HP has developed two cameras in collaboration with Pentax - Pentax produced the optics and HP provided the digital camera intelligence and PC connection. The PhotoSmart 618 is the cheaper of the two and looks much like a conventional compact. On the top is a rotary switch for record and playback selection and a status LCD showing details of the main settings. Three buttons control macro, flash and timer settings.

On the back panel there's a slide switch for power and a rocker for zoom level, which offers a maximum of 7x magnification on the 2.1Mpixel CCD. Soft buttons, linked to legends which appear at the bottom of the colour LCD, are used in conjunction with a four-way, top-hat control to navigate the casually-styled menu system.

As well as the normal USB connection and a removable 16MB CompactFlash card, there's a third way to transfer data from the PhotoSmart 618. An infra-red link to a notebook or direct to the corresponding PhotoSmart inkjet printer enables you to select and print any images you want directly - you can select single or multiple images per page, too, without the need for a controlling PC.

Get the latest Dell Coupons and other computer coupons at CheapStingyBargains.com.

A key problem of this PhotoSmart 618 sample was its colour balance. While pictures of landscapes in sunlight came out well, if a little dark, test shots in cloudy conditions showed a pronounced blue shift. This might be useful under interior lights, but produced unnatural colours under subdued daylight. No amount of fiddling with colour balance and EV compensation corrected this.

Assuming this colour shift problem is isolated to our review sample - and we advise you to test this yourself before buying - the ease of use of the PhotoSmart 618 makes it a desirable first digital camera.