Simplicity is the keyword for
the HP R742, and this is apparent in all aspects of the camera,
including the information HP supplies about it.
The R742 is a basic point and shoot. The camera handles every
aspect of picture-taking, not only selecting the aperture
and shutter speed, but also the white balance and the sensitivity
of the CCD. The user is left with framing the shot, using
the zoom, selecting the image size and occasionally, deciding
whether or not the flash should be used.
Some Scene-type modes
are provided, but even these are quite basic. A total of 9 modes
are available, one of them the Close-up (macro) mode, which
effectively offers a shorter focusing distance but with the
same settings as the Auto mode. The others are more traditional
scene modes such as Portrait, Landscape, Action (equivalent
to a Sports mode), and Night Portrait. Two modes are slightly
different, Theatre and Steady Photo, both of which rely on a
boost of the sensitivity, which, in the case of the Steady shot
mode can be as high as 800 ISO.
Aperture: f7.6, shutter speed: 1/90 sec., 50 ISO.
The R742 has a sensitivity range
that starts at 50 ISO and extends to 800 ISO. This is, as
are many other things, undocumented and only a look at the
EXIF data recorded with each image reveals the sensitivity
used.
In general, 50 ISO appears to be commonly selected when the
shots are captured outdoors with bright sunshine, but the
moment the flash is required, 100 ISO seems to be the default.
Photo captured at 50 ISO with
good light show no trace of noise. Those captured near and
above 100 ISO start to show some noise in the shadows. From
100 ISO upwards noise is easily detectable and the image quality
— when the photo is inspected closely at 100% on a monitor
— deteriorates. High ISO images are noisy, and even
if reduced to a smaller size as they are when printed, images
can contain some visible colour noise.
Whatever the shooting mode
selected, the R742 returns steadfastly to the Auto mode when
turned off and then turned back on. Indeed, this is true of
all the settings offered to the user: the camera returns to
its defaults when turned off and, with the self-timer at least,
even goes as far as resetting each time a photo is captured.
On the optical side, the zoom lens of the R742 yields images
that are distortion-free throughout its focal length range
with standard subjects. Only a slight barrel distortion can
be detected with some close-up or macro shots.
Still, given a strong contrast,
a chromatic aberration will become visible in wide angle shots.
Similarly, the overall image sharpness is not as high as could
be desired, but this may well be the result of the strong
compression used to store images, than a weakness of the lens
itself.
The Auto white balance, however,
is far less reliable. Under artificial light the Auto white
balance tends to yield yellow-tinted images although the EXIF
data shows that it correctly recognized the light source as
"Tungsten" (incandescent).
Moreover, the same type of colour shift can occur with daylight
shots when the zoom is used, whch causes the colour contents
of the frame to change, something that, apparently, can be
difficult for the auto white balance to handle.
Put succinctly, the HP R742 yields
its best image quality outdoors, with plenty of natural light.
Then, its white balance operates reliably and yields accurate
colours. In addition, under these conditions, the camera is
able to use the lowest sensitivity of 50 ISO, which prevents
the appearance of noise in the shadows, or in areas of uniform
colour. However, it is also under such ideal conditions that
the monitor — the only means of framing a shot —
can become very difficult to see.
A shortcoming of R742 is that
it offers little choice in terms of image quality settings.
The 7-megapixel Best image quality setting still
applies a compression that ranges from a low of 7:1 to a high
that can be more than double that, depending on the subject.
Often, as a result of the compression, fine details tend to
be fuzzy, and transition areas between one element of the
image and another tend to have indistinct edges when seen
at full-scale on a monitor.
For flash photography, the HP R742
provides a small flash that always returns to its default Auto
mode whenever the camera has been turned off. The flash has
a short range and the camera tends to increase the sensitivity
to 100 ISO to compensate. Moreover, the image appears to be
processed by the camera to increase its brightness before it
is saved, causing noise to become easily noticeable.
But, as is always the case,
the R742's photos — those captured under good lighting
conditions — print better than they look on a monitor.
And, with its 7-megapixel resolution, the HP R742 has little
difficulty producing crisp and pleasant 5 x 7 inch (11 x 17
cm) prints. And, in view of its economical price,
and its simplicity of use, that may well be ideal for many
casual photographers.
Image Quality
