HP C200 Digital Camera

[Bandito]

Best Buy has it on sale for 199.70

Price match at Staples using Best Buy website and use a coupon.

We have better luck just price matching off the Best Buy website. If the Staples person calls one of our local stores they are likely just to say they don't have any even if they do. Two of the stores didn't have it in stock today. The ad says no rainchecks but one of the stores did give us a rain check. He was talking about how Corporate would make a decision as to whether they would substitute or what they were going to do. I said I had D Link rainchecks and doubted I would ever see that product. He said it would be up to HP and what kind of deal they could negotiate. I don't know if this was BS but we took the raincheck.

We looked for the FUJI digital camera price match in town but couldn't find anyone who had it in stock but Circuit City who won't price match the web...still looking, though.

 

[Knocks]

any good?

 

[Seizure]

Link please. And does anyone know if this digital camera is good?

 

[Souka]

Check out

www.reviewfinder.com

"browse" the categories....easy way to find reviews accross the interent.

Yes, I cant' speell

 

[Bandito]

http://www.staples.com/Catalog/Browse/SKU.asp?BCFlag=False&PageType=1&SKU=393370

Don't order this online because you might get limbo land on your order. Go through a CSR. There were only 9 left in the PA warehouse when I ordered.

 

[Unclemo]

I have one... not too bad of a camera. Here is a pciture using this .camera

I paid 300 for mine back in Jan... and it came with a free 16mb card (+8mb card).
Not too bad for a first digital camera, but I am waiting a for a good 3-4 megapexil. I would be surprised to find a better one for 200 bucks.

 

[croaking]

hey guys. the price is 199.70 for a reason. I used to work at a bb. the price .70 means officially it will soon be discontinued, and if the wherehouse is out to sell the demo. the extention .50 means gone when gone, (sell what you've got now). So if any of you guys want a real good deal wait a couple of weeks till the price goes to .50 and you can pick up the demo for a minimum extra 20% nockoff. But that's just my opinion. Also be careful with the pricematchin because some companies have written specifically that they will not match closeouts.

 

[Snyder81]

Hey guys, here is a link to a picture I took using my HP C200. It does a nice job and is great for social pictures with friends, etc. I have taken tons of pics with mine with medium quality and they all look good(good enough for a normal person anyway, unless you are a camera(?)phile). The server may be a little slow, as the picture is about 400k. Modem users beware I would definitely recommend getting this camera. I picked mine up for $130 back when the OfficeMax catalog had the price misprint.

 

[Tharpertx]

Quality of this camera is good, but if it meets your specs is a question only you can answer.

The fact that it takes three seconds to "cock and load" (aka focus and be ready to snap a shot) is a pain, but if you hold the button down halfway and hold, then you can snap it instant by pushing all the way down. Recovery time is about 5 seconds so with the three to "cock and load" you are about 10 seconds between shots.

I agree that pic quality is good for a 1 MPix, but I have seen 2MPix with quicker take time for $250. Worth the difference to me to shop around but since I got mine beginning of the year from a friend, it has servered me well and saved ALOT in film and developing. I take pictures now for the heck of it where before I had to weigh "Is it worth a shot and developing?"

 

[MuffD]

i have one of these too. i bought a few of them when they had that pricing error in the office max catalog awhile back. got it for 79.00. anyways, quality is good for net pictures but if you're not satisfied with just that you might wanna look into the higher end ones.

 

[rigor2]

the camera is a good deal for the cash. The pictures are great, if you don't use the viewfinder the battery will last quite a while. I happen to have gotten it with a photosmart P1100 printer so i got it for $199 (basically) back last xmas. I just pop the compactflash out and into my printer, and the images are a drive on my windows box.

very convenient

 

[jhassi]

whoa muffstah, you got this camera for $79?? I don't remember that being posted to the forum

 

[firelight451]

I have this camera, and love how simple it is to use, and how easy it is to hold steady (not overly light, and with rounded edges which are easy to hold). I'm also satisfied with the print quality, which is acceptable even for 8 x 10s.

The drawbacks are that it's difficult to capture action shots due to lag time, and it's especially difficult to capture two shots in quick succession. Also, you may wish to purchase a compact flash reader, as the serial port connection to the computer is infernally slow for transferring photos.

 

[rharbin]

I'm considering getting a C200. A friend of mine has one that came with an AC adapter. But when I go to the HP site, they show the adapter as a separate option at $49. Two questions: Why are these AC adapters so expensive? The HP site shows a $50 rebate on the C200 for a total of $199 minus the $50 rebate. But then if you add the adapter back in, you are back to $198. They do show a three piece sale that includes the adapter and a booklet for $240 (no rebate). That would equate to paying $40 for the booklet so forget that. Thanks for your advise.

