archive.tylerdave.com All the stuff from when Dave was actually called Tylerdave.

After two and a half years without, I decided it was time to purchase a new digital camera. I set a budget of $300 and for a couple weeks I weighed the pros and cons of all the available models. By this weekend I narrowed it down to the Olympus Camedia D-550 and the HP Photosmart 720.

The cameras are pretty evenly matched in specs and featured so my decision came down to asthetics and personal preference. I went to CompUSA on Sunday to try them out in person and decided to go with the HP. It is a tad bulky but at the same time it seems more solidly constructed. I also didn’t like how long the Olympus took to retract and cover the lens.

When I got home, I went to HP’s site to get one last look at the specs before I made the purchase. There I found that the camera has two different model numbers. There’s the Photosmart 720, and the Photosmart 720xi. Nowhere on the site could I find a difference between the two different models (aside from the number). The only difference between the two product detail pages is that the 720 leads to a page on HP’s shopping site, where the 720xi leads to a page on Compaq’s site (remember they’re one company now).

TB looked into it a little more for me and found a site that mentioned that the difference in model numbers usually only indicates a differance in supply line. The ‘xi’ models are geared toward commercial customers and sometimes have a different software bundle or slightly different features.

Both are stocked at Amazon so I ordered the 720xi thinking the added letters must make it better somehow. We’ll find out soon.