The PhotoSmart C200 is a relative breakthrough in its market--it's a name-brand, quality digital camera at a price that puts it in the reach of most consumers. It boasts a good top resolution, a color LCD display, point-and-shoot operation, and a lens system with a macro mode for extreme closeups. It uses removable, reusable CompactFlash memory cards, and comes with an 8 MB card that can hold up to 80 photos. The C200 also offers a 2x digital zoom and a built-in automatic flash. It includes everything you need to transfer your photos to your PC, including basic image-editing software. The Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart C200 is compact enough to rival traditional point-and-shoots for portability. Overall, it's a great way to try out digital photography without draining your wallet.
1 Photo imaging
I am very happy with my camera but I am having a problem with the computer reading the camera for photo imaging. I have the imaging software on my home and work computer but they both say that it cannnot read the camera. I have check everything but it still will not work. Can you help with my problem? Thank you.
2 What a "GREAT" Camera!
This is one of the BEST looking/feeling Camera I have ever had - it does "NOT" have that Cheap Look to it like so many do - it is easy to use & the pictures are 'Nice' looking! It is such a 'great' Camera that I bought my Dad one - he LOVES it! Since, there is Miles between me & my Parents we send photo's often to each other. So, if anyone is looking into buying one of these - DO IT - You won't be Sorry :-)
3 ok for the price, but trouble downloading photos
The serial port download is slow and unreliable - no longer works at all. Plan to purchase a separate USB Compact Flash reader.
4 Out grown my hewlett packard
This camera was find for outdoor shots and works well for group shots. But after I tried a friends camera I could tell it is not nearly as good for zoom as her camera is. I beleive I need more zoom power and more mega pixels
5 It's been a great camera!
I bought this camera for Christmas in 1999, not sure whether or not I would like a digital camera. Since that time, I've taken more pictures than I ever have before. I've used it to take snapshots, pictures of my family for my web pages, Christmas cards, even with a tripod for a family picture, using the self-timer. Sure, now, there are newer cameras with better resolution and more features, and I would like to own one of those, also, but I can't see living without this. It's so easy to use, and it has stood the test of time.
6 Great general use camera for the price
I have used this camera for literally thousands of pictures. The batterly life is outstanding. I can usually get around 200 high resolution pictures or usually more on a set of new batteries. Downloading from the camera is the biggest energy drain. This is a great camera if you want pictures for websites or want to print standard size photos. There are only 2 drawbacks I have found. If you are indoors in a large building (say a church or cathedral) and the building is not very brightly lit, the photos will not come out very well. The flash is only good for small areas or close-ups. The second is that the high-res pics do out blow up well to print on an 8.5x11 paper or to use as wallpaper on your computer screen. Other than that, minor drawbacks in most situations, this is a great camera.
7 Excellent Camera
This camera takes excellent pictures.The 2X Zoom feature is handy but would be better at 4X. Battery life without a card reader tends to be short. When combined with a reader then the battery life is good. I have taken 1000's of pictures with this camera and could never be more pleased
8 Battery Life Makes It Nearly Unusable...
This camera works fine. Takes good pictures.
Drawbacks other than battery life:
1. Only 1 pic review at a time as opposed to a collage review by the Olympus brands.
2. Long delay from the time you hit the photo button and get a picture causes folks to relax before the pic is taken. Ruins some shots.
3. Very clunky camera considering it has no optical zoom.
Now, the battery life. I have yet been able to fill my flash memory without having to change batteries. I get about 10 -15 pictures before it is flashing and beeping to tell me the battery is dead. This makes the camera unacceptable, and I am looking for a new one solely for this reason.
9 Very fragile
Nice camera, but a drop of about 2 feet [messed] up the electonics - really. Although camera was almost new, HP would not honor warranty as any drop, no matter how slight, was considered an accident.
10 Very Disappointed
Within six months of purchasing product it had problems. I was unable to down load pictures. HP had lots of attitude because I'd purchased online. Eventually got that problem fixed, then a few months later it stopped working all together.
Their products don't hold up and HP's support is terrible.
What a waist of money.
11 Great point and shoot digicam
I bought this as a package with the H-P 832 inkjet printer, so although it was selling for around (dollar amount) alone at the time, it cost me (dollar amount).
I have just returned from vacation where I took around 150 shots, and I'm happy with the results. I printed some pics out on the 832 to fill a sheet of letter-size paper, and although you can see some slight pixellation the images are fine. I have some earlier pics of my cat and my dog and you can clearly see the individual hairs on their bodies (all pics were on medium quality setting). In fact, I was so pleased with the results I've decided to get another digital camera with a zoom this time.
I bought a compact flash reader and a 64MB compact flash card. This doubles as a portable "hard drive" as well. I haven't had any of the troubles others seem to have had - batteries last a long time and the camera is still functioning fine.
I started in photography around 1975 and now own two Minolta autofocus SLR bodies and lenses (5000i and 7000i). I also worked in a camera store. I haven't used the SLRs in over a year - I'd only do it if I knew the pictures would be published. The ease of use of a digital camera outweighs the drop-off in quality. Learning how to compose a shot will give you far better pictures than spending $$$ more on a better quality camera.
