HP PW550 Review

As compared to other inexpensive digital cameras, my HP PW550 review shows a camera that is about average in features and performance. However, image quality issues seem to detract from the benefits you'll find in such a low priced model.

The PW550 is a very small camera that easily fits in a pocket and it's easy to shoot one-handed, which is a handy option.

Overall, the Hewlett-Packard PW550 camera does a few things well, but I found that photo quality was sporadic. That lack of consistent photographic success makes it tough to recommend a camera like this, regardless of how inexpensive it is.

Image Quality

Unfortunately, image quality is the biggest drawback to the HP PW550. Photo quality just seems to be uneven -- some photos will come out OK, while others cannot be salvaged. This uneven image quality makes it difficult to recommend the PW550 very highly, despite some interesting other features.

Indoor photos are especially uneven, as the PW550's built-in flash unit tends to "blow out" photos, meaning the flash tends to be too powerful, overexposing the images, leading to photos with too much white light.

Attempting to shoot indoor photos without the flash doesn't help most of the time, either, as those photos tend to be underexposed and too dark. Outdoor photos are of a good quality most of the time, but they sometimes are a little soft (or slightly out of focus).

Performance

Shutter lag is a problem with the PW550, and the problem seems to occur both with indoor and outdoor photos. You can use the manual control features on the camera to bump up the shutter speed when the lighting conditions are good, which helps a little. The camera's shutter lag may cause you to miss a spontaneous photo, though.

The PW550 has several "special effect" coloring features, including vivid, sepia, black and white, and an emphasis on blue, red, or green tints.

One of the PW550's most interesting features -- especially for a low-priced camera -- is its built-in slideshow option for displaying the photos stored in memory on the camera's LCD. You can choose interval times between 1 and 10 seconds for displaying each photo, and you can add transitional elements for switching between photos. It's a very cool feature.

Finally, HP included a "help" screen with the PW550, which offers a diagram of the back panel of the camera, explaining each button and component that's available. This is a nice feature for a beginning photographer.

Design

The PW550 has a very basic rectangular design, with no spectacular design elements. The camera is available in black and plum camera body colors. The round lens housing extends from the center of the camera when in use. As a design element, the camera has a slight angled shape running horizontally across the front panel, but it's so subtle that it's difficult to see.

The camera has a 2.7-inch LCD that fits well into the design of this small camera. However, a 2.7-inch LCD seems small compared to the LCDs found on most new cameras. Surprisingly for a sub-$150 camera, the PW550's LCD was fairly easy to view in direct sunlight.

Finally, I have to mention that I had a difficult time making a USB connection between my computer and the PW550. I believe the problem was related to the individual review unit camera I used, and it is not something that's a model-wide problem with all PW550 cameras, but I do have to mention it. I was able to work around the problem, but my solution was something beginning photographers might not know how to do easily, which is problematic for a camera that's aimed exclusively at beginners, like the PW550.