The interface of the R817 is
clear, well-designed and informative, making the camera ideal
for new users or occasional photographers. Helpful explanations
are available at every step, perfect for those who are unfamiliar
with the technology, or who have forgotten this or that function
since the last time they used it. Moreover, the monitor has
a sharp image, making the occasionally lengthy text explanations
very legible as long as the screen is well shaded from the
sun.
A single menu system is used for all modes, further simplifying
the camera. The menu system is composed of 5 distinct menus:
the Capture menu, the Playback menu, the Share menu, the Setup
menu and the help menu. And, to simplify things further, when
the R817 is set to a capture mode and the menu is called up,
the Capture menu is presented first, and similarly when the
camera is in Playback mode, the menu system presents the Playback
menu first. While this is just a detail, since all these menus
are accessible whatever the camera's mode, having the most
likely needed menu appear first is a step saver.
That philosophy applies to the My Mode shooting mode of the
camera, which can be configured to retain 18 settings —
the only mode that retains settings after the camera has been
powered off — and which, when active, prefaces each
menu option with "My"
as a reminder that the camera is in this mode.
The Setup menu uses the same layout as all other
menus (see the Characteristics section of the review
for information on all the other menus):
Display Brightness: to control the brightness of
the LCD monitor's backlight (Low, Medium or High).
Camera Sounds: to turn Off or set the volume of
sounds produced by the camera during operation (Low or High).
Focus Assist Light: Auto or Off. When set to Auto,
the camera controls when the AF-assist light is used.
Instant Review: controls the length of time a just
captured image is shown on the monitor post-capture (Off,
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 seconds).
Digital Zoom: On or Off. Decides whether or not
the 8X digital zoom is available when the maximum optical
magnification has been reached.
Date and Time: to set the date and time on the
camera, and select the way they are displayed.
USB Configuration selects the protocol for the
USB connection: Digital Camera (PTP) which makes
the camera appear as an imaging device when connected to
a computer, or Disk Drive (MSDC) to make the camera
appear as a hard disk.
TV Configuration: serves to select the television
output standard, NTSC or PAL. (Note that to connect the
R817 to a television the optional Photosmart C8887A camera
dock with the USB mini connector must be used.)
Language: selects the language used for the interface
(English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese,
Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Russian, Korean, Japanese,
and Simplified Chinese).
Move Images to Card: serves to move images from
the R817's internal memory to a memory card.
Reset Settings: resets all parameters of the camera
to factory defaults with the exception of the settings for
date and time, USB and Video out.
Exit: clears the menu off the screen.
A printed manual is included with the Photosmart R817 camera.
The manual is clearly written and its instructions and explanations
are accessible to anyone.
In addition, a 40 MB interactive
manual is provided on the software disc. The interactive manual
includes multimedia lessons on how to the use the camera and
the software (see below). Regrettably however, some of
the information presented in both of these can be a bit misleading
— a 1280 x 960 pixel image size is counselled as being
sufficient for a 6 x 4 inch print, ignoring the fact that even
at 300 dpi this only produces an image measuring 4.26 x 3.2
inches.
Similarly, neither the printed nor
the interactive manual mention the pixel size for the image
resolutions available with the R817, a rather glaring omission.
Software
A single CD is included with
the HP R817, containing HP Image Zone Software for
Windows (v3.5) and Macintosh (v7.1.9).
The software itself requires 310 MB of disk space and in
combination with the 40 MB interactive user's guide, demands
that the user be willing to part with 350MB of disk space
for HP's software all of which show up as part of an HP folder
in the Program section of a Windows XP machine:
Photosmart Camera:
Image Transfer
Interactive User's Guide
Product Registration
Product Support Web Site
HP Image Zone
HP Instant Share Setup
HP Product Assistant
HP Software Tour
HP Software Update
HP Solution Centre
Image Zone is the part
of the software designed to preview, edit, share, backup and
print images.
Photos are presented as thumbnails, but can also be seen
at a large scale.
The editing section of the program is divided into 2 parts,
the Basic section which offers functions such as image rotation,
image flip, cropping, automatic redeye reduction, auto adjust
(for contrast, brightness, and sharpness), and resizing.
The Advanced section, on the
other hand, provides tools to adjust images for exposure,
adaptive lightning, brightness, contrast, sharpness, colour
temperature, and saturation. Moreover images can be converted
to black and white and special effects — sepia, antique,
lithograph, soft glow, solarize, posterize, metallic and oilify
— can be used to completely transform the image.
In addition to its editing
and printing capabilities, the software can be used to create
slide shows that can be shown on a monitor, or more complex
productions that can be projected or shown on TV, and which
include a music background and advanced transition effects.
Finally, HP Image Zone is also designed to create album pages,
brochures, calendars, DVD/CD labels, greeting cards, panoramas,
and flyers, and back up photos to CD-R; a few of the reasons
the program is so big.
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Interface & Software