There are many pluses to digital photography with the C200. People are still fascinated at seeing your pictures a few seconds after you've taken them. It's great to connect this camera to your TV and run a slide show of pictures, and of course if people like particular images it's easy to download them to the computer and print out copies. It's photography without the inconvenience.
In short, the C200 is a no-frills point and shoot which will satisfy and probably delight the average picture-taker. The camera store I worked in used to process many rolls of film every day and I know the C200 is up to the job of capturing those kinds of images.
12 hewlett packard crapola
I should have learned from their (...) printer I had, but I bought this thing at compusa for 150.00 last year, They are way overpriced here on this thing. Ok, lets see, flash is way way weak, you cannot take pictures at night even with some light, it eats batteries constantly, not even one days use! even when its off in storage, take the batteries out! and the window on the back quit displaying pictures after taking them recently. Not that it mattered you cant tell what ya got from that lil window no-how. Oh and a SERIAL port connection??!! o no! hell no! get something with USB, this serial doesnt work anymore!! and was slow as molasses, but I cannot get it to work anymore. Dissapointing even for 150! Hewlett Packard is (...) (...) (...)!!! never gonna buy their (...) again - dont you!
13 HP "Customer Care" an Oxymoron
I have used my two year old HP C200 infrequently, perhaps 30-40 shots. I bought it as a package with a HPDeskjet 832C.. I bought it to try the technology without spending a lot. The ease of use and pix were acceptable for a cheap digital. The battery use was excellent (if you sell batteries) The serial downloading has worked only erratically on my sons computer and not at all on mine. I have since changed computers and I managed to get the pix ported by stiffly holding the camera serial cord plug into the jack on the camera. Of course with long downloading time it is a bit of a tedious task. This camera has seldom been out of the package and never dropped, spindled or mutilated.
So I decided to call HP Customer "Care"... after drilling through about five layers of choices on the phone I got the service agent. He advised me that as my camera was more than one year old I would have to pay for ANY assistance from HPs telephone help line. After a bit of persuading he did say that my jack was likely unsoldered inside. He then advised me that I could send the unit to HP and they would repair it for US$360.. gasp. I paid 250 canadian which is US$160. Sorry Mr. HP.. your customer care...is not. I do like my HP Deskjet and Scanjet, however, but I will not buy another HP camera..
To quote one of the Amazon reviewers about this camera.. "You get what you pay 4" It appears that applies to HP Customer Service as well.
14 Love it
I have had this camera for a couple months. Have taken at least 400 pictures with it. The quality is great even on the least quality setting. I lost the battery door and had a replacement in 2 days with no charge. I am very happy with the response from HP. The batteries dont last very long if you use the monitor, but I find it easier to just use it like a standard camera. Then the batteries last a long time. Like anything else you have to give yourself time to get to know the camera. I used a 35mm SLR totaly manual camera for 30 years. I loved it but I realy like this c200 and would recommend it to anyone who like me couldnt afford a really expensive camera. Thumbs up on this one.
15 c200 digital camera
I have had this camera for a couple months. Have taken probably 500 pictures with it. I am very impressed. It is fantastic for scenery. Very simple to run once I gave up and read the instructions. I would definately buy it again.
16 Great first digital camera!
I really like the point and shoot features of this camera. I learned immediatly not to use the LCD to conserve batteries. I also learned that if you close and reopen the lens cover the battery display will return to"full"! I can't seem to judge when to take action photos! By the time the shutter opens the action is over! This may just be my inexperience. I would recommend this camera to learn the features to look for in your next digital camera! I use a jumpshot reader which works great(the serial download is painfully slow) I also bought a Tiffen telephoto, wide angle and closeup lens kit - what a hoot! they really work great! I use this to record construction projects.
17 Updated Review!! HP Support Follows Through Like a Gem!
Ok everyone, I know what you have seen here about HP cameras and support (in some instances). I wrote the earlier review stating that my camera only lasted nine months and that I was not confident that HP would honor their warranty because of some of the other reviews I saw here on Amazon. My camera stopped working after 9 mos..pictures would not upload. I called HP and they determined that the port in the camera was not working just by talking to me on the phone. They FED EX'd a brand new camera to me and I rec'd the new camera less than 24 hrs after I spoke to the customer svc rep/tech support. WOWWWWWW!! That blew me away..The new camera works like a charm and HP even sent a prepaid Fed Ex waybill for me to ship the old one back to them. I paid for nothing!! Not only did they honor their warranty, but they far exceeded my expectations. I am once again a happy HP customer and would recommend this camera and HP products.
18 Great photos when the camera works
The HP camera is great for an inexpensive digital camera, and I have purchased accessories like the scan mate to upload the images to the computer. This is where the problem comes in, you have to hit the camera on the side 2-3 times to make it come on. I have missed some shots that can not be recreated. The camera is only 6 months old. I will be sending the camera back to HP soon after the holidays, i am sure it will take a while for repairs and have it sent back to me. I have the HP Printer that prints great for the first page but only prints part of the second page, and you have no idea when this is going to happen. I am going to try to stay away from HP products in the future.
