HP Photosmart R507 Digital Camera

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HP Photosmart R507 Digital Camera

Product	Digital Camera
Date	10th December 2004
Manufacured By	Hewlett Packard
Supplied By	Hewlett Packard
Price	£160.00 inc VAT
Author	Wayne Brooker

Introduction:::...

Anyone who has spent time with film cameras probably has a tendancy to favour names they know and trust from that arena. Whether it's optics or build quality, most professional and serious amateurs will tend to look to companies like Canon, Nikon, Minolta and Pentax for their digital needs.

Of course these companies do have excellent digital camera in their lineup, but unlike the SLR world there seem to be some excellent models reaching the market from companies you don't necassarily associate with having a particularly rich photographic history, if they have any photographic background at all.

To try to win over the more experienced users, many digital cameral companies who lack that photographic heritage are teaming up with more respected names to help market their products. While digital cameras are primarily electronic devices, and therefor it's reasonable to assume any competant company can develop one, it's the optics where most companies realise they may be considered lacking, and thus we're beginning to see a slew of digital cameras built around lenses from companies like Zeiss and Pentax to add a little prestige, even though in most cases the lenses are only designed by that company then built elsewhere.

Today I want to look at a camera from a company who have no real roots in traditional film photography, but who are making a concerted push into the digital imaging arena, supplementing their already expansive range of quality photo printers with a range of digital cameras to suit all pockets and all experience levels.

The model I'm looking at today is the PhotoSmart R507 and is very much a budget/mainstream camera. With a selling price pitched at around the £160 mark it's by no means the cheapest camera you can buy, even allowing for its 4 MegaPixel CCD, but does it have enough up its sleeve to earn its asking price?

Let's cover the specs before we move on:

Feature	Description
Resolution	Still pictures: 4.23 MP (2408 x 1758) total pixel count 4.05 MP (2320 x 1744) effective pixel count Video clips: 288 by 216 total pixel count
Sensor	Diagonal 7.2 mm (1/2.5-inch, 4:3 format) CCD
Color depth	36 bit (12 bits by three colors)
Lens	Focal length: Wide-5.8 mm Telephoto-17.4 mm 35 mm equivalent approximately 35 mm - 105 mm F number: Wide-f/2.6 to f/4.3 Telephoto-f/4.8 to f/7.6
Leans threads	None
Viewfinder	Zooming optical viewfinder, 3x magnification without diopter adjust
Zoom	3x optical, 7x digital zoom
Focus	TTL Auto Focus Focus settings: Normal (default)-auto focus range of 40 cm (16 inches) to infinity Yes distance Zoom External flash No Macro-auto focus range of 18 cm to 50 cm (7 inches to 20 inches) at all zoom positions Super Macro-6 cm to 25 cm (2.5 inches to 10 inches) Focus settings: Normal Focus (default), Macro, Super Macro
Shutter speed	1/2000 to 16 seconds
Tripod mount	Yes
Built-in flash	Yes, 2.5-second typical recharge time
External flash	No
Flash settings	Flash Off, Auto Flash (default), Red-Eye, Flash On, Night
Image display	1.5-inch color active matrix,120,480 pixels (502 x 240
Storage	32 MB internal flash memory, with approximately 27 MB for storage of images Slot for memory card This camera supports both Secure Digital (SD) and MultiMediaCard (MMC) memory cards 8 MB and larger. Only MMC cards that have been verified compliant to the MultiMediaCard specification are supported. Compliant MMC memory cards have the MultiMediaCard logo on the card or package. SD cards are recommended, as they are faster than MMC cards at reading and writing data. This camera may support memory cards up to 2 GB, although HP has tested only cards up to 512 MB. Cards larger than 2 GB will not work correctly. A high capacity card itself does not affect camera performance, but a large number of files (over 300) does affect the time it takes for the camera to turn on. The number of images that can be saved in memory depends on the Image Quality settings.
Image capture options	Still (default) Self-Timer - still picture or video clip taken after 10-second delay Self-Timer-two shots - still picture taken after 10-second delay, then a second picture taken about three seconds later. Single video taken after 10-second delay. Burst-camera - three shots in a row as quickly as possibe until the buffer is full. Video - 24 frames per second (includes audio), until the camera runs out of memory
Audio capture	Still pictures - maximum of 60 seconds can be recorded Burst - audio capture not available Video clips - audio is recorded automatically
Shooting modes	Auto (default), Action, Landscape, Portrait, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Aperture Priority, Panorama
Image quality settings	4 MP * 4 MP (default) 2 MP VGA Custom... Image Quality (Resolution and Compression) settings
Exposure compensation settings	Can be set manually from -3.0 to +3.0 EV (Exposure Value) in 1/3 EV increments.
White balance settings	Auto (default), Sun, Shade, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Manual
AE metering settings	Average, Center-Weighted (default), Spot
ISO speed settings	Auto (default),100, 200, 400
Adaptive lighting settings	Off (default), Low, High
Color settings	Full Color (default), Black & White, Sepia
Saturation settings	Low, Medium (default), High
Sharpness settings	Low, Medium (default), High
Date and Time Imprint settings	Off (default), Date Only, Date & Time
Playback magnification	Magnifies a still image to 130x on the image display
Compression format	JPEG (EXIF) for still images MPEG1 for video clips
Interfaces	USB Mini-AB receptacle; allows USB (A to Mini-B) to a computer or USB (Mini-A to B) to certain printers (any HP Photosmart or Pictbridge compatible printers) DC input 3.3 Vdc @ 2500 mA HP Photosmart R-series dock
Orientation sensor	Yes
Standards	PTP transfer (15740) MSDC transfer NTSC/PAL JPEG zMPEG1 DPOF 1.1 EXIF 2.2 DCF 1.0 PictBridge 1.0 USB 2.0
Power	Typical power usage: 2.3 Watts (with image LCDon). 4 Watts maximum power usage. Power sources include: One rechargeable HP Photosmart R07 lithium ion battery for HP Photosmart R-series cameras (L1812A). Rechargeable battery can be recharged in the camera using the HP AC power adapter or optional HP Photosmart R-series dock. HP AC power adapter (3.3 Vdc, 2500 mA, 8.25 W) Optional HP Photosmart R-series dock Recharging in camera with the HP AC power adapter or optional HP Photosmart R-series dock: average charge time four-six hours.
External body dimensions	Measurements with camera off and lens retracted: 87 mm (L) x 28 mm (W) x 57 mm (H) 3.4 inches (L) x 1.1 inches (W) x 2.2 inches (H)
Weight	132 grams (0.29 pounds) without battery
Temperature range	Operational: 0 to 50° C (32 to 122° F) at 15 to 85% relative humidity Storage: -30 to 65° C (-22 to 149° F) at 15 to 90% relative humidity
Warranty	One year limited warranty backed by HP Customer Support

4 MP ***	11 images (2.4 MB each)
4 MP ** Default	22 images (1.2 MB each)
2 MP **	80 images (330 KB each)
VGA **	265 images (100 KB each)