Punta Gorda Isles, FL is a great place to live. Especially when you belong to the local PGI Civic Association. It offers so many wonderful clubs, you can actually lose yourself in activities.
The PGI Fishing Club is the one that my husband and I attend faithfully. One of the great perks of this club is their Annual Master Angler Tournament. There are 8 eligible species of fish on the tournament list. The requirements are that the fish must be in season, the length must meet regulatory requirements and you must present a picture of you with the fish.
The awards at the end of each tournament are fantastic! Everyone wants to join – including my husband and myself. That always led to a problem. Either I used the expensive Polaroid film or I wasted more than half the pictures on a 35-mm. roll. That’s just one of the reasons that prompted me to consider buying a digital camera. But, that decision gave me another problem. Which one?
I checked with … no, I should say I bothered the heck out of our Electronics Lead and my personal Camera guru,
howard_creech and after receiving some great solid advice, I went shopping.
While in Staples, (I shop there because of the Upromise program), I finally made up my mind and bought the
HP735 Digital Camera.
Howard, I promised you a review once I got familiar with my new toy, so here it is!
When I took my
HP735 out of the box and saw how small and fragile it was, my heart began to race. Was I really ready to tackle digital photography? With the HP735, even a klutz like me can master the art of picture taking.
First of all,
you get along with the
camera, wrist strap, 2AA batteries, camera-to-printer cable, camera-to-pc cable, docking insert (for docking station which isn’t included), CD with photo and imaging software and of course, the user’s manual.
The first thing I did was to grab the CD and place it in the CD tray of my pc. Was I ever impressed!
The CD installs the program for the camera practically all by itself. What a breeze! All you have to do is click on the yes button and VOILA! It’s in!
With that done, my next task was to figure out how to use the camera. Finding the
ON/OFF button is a snap. It’s right on the
back, top center.
Okay, so that was easy. But, I saw nothing – a black screen. Oops! Now I saw a little
rectangle button that has a picture of a camera next to it. After pressing it, I found out I could see images through the image display screen. Hey, that wasn’t so bad, either! I didn’t even need to look through the small
view finder.
As soon as I snapped a picture of my dog, it appeared in the
image display screen within seconds with a
small note at the bottom to hit enter to delete photo.
Now I was a bit confused. I had this picture but how to do I continue. Oh yeah, I guess I should read the
owner’s manual.
WOW! I knew when I bought this camera that it did a lot of things, but now I was sure how amazing this little tool was.
In addition to taking fantastic photos, it will also let you take
a video whose time span is only limited by amount of memory you have left on your disk. Did I mention,
the video has sound! That’s right! There is a
microphone to record as well as a
speaker for playback purposes.
One thing you should keep in mind is that the life of the battery will only last according to how you use your camera. If you take lots of videos, you will drain the battery much faster than if you took stills only. Another thing to consider is purchasing the docking station. That actually helps add life to your batteries. But, that's another review.
The camera has a
ZOOM lens that goes from 1x to 3x telephoto or the wide angle position - whichever you prefer.
There is a
built-in memory storage that holds 16M of pictures.
Let’s just suppose you’re like me and take a lot of pictures. Now you want to check them and delete the ones you don’t like. All you need to do is press the
live view button (right under the little button with the picture of the camera next to it). The
HP735 has
up and down arrow buttons that let you scan each photo on the
image display screen and delete those of your choice.
You can also
delete all the pictures in the camera if you chose by clicking okay on one picture.
The camera will then ask you if you want to delete this photo or all photos.
Believe it or not, you can even
hook the camera directly to a printer and print any picture immediately! How’s that for service??
Speaking of service, this is optional, but if you get the cable, you can even hook your camera directly to your TV for fuller picture viewing!
The camera comes equipped with
a self-timer that lasts for about 10-seconds. You can use this for regular photos OR videos!
Yes, there is a
built-in flash and a
slot for an additional memory disk.
Located on the bottom of the camera is a small
threaded hole made specifically for a tripod which is optional.
By now, you’re thinking,
WOW! Can this camera get any better? It sure can! While I’ve mentioned the equipment and SOME of the camera’s features, let me tell you about the picture taking aspects.
There are
MANY different modes you can choose from to enhance your pictures or maybe just give that certain picture a special effect.
Flash
No Flash
Red Eye Elimination
Burst (takes several action-style photos in quick succession)
Macro (takes extreme close-up pictures)
Action Mode (increases shutter speed for a non-blurry picture)
Landscape Mode (lesser shutter speed for better quality and depth of picture)
Portrait (slightly blurs background and reduces glare on centered image)
F2.6 Mode (blurs background but leaves main picture target on automatic setting)
F4.9 Mode (only slightly blurs background but leaves main picture target on auto setting)
Whew! That’s a mouthful! Had enough? No? Okay, here are some more things you might want to know about this little HP wonder!
You can set your camera to an
ADVANCED MODE. To a what?? I’ll explain.
In this Advanced Mode, you can click on
EV Compensation which will enable you to override the automatic exposure setting in the camera. This way, should you need to manually lighten or darken any scene, you can.
If you want to take a picture and the sun is extremely bright, you can always click on
White Balance and then click on SUN. The camera will then adjust itself to accommodate the extra brightness. You also use this mode for
shade, fluorescent lighting and indoor pictures.
Suppose you’re at a track meet and you need to take full actions pictures and don’t want to begin changing to the action mode. Just to the Advanced Mode and click on
ISO SPEED. This will allow you to change the ISO speed to either ISO-100, ISO-200 or ISO 400.
Not sure which areas in your picture should determine the length of exposure? Just click on
AE METERING in the Advanced Mode. Center your camera to the area that will be the center of your picture and then press OK and the setting is saved.
If you feel, once you’ve taken a picture and the colors aren’t bright enough, then while you’re in the Advanced Mode, find and click on
Saturation. You can put more emphasis on the colors in your scene by selecting a setting and then clicking OK.
Pictures seem a bit blurry? Before you go rushing to an Ophthalmologist, you might want to go into the Advanced Mode and click on
Sharpness and try setting the camera on high.
While you might think that all this is confusing, trust me, IF I CAN DO THIS, SO CAN YOU!
I never pretended to be an expert in electronics BUT working my new little
HP735 is a piece of cake! Now that I’ve used it since December 3, 2003, I feel like I’ve had it for years. I can’t imagine what took me so long to buy a digital camera in the first place.
So, let’s go fishing! I have a great camera that will capture all those big fish I’m gonna catch! Who knows? I might even beat my catch of last year – a great big 38-inch redfish. (Oh, yeah, I won first place in the redfish category in the Anglers Tournament).
