Performance
With few exceptions, the HP Photosmart M23's poor performance made it frustrating to use. It took more than six seconds to grab the first shot from the time we slid open the lens cover and powered on the camera. Waiting for the flash to recycle was equally frustrating, with the fastest time a little more than five seconds. The camera did not fare much better with available-light shots, with a wait time of more than four seconds. The only good point in performance was the minimal shutter lag once focus was locked in.
Perhaps the most annoying aspect of this camera is its erratic autofocus. The camera frequently delivered messages such as 'focus too close' or 'unable to focus'. Even when we set the M23 on Macro mode, we often had to step back a few metres, refocus and shoot -- totally negating the idea of macro. At other times, Macro worked fine. We had less trouble focusing wide-angle shots regardless of lighting conditions.
For a flash on such a small camera, the M23's delivers decent coverage near and wide, although we noticed occasional hot spots.
The camera performed much better in Playback mode, and we were able to rapidly scroll through images without any delays. Deleting images was also fast.
Generally functional under most lighting conditions, the LCD exhibits slight ghosting in low light.
Image quality
Images from the HP Photosmart M23 were just so-so. Although we did not notice any big colour shifts, natural light and the flash resulted in slightly cool images, while tungsten light made images overly warm. Colours didn't look particularly vivid either.
Aside from occasional hot spots from the flash, exposures came out generally even and fairly accurate. The Photosmart M23's dynamic range is somewhat limited, however, so highlights and shadows often lost detail. And even when we were able to get the autofocus to work, images were still a little soft and lacking in fine detail.
Noise was manageable at ISO 100 and slightly above, but it became more evident at higher sensitivity settings. High-contrast edges exhibited blue halos as well as some noticeable purple fringing.
Edited by Aimee Baldridge
Additional editing by Nick Hide
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