HP PhotoSmart 912HP and Pentax team up to make a true SLR digicam with Pentax lens, HP color wizardry, and ample features.<<Reference: Datasheet :(Previous) | (Next): Print-Friendly Review Version>> PhotoSmart 912 Sample ImagesReview First Posted: 3/26/2001 |
| We've begun including links in our reviews to a Thumber-generated index page for our test shots. The Thumber data includes a host of information on the images, including shutter speed, ISO setting, compression setting, etc. Rather than clutter the page below with *all* that detail, we're posting the Thumber index so only those interested in the information need wade through it! ;) |
 |
Outdoor portrait: (1029k) The extreme tonal range of this image makes it a tough shot for many digicams, which is precisely why we set it up this way. The object is to hold highlight and shadow detail without producing a "flat" picture with muddy colors, and the Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart 912 does a pretty good job of it. We shot samples of this image with the automatic (1053 k), daylight (999 k), and 5,500K (1001 k) white balance settings, none of which produced dead-on, perfect results. The daylight setting resulted in a very warm image, while the automatic setting produced a very cool color cast. The image was still just a bit warm with the 5,500K white balance setting, but we felt that the skin tones looked more natural than with the automatic white balance, leading us to choose the 5,500K setting for our main series. (A little warmth in the color actually helps most portrait shots.) Despite the warm cast, color looks good in the flower bouquet, and the always-difficult blues of the flowers and pants come out quite well. (These blues are very hard for many digicams to reproduce correctly.) Resolution looks moderately high, with a relatively large amount of fine detail visible in the model's face and in the flower bouquet. The overall image looks a little soft, but most details are nonetheless well-defined. The bright, red flowers have a nice saturation level, making the details of the petals visible (many digicams oversaturate these reds, losing detail in the process). We did notice some pixelization along the edges of the red flower petals, particularly in areas where light and dark tones meet. Great detail in the shadow areas, with a low level of very small-grained noise. Our main image was taken with no exposure adjustment whatsoever, but still managed to lose some detail in the highlight areas. An adjustment to +0.5 EV (1030 k) loses more detail in the highlights, but brightens the shadow areas significantly. Most cameras underexpose this shot significantly, so the 912's excellent uncompensated exposure is a big plus. The table below shows the results of a range of exposure settings from zero to +1.5 EV. Exposure Compensation Settings:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Closer portrait: (977k) The 912 produces good results with this closer, portrait shot, thanks to its 3x lens. (Shorter focal length lenses tend to distort facial features in close-up shots like this and the availability of longer focal lengths is a key feature if you're going to be shooting close-up people shots.) We again shot with the 5,500K white balance setting for more natural looking skin tones. The level of visible fine detail increases with this close-up shot, and details also appear much sharper. The individual strands of the model's hair are crisp and defined, as are the other features of her face. Noise is again low and small grained in the shadow areas, with only traces of the noise pattern visible in the house siding. Our main shot was taken with a +0.5 EV exposure adjustment, which loses all the detail on the white shirt collar, but well exposes the shadows. The table below shows the results of a range of exposure settings from zero to +1.5 EV. Exposure Compensation Settings:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Indoor Portrait, Flash: (806k) The 912's built-in flash does a nice job of illuminating the subject, producing nice overall color, though we picked up a slight orange cast from the household incandescent lighting. First, we shot with the flash in normal, automatic mode, with no adjustments, which produced this (806 k) very bright image. Flash power is so strong on the model that color is washed out and the highlight areas of the white shirt begin to lose detail. Next, we kept the camera in automatic white balance mode, but switched over to manual shutter control, shooting at 1/15 of a second at f/2.5 (730 k). This resulted in a much dimmer image, with bluish tints on the model's face and hair, as well as in the shadow areas of the white shirt. Color appears dull, but the orange cast has decreased. We then kept the exposure settings the same as in the previous shot, but switched over to daylight white balance (926 k) mode. The daylight setting produced similar results exposure-wise, though with a much stronger orange cast throughout the image. The bluish tints are still present, and the remaining colors remain flat. Next, we used an external flash attached to the camera's hot shoe, bouncing the flash off the ceiling, setting the 912's ISO at 200 (so we could match the flash's "auto" power level with an available f-stop setting on the 912) and shooting at 1/60 of a second at f/2.8 (staying in daylight white balance mode). This (819 k) produced much more natural results, though color still looks a little flat. Regardless, the orange cast is gone and the light is more even. Noise is a little high, and there's a hazy effect across the image, but it still looks pretty good. Keeping the same exposure settings, we shot our next image with a piece of diffusion material between the flash and model (but with the flash head still aimed at the ceiling), producing this (821 k) slightly brighter and very well-balanced shot. The white shirt has a slight bluish tint to it, and the orange cast of the incandescent lighting is faintly present on the background wall. Color looks a little brighter in the flowers, but the model's face is slightly bluish and pale still. For our final shot, we kept the diffusion over the flash but used a slower shutter speed of 1/30 of a second (832 k). This allowed more ambient light into the image, which brightened the overall exposure and produced better looking color on the model's face and in the flower bouquet. That said, the highlight areas of the white shirt are very hot and appear to glow, and the orange cast is a little stronger throughout. The combination of manual shutter and aperture controls with the choice of onboard or hot shoe-mounted flash makes for an exceptional degree of creative control for shots like this: The 912 would be a great choice for someone wanting to experiment with indoor flash photography! