HP Photosmart 812

A 4-megapixel camera for under £300 is still quite a rarity. Only the HP and Kodak cameras fit into this category, but both make sacrifices in the process, particularly in terms of manual controls.

Both ship with 16MB memory cards, but the HP uses the smaller SD format while the Kodak takes CompactFlash. It's worth noting that while most cameras using SD cards also work with MMC cards, the HP doesn't function reliably with this format. It slowed to a crawl when viewing images taken with another camera and had to be powered off between taking images. But this is just a minor point - the 3x optical zoom is far more important, especially when the Kodak only includes a 2x zoom.

Indoors, the HP fared reasonably well for the price, partially due to its larger resolution. But even a 4-megapixel CCD doesn't guarantee excellent detail capture, with the 812 falling behind similarly specified but more expensive devices. Without the flash, it struggled with the dark green of the child's rattle, but even though noise was apparent, due to the long shutter speed, it didn't overpower the image. Disappointingly, though, the flash of the HP was too concentrated. It lit the centre of the image brightly, but there was noticeable dimming in the corners.

Outdoors, the Photosmart was certainly passable. The skin tones were well reproduced even in shadowed areas. The portrait shot had a pleasingly short depth of field and, although the landscape picture showed slight barrel distortion, it didn't distract the eye too much.

Macro photos taken by the HP were a little disappointing, with the area covered by the shot a relatively paltry 128 x 96mm. This is larger than the Kodak and even the BenQ DC3310 captures a smaller area. Barrel distortion wasn't too obvious, but was visible all the same, and focus deteriorated towards the corners.

There are three buttons next to the screen, one of which allows you to mark images for printing or emailing. You can add addresses using software on the PC and the pictures will be emailed once you've connected up the camera. Rounding out the rear controls is a four-way direction pad with the OK button at its centre.

With only the Kodak for competition as a 4-megapixel camera below £300, the HP emerges from this Labs with some honour. However, the Sony Cyber-shot produces better images with its 3.3-megapixel CCD and costs only £6 more. Unless you really need the larger image size, choose the DSC-P71.