HP PhotoSmart C500 Digital Camera
Hewlett-Packard Company
(650)857-1501
phone
List Price $599

Review by Gary Coyne

The PhotoSmart C500 is part of HP's revived interest in the Mac market and new actions into the digital camera market.

The camera ships with a 16 MB CompactFlash memory card that can hold (at default settings) 13 pictures at the highest quality (Super-fine - 1600 x 1200 with low compression), 25 pictures at high quality (fine - 1600 x 1200 with medium compression), 60 pictures (basic-1152 x 864 with medium compression), and 98 low quality (e-mail - 640 x 480 with high compression) pictures.

Unfortunately, the pictures can only be saved in JPEG format which is why the pictures are saved with different compression. For each setting, the default can be changed so you can save (for example) the 640 x 480 resolution with low compression. Although this resolution would result in very small printed pictures, it would allow you to control the amount/quality of compression yourself in PhotoShop for final distribution to placing the pictures on the web.

[If you don't care (or don't know what I'm talking about) you can let the camera do its own thing. The manual does explain that the lower the compression, the higher quality printing and larger the size (in kilobytes) of the picture. The higher the compression, the worse the picture will print, but the more pictures can be saved on the camera. The latter is best for sending pictures in email or placing pictures on the web, the former is best for printing the pictures.]

The camera also comes with a USB cable, 3 NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) batteries, and a battery charger for the NiMH batteries. (The instructions tell you to charge, drain, and recharge 4 times to fully "season" the batteries. This should not be ignored. It really works this way.)

The program, Digital Desktop, is supplied with the camera which allows you to move pictures from the camera to your computer and delete pictures from the camera. It also has very rudimentary PhotoShop-like capabilities.

What the camera doesn't come with is an AC adapter which must be purchased from the HP web site. When you are transferring pictures to the camera, taking time-lapsed pictures or are taking pictures around the house and can use the adapter, HP recommends that the user plug in the camera to the AC adapter. I'm not sure why a $600 camera doesn't come with a $59 AC adapter (HP list price), but I feel it's a mistake.

Unfortunately, the camera is at times annoying, or frustrating, in use. It comes with a color LCD screen on the back providing the user with the choice of looking through a second lens or through the LCD screen. Regrettably, the LCD screen sucks battery power like no one's business. At one point I was taking pictures, then tried the LCD screen whereupon the camera just plain shut down and I had to shut the camera off and back on to continue taking pictures. There was enough power to take many other pictures, but not enough to run the LCD screen. Incidentally, the manner in which I had to turn the camera back on was somewhat tricky: pressing the power button was not effective at this point, so I had to open and then close the battery compartment, then press the power button to turn it back on.

Unfortunately, when the camera turns off due to lack of power, the lens remains in the out position. The only way to retract the lens is to turn it back on, then off. Regrettably, this is not how it is supposed to work--HP claims that when the power gets below a certain level, the lens is supposed to retract before the camera shuts down. In my experience, this never happed. Since the lens projects about an inch from the camera, there is no safe way to store the camera unless the lens can be retracted. I found it handy to carry an extra alkaline battery with me to supply sufficient power to retract the lens if needed.

There is a Status LCD window on the top of the camera that shows that a flash card is installed, the number of pictures left, the type of flash setting, the resolution of the pictures, and the battery power. For some inexplicable reason, of all these, the battery power image disappears after a picture or two has been taken to help save power. So, once you start taking pictures, you are flying blind as far as what your battery power remains. Admittedly, this is not as bad as it sounds because the image only shows full and half power. Below that the camera stops working anyway. You can obtain a more accurate image of battery power from within the LCD viewer, but as stated before should not be used once you've lowered the batteries beyond a certain point.

The LCD window on the back is also used to set the camera settings such as changing the compression of the photos, auto shutoff and many other settings. Fortunately, this operation does utilize less power than when you are using the LCD as a through-the-lens viewer. If you plan to be taking pictures out-of-doors, try to set the preferences ahead of time inside a shaded area as the LCD screen can be very difficult to view outdoors in bright sunlight.

Unfortunately, some camera functions can only be done utilizing the LCD: the digital zoom and macro capabilities. The camera has 2x optical zoom and 3x more with digital zoom. The latter can only be achieved when you are utilizing the LCD. Likewise, the macro (real close viewing) can only be accomplished with the LCD. Thus, it is best to have newly charged batteries or an AC adapter if you plan on using these features.

There is a small trigger switch on the back--near your right thumb to operate the 2x mechanical zoom. Unfortunately, there is a lag time from the time you try to zoom before the camera actually zooms. If you are impatient and feel that the camera didn't respond and try to zoom again, the camera then kicks in and zooms twice which may be more than you wanted. So now you need to zoom back out, wait, and see whether you have framed your subject properly. Or if you subject can move, like a pet, the photo opportunity is lost anyway.

Other lost photo opportunities may be encountered when you have any type of compression selected. Once a picture has been taken, the camera needs to process the picture to remove data just as one may do in photoshop. This can take up to 30 seconds before you can take the next photo. Thus, if you are in a situation where you may wish to take several pictures in a short period of time, be sure to set the compression on low.

One option that is available is to set the camera to burst photo mode. With this you can take 2 to 4 pictures per second. This is good if you wish to take pictures in a sports type of situation or just wish to bypass the limitations of the delay time between pictures. There is no flash when in burst mode.

In short, this camera can take some superb pictures. Its optics are excellent and its color sensing capabilities provide excellent reproduction. The pictures the C500 can take in low light situations are also excellent. Unfortunately, these wonderful capabilities are wrapped inside some rather mundane and not very good mechanics leading to occasionally very frustrating picture - taking opportunities.

December 02, 2008