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Indoor portrait, no flash: (828 k) This shot is always a very tough test of a camera's white balance capability, given the strong, yellowish color cast of the household incandescent bulbs used for the lighting, and the 912's white balance system has just a little trouble with this difficult light source. We shot samples of this image with the automatic (854 k) and incandescent (827 k) white balance settings, choosing the incandescent setting for our main series because of its more accurate color balance. The automatic setting resulted in a very warm, orange image. Color balance looks a little warm with the incandescent setting, but is much more accurate than the automatic. While warm, overall color balance is better than average on this difficult shot. The blue flowers in the bouquet show some purplish tints, and the red flower appears a little bluish in places and shows some pixelization around the edges. Skin tones are warm but reasonably accurate. Resolution is moderate, with soft details throughout the image. We shot a series with the 912's adjustable ISO settings, shooting at equivalents of 100 (832 k), 200 (894 k), and 400 (813 k) ISO levels. Exposure brightened with the 200 ISO setting, but darkened at 400 ISO, producing much better looking color and contrast. Noise level is moderate at the 100 ISO setting, but very high at 400 ISO (and very distracting). We chose an exposure adjustment of +1.0 EV for our main image, as anything beyond that appeared to wash out the image. The table below shows a range of exposures from zero to +2.0 EV. Exposure Compensation Settings:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
House shot: (944k) NOTE that this is the "new" house shot, a much higher-resolution poster than we first used in our tests. To compare the image of the 912 with previously tested cameras, here's a shot of the original house poster in the 5,500K (1033 k) white balance setting. We shot samples of this image with the daylight (111 k), automatic (110 k), and 5,500K (109 k) white balance settings. The automatic and daylight settings produced similar, slightly cool images, while the 5,500K setting produced a very warm image. We chose the automatic setting for our main series. Resolution is quite good for a two megapixel camera, with a good detail visible in the bricks and shrubbery, and in the tree limbs surrounding the house, although the image has the minor overall softness we've noted in other shots from the 912. (We attribute this to a restrained use of in-camera image sharpening, as the images seem to sharpen quiet nicely after the fact in Photoshop, and there's plenty of detail present.) The brick pattern is very distinct across the front of the house, with the exception of the shadow area over the porch. The lens performs well in this shot though, with excellent corner and edge sharpness. (Softness in the corners of images is a common failing in the lenses of digicams we've tested.) Less than a pixel of a halo along the light and dark edges of the white roof trim provides evidence to the in-camera sharpening. Noise is moderate in the roof shingles and shadow areas, but with a fine grain pattern that gives the entire image a hazy look. The table below shows our standard range of resolution and quality settings.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Far-Field Test (778k) This image is shot at infinity to test far-field lens performance. NOTE that this image cannot be directly compared to the other "house" shot, which is a poster, shot in the studio. The rendering of detail in the poster will be very different than in this shot, and color values (and even the presence or absence of leaves on the trees!) will vary in this subject as the seasons progress. In general though, you can evaluate detail in the bricks, shingles and window detail, and in the tree branches against the sky. Compression artifacts are most likely to show in the trim along the edge of the roof, in the bricks, or in the relatively "flat" areas in the windows. We shot this image with the automatic (93 k), daylight (93 k), and 5,500K (94 k) white balance settings, choosing the automatic setting for our main series. The 5,500K setting resulted in a slightly warm color cast, while the daylight and automatic settings produced very similar, cooler results. We chose the automatic setting for our main series, because we noticed that the daylight setting appeared to overexpose the image slightly, losing some detail in the white highlights. At all three white balance settings, we noticed that the entire image had a milky haze, probably partially due to the very bright reflection of the sunlight on the white trim. This shot is a strong test of detail, given the practically infinite range of fine detail in a natural scene like this, viewed from a distance. Resolution is quite good, with a lot of fine detail visible in the tree limbs, shrubbery, and house front. Details appear slightly soft throughout the image, particularly those in the very hazy shrubbery area, but as we noted in the shot of the House poster, there's no hint of sharpness loss in the corners of the image: This looks like a very good lens in that respect. We also judge a camera's dynamic range in this shot, comparing how well the camera holds detail in both the shadow and highlight areas. The 912 has a little difficulty dealing with the bright, white paint of the bay window, capturing only the starkest details, and even those are pretty faint. Alternatively, the dark shadow area of the porch shows a higher level of detail, with the brick pattern and trim details of the door completely visible. Noise level is low in the roof shingles and shadow areas of the house, with a small grain pattern that could be contributing to the overall haze of the image. The table below shows our standard resolution and quality series.
