Aperture: f2.6, shutter speed: 1/446 sec., 100 ISO
(Auto).
A 5 megapixel resolution, a sharp
3X Pentax zoom lens and a reasonable price are the main features
of the HP 935.
Indeed this is a camera that offers a very good image quality, in large
part because photos saved at the Best image quality — identified
by 3 stars — sustain a reasonable compression which generally avoids
causing artefacts.
While the image quality of the HP
935 is quite good, the camera is impeded by the way some functions
have been implemented.
First, by default, the metering
pattern of the HP 935 is centre-weighted, a system that
gives greater importance to what is in the middle of the frame
than to the surrounding area. The more elaborate, and generally
more accurate, averaging pattern which divvies up the
frame into areas and averages the readings, to select the aperture
and shutter speed is relegated to second position.
Moreover, metering, as with sensitivity (ISO) which is another critical
setting, are not automatically recalled by the HP 935 once it has been
turned off.
Aperture: f2.6, shutter speed: 1/441 sec., 100 ISO
(Auto).
Aperture: f5.5, shutter speed: 1/505 sec., 100 ISO
(Auto).
Indeed, the camera provides no
direct means in the menu to recall settings, a feature offered
on other HP cameras that have the option to recall specific settings.
Therefore, every time the camera is turned on, either the desired settings
need to be reinitialized, or the user must remember to press and hold the
OK button while powering up the camera which restores those earlier settings.
Aside from this peculiarity, the
second aspect of the HP 935 that needs to be considered is that
it is a camera that takes time to operate. A user must be prepared
to be patient, from the time it takes to be ready to take the
first shot (6 to 7 seconds with outdoor shots).
Likewise, storing an image — an
indication of how fast the camera's processor can handle processing
the data coming from the CCD — can take up to 10 seconds.
However, this longer than average processing time is mitigated
by the fact that the HP 935 can capture approximately 7 shots
in fairly quick succession before running out of buffer memory,
albeit that when shots are taken one after the other the monitor
does not have time to show a live view.
Aperture: f4.3, shutter speed: 1/125 sec., 100 ISO
(Auto).
The third aspect of the HP 935 that
must be considered is that the camera drains the 2 batteries
that power it fairly quickly, even if these are new and freshly
charged Ni-MH batteries.
As noted at the start, the HP 935 generally delivers very good to excellent
images. Photos reveal that the lens has a slight bit of chromatic aberration,
and some barrel distortion at the wide angle setting, but nothing extraordinary.
In summary, while the HP 935 has an excellent image quality
and a very reasonable price for a a 5-megapixel, it is slow to
operate, resets important shooting parameters to their defaults by
default every time the camera is turned off, and is a fairly
hefty power consumer, even when the LCD screen is turned off
(which is the default setting unless the camera in set to the
Av mode).
Image Quality
