HP Photosmart M22 review

Apart from its flimsy plastic lens cover, HP's Photosmart M22 feels surprisingly solid.

It's comfortable to hold, too, with easy access to controls for one-handed shooting. While some of the buttons are a bit fiddly, it's easy to use overall. Don't be fooled by the zoom pad on the back, though; the M22 is limited to digital zoom only, which we recommend you try to avoid. One advantage of a fixed lens is much faster focusing, and the M22 is responsive in general use.

The Photosmart M22 is one of the cheapest cameras to have a 4-megapixel sensor, producing photos at a maximum resolution of 2,320x1,744. This should be large enough for prints of around 8x6", but even for a sub-£100 camera the M22 doesn't capture quite as much fine detail as we'd expect. Textures and small elements of a picture, such as leaves, were smoothed to the point where many photographs take on the appearance of a watercolour painting. While this isn't always undesirable, we'd prefer it as a post-shot processing option rather than having it enforced by a murky lens. Colours are warm and bright, but there is also a good deal of noise in darker areas of a scene.

There's no viewfinder, but the small bright screen is fine for framing your shots and although it's bit small for proper reviewing, flicking though the photos you've taken is fast and efficient. It takes AA batteries, so you can always find replacements should yours run dry, but in the long run you would save money with rechargeables.

If you just want an easy-to-use fun camera, the compact and affordable M22 will just about do the trick. However, Olympus's chunkier 3-megapixel C370, which is the same price, provides similar detail levels plus a useful 3x zoom lens.

Author: David McKinnon