love - hate relationship

The Love part: I am very satisfied with the pictures and performance. I use it for average photography, not extreme closeups or long range scenes. I use the center quality control (2 stars) and it is fine. I do a lot of editing and enlarging and have had no problems. They tend to be a little dark or too bright, so I edit that, which might be a nuisance to some.
Now comes the Hate. It devours batteries, I really thought it was a serious malfunction, now by reading comments from other owners I guess it is typical. We have the rechargeable, but they don't last any longer than one-use batteries and now don't take a charge at all.
We have good service from hp computer, scanner and printers...but wouldn't take a chance on another hp camera unless I am assured this problem has been solved.