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computerwriter.com
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HP Photosmart C912Toronto Star Fast Forward column for January 25, 2001 Hewlett Packard's PhotoSmart C912 digital camera looks expensive and, relative to the market, it does fall into the high middle section of the price scale at around $1,100 on the street. But that's what you're going to have to pay to get this many features in a digital still camera this month.
Here are some of the camera's raw specs:
And the specs go on, and on, and on (more detail at www.canada.hp.com) Road Test: Out of the box, the Photosmart C912 is quickly up and running. There are no rechargeable batteries to prepare; instead, it ships with four AA-type Lithium batteries. A rechargeable set of Lithium batteries and charger / AC adapter are available as options. The battery compartment on the bottom is clearly marked to show which way each goes in. Fill it up, insert the Compact Flash card and you're away.
For example, looking along the top of the camera, from left to right, you'll find a notched wheel to turn to select the shooting modes. These include manual, aperture priority, shutter priority, program, auto, portrait, landscape, close-up, action, or night photography. Next to this dial is a small button to push to get the flash unit to pop up from the camera body. To the right of the flash unit are four more buttons to trigger continuous, single, or time-lapse shooting, timer adjustments, auto focus area (wide or close), and to set the flash modes (auto, on with red-eye adjustment, off, etc.). Beside to the row of four chrome buttons is a monochrome LCD screen that reports battery strength, shots remaining, shooting mode, focus, lens setting, and flash status. Slightly to the front of this screen are the power on/off slider and the shutter button (the only good thing about having them so close together is that you push one and slide the other, but I can see accidental power-downs just lurking here). On the back of the camera are some more controls. Again, from left to right, we find another knurled wheel with a four-way rocker switch. The wheel selects whether you're shooting, reviewing, or connecting. The rocker switch is the "mouse" you use to navigate the menus on the colour LCD screen to the right. Just above the wheel/rocker unit is a small button with the icon of a jet plane above it – the infrared button. The flip-up LCD panel in the centre has two rows of three buttons above and below the screen. The top row triggers the menu, whether or not the display is on for framing shots, and the microphone. The bottom row is used within menus to trigger events (default, edit, exit, etc.). We're not done; there are two more buttons at the top of the back of the camera body, one marked +/- / AV, the other designated AE-L (auto exposure lock). It's the +/- / AV button that will give you the most fun. When pressed, it affects certain ways the first wheel we mentioned, the one on the top left of camera, functions. Wheee! As you might expect, the images taken with the C912 aren't necessarily going to turn out perfectly every time, just the way it works with a fully-adjustable 35 mm film camera. Keep in mind, however, that everything you can adjust manually can also be set to full automatic and, because it's digital, you can see your mistakes instantly. Oh, did I mention that it also comes with a hot-shoe connection so you can add your own flash to it? Quibbles & Bits: I have only a couple of small quibbles about the C912. It's nice that the optical eyepiece for the SLR viewfinder has a cover. It's not so great that there's no way to have it attached to or stowed somehow around the camera body. At about 1 by .5 inches, it's going to end up gone within minutes. My other complaint may be a bit more serious. The model sent for evaluation was shrink-wrapped, so I have no reason to believe it had been particularly kicked around before getting to me. Therefore, I was a little surprised at the intermittent function of the four-way rocker switch you use to navigate through menus. It would track to the right and either up or down without problems, but getting it to work properly when toggling it to the left was often a problem. It either didn't function at all, the menu item jumped back to the right immediately, or it worked – and there didn't seem to be any way to tell what it was going to do. Aside from that, the things I look for in a digital camera were present. It gave me lots of options and the shutter – located far enough from the power switch so you can't hit one when searching blindly for the other – triggered when I pressed it (without the tedious delay some less expensive cameras give you while they make up their minds to take the picture – usually just long enough for the subject to yawn, the cat to run away, or for the incredibly interesting bug to depart the petal). I'd give the Photosmart C912 top marks. |
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Stylistically,
the C912 looks like an expensive35 mm SLR (single-lens reflex) film camera with
a small zoom lens attached. And I think it's obvious that HP's designers were
targeting a segment of the market that wants to look as though they're serious
shooters using serious equipment, not toys. The colours are all gun-metal
silver, dark grey, and black. The lens protrudes from the camera body and that's
where the zoom control is located; you twist the lens barrel just like you would
with a film camera.
Well,
almost away. The first thing that happens when you power it up is a menu
appearing on screen asking you to set the date and time, just in case you want
to embed same in your pictures. Then, you'll either have to read the manual or
fiddle for a while until you figure out the myriad controls.