HP to scuttle camera business

HP wants out of the camera manufacturing game. In what reads like a help-wanted ad, HP just announced that they are seeking an OEM to "design, source, and distribute" digital cameras under the HP brand. Instead, HP will refocus on its home photo printing and on-line photo services under its Print 2.0 strategy. So much for HP's rumored acquisition plans of Kodak, eh?

[Via DPReview]

[Joe Templeman @ Nov 8th 2007 7:07AM]

Camera's made by a printing brand should never have existed...

this is a classic "stick to what your good at" case

[ryantrevisol @ Nov 8th 2007 7:09AM]

Love the choice of camera for the pic. That thing is such a POS. . . .

[John Stracke @ Nov 8th 2007 8:04AM]

Who would take them up on this? All you're getting is the brand name and the existing camera designs, both of which stink.

[DickHardknocks @ Nov 8th 2007 8:05AM]

HP makes quality cameras at a price that can't compare with the competition - and there is plenty of competition: Sony, Casio, Kodak (a really had one to challenege) and many others including Exilim and Olympus.

I've owned 3 HP cameras. They tend to be too bulky, too expensive and no where near as polished as the SONY models. The only thing I liked was the color matching with their printers and the ease of adding their software to my HP ddesktop and noteboooks.

[BlackCoffeeNoSugar @ Nov 8th 2007 9:13AM]

Isn't Exilim made by Casio?

[Ryan Tenney @ Nov 8th 2007 8:15AM]

The saddest part is that the camera pictured was introduced less than a year ago (if my memory serves me right). HP Should NEVER have been in the camera business in the first place, or, alternately, they should have realized what a $#!+ poor job they were doing and quit a long time ago.

[Ryan Tenney @ Nov 8th 2007 8:16AM]

I stand corrected... Less than 6 months ago.

[Iain @ Nov 8th 2007 8:35AM]

*drops to knees and reaches to the heavens*

Thank you God.

[Tom @ Nov 8th 2007 8:58AM]

It's about time. HP's cameras aren't worth the cardboard in which they're packaged! As stated above, a computer company has no business making cameras. If you want a quality camera, go to a camera company, like Canon, Fuji, or Nikon.

[Ricardo @ Nov 8th 2007 9:42AM]

Don't generalize though, there are lots of bad cameras from Fuji/Canon/Nikon.

[Joe Templeman @ Nov 9th 2007 7:45AM]

As a Nikon DSLR user I hate to say this but one of the few brands who makes their own *compact* cameras is Cannon.

If you go for a Nikon because of name your mistaken. Most nikon cameras are made by sanyo...along with a lot of the other big brands.

[Mike @ Nov 8th 2007 9:37AM]

I work at HP. Their cameras are pure crap. It's about time they figured out they're no good at imaging.

[Ran Shenhar @ Nov 8th 2007 1:26PM]

Next step: they should realize they make poor software for their own products and have that outsourced..
20M & 30 min to install a printer???

[Generic @ Nov 8th 2007 11:36AM]

I never knew that HP made cameras before today and I only know because they are going out of business. This probably sums the importance of HP stopping production and letting the world be!

[Ben @ Nov 10th 2007 12:12PM]

The problems caused by HP printer software for MacOSX has made me decide never to buy HP ever again. Even if they've changed since, I'll never trust any HP products. Now hopefully Kodak will quit too. I'm really impressed by Canon cameras AND they can make great printers too.