Hewlett Packard Photosmart R967

Reviewed December 2006

Image Quality

The HP R967 offers a set of technical characteristics that are quite appealing for a compact digital: a 10-megapixel sensor, a 3X optical zoom and a 3-inch monitor.

The HP R967 is equipped with a complete range of capture modes providing a lot of flexibility. Shutter and aperture priority modes and a fully manual mode are included, as well as 15 scene modes that offer varying degrees of automatism.

The shutter lag seems to be linked to the autofocus, the latter taking time to settle on the subject, and focus. Using 5 AF points aligned horizontally in the middle of the frame, it appear sthat the autofocus lacks not precision, but speed.

On the optics side, the 3X zoom of the R967 produces images that show good sharpness through the focal length range, and which are sharp even in the corners when the zoom is at the wide angle end. Chromatic aberration is also rare, only showing up occasionally on the edges of strongly contrasting areas.

Images are normally well exposed using the default Average metering pattern. However, when the subject presents contrasts that are too strong, the metering tends to sacrifice details in the highlights first. Then, the solution is to switch to Centre-weighted or Spot metering, or, alternatively, to apply Exposure Compensation as necessary.

The colours produced by the Auto white balance tend to be very neutral, allowing for natural-looking colours without any noticeable saturation dominance.

The small built-in flash of the R967 outputs even light that is well adapted for fill-in flash photography. Its power is sufficient to light an average size room as long as the subject is not too dark. Should that prove to be insufficient, the only other option is to increase the sensitivity, which in turns increases the effectiveness of the flash.

As a matter of fact, the sensor of the R967 appears to be relatively sensitive to noise, as it starts to show in shadow areas of images as of 100 ISO.

The image quality the 10-megapixel CCD yields varies greatly with the compression used. The R967 provides 4-JPEG compression levels, each identified by a number of stars. The highest image quality is obtained with the compression, but it is only accessible as a custom option of the image quality settings. At this level, images reveal no compression artefacts, and retain a good overall sharpness. However, as soon as the compression is increased, a commensurate loss of details can be observed.

In the final analysis, the impression one takes away after using this 10-megapixel compact is rather mixed. While the maximum image size of this compact makes it possible to crop out undesirable areas of images and then print them to standard sizes 4 x 6 (10 x 15 cm), or 5 x 7 (13 x 18 cm), the fact is that most users will not fill albums with 8.5 x 11 inches (A4 approximately) prints. However, the physical dimensions of the CCD, and the number of pixels that it supports makes it more prone to noise than a comparable size sensor with fewer pixels. And since noise is inversely proportional to the amount of the light available to the sensor, the HP R967 will consistently yield better images when the subject is well-lit.

With the R967, Hewlett Packard follows the current market trend of offering more pixels, irrespective of whether or not it is necessary. As long as a fast response time from the camera is not a primary consideration, the HP R967's flexible modes make it is a camera that will satisfy more advanced compact users, while still being useable and an excellent learning tool for novices thanks to its help screens.