HP M627

Compared to a lot of the stylish, slimline cameras that pass through our doors, the Photosmart M627 looks rather, well, fat. Its chunky demeanor gives it the appearance of a toy as much as a camera, but that doesn’t mean it can’t deliver as a budget compact.

With this camera, HP gives the novice a complete photographic experience. It’s not just a point-and-shooter; it also carries creative effects for framing, viewing and editing features in its Playback mode, plus an extremely useful help menu that explains what every camera button does and how to print, delete and transfer images.  

Shooting modes are straightforward: Auto and Program modes offering access to the usual settings, but there’s also a nice set of scene modes and a Burst mode, each one accessible through the menu, with a clear explanation of what each should be used for.

Post shooting is where the M627 gets really interesting. You can modify colours, add borders to your pictures and even apply a small range of artistic effects such as posterizing, kaleidoscope and slimming effects. Using the Photosmart Express button on top of the camera, you can mark images to print, and add email addresses to make it easy to share your photos.

With fast responses and a nippy autofocus, image quality is well above average. Noise and artefacts are sometimes visible but pictures are crisp and colours well saturated. In short, this is a camera specifically designed for new users, and it fulfils the task very well.