HP Photosmart 935XI DIG CAM 5mp 3x Optical Zoom 7x DIG Zoom

WHAT'S HOT: HP's first 5.1-megapixel camera, the Photosmart 935, departs somewhat from the rather clunky-looking designs of HP's older digital cameras. This silver, boxy point-and-shoot is solid and functional--an improvement over the vaguely toylike appearance and feel of earlier Photosmarts. The 935 is also uncommonly helpful to novice photographers. This is the first digital camera we've reviewed with an extensive built-in help system. Activate the self-timer in the menus, for example, and a Help option brings up five screens of text explaining the process. Error messages are also displayed in plain text--a (sadly) novel concept. Get too close to your subject, and most cameras flash a colored LED warning you that they can't focus. The 935 does this as well, but it also flashes the message "Unable to focus" in the LCD.

Other new features mark this camera as family-friendly: A dedicated button lets you quickly tag shots for printing or e-mailing to specific recipients. When the camera is connected to a PC, an on-screen dialog box lets you associate names with e-mail addresses. The names are then downloaded into the camera. From there, you can tag a photo with one or more e-mail names; the next time you connect the 935 to your PC, the tagged photos are automatically uploaded to an HP server, and an e-mail message goes out to your recipients inviting them to see your shots. The first time you try this, you have to set up an account with HP. But it's pretty easy, and it's free.

WHAT'S NOT: HP included an aperture-priority mode on the 935, but it's fairly useless-as a practical matter, you get only two apertures to choose from, though the choice varies depending on whether you have the camera set to wide-angle or telephoto. And you cannot change the camera's automatic shut-off setting--it turns off the LCD after a minute, and shuts down the camera completely after 6 minutes.

WHAT ELSE: The Photosmart 935 earned mixed scores in our image-quality tests. Our photos had exceptionally fine detail across the board, but exposure accuracy varied considerably. Our flash shot was overexposed by a stop or two, and our photo with daylight-balanced flood lights was underexposed by about the same amount. Both would require some adjustment in an image-editing package to make them look right. Colors, overall, were accurate and strong, bordering on oversaturated. Our outdoor shot produced a deep, saturated blue sky, with bright white clouds. But everything else in the shot had a cold, slightly blue cast.

HP gave its top-end camera a number of advanced--and useful--features, including the ability to add audio notes after you've taken a shot; white-balance calibration (in addition to the usual preset choices); plus saturation, sharpness, and contrast adjustments. The exposure value override control is nicely designed-you use the left and right navigation buttons to increase or decrease your exposure by up to three stops, and a status bar in the center of the LCD makes it easy to see what you've set.

This is not an especially fast camera to use. It takes about 5 seconds to boot up or shut down, and most of its controls--including resolution and the self-timer--are in the control menus. Fortunately, the menus are easy to use. Bucking the trend toward including bunches of scene modes (for quickly setting the camera for action shots, portraits, and so forth), the 935 has only three: sports, scenic, and portrait.

HP offers an optional $80 docking station for this model. It gives you a quick way to connect your camera to a PC or TV, and it includes a wireless remote for slide shows. The kit also includes a set of rechargeable batteries for the 935.

UPSHOT: Easy to use and fairly compact, the Photosmart 935 is a fine family camera, especially for snapshooters who love to make big prints.