HP Photosmart E327 5MP Digital Camera
By: Hewlett-Packard Average Rating: 3.5 Total Reviews: 25
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 On: 2007-12-21
After reading through a lot of the reviews here I have to chime in. I have owned this model now for 2 years, having said that I have taken hundreds of pictures with it, many of these were very good and will be cherished. This is a great little camera for still photos, let me repeat STILL photos. It does a fantastic job of it, if you want to take photos quickly (as in turn on and take a pic) forget it, it takes as long to turn on as Martha Stuart on dirty sheets. The flash recharge time isnt good so if you plan on taking several pics indoors in short order... forget it.
As I have put here it looks like a mixed bag of feelings, on the one hand I have kept it and used it for hundreds of photos, on the other I have missed/deleted hundreds because of the slightest movement on my part or the slightest movement of the object. Im a patient man but I have steadily grown to hate this camera over 2 years. I have always had a higher priority than buying a new camera. As I get older I would rather not put up with some things and this is one I chose to put up with no longer.
I hope this helps someone see it for what it is, fantastic for shooting stills, yet terrible for all around use. And please these cameras are horrific with standard batteries, use energizer e2 lithium you will see an difference beyond belief in the number of pics you can take (and they are lighter). IMHO
 On: 2007-12-12
Fortunately this camera was a prize... not a penny wasted on it
I do not believe hot today can be sold a camera with fixed focus (maybe you think that with no focusing, your picture is taken just when you push the button - but that is not the case of this camera, that takes somewhat a second to shoot, even with no flash!!!), a sensor that seems to need a whole sun of ligth to produce a non grainy picture, an interface that because of it lack of buttons requires a lot of navigation even for simple and common adjusts. Not to mention its hungry of batteries, even alkaline or good NiMH ... is hp making batteries??? seems that they want to make money on bunchs of batteries sold to camera owners.
Please stay away of this camera, unless you want to have something that deserves your angry and a your hammer!
Pros: Lens cover.
Cons: Too many for this space!
On: 2007-11-29
Used this camera for 2 months and it quit working. Dont bother calling HP they dont care.
On: 2007-10-05
I think one of the major things I disliked about the camera was its speed. When there is something important going on that I want to snap a quick photo of, it takes 10 seconds for the flash to load. Also, it eats through double As. It is a relativly good camera for just like little still shots of your dog.
 On: 2007-06-28
this camera is very tuff in a good way its taken lots of hits and spills and 3 drops NOT FROM ME. iv taken it on 3 trips its done well intill my friend droped it on a root it still works but the sliding door broke its a very very very good camera you need to get it.(the screen dint bake at all!!!)
 On: 2007-06-18
I bought this camera around Christmas time, and havent been happy with it. Although the pictures do come out some-what nicely the other features of this camera are horrible. First off, when you zoom the image doesnt appear on the screen, there is simply a orange line that appears around the image. Another thing that is not satisfactory, is the way it tuns on. Instead of having a button to turn it on it has a little sliding thing. The problem with this is that it is constantly turning on in my purse/pocket. Instead of spending your money on batteries, use that money to buy a better camera!
On: 2007-06-05
We bought this camera for our daughter. She used it a few times with friends and thought it was easy enough to use but when she eventually needed a flash it didnt work. Unfortunately the warranty is only 90 days so were out of luck. She can only use this in bright light otherwise the images dont come out. I wish we knew about the flash issue sooner, sounds like others have had much better luck.
On: 2007-06-04
We bought this camera for our daughter. She used it a few times with friends and thought it was easy enough to use but when she eventually needed a flash it didnt work. Unfortunately the warranty is only 90 days so were out of luck. She can only use this in bright light otherwise the images dont come out. I wish we knew about the flash issue sooner, sounds like others have had much better luck.
On: 2007-03-10
This is my third HP digital camera and the best overall. Easy to use. Easy to download my pictures to my computer from the memory card.
 On: 2007-01-19
This camera takes high quality pictures and is very easy to use. It doesnt have as many features as more expensive cameras, but for someone just taking pictures for fun; its great!