ISO Series We also shot with the camera's adjustable sensitivity setting, which offers five ISO equivalents. We noticed that the milky haze disappeared completely with the 100 ISO setting, and was only slightly present at the 200 ISO setting. The 25 and 50 ISO settings had some of the haze effect, but the 400 ISO setting produced the strongest haze, with a pink cast. The details of the bright bay window were most visible at the 100 ISO setting, but disappeared at the other ISO equivalents. Noise remained moderately low except at the 400 ISO setting, where it increased to a moderately high level.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Lens Zoom Range We've received a number of requests from readers to take shots showing the lens focal length range of those cameras with zoom lenses. Thus, we're happy to present you with the following series of shots, showing the field of view with the lens at full wide angle and at full 3x telephoto. The 912's wide angle setting captures a very large field of view, with noticeable barrel distortion along the curb of the street. A pinkish, milky haze covers the central portion of the image, much like what we saw in the 400 ISO Far shot above. Resolution is slightly less than in the Far shot, with much softer details as well (the details of the bay window are nearly invisible). Resolution and sharpness increase with the 3x telephoto setting, capturing the stronger details of the bright, white bay window. Color balance warms slightly with the telephoto shot, losing the bluish/magenta cast of the wider shot. The milky haze also disappears.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Musicians Poster (769k) The large amount of blue in this image often tricks digicams into overcompensating, but the 912's white balance system handled the challenge well. We shot samples of this image with the automatic (130 k), daylight (131 k), and 5,500K (131 k) white balance settings. Both the automatic and daylight settings produced very similar images, with a nearly accurate color balance. The 5,500K setting warms the image slightly, but produces more natural looking skin tones. Thus, we chose the 5,500K white balance setting for our main series. (All the white balance settings produced very good results though.) The blue of the Oriental model's robe is nearly accurate, though slightly greenish. Resolution looks good, with most of the fine details of the bird wings and silver threads visible on the blue robe, though the fainter details of the smaller bird on the front of the model's shoulder are lost. The violin strings are a little soft, though defined enough to produce a small moire pattern. The flower garland and beaded necklaces also show a nice level of detail, but with a hint of softness. Noise is moderately low, but produces a slight haze over the image. The overall appearance of the image is very pleasing though, a good performance. The table below shows our standard resolution and quality series. Resolution/Quality series
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Macro Shot (283k) The 912 performs very well in the macro category, capturing a very tiny minimum area of just 0.62 x 0.50 inches (15.78 x 12.62mm). Definitely one of the smallest macro areas we've seen in a while. Detail and resolution both look great, with a lot of the fibrous detail of the dollar bill visible. Printing details on the bill are slightly soft, but still well defined. Color looks reasonably accurate as well, though slightly greenish. Noise is low, and scarcely visible. The 912's built-in flash (290 k) does a surprisingly good job of throttling down for the macro area, though with slightly uneven distribution at such a close range. An orangish hot spot dominates the top right corner of the image, with the greenish tint increasing in rest of the image. Still, a very nice job overall. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
"Davebox" Test Target (774k) We shot samples of this target using the automatic (103 k), daylight (102 k), and 5,500K (101 k) white balance settings, noticing that the automatic and daylight settings produced nearly identical, cool results. The 5,500K setting produced a more accurate white value on the mini resolution target, leading us to choose it for our main series. At all three white balance settings, we noticed the same hazy film that we've been seeing throughout our testing, but this target finally provides a clue to its cause: The PhotoSmart 912 apparently works very hard to preserve detail in the darkest shadows. (As here, in the charcoal briquettes.) It does this by boosting the black level up a fair bit, so that only the very darkest portions of the image will be totally black. This does indeed do an excellent job of preserving shadow detail, but at the expense of making what would otherwise be very dark grays come out rather light. The result is a picture in which dark objects are just a little lighter than they should be, creating a "hazy" appearance. The large color blocks all look slightly weak and subdued, particularly the magenta block. The 912 has no problem distinguishing between the red and magenta color blocks on the middle, horizontal color chart (which is a common problem area for many digicams), though it reproduces the black separator line with a reddish tint. The subtle tonal variations of the Q60 chart area also visible, all the way up to the "B" range (another common problem area for digicams), though the color distinctions are very faint. The tonal gradations of the smaller, vertical gray scales also look good, with distinct variations between tones. The shadow area of the briquettes shows a large amount of detail, with moderately low noise, though the highlights of the white gauze area lose some detail. Resolution is moderate overall, with good detail in the box hinges and silver disk, though the mini resolution target appears a little soft. The table below shows our standard resolution and quality series. Resolution/Quality series
