HP Photosmart 850 Review: 5. Operation & Controls: Digital Photography Review

Top of camera controls

Controls on the top of the camera are limited to the flash release lever, the power / mode switch and the shutter release button. Note that directly behind the shutter release is the camera's speaker.

Controls

OFF	Power off Camera is powered off, lens retracts. If there are images still being saved the camera will stay on until images have been written safely to the SD / MMC card.
	Still image mode Puts the camera into still image recording mode, all menu options are available, camera settings revert to factory defaults at power up.
	Self timer still mode Identical to still image recording mode (above) except that all images are taken after a 10 second self timer delay.
	Movie mode Enters movie record mode, in this mode you can record 288 x 208 MPEG movie clips of up to 60 seconds each. Movies are recorded with audio and zoom can be altered during recording.
	Open flash Slide this lever backwards to pop-up the flash. The last used flash mode will automatically be activated and the flash capacitor will charge. Depending on the selected mode the flash will fire with the next exposure.

Rear of camera controls

The rear of the 850 has a logical layout, a large four way controller with a central (a separated thank goodness) OK button. Beside this are buttons for Display mode, Play and Share (print mark). At the top are buttons to select flash mode and macro focus mode. The zoom control is identical that used on the 812, rubber single speed buttons.

Buttons / controls

	Zoom wide Zooms the lens focal length towards maximum wide angle, 37 mm equiv.
	Zoom telephoto Zooms the lens focal length towards maximum telephoto, 300 mm equiv. In macro focus mode maximum telephoto is limited to approximately 130 mm equiv.
	Flash mode Select flash mode (only available when flash is up): • Auto • Red-Eye Reduction • Flash On • Night Flash (Slow Sync) • Night Flash with Red-Eye Reduction • Flash Off (close flash)
	Focus mode Selects either macro focus or normal focus AF mode. In macro focus mode focus distance is limited to a range of 10 to 70 cm, zoom is limited to a maximum of approximately 130 mm equiv.
	Display change Switches between the LCD and EVF, if Eye Start sensor is enabled this button is used to switch the rear LCD on or off.
	Play Enters play mode, the 850 is designed to be a shooting priority camera, this means that playback can be interrupted at any time by half-pressing the shutter release.
	Share / Image Mark Image Mark Image Mark displays a menu which allows you to mark images for printing (one or two copies) or for e-mail. If not already in play mode pressing this button displays the last image taken. • Print 1 copy • Print 2 copies • E-mail
	4-way controller In image review mode the left and right arrows are used to browse through images. Just like the 812 the 850 has a 'smooth scroll' between each image. Otherwise this controller is used primarily to navigate menu options.
OK	Menu Pressing the OK button in record mode displays the record menu. During record review (immediately after the image is taken) the OK button can be used to discard the image.

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