So, when I set out to do this junk blog, I figured I'd just do one piece of junk as an entry. Okay, so maybe not yet. This time I'm going to wax poetic about my three HP cams that I've collected thus far. While none of them are overly exciting, one is old tech but better than my Cintar 2.1 camera. One is poo-poo and one is suprisingly good. Here goes:

There she blows, in order of their Megapixels and order in which I got them. Now, to add to the fun, Boomer got another, even older HP that performs less than what I have but could out-do the middle camera. More on that in a few.

HP Photosmart 318

Quaint cam. 2 Megapixels. LCD read out at the top. Compact Flash memory. 4AA batteries. Fixed focus.  As far as how it rates against most of my camera collection, it takes acceptable pictures. I was impressed by the quality for 2MPX, but I never use it because the 1.3 and the 2.2 Kodaks run circles around the quality of this camera. Compared to my 2.1 Cintar camera, my first digital camera, there are really similar features, but my Cintar was a cheap cam, and it had 4AAA batteries which drained really fast and the camera took forever from picture to picture. This one does take a bit of time from picture to picture, but it's smoother and there is no additional processing needed unlike the Cintar which needed sharpening.

The close up picture of my Browns mosepad came out blurry, so I left that one out. In fact, this cam goes back to the pile of under 2MPX cams that I have amassed. Okay, but the 4AAs and Compact Flash just make it MEH.

HP Photosmart 435

Now we're cooking with gas right? Really compact. Fixed focus. Digital zoom. 2AA batteries, SD Card. 3.2 Megapixels. Lens cover doubles as a power switch. It does video, if you like silent movies. Another thrift store find for $4. It did have a 2G SD card with it, so that made the $4 worth while. Why? Well, I've been buying a bunch of cameras when I find them. I still prefer Kodaks but I've been getting these odd cams when they seem, well, like they work? I've gotten a Polaroid 640x480 and it takes better than average pics, but I got it because it came with 4 Smart Cards and they were worth more than the camera. I have an Olympus cam, for $2, takes a really sharp 3.2 Megapixel picture, but xD cards means, maybe won't get that much use. So, I just buy what I see unless it says VIVITAR or  a no-name camera. Those tend to pin the POO POO meter. Enter the HP Photosmart? 435.  Bask in is glorius picture taking ability of it's fixed lens and point and shoot wonderfulness:

There you have it. While the dogs picture isn't bad, the majority of the pictures all have this awful result of being out of focus or out of whack. I was suprised though when attempting to take a picture of my Browns mousepad without a flash. My guess is it is throttling up the exposure? Every time I tried was bright and blurry where you couldn't make anything out. The outdoor shots I took were okay at best, but all had a blurry fringe to them. To it's credit, there were batteries in it that were rotten and a little terminal cleaning brought it back to life, so maybe that had something to do with it. Just about everything else takes better pics than this. Into the box where the Vivitar and NCAA Womens cam and the 3AAA cams rest peacefully.

HP Photosmart E217

This is the smallest of the bunch. The really tiny HP Photosmart E217. 4.0 Megapixels. 2 AA Batteries. SD card. Fixed focus but a digital zoom that takes the bigger photo and makes them smaller. The lens cover is also the power switch.  My guess is, it's so small that maybe other camera hunters at the thrift shop I found it at merely passed it up. It's PRISTINE. It still has the blue plastic covering the shutter button. Plus this one takes movies with sound that look as good as the CVS/Pure video cameras that Boomer and I had back in 2003. Actually impressive. Ahh, but when I saw the pictures it took...

The picture I took of the water tower that I take with every cam I get from this particular thrift shop came out great. Out of the three, I thought the Browns mousepad came out best with the flash. This does have a macro switch but anything close without the flash came out blurry. So, all three HP cams are not the best for close up shots. However, given how tiny this cam is and the quality of picures I can get from it, I may have a new car cam I can keep in the trunk of my car. It's certainally small enough to fit just about anywhere and takes a close to Kodak quality pic. The fact it does CVS/Pure video is a bonus.

There you have it. My three HP's in the Junk Blog. Soon, I'll start having uninteresting things like the brown marble in an orange axle cap and a Matilda Bay bottle. You know, junk.

ARF! -Ric