On: 2007-01-18
My son has been very pleased with the pictures hes taken with this camera.
On: 2007-01-18
I read the other reviews and the majority of people were satisfied with their camera, so Im not sure if my camera in particular was just a dud.. but I extremely regret buying this camera. When they say it goes through batteries quick, thats no joke. In fact, Ive never been able to take a picture with my camera because 10 seconds after I put in brand new batteries, it gives me a message saying "not enough battery power to take a picture." Iv tried a few types of batteries too. The first time I turned it on, I went through the initial set up steps and set the date and time, and then got the message. There is a docking station that is available for the camera, but it costs just as much as the camera, which kind of ruins the point of buying an inexpensive camera. Well, I lost the receipt for it, so I guess I dont have much of a choice- I plan to buy the docking station and try rechargable batteries. Hopefully then I can see what the pictures actually look like.
On: 2007-01-13
This was my first digital camera. I liked everything about it except the fact that it had no optical zoom, only used 2 AA batteries, and had a small screen. You could barely see the pictures. Sometimes the screen would slid open and my camera would be on for a while, but I liked that it was "one hand operation." Its a good starter camera. 5 megapixels is good, but if you zoom, the MPs go down, and pics can get blurry. It was really easy to operate though.
On: 2007-01-12
I was very impressed with the service,price and on time delivery.The E327 5MP Digital Camera was everything I expected it to be. It was easy to use, without even reading the instructions, the pictures were sharp and well focused. The only thing that disapointed me was the 16 pictures it took to fill the camera, but with the mini SD card (1GB) I am very satisfied.This a great camera for the price.
On: 2007-01-11
This camera was purchased as a Christmas gift for my daughter. She is enjoying it and says that the computer software for downloading and adjusting photos is easy to use.
On: 2007-01-09
I bought this item as a gift for my mom and she loves it... i helped her set it up and the editing program that comes with it is great..it does go through batteries kinda fast, but we just make sure we carry extra batteries...other than that its a great product.
On: 2007-01-09
Purchased for my 10 YO and she finds it very easy to use and take great pictures. The only drawback so far is that if you use the flash often it really drains the batteries quickly
On: 2006-11-10
I purchased this camera for my 14 year old son. I soon began to like it better than my old Sony digital camera. It held more pictures, was always charged and ready to go, as well as I could see the pictures we had taken just a second after takiing it.
One day last summer (in Maine) we were out on our boat, just docking it for the day. All of a sudden, the camera slipped out of my sons hand and straight down into the water. We needed to recover the memory stick in it, even if the camera was no good. about 3 hrs later, we managed to get the camera from the bottom of the lake. We dried it with a blowdryer for an hour, and believe it or not ... the pictures came out beautiful. We use this camera today as the Family Camera, although, I bought this 2nd one from Amazon. Its the best camera Ive ever had.
On: 2006-11-09
I purchased this camera for my 14 year old son. I soon began to like it better than my old Sony digital camera. It held more pictures, was always charged and ready to go, as well as I could see the pictures we had taken just a second after takiing it.
One day last summer (in Maine) we were out on our boat, just docking it for the day. All of a sudden, the camera slipped out of my sons hand and straight down into the water. We needed to recover the memory stick in it, even if the camera was no good. about 3 hrs later, we managed to get the camera from the bottom of the lake. We dried it with a blowdryer for an hour, and believe it or not ... the pictures came out beautiful. We use this camera today as the Family Camera, although, I bought this 2nd one from Amazon. Its the best camera Ive ever had.
On: 2006-11-02
I bought this and i have bee using it for 4 months now and Im happy this is a great camara with excelent pictures and video
On: 2006-09-19
+ve Still images are good.
-ve shutter speed is very bad.
On: 2006-09-12
For the price, ease of use, compactness, and pics which for the most part are OK, I doubt you can beat this little camera. I was just a little disappointed in the quality of the pics generally, as I guess I had expected more with the 5 mp capability. My last camera, an HP 320, which cost about $80 and which had a 2.7 mp rating, seemed to produce pics just about as good. A feature that I really like is the video, which apparently will play for as long as you want, or at least until the batteries run out. Great fun.
