Hewlett-Packard is currently
promoting the new R-series cameras by running a series of excellent
television commercials in which the reality of everyday life
is substituted by photographic prints, while slices of reality
magically becomes life-like photo prints. Indeed, the essence
of this advertising message can be found in the R707's design:
pedagogy, user friendliness, sharing and simplicity.
This philosophy is pushed into
other areas, and captured photos can be subjected to an analysis
with the Image Advice option when the camera is in Playback
mode. The camera then displays pertinent suggestions based
on the settings used to capture the image (flash, shutter speed,
brightness and contrast, focus distance, etc), which can be
used to improve one's skills, and develop an appreciation of
the potential pitfalls of some photographic subjects.
On the image capture side,
the R707 is well-conceived. For instance, set by default to
use an effective centre-weighted metering pattern, the R707
also provides a very reliable average metering pattern and,
for special situations, a spot metering option. Moreover, HP
has further enhanced the capabilities of the camera with the
addition of the Adaptive Lighting post-capture image
processing option.
This function allows the camera to brighten the dark areas of an image
which contains strong contrasts, as is the case in the photo shown at
left. The process, which is quite effective, works to bring out details
in the shadows and to improve the balance between high and low light
areas. The intensity of the image processing can be controlled by selecting
either High or Low.
But, while the Adaptive Lighting option is clearly innovative, other
aspects could be improved slightly.
For one, the R707 seems to
be sensitive to shadow noise even at the lowest sensitivity
of 100 ISO. And, increasing sensitivity to 200 and 400 ISO,
increases noise correspondingly, becoming visible in areas
with similar colours.
Similarly, photos captured at the wide angle end of the lens show noticeable
barrel distortion, making what should be straight lines curve outwards.
While barrel distortion is a frequent
phenomenon with digital cameras when their lens is at their widest
angle of view, the HP R707's zoom is a comparatively modest wide
angle, only equivalent to a 39mm, and yet exhibits more distortion
than many others.
While the R707 lacks an uncompressed
image format, it is equipped with a 4-star image quality which
offers the least compression. Regrettably, the format is only
accessible as a custom mode within the image choices, which
may turn out to limit its usefulness. The lesser compression
retains more of the finer details than would be the case with
the other compression levels, but can still occasionally cause
a slight loss of sharpness with some textures such as wool
and linen.
Still, when printed, a process that
packs the pixels making up the image much closer together than
they are when seen on a monitor, the photos turn out tack sharp
and any loss of sharpness caused by the compression is invisible.
With the introduction of the R-series,
and in this case of the R707, HP has produced a camera that is
not only elegant, but one that is ideally suited to new users
of the technology. Its interface is loaded with help, explanations
and suggestions, but so well designed that none of it gets in
the way of the user as the camera and photography become more
familiar. And that is a real achievement.
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