19 Not supported by Win2000
I bought the c200 a month ago,but since then i could not download images to my computer since i run win2000 and the c200 does not support this OS. I emailed HP but there was no answer...I looked for w2k driver in their web site,but there were only drivers for Win95/98.
I am TOTALY unhappy with this product and from the "support" HP provide. Every time i see the camera i swear that this is the LAST product of HP that will be entering my home !!
20 Lasted Only 9 Months!
I was happy with this camera when i first purchased it. Now Icould kick myself for spending ($) on a camera that only lasted 9 mos! Camera was terrific for the 9 mos that it worked. Now it will no longer load the pics into my PC. The camera is still under warranty (1 yr) but after seeing the nightmare that comes from HP support from other reviewers here on Amazon, Im not expecting that HP will honor their warranty and provide me with a camera that works properly. We will see. ...
21 Great feature to price ratio!
For all of you that are reading the reviews that the batteries die too often....they don't people just cannot seem to put two and two together that the lcd screen WILL drain their batteries. Just take pictures w/o the lcd and then use it when you have to.....the battery life on this camera is great. So when you see or read a review that says battery life is bad......USER ERROR is the major cause. I would recommend this product highly.
22 Camera Great, Battery lousy
I bought the C200 last Xmas. Works great, specially for my work, I am an electric contractor and It is great to add pictures to my reports, with no problem. Big difficulty I have is batteries. I have used it with a set of rechargeable batteries for more than 600 pictures, but have to recharge them: before taking the pictures, then before unloading to PC. Normal alkaline batteries lasts 20 pictures mid res. Thanks for review about Sony AC adapter. Great to see pictures on TV. My friends are fascinated about this gadget and I am short of time to copy all pictures via email to them.
23 HP PhotoSmartC200-1st Digital camera for the novice
I am extremely pleased with the HP Photosmart C200 camera. This was my 1st digital camera and I have taken photos primarily for publications (newsletters, cards, email, slides and scientific presentations.) This camera is very EASY to use and loaded with extras. In fact, you will get carried aware with taking oodles of shots... SO...I would suggest NOT getting frustrated and go ahead and buy more "cards" to take many pictures.
The MAJOR advantage with purchasing this camera is the EASY-TO-USE software that comes with it! Even if you take a "dud" picture, at least "allow" the software to "fix" it and you will be pleasingly surprised! I would STRONGLY suggest that you follow the manufacturer's directions when attempting to STORE your many photos or your personal method of photo storage may ressemble a plate of spaghetti!
This is a GREAT little camera for the price. I got so enthusiastic about it that I rushed out and bought the HP photosmart printer. I am so impressed with this little camera, that, I am going to purchase a SECOND HP Photosmart C200 for my office! HAPPY SHOOTING!
24 VERY good camera, especially for first-time buyers!
My wife and I just bought the HP Photosmart C200, and we are BEYOND pleased. We could not afford $500.00 or more, and we are glad we didn't spend that money anyway. We got this one for $300.00, and also bought a Sandisk so we can load the pics we take onto the computer in a matter of seconds. We've taken over 200 pics, and the batteries are still at full power. For ANYONE who wants a good camera for a good price, this is the way to go. The only negative is the zoom isn't the best, but thats not that big of a problem for us. Excellent camera, excellent price, excellent pics!!
25 unhappy
I am unhappy with the Photosmart C200 camera I purchased in November of 1999. It worked great, and with ease at first. In May of 2000 it wouldn't work one day... after numerous phone calls to HP and a high telephone bill I finally sent mine back to them. They lost it and never sent me a replacement. After many more phone calls I got my replacement in June of 2000, and now this one isn't working. The first time it was an "internal communication error" and this time it is an error in the auto flash they tell me. So beware, you may be loving it at first but once you have a problem with it good luck getting a timely response and help from HP, they keep passing you on to different people and more long distance calls. I am now trying to get a full refund for a camera that will work, since the first time this happened I missed my son's preschool graduation and my daughter's first birthday, and now am camera-less again for my son's first day of kindergarten, moments that can't be reproduced to share with my out of town relatives who got used to seeing things as they happened making them feel more a part of their grandchildren and the important things going on in their lives. My recommendation would certainly to be not to buy this camera. I hope you people that are having good luck with yours continue to have that same luck.
26 SAVE BATTERIES: a neat trick... and get the Printer!
I LOVE IT! I read the reviews months ago and bought this inexpensive camera for general and web use. I read that the batteries don't last, and I tried (and failed) to find the Sony adapter to prevent undue battery wear. I went through 4 batteries the first day! BUT WAIT! That was March, and I'm still on my second set of batteries without using any kind of adapter. I've probably taken 700 photos with my C200. Two words of advice: 1-close the cover and then reopen it when the battery reads DEAD; it's good for another month (I wasted those first 4 batteries!) at least. 2- get the HP PhotoSmart P1000 Printer ($700 for both before the rebate). You just plug the disc film into the side and the printer does the rest. Great Quality, nice companion for the C200. I read all the reviews here, decided on this combo, and still had no idea how great this would be for me and my family!
