I have hp photosmart 620 camera. It is 2.1 MP and 12x zoom. Is that a crappy camera or am I just a crappy photographer. We payed alot for the camera, and I was just hoping to get better results from it. Most of the pics I take are very grainy. Any one have any input on the situation? What is a good camera that is cheaper, and good quality?

That camera sells for about $150 or so?

We payed about $250 I think. We're in Canada though.

I paid about $1000 AU when I bought mine, so I would expect something that only cost $250 to be pretty "crappy" myself. However cameras are cheaper than they used to be. My cam is only 2.1 MP too, but I have always been pretty happy with the quality of my photos and I am no master photographer. I think it must be to do with the quality of the camera. My model is a Canon Ixus, you can get some at the lower end of the range pretty cheap now and I can recommend them if you are just after a basic automatic. Check out my gallery for some samples if you like, every photo there was taken with that camera.

You should get awesome pictures from this camera. Do you take the pictures at the highest resolution BEST- 1632x1232? There are three different resolution options with it...always shoot at the highest possible. You should only be able to take about 7 pictures on the best setting and the 8MB of internal memory. Go here to read a good review and veiw some sample pictures:
http://www.steve s-digicams.com/2002_reviews/hp620_samples.html

defeinitely dont use the 12x zoom, only use optical zoom never the digital zoom, that will only make crappy pictures that you could have cropped with better quality in photoshop

Well thank you all for the input. Thank you Mayne for the site to look at...I am on my way there now. I am hoping to save up some money to get a better camera. The father in law has a Kodak one that takes such clear pics....maybe I can get him to sell it to me......hhhhmmm...

Nicky: there are just a few photos in your own gallery. Did you take 'Reeses' with your 2.1 MP camera? If yes, I can say it's a good camera. Not the top, but certainly good.
Another think: DON'T use the numeric zoom. Only the optical zoom! :-)

I own a Vivitar DSC350 Digital Camera which has 1.3 megapixel. Paid about $100 for it on sale and it is 'classified' as a crappy camera. However: If you take pics at the highest resolution, (and I don't know what that is, I treat the camera as if it is a 'point and shoot 35mm) and I get 10 or 12 pics. We bought extra cards for it, and I treat them as if they were rolls of film. I will post some of our pics, both 'raw' and edited and you can see what you can do with a 'crummy' digital. The editing software that came with the camera sucks, I use Windows Photodraw2, and am learning to use Photoshop 6 to edit and tweak the pics. Don't be afraid to play around with the results.

Kay/jcsbestgirl

Thank you both for the comments, I guess I will just keep trying to get the shot I want, and I am very thankful for you telling me not to use the numeric zoom, I didnt realize it wrecked the quality of the picture that much, maybe that is the problem Thank you again.

You're welcome, Nicky. To take good photos is first an own feeling... :-)

Hey Nicky. I don't know much about the camera you're using, but I feel that the resolution limitation is pretty bad. Three years ago I bought a $250 Olympus camera in the Camedia series, and found it to be very good. Don't use digital zoom, and I recommend alwayd forcing your camera to use 100 ASA speed "film". These shots in my gallery came from it:

Morning Prayers
Get Wet

Now I use a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FD10 and it produces shots like these in my gallery:

Captured By The Moment
Gather Ye Rosebuds

I like it very much, but the Olympus was great too - just the zoom wasn't as good.

Digital zooms should be outlawed... they are misleading if you ask me...

They are great if you are using the movie mode since the resolution is terrible with the movies anyway;-) I agree they should be removed along with the damn movie mode!