Photosmart M307: HP's Newest is Put to the Test
by Stephen Caston on November 27, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Digital Camera
Playback Features
Playback mode can be entered in one of two ways: by pressing the Playback button while in a record mode or by holding down the Playback button while turning on the power. The latter method allows you to view images by powering on the camera without extending the lens. Either way, you will be presented immediately with the most recent image/video taken. The camera first loads a low-res version of the file. After about 2 seconds, a high quality version is displayed. To move between pictures, you must press the left/right arrow buttons.  Thumbnail view |
 Image regular view |
 Image magnified |
By pressing the "Zoom Out" button, you can view 9 images at a time in a 3x3 array. Conversely, you can magnify an image by pressing the "Zoom In" button. In the sample above, we have zoomed in as far as the camera would allow us. At about the halfway zoom point, the image starts to become noticeably pixelated (as the image above demonstrates). While zoomed in, you can move around to different areas of an image by pressing the arrow buttons. We found zooming in/out and moving across images to be fairly quick and smooth. To delete an image, you should press the Menu/OK button. After selecting Delete from the menu, the camera offers 4 additional options: Cancel, This Image, All Images on Card, or Format Card. If you do not have a flash card installed, the word "Card" will be replaced with "Memory" in those options. We should also point out that an image/video can be deleted immediately after being taken as well. Right after an image/video is taken, the LCD will display the frame and the text "Press OK to Delete". Then the choices are "Cancel" or "Delete". In Playback mode, pressing the Menu/OK button also offers the options "Record Audio" and "Rotate".
The great thing about the M307 is that there is no operational distinction between Playback and Record modes. The Menu options are the same in both and you can switch back to Record mode with a half-press of the shutter at all times (assuming the lens is extended). This means that the camera is always ready to shoot.
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MadAd - Monday, November 29, 2004 - link
320x240 for video? Thats worse than a creative 1mp camera that i picked up over 2 years ago, that did 352x288 back then. Why are the manufacturers not moving on with movie clip mode like they have done with the photo eye?If the eye in a similar priced cam is now 4-6 Mp for stills, why is movie mode not at least 640x480? Sure its a chunk more memory, so just buy a bigger card or switch the mode down to what they have now??
I guess theres something im missing here, I just dont understand it.
brian_riendeau - Monday, November 29, 2004 - link
It is nice to see a review be a little more negative, however this comment near the end really left a bad taste in my mouth:"there is a bright side. Firstly, the Photosmart M307 is priced very reasonably at ~$165."
No its not! For $165 its total junk. It is like right at the end of the article they just had to throw somethign in to make people think that all camera for less than $200 are junk :(
DukeN - Sunday, November 28, 2004 - link
HP = terrible cameras. Avoid like the plague!Then again people do buy Fords, and Compaqs so they will buy HPs as well...
phaxmohdem - Saturday, November 27, 2004 - link
I must concur that HP cameras suck in general. Now I have never had the opportunity to play with a "top model" HP digicam. I own three digicams for home use, two for sucky eBay pictures and one for personal nice quality pics. I chose to get two Olympus D-520 Zoom cams for my ebay cams (These are very good for ebay pictures as you can get very close to an object without it loosing focus, though it only shoots upto 2.0 MP's and over-all aquality of the picture is not grainy but still mediocre.) For my persoal cam I when with a Minolta Dimage F100 4.0 MP camera. IT is nice and compact and takes beautiful pictures (though not as close as the olympus cams) My only beef is that it is a tad slow and the flash is positioned so that your finger will always be in front of it and block it if you do not think about it. (The autofocus is a little crazy too with up close objects and its a toss up whether or not it will be in focus at the time the shutter clicks open.) But overall I have never owned a better picture quality cam. I would kill for a digital SLR cam but they are a little outta my price range.But yeah, avoid HP! Prices may tempt you but you get what you pay for (and in HPs case you get a little less ussually)
stephenbrooks - Saturday, November 27, 2004 - link
What I dislike most about digital cameras is the laggy shutter delay. Prefocus sometimes doesn't work if you move around a bit or the subject of you picture is.AtaStrumf - Saturday, November 27, 2004 - link
I had the displeasure of working with a 2 year old HP 2 MP, no zoom 315 model and it's preety horrible even for a 2 year old camera. I had hoped they had changed, but I guess they haven't. Too bad.Bonesdad - Saturday, November 27, 2004 - link
I have never been impressed with HP digicams. We are forced to use them at work, at least until I made an executive decision and bought a Canon A75 (which the last time I checked was about $199). I hope people do their research when looking for a good camera and avoid HP.Souka - Saturday, November 27, 2004 - link
Get a Canon SD100 for that money....If looking at the 4mp Kodak model, go for the Canon S410 or SD300. (S410 better pic quality, SD300 TOP notch video...60fps capable!)