27 Great value!
I love this camera! It is so easy to use. I was using mine within 20 minutes. Other cameras have more bells and whistles but if you are a beginner and dont want to spend the same type of $$ you can on a camcorder this is what I would recommend. The battery life is great as long as you don't use the LCD display to take pictures. One thing..using the serial port for downloading photos from the camera to your PC is too sloooooow. I recomend buying a flash reader for the flash card at any local electronics store. The reader is USB and it takes about 5 seconds to swap the card from your camera to the reader. It cost around $30.00. It's made by the same manufacturer who makes the card. Once the card is in it acts as a drive and it takes a second or two to bring up the pic compared to 10 to 15 minutes to do it before. The best thing about this is that you waste no battery life! The reader doesn't require batteries or an ac adapter! A much better deal than buying an AC adapter for the camera to download photos.
28 uploading to computer
I don't have a lot of good words so far for the Hewett- Packerd company, as I have been trying to get my C200 to work with Windows-2000 and they seem to be giving me the run around. My computer won't take my pictures from the camera. They sent me an e-mail, telling me to uninstall my software and reinstall it, which I did, and now it says it can't find the camera! Otherwise, I love the camera, as it is easy to use and takes wonderful pictures, also is compact therefore easy to carry around!
29 Nice Camera for the Price
I brought this camera about a week ago and im still using the same batteries that came with it. I've taken about 100 pictures on medium quality and uploaded all of them to my pc without using a a/c adapter. The software is extremely easy to use and the upload interface is also easy to figure out. I would recommend this camera to anybody looking for a camera in this price range. As far as people complaining about resolution, your not buying a high end camera here.
30 bad LCD
when i got this camera, i had no idea its LCD was this bad. compared to other cameras, the LCD stinks. it has to take it frame by frame ( about 1 frame per second). in my opinion, i would say to look into the Kodak dc215. i already returned the Hp and got the Kodak. it has a price tag of the same thing and has a great software bundle and the LCD is what i would expect out of a digital camera. Another thing, it does eat up batteries. if you put in regular alkaline and use the LCD as a viewfinder, you'll be dead in about 4-5 hours! i'd bring it back to the store if you can and get your money back.
If you leave out the LCD and battery problem, ( which can be fully corrected by buying AA lithium) it is a great camera. with easy to use software and a contoured look, this would make a first time digital camera user happy.
31 Great Camera for the Price
I really enjoyed this camera. One thing that people complain about is the resolution is not very impressing. But that may because of the type of printer you have. Depending on a few things, this camera can produce high quality pictures. I have an epson 440 printer, and the photos turn out better when the printer is on quality rather than speed, and I have glossy paper. The dpi is great for this type of printer, but if it was better, the pictures would be picture perfect. And as for the batteries, I have had my camera for about two weeks now and on the same four batteries as when I bought the camera. But that is mainly because I have an ac adapter, personally I think the better choice is to get the c200cl camera, it is the same camera, but instead of an 8md memory card, you get a 4 mb memory card. Which you can still store up to fourty photos, and it would be cheaper to go out and buy the 8mb memory card than to get the camera without the ac adapter. Remember, the camera is the same, it's what comes with it that isn't. That can sometimes confuse you, because it sure did me. But overall, the quality is good, the speed of downloading pictures usually only takes about a half an hour for about fourty photos, but that drains battery life, and that is why in the long run TOO, it would be cheaper to get the ac adapter and a 4mb memory card with the c200cl, than just an 8mb memory card with the regular c200 or c200xi. The software makes it really simple to use, and there are many great features and options on how the pictures are to be printed, my favorite is the photo album option. And last but not least, I love the tv viewing of the picures, and when the pictures are on the tv, they are clear as ever, and it comes in handy when you go on vacation and at a family get together everyone wants to see the pictures, this way everyone can see them in large, and crystal clear. On top if it all, everyone sees them at the same time. My advice, go out and buy this camera!
32 Very Disappointing Zoom!
This camera's zoom is just about useless. It is a "digital zoom" which means you must have the LCD panel on to use the zoom, wasting precious batteries. Plus, it is not a real zoom - it's a telephoto. You are either zoomed in or zoomed out, but there is no in-between.
If all you want is a point and shoot digital camera, it seems to me there are lots of other ones out there for a lot less money. ....
33 Great - some problems but excellent value for money!
I really enjoy using this camera - for one it doesn't look like a digital camera to me (which depening on the type of person you are is good or bad), to me it looks like a normal camera which I like. True the battery life is not great (unless you are careful which is not hard) and you dont get the AC adaptor as mentioned by previous reviewers. But this is a great camera where it really matters in my opinion, and that's resolution. I've never seen such crisp and defined pictures. I use it all over the place, even at work in workshops with charts full of people's scrawly handwriting. An A3 chart shrunk down to the size of a powerpoint chart and I can still read the handwriting! Amazing! It's also great for 'contrast' work, you can do some great 'nature' shots, its excellent at differentiating between shades of green for example, much more so than the expensive video camera we have that also takes stills. So all in all, despite its little hiccups I think this camera is fabulous, the easiest thing in the world to use and worth every penny of its (in comparision) low price tag.