 

[Jeraden]

I got one a while back in the days of Value America dollars and there was a big rebate if you bought it with a printer. Anyways, its an OK camera, quality isn't the greatest but fairly good. My problem is, mine sometimes has problems turning on. Sometimes it works fine, othertimes no matter what I do the stupid thing won't turn on. After about 50 tries it finally catches and turns on. Probably just a problem with mine, but annoying nonetheless.

 

[SaViOuR]

I got 6 of these back in when they had the pricing error for $79, and everyone that got them love them. I think the picture quality is very good for the money.... you can't go wrong

 

[IronFist]

The C200 is a fine camera. The only thing I don't like is you go thru alot of batteries.

 

[BubbleDVD]

FOR THE MONEY it is good.

good in general? nah, not in my opinion...

honestly, i wouldn't spend the $150 on it, i would wait for the next deal on like the kodak 3400 or something for $300.

twice as much you say? twice as good i reply...

the hp is slow, goes through battaries (4 AA) quickly, doesn't always remember you settings (for auto focus), and is only serial connection based.

got a kodak 3400 on the recent mercata/msn deal for $305 shipped, much better picture, much quicker, usb, remebers your settings, hold down the button for consecutive shots, 2 mega pixles... just a lot better.

but again, if price is THE issue, the hp isn't bad...

just my opinion...

 

[mrVW]

Whatever you do, DO NOT GET THIS Camera. I got one for $180 at Target 5 months ago... luckily they allow you to return things for up to 90 days!

It has terrible low-light performance. I had a 5-year old Epson digital camera that took 10x better pictures and was worth only $80. Do yourself a favor, pass on this one.

The cheap Fuji cameras or others should be better in the $200 range. If you want good pictures, keep looking for good deals on the Nikon 800 or Nikon 950 that have a $70 or $150 rebate going.

The HP C200 has no setting of use to control the lighting and what happens in low light (like outside under a tree) is that it takes really long exposures and you will get blur unless you have a tripod. With no controls over it, you are screwed. Look at this example: Low Light and it takes long exposure -- see the results - takes too long of exposures and you can't change the "film speed", and it isn't like it was PITCH BLACK.

And I found distortion around the edges. Look at the eges of this picture, blur city. Center is perfect

I've gotten better pictures out of a $80 Jamcam 2.0!

 

[buckeye]

come on dude...it is a very good camera. I have one, and I like it. maybe you got a bad one

 

[mrVW]

I posted on the rec.photo.digital over two month period and had several people evaluate the photes. I can gladly send you email from other people who own the camera who had similar problems.

It is basically a $100 camera in value; it isn't worthy of the $300 retail price. It takes higher resolution than the "640x480" $70 cameras, but the quality isn't that good.

HP offers no firmware update... I'm sure the problem could be fixed. But like many of HP's CD-RW drives, they seem to ignore firmware upgrades after 12 months.

 

[Cheapest]

I got it for $129 at Stapple... Thanks!

 

[buckeye]

no no no...I dont mean to say that its worth 300 bucks...I got it for 132 or something like that (officemax error) from staples, and I think it is its worth for the money that I paid. I haven't seen any problems so far...thats why I said its good

 

[urbantechie]

<< and what happens in low light (like outside under a tree) is that it takes really long exposures and you will get blur unless you have a tripod. >>


Err, duh!!! Usually, the apertures on this are fixed and the only this that is varible is the shutter. Slower shutter means more light and the slower it is you should use a tripod or a flash(if it coms with one or whatever).





<< . Look at the eges of this picture, blur city. Center is perfect >>


The center in that picture is your center of focus. Objects behind that aren't in the the area of depth of field so you get out of focus areas.

 

[mrVW]

I said use a tripod.. but other camers in same (or lower) price range don't have this problem. It is a flawed camera. There are over 30 cameras in the price range. Just because it snaps photo's doesn't mean &quot;it works good.&quot; Compared to others _in the same price range_ it is a poor choice. Even at $170 it is too high. I gave sample photos, I can't show you the same poor samples with other cameras I have done as they dont' suffer from these problems to this extent.

Yes, light is an issue with all cameras. duh. This one is just worse than any of the ones I have worked with in this price range.

Let's kill this stupid discussion. Unless you have photos and other evidence to present, then this is just wasting everyone's time.