Hewlett Packard Photosmart R967

Reviewed December 2006

Characteristics

The HP Photosmart R967 uses a 1/1.7 CCD composed of 10.5 million pixels, of which 10 million are effective when capturing the maximum image size of 3648 x 2736 pixels. The camera offers a choice of 4 image sizes:

• 10MP: 3648 x 2736 pixels,
• 6MP: 2848 x 2144 pixels,
• 3MP: 2048 x 1536 pixels,
• VGA: 640 x 480 pixels.

And 4 levels of compression are available for each image size, the quality being indicated by stars:

• is the least compression, but is only accessible as custom option. It yields the highest image quality.
• corresponds to an average compression level.
• represents a stronger compression.
• applies the strongest compression, making it possible to save more images in a given memory space, but at a lower image quality.

CCD sensitivity can be manually set to 100, 200 or 400 ISO in a number of capture modes; while with others, such as the Scene modes or the Auto Shooting mode, sensitivity is set automatically from a range that starts at 100 and extends to 800 ISO.

The HP R967 is equipped with a 3X optical zoom that has a focal range of 7.5 to 22.5 mm, equivalent to a 35 to 105 mm on a 35 mm camera. Apertures begin at f2.8 and close down to 7.8 at the wide angle end, and go from f5 to f8.5 when the zoom is at the maximum telephoto setting.

The complete shutter speed range of the HP R967 covers from 1/2000 second to 15 seconds, but the actual range varies with the capture mode in use, the focal length, and whether or not the flash is used. Nevertheless, a noise reduction process is used on all exposures of 1 second or more.

As the HP R967 has few external controls and no "shortcuts" are associated to the 4-direction control, the menu has to be accessed to reach most settings. The menu the HP R967 displays is always the same, irrespective of the current camera mode. The section of the menu presented when the menu is called up, however, depends on whether the camera is set to a capture mode or the playback mode. The menu is composed of 5 sections, each clearly identified by an icon at the top of the screen: Capture, Playback, Design Gallery, Setup and Help.

The system shows all the capture mode options, but access to some may be prevented depending on the shooting mode in use:

• Shooting Modes: serves to select the shooting mode. Eighteen modes are available (see the Ergonomics section of the review).
• My Mode: is only shown when the camera is set to My Mode, and serves to select the capture mode.
• Self-Timer offers three settings: Off, On and 2-Shots. Both On and 2-Shots offer delay times of 2, 5, 10, 20 or 30 seconds.
• Red-Eye Removal: when this option is active, the camera analyses all flash shots to detect red-eye, and corrects it prior to recording the image.

• Exposure Compensation: provides a compensation range of ± 3 EV in 1/3 EV increments.
• Adaptive Lighting has three settings: Off, Low or High. The function processes an image immediately after it is captured to balance bright and dark areas and reduce harsh contrasts. The function can be used with flash photos to brighten zones in an image that the flash was not able to light sufficiently.

• Bracketing, which captures three images with variations, is possible for:
  • Adaptive Lighting: captures one normal image, then one with adaptive lighting set to Low, and one set to High.
  • Exposure Bracketing operates over ±1 EV in 1/3 EV increments.
  • Colour Bracketing captures one colour image, then one sepia and one black and white.
• Image Quality: see above.
• Video Quality: serves to select the video quality (see the Ergonomics section).
• Burst: allows taking photos continuously until the shutter is released, or the camera runs out of memory. The burst rate depends on the shutter speed available to the camera.
• White Balance: Auto, Sun, Shade, Tungsten, Fluorescent or Manual, which serves to set the white balance under ambient lighting conditions.
• Auto Focus Area: serves to select either of two AF modes. Multi automatically selects the focus from one or more of 5 AF areas aligned horizontally in the vertical middle of the frame. Spot focuses exclusively at the centre of the frame.

• AE Metering serves to select the metering pattern: Average, Centre-weighted (default) or spot.
• ISO Speed sets the CCD sensitivity: Auto, 100, 200 or 400 ISO.
• Saturation offers three settings: Low, which attenuates colours; Medium (default); or High, which accentuates colours.
• Sharpness has three settings: Low; Medium (default); High.
• Contrast: has three settings: Low; Medium (default); High.

• Date and Time Imprint: permanently stamps the time and date at which the image was captured on the lower left part of the image.
• My Mode Saved Settings (only shown when the camera is set to My Mode): allows saving 18 capture-related settings: My Mode Saved Settings (only shown when the camera is set to My Mode) allows saving 18 capture related settings: capture mode, flash mode, burst, focus mode, compensation, adaptive lighting, bracketing, quality, video quality, white balance , AF Area, metering, ISO, colour, saturation, sharpness, contrast, time and date imprint and to decide if the camera powers up directly in My Mode.
• My Mode Help (only shown when the camera is set to My Mode): display a guide to set My Mode options.
• Exit: serves to clear the menu off the screen.