On: 2006-08-25
I have to say this is a great camera with beautiful prints every single time you snap a picture. I have had this camera for almost 9 months and I have not had one single complaint scince I got this. Its extremly simple to operate with not that many buttons or meconisims to use to get confused with. I recomend this to every one and you wont even know that you paid so little for this camera once you see the beautiful prints it delivers.
On: 2006-07-10
Right away I was surprised how high the quality of the images was with this camera. I had expected the lens quality to be the limiting factor, but the photos were tack sharp. This is a basic camera so you have to make sure it has enough light for a photo (flash wont illuminate everything), make sure the ISO speed is set as high as possible, e.g. 400 (scroll through the menu to set it so that it will be able to use a higher shutter speed in poor light), hold the camera very steady, and dont try to photograph moving subjects. Phew! sounds like a lot of caveats, but the truth is a microchip wont do everything for you. You have to know a tiny bit about real photography - buy a book on it. This camera will produce great prints in the hands of someone who does not expect it to do miracles on low lignt, wobbly, moving, backlit, too far away, mirror in the background, impossible to focus shots. I think this is a great buy in cameras.
On: 2006-06-07
I know very little about cameras. Honestly, Ive learned most of what I know by reading reviews, etc. That can be dangerous. The big information Ive taken away is that more megapixels are a Good Thing. More megapixels are also more expensive.
I wanted a digital camera so I could take pictures and send them to people without resorting to a scanner. I was also putting together a property inventory, and I thought it would be ideal (quick, clear, and I could burn a disk with everything when I was done). That project is still in progress, but its working pretty much the way I thought it would.
A couple of things Ive discovered:
When your object is clear on the little screen, it might not be clear when you look at a full screen view on your computer.
When the object is blurry on the little screen, it might be great in a full screen view.
When the picture looks washed out (too much light) on the little screen, sometimes its OK on the full view screen on the computer.
Im still working on figuring out how to get the picture clear at all times.
That said, this is a very easy camera to use. The buttons are all pretty intuitive (although I did have to resort to the online manual to figure out how to turn off the flash entirely).
Transferring the pictures to the computer with the USB cable is a snap. Even organizing the pictures into an album on the computer is fairly easy (although I renamed half the pictures before I noticed the "caption" option in the software). Havent decided which Id prefer to do.
I think that this camera might eventually become a hand-me-down to one of my kids as I improve my skills. I didnt feel confident using a digital camera (and the accompanying software) until I upgraded my computer. The camera is inexpensive enough (until you add a memory card of course) that I dont feel that Ive wasted a lot of money on a camera Im taking bad pictures with.
One thing I might have been better off choosing would have been more zoom.
Id also like to know whether theres any battery that is ideal for digital cameras, or am I stuck keeping a large inventory of AAs? How do I find out what is typical battery usage? Is 90 pictures on 2 AAs good, bad, or indifferent? Would a more expensive camera be any better in this respect?
All in all, this was an excellent choice for me at this time.
On: 2006-05-15
This is a good camera, considering the price...very cheap.It is very user friendly. You dont really get anything special on it, but after all you only paid $120. The LCD screen is a bit small, and kind of hard to see the images when you are taking pictures. But if you want a point and shoot camera this is it. Great for a teenagers first camera, b\\c its not that expensive if its lost or something. I love the fact that once you click to take the picture it takes it, unlike some cameras that take 3-5 seconds.(this is a bonus for this camera) It also had a recorder which works well. Make sure you buy a memory card for it, you will need it. So overall, nothing fancy, a point and shoot camera. If you want fancy stuff, spend a bit more money.
On: 2006-04-18
I really liked the looks and features of this neat little camera - especially the lens cover/ on-off switch. The software that came with it.. was somewhat confusing - the red eye correction feature there was very nice though.Ahh but the pics.. I contstantly got blurry images-- even of a still subject -- the camera is very sensitive to hand motion .. it was nearly impossible to hold it still enough for a good shot.I ended up using my ancient HP 1.3 MP to get pics on Easter morning. I am returning this camera and buying a slightly more expensive Panasonic with image stabilizing system.
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