34 Great Camera
This camera is great. The picture qualities are not as great as some of the $500 or up cameras, but it seems to be the best for its price class. The best feature is the camera's ease of use. It presents a simple and uncomplicated interface and options features. For the price and convenience it seems to be the best for its class.
35 Very good camera in the price range.
Reading other reviews I have found people complaining about the battery life of the camera and can only say that I have had just the opposite experience. I use a 16 meg memory card and take almost exclusively flash pictures. My batteries are lasting (on average) about 100 pictures at High resolution. I do not use the camera to download photos however. I have the P1000 printer and you are able to access the memory card thru the printer. This is not only faster, but it alleviates the need to drain batteries after you have taken the picture. There is also another device available from HP that is a stand alone card reader (if you don't have the printer), and if all you have is the camera, use the AC adaptor (I purchased mine as a package deal along with the 16 meg card).
36 U get what U pay 4!
I dont get it....some people are praising this camera for its battery life, do you people ever turn on the LCD? I get about 20 pictures per set of fresh alkaline. I don't think the camera is defective simply because it has a 1.25 amp current rating. I wouldn't expect 4 AA batteries to maintain that output for very long. I turned to my RC-Car hobby for a solution, and constructed a 6 volt battery pack using 5, 1500mha sub-c ni-cad cells. Then went to radio shack and found the appropriate connector to plug into the ac-power jack. now I easily get 100 pictures while using the LCD, and best of all.. the sub-c ni-cads only take 10 minutes to charge.also.... the picture quality is severely lacking, and cant even compare to scanned 4x6 prints taken with my 35mm. The only thing I like about this camera is the price.
37 Beware of the extra expenses!
A nice camera. since the other reviews list all positives, letme list the downsides of picking this otherwise-cool cameraup.
1. Does not include an AC adapter. The HP adapter costs a fortune ($55). Buy a cheaper Sony 6v 700mA adapter as another reviewer notes...it'll do the same thing for about $20.
2. Get NiMH batteries and a charger (Target carries these) otherwise you'll soon begin to hate this machine, especially if you download pics to your PC a lot.
3. This one includes no carrying case. Consider the PDC 700 instead.
4. This camera is a good quality HP one, but has a cheap plastic look to it. Alternatives in the same $ range include the Kodak DC215 for about $260
38 My Thoughts On The HP C200 Digital Camera
At 299.00, this is the absolute best value in the marketplace today. The picture quality is excellent. Very user friendly. Easy to use imaging software. I use this in my business. Everything about this camera is EXCELLENT!
39 I must have got a faulty camera...
After reading the reviews here, I am perplexed. I have had major problems with this camera since day one. I bought the camera 7 months ago and: 1) the flash has stopped working, 2) the adapter plug will not stay in the socket which means I have to hold it in while I take pictures (not easy to do!) or else tape it on and 3) the batteries only last long enough to take about 20 pictures. The quality of the photos are acceptable but using the camera is often a nightmare. I do not enjoy using it.
40 User Friendly
I had a Cheap Argus, Bought this for a friend, NOW I am going to buy me a real Camera. So easy to use, my 10yr. old p/u in sec. I would rec. it to everyone. Great Camera for money. Get extra mem card. & batt. charger. Check around for better prices. Also, Software is really good too. So easy to delete and view on TV, good color and adj. easy. show slides.. Awesome Job. Indoors and outdoors. I also am going to get Printer. What-a-set-up! Truly a Blessing...
41 The C200: More like C2,000,000
I just purchased the C200 camera by Hewlett Packard. It is my first digital camera. I took some pictres around campus today. They all came out superb. Downloading the pics from the camera is a little time consuming. It took me about 7 minutes to transfer 10 pics. I am still getting used to the different features and modes. So far so good. Setup was easy, use even easier, quality superb, price even better. What is really neat is that you can control the quality of the pics you want to take. The higher quality the less you can store. However, you canm hold 17 great quality pics with the standard memory card. I highly recommend the camera to anyone.
42 Great for Beginners
I bought this for a friend for Christmas. We took over 100 pictures in one week on vacation with only one change in batteries (after we spent a day experimenting with LCD) all at the highest resolution. The download times were quick, especially to a laptop en route to the next location, or at the end of the day. The photo quality was quite good, too, better in most cases than our generic point and click camera, though we did miss the adjustable zoom.
43 mom finds it easy to use!
bought this one for my mother after we had trouble with another model. she loves it, and finds it easy to use, which is a big deal for someone who is not a gadgeteer.
44 Good pictures but powere hungry
The picture quality is good. Great software. Slow to donwload. Eats batteries fast. No one carries the optional power cord including Amazon, where I bought it.
