HP Photosmart 945

Print

Email

Bookmark

Share

HP's latest Photosmart 945 digital camera is a sizeable improvement over its earlier effort, the Photosmart 850. Still, it is not without its fair share of disadvantages. While its 8x telephoto lens will set photography enthusiasts' hearts aflutter, the lack of a full manual creative option as well as missing support for external flash makes this camera suited only for those who are skin deep into photography and reluctant to spend much more on a camera.

Noticeable Improvements
One of the biggest improvements HP has done to the Photosmart 945 is to redesign the control layout. The dial at the top now gives users easier access to shooting modes, a much more logical placement and design over the Photosmart 850--where it performs only a dewy-eyed role of switching between powering off the camera, taking still pictures and movie mode. The other visible difference is the departure of the silver finish, replaced by the more popular, yet traditional black ensemble. Otherwise, you'd be hard pressed to spot any external differences. As such, you can expect the same weighty load of about 520g with Secure Digital (SD) card and batteries installed.

Beyond aesthetics, the Photosmart 945 offers a 5-megapixel sensor which really is plenty for most people. It should interest users that image quality is not just about resolution. As CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) resolution increases and average pixel dimensions shrink, image noise becomes more pronounced. Because of this, camera manufacturers tend to increase sensor size to improve sensitivity. But looking at the specifications, it appears HP has stuck to the 1/1.8-inch sensor size found on the 4-megapixel Photosmart 850. Not surprisingly, the Photosmart 945 exhibited slightly more image noise when compared to its predecessor.

The Photosmart 945 also offers HP's new Adaptive Lighting Technology which achieves a fill-flash effect without using an electronic flash. This feature, which is similar to the Digital Flash option found on HP's newer range of printers, analyzes an image and brightens only the darker regions while keeping highlights at the same levels. This minimizes the harsh lighting and high-contrast shadows that are commonly associated with built-in flashes.

HP's other upgrades include manual focus, a four- to six-frame burst mode, and an ISO 400 setting.

Features
The feature set of the Photosmart 945 creates confusion for photography enthusiasts. On the one hand, you have the option to attach filters and add-on lenses through an adapter, as well as a high-resolution sensor mated with a large 8x focal range (37-300mm, 35mm equivalent). Yet conversely, you'll see the lack of support for full manual operation, no provisions for saving pictures in TIFF or RAW format, and there's no hotshoe to support external flashes. In any case, we think the Photosmart 945 has enough features to satisfy all but the most advanced shutterbugs.

Although slightly inhibited, there remains freedom for creativity with the options to independently control both shutter and aperture operation. Metering (multi, center-weighted, spot), exposure compensation, and white balance can also be set easily from the simple menu system. Disappointingly, a real-time histogram--or even one for playback mode--is absent on the Photosmart 945.

The Photosmart 945 retains the Photosmart 850's electronic-viewfinder (EVF) sensors, which simultaneously activate the EVF when you hold it to your eye for framing while switching the LCD off to reduce distractions. However, the EVF is not one of the newer high-gain variants, such as the ones found on, say, Konica Minolta's Dimage A1. So in total darkness, you may run into framing problems.

The Numbers
In our tests, we found the Photosmart 945's performance to be mediocre. This HP starts in just over 4 seconds when you flick the power switch, and most of the wait can be attributed to the time it takes for the lens mechanism to protrude. For the shot-to-shot runs, the unit performed admirably with the flash off, averaging about 1 to 2 seconds for six frames before a noticeably long pause while waiting for the camera to write to the SD card. Still, the usefulness of this is compromised as the LCD or EVF doesn't switch itself back on till 2 to 3 seconds later. Surprisingly, the timings held up with the flash enabled as well.

The zoom mechanism proved smooth, accurate and offered precise control (quiet, too). The autofocusing (AF) system was also quite peppy, often taking about a second for situations with adequate lighting. An assist lamp also aids the AF system in low light situations. Even so, the speed dropped to about 2 or 3 seconds.

In terms of image quality, the Photosmart 945 delivered pretty good-looking photos. However, barring the resolution, the pictures were not noticeably better than the Photosmart 850's, as we've indicated earlier. With ISO speeds at 100, we found the majority of our images to be reasonably clean. The colors captured were always vibrant and the metering generally gave well-exposed shots. The camera's automatic white balance also proved capable as it was able to handle most lighting conditions, including indoor shots.

Findings
For an estimated sticker price of S$999 (US$581), this 5-megapixel Photosmart lands itself between the lower echelons of prosumer cameras and the higher-end of consumer digicams. While we found the long telephoto reach to be boon, we also missed the features that HP has neglected to include. In all, we think this camera will suit those who know a little about photography but do not intend to graduate to the next level. Considering this, we find this camera to offer pretty good value.