Digital Camera Home > Digital Camera Reviews > Hewlett Packard Digital Cameras > HP PhotoSmart 215

HP PhotoSmart 215 HP's entry-level model offers ease of use for beginning shooters. Select a topic Reference: Datasheet PS215 Sample Images --------------------------------- 1. Intro and Highlights 2. Executive Overview 3. Design 4. Viewfinder 5. Optics 6. Exposure & Flash 7. Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests 8. Operation & User Interface 9. Camera Modes & Menus 10. Image Storage & Interface 11. Video, Power, Software 12. Test Results & Conclusion --------------------------------- Print-Friendly Review Version Additional Resources and Other Links Reader Comments on PS215 Review --------------------------------- Digital Camera Comparometer (TM) --------------------------------- <-- Digital Cameras (Home) <-- Digital Camera Reviews Index <<Camera Modes & Menus :(Previous) | (Next): Video, Power, Software>> Page 10:Image Storage & Interface Review First Posted: 3/10/2001

Image Storage and Interface

The 215 records images to a Type I CompactFlash card, and a 4MB card is packaged with the camera. Upgrades are available separately, up to 64MB. The CompactFlash card inserts into the card slot with the electrodes going in first and the "face" of the card facing the compartment door. The card will not go into the camera the wrong way. You can remove the card with your fingers, or with a small clip attached to the wrist strap.

Never remove the CompactFlash card while the camera is performing any function, to avoid damaging the media. The LCD monitor reports when the camera is accessing the card, but Hewlett-Packard recommends waiting until the camera is powered off to remove it. The 215's status display panel reports the number of available images that the card has room for, next to a small CompactFlash icon. If the icon is blinking, the card is either full or has some type of problem and needs to be checked.

Entire CompactFlash cards cannot be write-protected, but the 215 allows you to protect captured images through the Playback menu. The Lock menu option lets you write-protect individual images, or all images on the card, which protects them from being accidentally erased (except from card formatting).

Three JPEG compression levels and two image sizes are available on the 215. Super Fine and Fine quality settings record images at 1,280 x 960-pixel resolution. The Basic quality setting records 640 x 480-pixel images. Below are the approximate still image capacities and compression ratios for a 4MB CompactFlash card:

Resolution/Quality vs Image Capacity Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart 215	High Resolution 1,280 x 960 pixels		Standard Resolution 640 x 480 pixels
	Images	Approx. Compression	Images	Approx. Compression
Super Fine Quality	5	7:1	N/A	N/A
Fine Quality	10	14:1	N/A	N/A
Basic Quality	N/A	N/A	36	8:1

A USB cable and software CD also accompany the 215, for quick connection to a PC or Mac. Unlike some cameras, the 215 requires that you install its software application to download images from the camera, rather than letting the camera "mount" on the computer's desktop like another disk drive. That said, the software that comes with the 215 struck us as being very easy to use, and the image-download process was quite fast. When you connect the camera to the computer, the software application is automatically launched, and a window appears showing small "thumbnail" versions of all photos in the camera. While we didn't time it, the thumbnail display comes up very quickly, a nice feature. The actual file download takes a little longer, and is slower than other USB-equipped cameras we've tested: We clocked the 215 at 16.5 seconds to transfer 2.4 megabytes of images (9 maximum-resolution files), a transfer rate of 145 KBytes/second. This is as much as two to three times slower than higher end cameras we've tested, but taking approximately 30 seconds to empty the provided 4MB memory card is not too bad. (And vastly faster than cameras using serial-port interfaces.)