on the subject, but not on the picture you take.

The slightly unresponsive optical zoom controls take you in steps through the focal length range, and the transition from optical to digital after the top magnification of 8x has been reached.

The digital zoom takes effect by pressing the zoom button again and it progressively crops the image until it is a tiny rectangle in the middle of the viewfinder.

This is a cool effect to show your friends, but the small size at maximum zoom makes it hard to see on screen what you are shooting.

However, the result is still great photos of distant objects, helped by a pop-up flash that throws well on long shots. A one-touch Macro button produces outstanding close-ups, too.

Quality-wise, the 850 does well, although I found a hint of purple fringing along high-contrast edges.

The camera offers the choice between using automatic or manual controls for ISO, exposure, white balance and aperture, and settings are easily accessed via an intuitive "wheel" control with a central "OK" button.

Audio notes up to 30 seconds long can be added to still images, and the camera also takes 320 x 240 video with audio at 15fps for up to 60 seconds.

Storage is via a 16MB Secure Digital card that will hold only five 2.5MB images at maximum resolution (2272 x 1712 pixels) and best compression. Lesser compression settings will get 26 500KB images on the card, as will dropping to the 1-megapixel setting.

But you would be wise to invest in a 128KB card ($118 from Digital Shop), the largest the 850 takes, which is disappointing because 512KB SD cards are now on the market and 1GB cards are due soon.

The camera also features HP Instant Share technology, which allows users to print directly to some HP printers and to snap a photo, then select on the camera where the photo will go the next time the camera is connected to a computer.

It also comes with HP's photo imaging and share-to-web software.

Power is from four AA batteries, which despite a number of power-saving features, are chewed through far too quickly - especially if you are using the flash.

For an extra $99 you get the camera accessory kit with rechargeable batteries, charger and padded camera bag.

The docking station with charger costs $179.

The only real downside of the Photosmart 850 is the price - a rather hefty $1499. It is selling in the United States for US$432-$499. Converted to NZ$ and allowing for GST and shipping, you should be paying about $1000.

At that price the Photosmart 850 would be a great deal.

HP Photosmart 850

* 4-megapixel digital camera.

*$1499.

* Pros: Excellent zoom and viewfinder, good set of features and adjustments.

* Cons: High price, short battery life, extra storage needed.

* Rating: 7.5/10

Digital Shop