HP Photosmart M517 5MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom & M-Series Dock Bundle

I purchased the HP Photosmart camera/printer bundle for 99$ on Black Friday 2007. Coming from a 450$ Olympus 1.3Mp camera, I had high expections of image quality since the M517 is 5.2Mp.

The M517 is really slow at taking pictures. I've missed dozens of picture opts waiting for the 'charging flash' indicator to finish flashing. When it does finish, the bracketed focus indicator is red, (meaning out of focus) It takes 3 to 4 depresses/releases of the button to finally get an infocus picture. After months of use, and hundreds of blurry useless pictures, I've finally mastered (tolerated) the photo taking procedure required for this model.

The pictures, even when focused still seem blurry. I expected to be able to crop a 5Mp picture to my old 1.3Mp size. However when you digitally zoom in on the pc, the pictures simply lack the clairity needed for editing. Macro mode has its own list of problems.

The batteries included (NiMH 1800ma) die within hours. The screen turns off at around 30 seconds, considering 25 of those are charging flash and focusing...... The video mode is very grainy and always dark, much worse than a standard webcam. The top buttons started to stick after 6 months of use. The printer now sucks the paper crooked, leaving 4 white triangles on my 'borderless' prints.

There is more, but all in all, I'm unhappy.

Purchased this camera Nov 2006 but never took it out of the box to use until Aug 2007. Used it 3 times and the camera BROKE! HP wants $70 for customer support to talk to me since it has been over a year. What kind of camera breaks after 3 uses?? HP has very poor quality products.

I have this camera and the shutter speed is way too slow for me. The flash takes forever to charge, especially between shots. It also eats the AA batteries, especially rechargables. My next camera will definately be better than this!

I could not believe the glowing reviews that I found about this camera. I am not a professional photographer but have been an avid photographer as a hobby since I was a kid. I own another digital camera and received this one as a gift. Thank GOODNESS I did not waste my own money on this piece of junk.

Here are my main issues with the HP:

1. The LCD screen sometimes goes black after taking a picture. Nothing will bring it back without powering it down and bringing it back up.

2. The pictures are NOT crystal clear. They are clear enough, but they lack that sharp, focused look of my other digital camera.

3. There is a TREMENDOUS lag time between when you "take" the picture and when the camera actually flashes and takes the picture. I suppose if you're photographing a lot of adults or still objects, this is not a big issue. I, however, spend most of my time these days photographing my kids. I have missed MANY great shots because the picture you take and the picture the camera catches is NOT the same picture! I know that some will argue that this is true of all digital cameras, and let me assure you that it is NOT. My other camera has some lag, but I get reasonably close to the picture I wanted...if not the exact one. This is my biggest complaint with this camera.

4. My camera drains the batteries so quickly! Friends of mine have this camera also (they also complain about #3), and theirs don't seem to do this. I have tried various batteries without different results. I can sometimes only take 6 or so pics before needing new batteries. And this IS with the Ni rechargeables.

I called HP to see what could be done about the tech issues, and ~SURPRISE~ my warranty expired a couple of weeks ago. I will not spend my money on an HP camera EVER and would highly recommend that you put your own money into another camera, too. There are more reliable cameras of better quality (and some for less money!) out there. BUY SOMETHING ELSE!

About a year ago I was looking for a camera/printer bundle because I was interested in taking/printing pictures to make scrapbooks. I had owned a couple digital cameras before this one but figured I might as well buy a new one since printers alone are so much money. If I was spending money on a printer, I might as well get a new camera to go with it. ESPECIALLY if it would cost me next to nothing to get the camera. So I found this bundle on Amazon. I noted that it had 5 megapixels and 3x optical zoom which is pretty darn good. And HP is a decent brand. So I went ahead and bought it.

Now for my review of the camera. Let me first start off by saying that I'm not a camera expert by any means. However, I do know what I want my pictures to look like and I do know that there ARE cameras out there that can take really good pictures (I know this because the camera that I'm currently using is one of those cameras). One thing that I didn't want is a camera that takes a while to process after taking a picture. Not only does this camera take a while to process pictures, but if you move even slightly within 5 seconds after taking a picture, the picture comes out blurry. This is extremely inconvenient if you need to take several pictures in a row very quickly or if you want to take a picture of someone in movement or if your subject is jumpy (I know this because my cousin owns this camera as well and has trouble taking pictures of her 8 month old daughter). Also, the brightness doesn't always show what the true brightness is. I know how to use the flash and I understand what ISO settings are so I don't think that I'm the problem. I've taken plenty of pictures using other cameras and haven't had this problem. As far as the options on the camera, they are decent. You can play around with different settings to alter your photos (like changing the picture to black and white or sepia). These options are a little bonus.

The screen is a good size. No problems there whatsoever. The internal memory is typical. Most cameras can only hold a handful of pictures so an SD card is a necessary purchase.

As for the printer, I don't have any real problems with it. I'll admit that I've only used it with the few photo papers that came with the printer. The pictures that I DID print came out looking like pictures that you get developed. So if it's easier for you to use this printer instead of going to a drugstore to get them developed, this printer is a great option. The picture looks exactly like how it was taken. Nothing was cropped out of the original picture. The printing time isn't too long so if you want to print multiple pictures at once, time is not a huge problem. One thing that I did like about the printer is that you can dock the camera on it. Not only does docking charge the camera (let's face it, camera batteries die pretty often), but it also lets you review the pictures you took. This is pretty handy if you don't have a computer around.

So would I recommend this bundle? If this is your first digital camera and you're ok with a) having pictures with incorrect brightness and b) having to play with the camera a bit to get a good picture, go for it. I think it's a great bundle if you're scrapbooking and don't necessarily need to get "the perfect shot". Or if you're purchasing this just for the printer, that's a great idea too. However, if you've owned a digital camera before and want accurate pictures, I'd skip on this bundle. I have a Sony DSC-H2 and it works wonderfully (no playing around with the camera to get a good shot... just press the shutter and you've got a good picture). You truly get what you pay for. I'd suggest testing out cameras at a store before buying one.. If I had tested this one at a store, I would have passed on it hands down.