45 very good pictures - but a few handicaps
I bought the camera as a bundle with the P1000 printers. The pictures are outstanding. I use the camera also, in order to archive my color slides. Operates great. The pictures with mid accuracy are sufficient - with this the camera can store 40 pictures. The loading time into the computer lasts for a very long time, but that is not a problem, if you have the P1000 printer, because that one can read the Flash cards. A little problematic is the handling: Some functions (zoom, brightness, etc..) can only be adjusted over the menu in the color display, others over the display above at the camera. On the whole a super camera. I enjoy it much. The purchase was worthwhile itself in any case.
46 Excellent Camera (I even found a cheap AC Adapter!)
This camera is a must have for someone looking into getting into the Digital Camera rave. I bought mine online from Hewlett Packard and their customer service, as well as their camera, is excellent. The photo-quality cannot be matched for the sticker price of $299. Oh, and for all of you who think $50 dollars is too much for an AC Adapter, check this out. Sony makes a 6v 700mA AC Adapter that works 100% with this camera. I had them test it in the store to make sure it worked, and it did. I brought it home, and it works wonders! Only 22.99 compared to 49.99. Check it out guys, its worth it!
47 Excellent Choice for First Digital Camera
I needed a digital camera, my first one.. because I've taken over 800 photos in the past two years alone. Add the film and developing costs! I shopped Amazon and really did my homework. I was considering the Olympus D-340R also.. You need to buy the C200 for your first digital camera.
I've been experimenting with it the past few days. Here's the scoop on everything everyone else has been saying: First, don't use the LCD unless you NEED to. It's a luxury you can have when the time is appropriate. Experiment when you might need it. I only need it for closeup work. Save the battery power! The LCD drains all the power fast particularly if you are using it to take pictures. Just use it when you need 'menu' function. Second, downloading pictures to your PC is not the hell everyone says it is. Yes, takes some time..but not forever. When you download, set it all up, and go have lunch or dinner. When you return, its all finished. This saves time and worry. Third, buy rechargeable batteries and charger, it's all you need. The Kodak charger kit I bought on Amazon recharges in 3 hrs. That's overnight on a trip. Easy. Then, have one or two sets of regular "AA" batteries handy just in case. Fourth, buy an extra flash card, YOU CAN LITERALLY TAKE SOME 300+ pics on your next vacation! You get 70 low res pics on 8MB card. Good enough for family album shots of Grandma going flying! Last, the camera has all you need for most photo taking. It has 2x digital zoom, tripod mount, and the self timer for those family shots. Buy a color printer and you'll have a blast! Oh, the software is excellent, read the manual and learn to use it fully. Digital age is here and getting better, see ya later polaroid, and forget $5 for a roll of film anymore! Now, does anyone make a "portable digital photo album viewer"?
48 AC adapter too expensive
I received this camera as a xmas gift and found it very easy to use. The picture quality is great and the lcd works great too but I think the ac adapter is too expensive. I could buy 3 or 4 ac adapters for $ 50.00 and I can't find another adapter that is compatable with this camera. I guess buying rechargeable batteries and a charger is the best away to go
49 A Nice Package for a great price
I had been looking for a digital camera for a while. The problem was finding a decent camera for a decent price. I considered the $500+ to be overpriced for what they were.
Then I found the C200, a great package, decent functions and all for under $300. The 8M flash card is removable and can hold either 17 high definition pictures, 40 middle or 70 low. It has auto focus, flash (and hold flash) and a timer which is great when no one is around. The view screen is decent and you can zoom into the center of the picture to get a better look.
As stated in another review, it does not come with an AC adapter but for general use it is not needed. I have taken over 200 pictures and left it on for long periods twice, and I am still using the same batteries. However, the batteries are drained when you are downloading the pictures to the PC.
My recommandation is not to buy the AC Adapter but to get the 32M flash card with the flash card reader. This will allow more than 70 high definition pictures to be taken, then remove the flash card and place into the reader. The USB reader (there is also a parall version) will then download 10 times faster than normal and is powered by the port so no battery wear. Currently the 32M flash card and reader is only $160.. worth it if you are taking a lot of pictures.
50 Best for the Price
This camera is the best one for the price. I searched for months to find the best value in a digital camera under $400, and I chose this one. The picture quality is great, with 3 different quality settings. This is a great camera for beginners or those of us on a limited budget. Besides, next year those $1000 cameras will be outdated anyhow.
51 Great Value!
As an entry level digital camera, this is a great value. For $299 I wasn't expecting miracles, but I've been very impressed so far with this camera. Photo quality indoors, even at the lowest resolution, is amazingly good for Web work. Outdoors photos can sometimes get a little washed out, typically in very high contrast situations.
Other reviewers have mentioned their frustration with very short battery life. I too experienced this for the first few days. Expecting the 500 photos per set of 4 AA batteries the manual told of, I was very disappointed when I got maybe 30-35 shots before having to put in fresh batteries! I later learned that two things contributed to the short battery life. (1) Constant use of the flash. This situation can be fixed by turning off the auto flash when not needed, especially in most outdoor situations. (2) Constant use of the LCD screen. I thought it was cool at first, that you didn't even have to use the viewfinder--just frame your shots on the LCD! Come to find out, doing this sucks the life out of the batteries super fast. So use the traditional viewfinder to take pictures; if you're not sure how the picture came out and want to review it, use the LCD screen.
