HP Photosmart R707 Review

At press briefings during PMA 2004 HP staff quietly admitted they had finally realized that the company's digital cameras suffered from something of an 'image problem'. Big, seemingly designed to resemble a house brick, and made from the kind of materials normally found only on the dashboard of a 1980's hatchback, the Photosmart range simply couldn't compete with the slick, shiny and keenly priced Far Eastern offerings. From now on, we were told, HP cameras would be designed for style, speed and ease of use, and would no longer be twice the size of their direct competitors. The 5 megapixel, 3x zoom, Photosmart R707 is the first of this new wave of slimmed-down, metal-bodied HP cameras, offering a tempting mix of thoughtful design and some genuinely innovative features. Most of these are aimed at ensuring less experienced users avoid common photographic pitfalls, something possible mainly due to the inclusion of a clever Texas Instruments Digital Signal Processor (DSP). The power of the DSP is obvious when you look at some of the features it has allowed HP to shoehorn into the R707:
- Adaptive lighting technology ('digital fill flash')
- In-camera red-eye removal
- MPEG movie mode
- Comprehensive on-screen camera instructions
- In-camera panorama stitching (preview)
- 'Image advice' - on-screen help system that analyses saved pictures, identifies problems and suggests how they could have been avoided.
Key specifications
Street price |
US: $321
UK: £208 |
Body Material |
Stainless steel and 'rubberized' plastic |
Sensor |
1/1.8" CCD, 5.36 million
total pixels
5.14 million effective pixels |
Image sizes |
2612 x 1968
2048x 1536
1280 x 960
640 x 480 |
Movie clips |
320 x 240, 30 fps, duration limited only by card capacity, MPEG1 with sound |
Lens |
39 - 117mm equiv. (3x
optical zoom)
F2.8 - F4.9 |
Focus |
Single point TTL-AF
Manual focus
AF assist beam
Minimum focus: 50 cm (Normal), 18 cm (Macro) |
Shooting mode |
Auto
Aperture priority AE
Portrait
Action
Landscape
Beach and Snow
Sunset
Panorama
Document
Custom ('My Mode')
Movie (with sound)
|
Sensitivity |
Auto
ISO 100 - 400 |
White Balance |
Auto
4 presets
Manual |
Image parameters |
Color (Full, Black and White, Sepia)
Contrast (3 levels)
Sharpness (3 levels)
Saturation (3 levels)
|
Continuous |
3.0 fps, up to 4 frames |
Flash |
Modes: Auto, Flash On, Flash
Off
Slow Sync: On, Off ('Night Mode')
Red-Eye Reduction: On, Off
Range, Wide: 2.7m, Tele: 1.5 m (ISO 100) |
Storage |
SD and MMC
Supports cards up to 2GB
32 MB internal memory (27MB available for image storage)
No card supplied
|
Viewfinder |
Optical |
LCD monitor |
1.5" TFT LCD
119,548 pixels |
Connectivity |
USB 2.0 (inc PTP, but not High Speed)
A/V out via optional dock |
Power |
Lithium-Ion L1812A rechargeable
battery (supplied & charger)
Can also use Duracell CP1 disposable battery
AC adapter/charger included
|
Other features |
Orientation sensor
HP Adaptive Lighting
HP Instant Share
In-camera red-eye removal
In-camera panorama stitching preview
Sound memo
Direct print (HP & PictBridge)
Optional HP Photosmart camera dock
Image advice
AE Bracketing
Date and time imprinting
Spot Metering
|
Weight (no
batt) |
180 g (0.4 lbs) |
Dimensions |
98.5 x 35.3 x 60 mm (3.9 x 1.4 x 2.4
in) |
Gear in this story
Gear in this story
Highly Recommended
|
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Aug 13, 2004
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Feb 12, 2004
|
Aug 7, 2007
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Jul 31, 2007
|
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