Two new digicams from HP

18th April - 2002
By Ian Burley

Hewlett Packard has officially launched a pair of new digital cameras here in the UK; one at the entry level and one at the top end of HP’s digicam range. The two models are the HP Photosmart 120, priced just £99 and the Photosmart C812 (right), priced from £399; a competitive price for a 4 megapixel camera.

Photosmart 120 for £99

The £99 120 model is a 1 megapixel camera, though unlike some of its budget contemporaries it features an LCD viewscreen and it can take up to 35 seconds worth of video clips stored in its 4MB of internal memory. Its memory can be expanded via a conventional compact flash card slot. For more details in the official HP press release, click here.

4MP Photosmart 812 at under £400

At the other end of the HP spectrum is the new 812 model, first unveiled at the CES show in Las Vegas back at the beginning of January. It’s a relatively high specification camera, sporting a 4 megapixel sensor and a Pentax 3x optical zoom lens. This is complemented by a rather ambitious-sounding 7x digital zoom feature. Movie clips of up to a minute in length can also be taken.

Unlike all recent HP digital cameras, the 812 is equipped with a SD/MMC mini-memory card slot instead of compact flash. A 16MB SD card is supplied with the camera. This choice of memory card is rather surprising because the most recent HP Photosmart printers that feature built in direct printing memory card slots support all the main card types - except SD/MMC. However, you can print directly to these printers without a PC using a USB cable instead.

The 812 can be bought with an optional docking station that provides battery charging and convenient PC connection. Another feature of the 812 is an Instant Share facility that lets you keep selected recipients, maybe friends or members of your family, up to date with the latest pictures you have taken. You select the pictures you like and the system emails your contacts copies of the photos as soon as the camera is hooked up to your PC.

For more information, see the official HP press release by clicking here.

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