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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 32 reviews
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Product summary
The good: Solid construction for the price; very easy to use; aperture-priority mode; spot metering; sharp Pentax lens.
The bad: Oversaturated colors; no custom white balance; somewhat subpar LCD; unimpressive low-light autofocus; short battery life.
The bottom line: A solidly built point-and-shoot, this camera is best for photographers who like pictures with a lot of punch.
Specifications: Resolution: 3.2 megapixels ; Optical zoom: 3 x ; Display type: 1.5 in LCD display ; See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 11/24/2003
- Released on: 06/01/2003
Like other HP digital cameras, the Photosmart 735 has a clean, spartan style. Its mostly plastic body is gray and silver. A bit bigger than many other models in its class, this camera weighs a moderate 10.3 ounces with batteries and media installed. The fit and finish of our test unit were very good, and we were able to get a secure, comfortable grip.
 In an uncommon design move, HP provided separate buttons for shooting stills and video, so you don't have to turn a mode dial before capturing a subject. |
 These buttons let you select a flash setting, choose the picture quality, and scroll through photo modes on the status LCD. |
The 735's controls are distributed across the camera's rear and top; two arrows and an OK key beside the LCD let you surf the menus. This navigation system worked adequately, but we prefer the four-way controllers you now find on many other models. The menus themselves are well labeled and quick to operate. Still, we're mildly disappointed that you have to drill into them to activate exposure compensation and white balance.
 You switch between shooting and playback with buttons instead of a dial. And with the bottom button, you can mark pictures for printing or e-mailing. |
 You use these buttons to navigate the LCD menus. |
If you're a novice, you'll appreciate the brief descriptions that accompany menu selections. For example, when you scroll to automatic white balance, the explanation "Camera adjusts color automatically" appears on the screen.
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 The 735 saves JPEG files and video clips to SD/MMC media. |
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Point-and-shoot simplicity is the theme of the 735's feature set, but HP did add a few useful features to the basics. The 3X zoom lens covers a focal-length range of 38mm to 114mm (35mm-camera equivalent) and opens to a slightly subpar variable maximum aperture of f/2.6 to f/5.0. Exposure options include programmed auto, three scene presets, and an abbreviated but still useful aperture-priority mode that lets you select from two f-stop settings. You can adjust exposure to plus or minus 2EV and choose average, center-weighted, or spot light metering. For white balance, you get automatic operation and four presets, but unfortunately, there's no custom selection. The sensor's sensitivity can be set to ISO 100, ISO 200, or ISO 400.
The 735 records still images in JPEG only; three combinations of compression and resolution are available. In-camera sharpening and color saturation are also adjustable. You can capture 320x240-pixel video clips with sound for as long as your card capacity allows. The annotation function lets you add voice captions to your photos. And like other Photosmart models, the 735 offers HP's Instant Share technology, which simplifies picture printing and sharing for folks who don't want to mess around with their computers very much. The camera is compatible with HP's 8886 dock, which is part of the Instant Share system.
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 HP says that disposable lithium or nickel-metal-hydride AAs will produce the best results. But using the latter, we got a mere 130 shots (half of them with the flash). We'd hate to see the worst results. |
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The 735's performance leaves something to be desired; namely, speed and endurance. Start-up time is somewhat slow at 5 to 6 seconds. But shutter delay, including autofocus time, is about 0.8 second, and it can be as short as 0.2 second if you prefocus. Shot-to-shot time is a likewise acceptable 2 seconds for up to seven high-quality images. But when you hit the eighth photo, things take a turn for the worse: after each capture, the camera pauses for a glacial 20 seconds to save the picture and make room in the buffer memory for another. In continuous mode, you can snap as many as seven shots at about 1.6 frames per second before the buffer stalls.
Autofocus speed and decisiveness are adequate in good light but a bit below average in dim conditions, and there is no autofocus-assist lamp. The zoom lens is somewhat noisy, but its action is fairly smooth, quick, and controllable.
The optical viewfinder is a bit bigger than the tiny ones we often see, and it's reasonably bright and sharp. The modestly subpar 1.5-inch LCD isn't particularly sharp, and its refresh rate is on the slow side, but the screen is adequately usable in bright outdoor light.
The 735's odd pictures will be a deal-breaker for some but a pleasure for others. The colors in our test shots were inaccurate and fairly severely oversaturated. We're not fans of the effect, as you can tell from the image-quality grade we gave the camera, but it's not against the law to prefer neon-bright hues. We tried turning down the default saturation, but the difference was huge: colors became very flat and lifeless. The 735 couldn't give us a happy middle ground.
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Images taken under indoor tungsten lights have a very warm tone, but they're sharp and detailed, with minimal noise and artifacts. The detail on the right is shown at 100 percent. |
In other ways, our test shots were pretty good. Sharpness and detail were top-notch. Noise was moderate at ISO 100 though fairly severe at ISO 400. Whether we used the flash or ambient light, our exposures were generally correct, though we noted a slight tendency toward underexposure. Very few artifacts and little color fringing occurred, but skin tones were occasionally reddish.
Like pictures with a lot of snap? The 735 gives you an extra helping of color.
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