Lately, following the two rules above, I've been getting 200-300 pictures per set of batteries--including about 30-50 with the flash on. This is perfectly acceptable.
HP's $50 AC adapter should be priced at about $9.99. Instead, buy yourself a good quality set of rechargeable batteries and a charger (you can find them for about $30). This is a much more flexible solution that an AC adapter, especially if you get the 12 volt adapter for the charger so you can charge your batteries while on the road!
52 Great Quality - No Battery Problems
I have taken shots with a minolta slr and these pictures are very close in quality. 8x10 and 5x7's come out with no picture quality reduction like you get with some regular film (depending on asa). I've taken about 40 shots, used the lcd and downloaded a couple times and still on the original batteries. Use the HP premium plus or other heavy weight photo paper for best printing results. I bought the p1000 printer also. I'd highly recommend this. Only drawback IMO is the digital zoom. Since you're looking through a viewfinder and not the lens, you don't see what the zoomed picture looks like and there's no button on the camera for zoom...you have to go into the lcd/menu on the back of the camera to select the zoom...very awkward. Great camera for the price and seriously, you won't be able to tell the difference between regular camera pics and these...just get a good printer and good paper to go with it.
53 No AC Adapter!
If you get this camera, make sure you get a bloody AC adapter with it. The camera will eat new batteries in a day, and the adapter itself is imposible to find. The HP web page will not warn you of this, and charges $50 for an adapter. I hate HP right now.
54 great deal excellant quality
I have had the C200 for 2 weeks now and have not had a battery problem, or any other problem. The sales person suggested using lithium batterys for longer life but I haven't had any problems with the alkaline one's yet. I am very pleased with the picture quality and have had many people look at my photos and couldn't believe they came from a digital camera. The software was easy to load and just what I was looking for.
55 Not as good as other similarly priced cameras
I also received a deal that allowed me to get afree 15 MB flash card with the camera which made it appear to be abetter deal. However, the photo quality was not that great and the camera itself a little clunky. I wasn't satisfied with the camera at all. I did, however find a wonderful camera that I like a lot. Try the Olympus D-340R for similar pricing with better quality photos.
56 Good entry level camera
Nice picture quality and easy to use. This unit doesn't include the external power supply, so I would buy one or a card reader for downloading the photos to your PC - or if you are buying a photo printer, too, the HP models (1000, 1100) have a built in card reader. Downloading drains the batteries quickly. I like the color LCD for reviewing your pictures and the megapixel resolution produces nice, photo quality shots with good detail.
57 pretty good camera for not much $$
I personally hate developing film, so I went hunting for a digital camera. This one was the best value that I found. It's cheap, and the picture quality is good enough for me (email/web). The autofocus is kinda weird (half-depress to focus, press the rest of the way to shoot), the resolution is always 72 dpi, there really are only 2 sizes (1152x870 & 576x436), and to review pictures you have to turn off the camera.
On the good side, indoor pictures are, IMO, perfectly fine. The flash works well, and illuminates well. Outdoor pix are kinda washed out, and the autofocus doesn't seem to work real well outside.
Besides that, it's definitely worth it.
58 HP C200 is great
I bought my C200 about a month ago, and have taken about 100 pictures so far. Overall, they are outstanding, especially for a camera at this price. I find the flash is not quite as strong as I would like, though. The software works wells and is easy to use also. After 100 shots, I still am using the original alkaline batteries that came with the camera, and the battery indicator shows that the batteries are still nearly fully-charged. The time to download photos directly from the camera to the PC takes FOREVER, so I bought a Sandisk Imagemate USB Compactflash External Drive, and it is great. It downloads 16mb of images in just a few seconds. I have found when using the 2X zoom, the picture quality is poor, but in all other respects, I can heartily recommend this camera.
59 What a value!
I recently finished an exhausting search for a new camera and settled on the HP based on a recommendation by Amazon and the fact that I was becoming utterly confuesed by all of the choices in the marketplace. THIS CAMERA IS A GREAT DEAL! the picture quality is fine for most things and setup was easy enough, although remember to open the lens cover when connecting the camera to your computer. I was emailing pictures of my friend's new dog minutes after opening the box.
60 Good for the price
I bought this camera as an entry into digital photography. I know it isn't the greatest but it's a good start. Why pay a fortune for a camera when technology moves so fast? Just buy a new one next year. By the way, as an alternative to paying for an adapter why not just buy a compact flash external drive which is much faster than the serial connection anyway. I had a problem with installing the software because I have a 2 year old computer and there was a problem with a DLL. Just a quick call to HP and they fixed it. (The fix needs to be posted on their web site - I can't be the only one with a dinosaur). I haven't had the camera long enough for a thorough review but it looks good so far. (Battery usage has not been a problem.)
