HP (Hewlett-Packard) Photosmart M527 Compact Camera

Great camera!!

Strengths: Easy to use, takes great pictures.

Weakness: none so far as I can tell.

I bought this camera for my fiance for Christmas. It's a great camera for the price and it's easy for him to use. He loves it and I would definitely buy one for myself.

By Tory1227 - Dec 29, 2006

HP Photosmart M527

Strengths: Big LCD and easy to handle

Weakness: zoom is not perfect, and the shape could be better

I won't call it a low end digital camera, but it's also not for the PROs. I bought this for family use and the kid. I has video function too, which is something I want. 6mp will be good enough for family use. Buttons are all at very convenient place for people to get a easy handle on it. Over all, I think it's a nicely made digital camera.

By jason0203 - Dec 26, 2006

Nice beginners camera

Strengths: Large LCD, accepts AA batteries and higher capacity batteries are an option, standard memory cards

Weakness: Needs better zoom functions

This is a very nice camera for someone who just needs a point and shoot camera. I like how the buttons are integrated and flush with the body. While I can understand professionals wanting to access various functions on their digital SLRs w/o having to take their eyes off the subject, such a feature becomes bothersome for a simple point and shoot camera. Glad HP took this route. Pretty good camera...
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This is a very nice camera for someone who just needs a point and shoot camera. I like how the buttons are integrated and flush with the body. While I can understand professionals wanting to access various functions on their digital SLRs w/o having to take their eyes off the subject, such a feature becomes bothersome for a simple point and shoot camera. Glad HP took this route. Pretty good camera for the price, and a nice beginners camera.

By dmjseller - Nov 6, 2006

Great camera for the money!

Strengths: Big LCD screen, in-camera red-eye reduction, few buttons on back so good for big fingers, very user-friendly with idiot-proof on-screen menu

Weakness: Macro mode isn't the best I've seen

I bought this camera for my parents but wanted to give it a thorough testing before giving it to them (this will be their FIRST digital camera -- I know, it's ridiculous -- but they need something that is easy to use because they aren't terribly technology-savvy.) I've been testing it for the past few days, and I'm confident that I've made a good purchase for them. Note, however, that I am NOT a...
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I bought this camera for my parents but wanted to give it a thorough testing before giving it to them (this will be their FIRST digital camera -- I know, it's ridiculous -- but they need something that is easy to use because they aren't terribly technology-savvy.) I've been testing it for the past few days, and I'm confident that I've made a good purchase for them. Note, however, that I am NOT a professional photographer. I take lots of pictures of lots of things for my own personal uses (I do a lot of scrapbooking), but I look at the quality of a digital camera based on its ease of use and quality of pictures to the AVERAGE user.


That being said, I'm very pleased with this purchase. I bought the camera for a few reasons. First, I wanted one with a big (this one is 2") LCD screen so my blinder-by-the-minute parents could actually see the image. This should suffice. Second, my dad has big puffy fingers, so I needed buttons that weren't too close together. This camera has distinct areas for the power button, zoom buttons, and menu buttons, plus a separate area on the top of the camera for the button that switches between taking /displaying photos, the movie-recording button, and also the flash and print buttons. The actual picture-taking button is in a logical place and is easy to use.


Third, I wanted a camera that was, for the most part, completely automatic. My parents are not ones to be trusted messing with "white levels" and such. Right out of the box, without touching a single button, you can take great pictures. If you do get brave enough to check out what the "Menu" has to offer, it's basically idiot-proof. For instance, when switching between picture resolutions, it doesn't just give numbers (which non-techy people won't understand). Instead, it says things like, "Medium file size, good for printing" or "Smallest file size, good for email." Now THAT is something my parents can understand!


The bells and whistles that the camera has are pretty slick. It's got the typical stuff, like 3x optical zoom (plus additional 7x digital zoom), and different flash options (including red-eye flash). But it also has some cool stuff I hadn't seen before, including the ability to add audio clips to STILL images, as well as shooting video clips with audio. You can also use the on-camera "Design Gallery", which has options similar to those we usually use with the computer software that comes with digital cameras. One really cool option is the ability to remove red-eye from a picture ('cuz we all know that the red-eye flash doesn't always work -- so this is more like what you can do with computer software to remove red-eyes after a picture has been taken). You can also add borders, rotate pictures, and apply artistic effects. I don't know if I'd realistically use any of these other than the red-eye reduction, but some people might.


I'm VERY pleased with how quickly you can take pictures back-to-back. There is very little delay-time as the picture is written to memory (that is a problem with my current 3-year-old Olympus).

The camera uses SD memory but has 16MB built-in memory, which is cool. On the VGA (email quality) resolution size the internal memory can store 80 images. (I got a 1GB SD card for them so they will pretty much never have to worry about not having enough memory.)


Picture quality is good (aren't they all at 6MP though?). I really just bought this camera for the ease-of-use. I think my parents will be pleasantly surprised. I'm actually really jealous of this camera compared to mine... I might have to go get one for myself!

By brookiebrooke - Jun 4, 2006

Good Basic Camera

Strengths: Uses AA batteries and an SD card, easy to use

Weakness: Optical vs. Digital Zoom - less MP available

I bought this camera because I wanted a good, basic, not too expensive model for an upcoming vacation that was higher resolution than my current 2 mp camera. It seems to take good, clear shots, and the preview LCD is bright! The one thing I'm disappointed about is the optical vs. digital zoom. At up to 3x, it's still 6mp, but as you get closer to an object, the resolution and MP go downward, til...
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I bought this camera because I wanted a good, basic, not too expensive model for an upcoming vacation that was higher resolution than my current 2 mp camera. It seems to take good, clear shots, and the preview LCD is bright! The one thing I'm disappointed about is the optical vs. digital zoom. At up to 3x, it's still 6mp, but as you get closer to an object, the resolution and MP go downward, til it no longer recommends use. Still, for what I wanted, it fits the bill: I can use rechargeable AA batteries (only takes 2) and a removable SD card to transfer pics to my PC.

By fierte - Sep 7, 2006