Nice body, Great Eyes. Excellent for direct printers.
Written: May 11 '04
Product Rating:
Ease of Use:
Durability:
Battery Life:
Photo Quality:
Shutter Lag
Pros: Great design, red eye reduction, good price
Cons: upper midgrade optics (could be better, but the price would probably skyrocket)
The Bottom Line: Good adaptablilty in a variety of lighting conditions and red eye reduction make this camera work well. The design makes it feel good. A good choice.
grahamw_614's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Photosmart R707 Digital Camera
The HP 707 caught my eye because it's an HP that simply doesn't look like the typically boxy HP. I'd heard good things about the new HP line this year; apparently they've won a few awards, nothing I could testify to mind you.
When I picked up the 707 the first thing I noticed was that it felt great to hold. The burnished metal finish on the front screams classy and feels very smooth in hand. On top of that HP has added a rubberized backing that grips the hand making the camera easy to hold on to. Naturally you'll still want to use your wrist strap and a camera bag; (I would suggest that anyone keeping a digital camera in their pocket has too much money to burn,) however the camera will not slip easily from your grasp.
The HP has a good interface system, the buttons are well laid out. Email and movie modes are simply to access.
This camera was conceived with the PictBridge/Direct Print market in mind as one of it's main features is an on camera red eye reduction. This is not simply a stutter flash designed to stun your subjects into submission - instead it's a post-process that makes a once over pass of your image. Essentially a line zips down the screen scrubbing red eyes from picture. I'm not sure how it works, but I rightly don't care, the sample shots I took made it very clear that this technology works. I took 15 shots of 15 different groupings of people, I was able to produce some red eye even with the flash turned on, however, the red eye reduction pass zapped those eyes back to a more subdued colour - this is a great feature for those wanting to head directly to their own printer or a developer. If you don't have a computer a feature like this is a must for you.
Contrary to another review listed here, I found the movie mode to be of an acceptable quality and the sound quality was also decent. This is not a DV camera - you will not film Citizen Kane II on this device. However it will provide you with some lovely clips to email or save for later enjoyment.
Image quality was good. In it's price range the 707 produces a mid to high quality image. It clearly does not house the superiour optics you will find in a Canon Powershot, however it does not bear the price tag of a Powershot either. For an economically minded direct printer or for an enthusiast who doesn't know how to or like to remove red eye, this camera is a responsible buy.
Coupled with HP's offered rebates on their photoprinters, this camera becomes a steal. If you are looking into a printer I'd recommend the HP PS 7960 - It's pricey, but the only one that I found could produce gorgeous black and white images as well as colour.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 350 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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