61 Horrible Pictures when compared to other cameras
When I first viewed the pictures taken with this camera I thought they were pretty good. But when I started testing other cameras, even cameras below $300, I found the picture quality taken with this camera inferior to the others. Most pictures came out blurry and all lacked the detail that other cameras produce.
Not a good camera to buy.
62 Good Pics... Lousy battery life... maybe mine's defective...
The camera takes great pics, but for some reason I only get about 20 shots to a new set of batteries which it uses 4 AA's. I tried Rechargeable Alkalines and it only got about 4-5 shots... It's suppose to get 200 with the flash and 500 without so mine must be defective as I've only seen 1-2 reviews mentioning the short battery life... I wish other users would write a review here and tell me what kind of battery life they're getting... mine just might need warranty work... Otherwise, it's got the built in flash, tripod mount, decent storage, good software... the specs are great, just the battery annoyance is keeping me from giving it a high rating... I emailed HP and they never replied to my questions.
63 Outstanding battery life and image quality for the price
Wow! We are very surprised. We bought this digital camera to help us remember the houses we visited as we looked for a home in the Seattle area - after 80 or so houses they really do all start to look the same! It's an outstanding piece of harware.
The camera takes fine pictures up to a goodenough resolution for reviewing on the TV, posting on a website, or pretty much anything apart from blowing them up to poster size.
The battery life which we had thought of as a really serious concern for digital cameras has been outstanding - we filled the supplied CF card (88 images at low resolution) more than 4 times without even having the battery drop from full - including using the flash and the LCD a little. This is pretty much uheard of in a digital camera.
As a starting point for digital cameras I highly recommend this - it has done a fine job for us! The only issue is the slow download to the PC when you have the CF card pretty much full, but that's only a minor quibble.
64 A Toy
You can not expect much from it. Too bulky & low qualit
65 works great simple to use
After looking at cameras with not many more features than the C200 and priced out of my price range I had almost given up buying a digital camera.Then I found this site and read the tech info and comments and decided to check them out.Sure glad I did .It works great, good quality pics, easy to use, nice size and appearance
66 Simple, great pictures for web or TV
I took this camera to Europe for two weeks, and it performed beautifully. Being able to delete unwanted photos make this a much better camera than the standard print film camera. The quality is good for web sites and viewing on TV.
67 This is a great entry level digital camera; it works well.
I've had my c200 for a few days now and haven't really found anything wrong or have any regrets about buying it. If you plan on taking a lot of photos, you'll need the extra storage. I found the set-up very easy. The included software is really neat; there is a lot you can do with it. Transfer of the photos to my computer posed no problems whatsoever. Everything is included except an AC power adapter, which I definately recommend when you download pictures to your computer. There isn't a problem per se'. You just may want to preserve batteries, but really no big deal since the camera uses 4 AA batteries. The problem I encountered however is that no one seems to sell the AC adapter by itself. So I went on-line to HP's website and purchased it there; no problem. The thing is a bit expensive @ $50 but I think it's worth it. Perhaps a more generic AC adapter would work but I wasn't going to take the change and cook the camera. The next step up in a digital camera in my area would cost another $200. I'm happy with this one.
68 Easy to use camera with good output
Image quality *** Performance **** Ease of use ***** Cost/Benefit *****
This camera has really easy operation and produce good pictures, battery life seems to be prety good too. Pictures are not as good as from Powershot A5 Zoom (which I own), but for web or TV use are good enough quality. Colors are for sure nice and sharpnes too. Some pictures I've took were actualy looking good even after printing on photopaper, but most of pictures showed a bit of color bleeding after printing. Seems like all three image modes has the same resolution of 75ppi(A5 Zoom produces 180ppi), which could be reason for decrease in print quality. Camera takes good pictures in the dark, flash seems to be strong enough for indoor shots without lights. Nice feature is option to set PAL or NTSC TV output. For the price and included 8MB CF card and software it's great deal.Display as viewfinder is worthles, it's jerky and slow. Only time to use display, is make sure, that settings in harder conditions produce good enough pictures. One thing you should watch out for, is messing with CF card into your computer if you use CF adapter or reader. Camera seems to be sensitive on content of CF card. It happend to me that camera wouldn't even formate CF card after I copied some files on the CF card using card adapter. Finaly I somehow deleted whole content of the CF card and formating worked again. If you use adapter, I suggest not to delete or copy any files (except for original dumps from prewious picture taking)using card adapter and computer, instead use deletion in camera menu after you copy all your pictures. If camera wouldn't read the CF card, delete all files from card (I suggest use del *.* in command line, be careful that you really deleting CF card and not your HDD ;-)) Than stick the card into camera again and formate it using cameras menu, then it should work again. I think that in this price level there is nothing better for now than this camera (only comparable product Olympus D340-R is hard to find in stock for this price and uses Smart Media, has lack of stitching software too). If you digital photo beginner or want camera for web with ocasional printing, go for this one.
Strengths: price, easy to use, optional PAL output, good flash, baterry life, nice look
Weaknesses: slight delay after pressing shooter button all the way down at once, sensitive on content of CF card, prints in general nothing special, jerky and slow display.
