Page 1 of HP 850 camera for £199

This is an excellent camera (4 Megapixel and 8x zoom) and is such a bargain that I`m reluctant to broadcast it...

Oh what the hell - it`s at Digital Depot (www.digitaldepot.co.uk) and they still had some left on Friday. It`s OK, I`ve already got mine.

They`re still there - what are you waiting for? For those (like me) who would normally prefer a camera made by a camera company, I should point out that the lens is made by Fuji, and it takes wonderful pictures. If you don`t believe me, have a gander at www.trekearth.com/photos.php?cat=camera&id=379...

I was very tempted by one of these when you first posted about it. But checking on a few reviews, one thing came up......

"depending on focal length and lighting conditions it can take upto a second and a half to get AF lock, so this makes it nearly impossible to flollow moving objects". - steves digicams (conclusion section).

One of the things i`d want it for would be airshows, so i guess this makes it a no go :-(
Shame, cos i like everything else about it

joe

Im not looking to buy a camera at the moment.

But if anyone wants a camera about £200 check the prices & reviews for this HP 850.

AND THEN THANK ALTEREGO

On behalf of the bargain buckets camera hunting guys,

Well done mate, for a good spot.

Gary

Joe, if you`re talking about shots in the air, won`t focus be at or virtually at infinity? Could you not use manual focus and just leave the lens at or close to infinity and just plan ahead for the shot to be in focus as the plane comes into your pre-focused area?

I appreciate that at 8X magnification the depth of field will be very limited but I imagine aperture will be fairly small for a shot into the sky so that will help compensate.

Just a thought......

Thanks for the feedback, guys. The focussing isn`t really any different from other digicams (you lock it on by pressing the shutter half-way) but because the viewfinder is really an LCD, it freezes during this process. Once locked, everything is back to normal, and the shot taking, when you push the button the rest of the way, is virtually instant.

The one and half seconds quoted is the sort of time it can take if you are panning and then press the shutter as you would a conventional camera, but in practice you soon get the hang of `pre-focussing`. Having said all that, an ordinary optical viewfinder is still probably preferable to an electronic one for regular action work. It`s just a trade-off really - the EVF contains useful information as well as what the camera is looking at, and even amplifies low light images, but I accept having it freeze, even momentarily, can be annoying.

This camera doesn`t have a manual focus, which, again, could be useful for action shots, although I have to say that the auto-focus is pretty damn good, and even works in total darkness! The HP 945 (more pixels, same lens) does have a manual focus and more over-rides, but of course it ain`t £199...

I`m very happy with my 845 and the bottom line is that it takes brilliant pictures. You really need a tripod to use it at full zoom, though!

Other options to the HP are the Fuji S5000 (imported at about £230) and the Minolta Z1 (£229 from ebuyer or Costco).

These are only 3.1 MP but the Z1 focus time is quite quick.

I did look at both of these, but they also have electronic viewfinders, so you have the same issue to contend with. The HP does at least have a good enough EVF to see the focussing (it`s the closest to an SLR in that respect) - I wasn`t too impressed with the others.

I should have remembered that the Fuji and Minolta do both have continuous shooting modes, which the HP lacks, and are better suited to action shots in that respect. I found their viewfinders a bit coarse though, compared to the HP`s, which has the equivalent of 230k pixels. This is enough to show text information such as the current operating mode and the number of shots left, as well as exposure data - you can even operate the menus through it, if you wish.

It`s horses for courses, but I think the HP is underrated. There`s a decent review of it and plenty of other cameras on www.megapixel.net/cgi-bin/fs_loader.pl?p=http%3A//www.megapixel.net/reviews/hp850/hp850-gen.html