The second section of the menu contains options relating to the Playback mode:

• Delete offers a number of options, including one to undelete:
  • Cancel returns to the Playback mode menu.
  • This image deleted the image currently on screen.
  • All Except Favorites deletes all images with the exception of those that were tagged as Favorites in the Photosmart Express menu.
  • Entire Panoramic Sequence (only shown if a panoramic sequence has been captured) deletes all images that are part of the panoramic sequence.
  • All images (in Memory/on Card) deletes all images in the internal memory or on the memory card.
  • Format serves to format the internal memory or a memory card.
  • Undelete Last undeletes the last deleted image as long as no other operation has occurred.

• Image Advice: this option allows the camera to analyse the image under review and indicate any error such as focus, exposure, red-eye, etc.
• Image Info: presents the capture parameters superimposed on the image. The information includes capture mode, flash mode, all settings that were not at their defaults values, aperture, shutter speed, compensation, ISO setting, image file name and size, and a histogram.

• View Slideshow: presents captured images as a slide show, displaying all images or only those tagged as Favorites, or only videos. The on-screen time of images can be selected (2, 5, 10, 15, 60 seconds or manual), as well as whether or not the slide show loops (2 or 3 times or continuously), and whether or not a sound associated with an image is played when the image is displayed.

• Stitch Panorama: presents a series of images captured in Panorama mode as a continuous panorama which can be moved around using the 4-direction control. The image can be assembled completely in the camera, but because of memory restrictions, at a lower resolution and greater compression that can be done on a computer using the supplied software.
• Record Audio: allows adding an audio clip to already captured images (1 minute maximum), or delete an existing audio recording.

• Move Images to Card: serves to move images from the internal memory to a memory card.
• Exit: serves to exit the menu.

The third tab of the menu is entitled Creative Gallery and is completely dedicated to image correction and manipulation. It contains the following tools:

• Apply Artistic Effects: this function allows modifying the look of an image, and then saving it as a new image. Effects available are: Ink Dots, Cartoon, Water Colour, Centre Focus, Posterize, Retro, Soft Glow, Vintage, Slimming, Sky Colour, Ground Colour, Kaleidoscope, Solarize, and Drawing.
• Modify Colour serves to change the colour of an image, and save it as a new image: Black & White, Sepia, B&W Tints, and Colour Tints.

• Add Borders adds a border effect to an image, then allows saving it as a new image: Soft Edge, Inset Border, Torn Edge, Burn Edge, Spatter, Oval, Circle, Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Square.
• Remove Red Eyes (this option is only available for image captured with flash): Allows the camera to automatically correct an image that contains the red-eye effect, and then makes it possible to save changes, which overwrites the original image; View Changes, which displays the image magnified; or Cancel.

• Rotate: serves to rotate an image clockwise in 90° increments.
• Crop: makes it possible to crop an image in Landscape (3:2 aspect ratio for printing) or Portrait (2:3 aspect ratio).
• Exit: serves to exit the menu.

The fourth section of the menu contains the Setup options. These are detailed in the Interface and Software section of the review.

Finally, the last section is identified by a question mark, and is the Help menu. This section contains photography tips, a complete list of the accessories available for the R967, advice on the use of the camera and its controls and modes, as well as explanations about sharing, transferring and printing images.

This section of the menu is in fact a "built-in" instruction manual.

The HP R967 has a 32 MB internal memory, and is retailed without a memory card. It is, however, compatible with SD (Secure Digital) memory cards.

The SD memory card slot is located next to the battery, and covered by the same solid door.

The chart below provides an idea of the number of images and the length of video that can be stored using the internal memory, or an optional 1 GB SD card:

Photos
Memory	Internal	1 GB Card	Internal	1 GB Card	Internal	1 GB Card	Internal	1 GB Card
10MP	3	169	7	351	10	484	22	1003
6MP	6	273	12	554	16	752	32	1463
3MP	11	504	21	973	28	1276	49	2221
VGA	97	4405	165	7465	201	9082	286	12888
Videos
Memory			Internal			1 GB Card
VGA Normal			24 sec.			22 min 12 sec.
VGA			53 sec.			43 min 49 sec.
QVGA			1 min 48 sec.			1 hr 25 min 04 sec.

The HP R967 is powered by a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery (R07) which fits into a slot next to the memory card. Once in place, the battery is secured in the slot by a grey spring-loaded latch.

The camera has a connector underneath which serves to connect it to the HP Photosmart 6220 Camera Dock, which is included with the camera. The connector allows recharging the battery in approximately 3 hours.

Moreover, as the dock also contains a USB port and cable, it serves to connect the HP R967 to a computer, allowing for the transfer of images.

More advanced Camera Docks are also available. The HP Photosmart 6221 Premium (shown above), allows the camera to be run off household current, and offers an Audio/Video out so images can be seen on a television. In addition, the dock is able to recharge a secondary battery simultaneously with the one in the camera.