For the last few years I've been using a bunch of digicams for the holidays and to document life in general. The HP Photosmart C618, a modest 2.1MP camera from 2000, has become one of my all-time favorites. In general, I favour imperfect photography, so after having been down the rabbit hole of digicams for a while I started looking into earlier models which might produce more distinct- looking images. Don't get me wrong, I also like images than depict reality as it is, but if the photos depart somewhat from reality I like them that bit more.

The more I've used it and the better I got to know it I started to realise it's a perfectly capable camera, producing beautiful, saturated colours. With a bit of care, photos look great even in the middle of the day, but once the sun starts going down it really excels and the fill flash works really well too.

Film like?

They say digicams produce images that look like film. Sure, some of them do. Maybe. I'd say this model from HP  would be one of them, if you define “like film” as pictures taken with a point and shoot camera (and not a great one) and developed/ printed at your one hour lab. They were generally soft, a bit grainy and with a tendency for  the highlights being blown out. Exactly like the pictures taken with the Photosmart 618. Of course this is just my opinion but, hey, everyone's giving theirs and I've one hour to kill before I pick my daughter from school, so here we are.

Another similarity with a film camera is how I use it. The screen is barely visible in bright daylight, making the use of the viewfinder a necessity, which is a good thing in my book. Turning the screen off also helps the batteries last a bit more, which is not a lot to begin with. So just like a film camera, you point and shoot and hope for the best, no chimping here.

The photos here are all straight out of the camera without any editing. With a tweak here and there, they could look even better.

The good:

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Looks great
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Produces great colours
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Film-like grain  
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Can be used as a film camera (has a viewfinder and the display is useless)

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Runs with double A batteries
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Manual controls
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And the bad:

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Poor battery life
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Sloooooow
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Temperamental (overwrites images, decides it's done for the day and refuses to switch on or off)

So here you go. Do these pictures look like film? I'd say a little bit. At the very least they have the same "je ne sais quoi" film photos have. In any case, as with everything else about photography, the film look lies in the eye of the beholder.

Film-like digicam? The HP Photosmart C618

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