bit-tech Shopping: HP (Hewlett-Packard) Photosmart M547 Silver Digital Camera

• Internal Memory
• MultiMedia Card (MMC)
• SD Memory Card
• SDHC Memory Card

Rating: 10

Time with product: 3 Months

Strengths: Easy to use, great quality

Weaknesses: NA

Summary: We have been trying several digital cameras and this one was the best in the price range.The menus are easy to understand and to navigate. The photo quality is really nice and we are really impressed. Instead of paying over $200 to get canno or other name bands, This camera is great investment of its overall value and performance!

Rating: 8

Time with product: 5 Days

Strengths: Compact size, large viewing screen, good picture quality, price

Weaknesses: Video, battery life

Summary: The M547 is small enough that you can slip into a pocket when you travel around. The picture quality is very good under a variety of lighting conditions. There are many preset picture modes. I found the AUTO mode is good for most of the situations, so this is ideal for a quick point and shoot. The CLOSE UP mode is especially useful if you want take pictures of flowers. It even has image stabilization that is not included in a lot of units with much higher price. The internal memory can only hold 8 pictures at 6MP. This is certainly not enough, but with 1GB memory card that can store more than 400 photos so cheap today, this should not be an issue. I actually got the memory cards for free. The 3x optical zoom works well. It also comes with 6X digital zoom. The size of the LCD display is decent. Under direct sunlight, it can be difficult to see. This could be a problem because there is no viewfinder. The flash light seems not very strong under very dark conditions. The alkaline batteries provided cannot last very long, so a pair of rechargeable AA NiMH batteries are highly recommended. Pressing the MENU button on the back leads to many great functions. They are easy to use and most people probably will never need to read the instructions which can also be displayed on the LCD by pressing MENU a few times. One particular weak point I find is the video quality. At 320x240, you will not record great movies. Also, you will not hear the sound in playback mode. To do that, video files have to be transferred to a computer for playback. Even with my short time of using this camera, I think that it is a very good bargain at $80. You will not be able to find too many digital cameras with so many functions.