ISO Series We again shot with the 912's variable ISO settings, noticing that color saturation increased at the 200 and 400 ISO levels. Noise level also increased with the higher ISO settings, becoming moderately high at 400 ISO.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Low-Light Tests The 912 had a little trouble in the low-light category, producing the brightest, clearest image at the eight foot-candle light level (88 lux), which is the brightest light level in the series. We found similar results for the 100, 200, and 400 ISO settings, the only major difference being the noise level. At all three ISO settings, the eight foot-candle (88 lux) image shows very hot white values which seem to glow slightly. This odd highlight trait disappears with the lower light levels, however. We also noticed a strange blue cast to a couple of the images, namely the four foot-candle light level (44 lux) at 200 ISO, and the two foot-candle light level (22 lux) at 400 ISO. Images were still usable at the two and four foot-candle light levels, though somewhat dim. The target remained visible as low as 1/16 of a foot-candle (0.67 lux), however, noise levels increased dramatically. Noise was surprisingly high with the 100 ISO setting, and only increased with the 200 and 400 ISO settings. However, at all three ISO settings, the highest noise occurred with the darker light levels, from about two foot-candles on down. (We direct readers to Mike Chaney's excellent Qimage Pro program, for a tool with an amazing ability to remove image noise without significantly affecting detail.) To put the 912's low-light performance into perspective, an average city night scene under modern street lighting corresponds to a light level of about one foot-candle, so most average nighttime city shots will require use of a flash. The table below shows the best exposure we were able to obtain for each of a range of illumination levels. Images in this table (like all of our sample photos) are untouched, exactly as they came from the camera.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Flash Range Test In our testing, we found the 912's flash power brightest from eight to 10 feet from the target, with a slight decrease in intensity at each additional foot of distance. The largest decrease in intensity occurred between the 14 and 15 foot distances. The flash was still effective at the 15 foot distance, though the intensity was quite dim. HP doesn't state an official range for the flash in their documentation for the camera, but we'd rate it at about 10 feet. Below is our flash range series, with distances from eight to 15 feet from the target.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test (896k) In our laboratory resolution test, the PhotoSmart 912 produced clean detail out to about 650 lines per picture height in both horizontal and vertical directions. The image is fairly "clean", in that noticeable aliasing doesn't begin until 700 to 750 lines. The image is once again soft, as we observed in our other tests, but takes sharpening well in Photoshop or other imaging program. Oddly, the +1.0EV exposure compensation needed to adjust for the white target resulted in a pronounced yellowish cast. Resolution Series, Wide Angle
Resolution Series, Telephoto
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Viewfinder Accuracy/Flash Uniformity We found the 912's TTL optical viewfinder to be only a little tight, though still reasonably accurate, showing approximately 90.4 percent of the image area at wide angle (261 k). Frame accuracy was approximately 93.2 percent at the telephoto (258 k) end. (Frame accuracy was the same for both resolution sizes). The LCD monitor was also a little tight at the wide angle (300 k) end, showing approximately 96.3 percent of the image area, at both resolution sizes. (These shots of the viewfinder accuracy target look a little different than normal, because the 912's 4:5 image aspect ratio means that the bold vertical lines at the right and left hand edges of the frame are cut off. This is normal for cameras with this aspect ratio.) The LCD's frame accuracy was slightly higher at the telephoto (296 k) end of the zoom range, where it showed 98.3 percent of the final image area. Since we like to see LCD viewfinders as close to 100% frame coverage as possible, the 912's LCD does quite well in this respect. Flash distribution looks fairly even at the telephoto setting, with a small hot spot near the center of the target. At the wide angle setting, flash distribution is brightest in the center of the target, with increasing falloff around the edges and corners. Optical distortion on the 912 is fairly high at the wide angle end, where we measured approximately 0.91 percent barrel distortion. The telephoto setting produced much better results, as we only measured one pixel of pincushion distortion. Chromatic aberration is fairly low, showing about a three pixels of faint coloration on each side of the black target lines. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Follow Imaging Resource: