Hewlett Packard R827 Review

The Hewlett-Packard Photosmart R827 includes both a seven megapixel CCD imager and an HP-branded 3x optical zoom lens. An 8x digital zoom will help you crop in on subjects even more tightly, but like any digital zoom it cannot recreate detail that wasn't in the wide-angle image, and hence will tend to soften images proportionally to the zoom strength. For framing images, there's a 2.5" LCD display - a little larger than average, which would make the camera more conducive for sharing images with family and friends immediately after capture. There's no optical viewfinder though - something that's become an increasingly rare in modern digital cameras, unfortunately. Images are stored on Secure Digital / MultiMediaCards, or in 32MB of internal memory.

HP R827 shooting modes include Action, Auto (default), Beach, Document, Landscape, Night Scenery, Night Portrait, Panorama left, Panorama right, Portrait, Snow, Sunset, Theatre and Steady Photo. Other R827 features include In-camera Red-eye Removal, HP Design Gallery (Artistic Effects, Borders, Colors), Adaptive Lighting, In-camera Panorama Preview and Stitching, HP Image Advice, and Video Prints.

Images captured on the HP Photosmart R827 are transferred to your computer over a USB 1.1 connection, rather slower than the USB 2.0 High Speed connections offered on most current cameras. The HP R827 is covered by a 1 year warranty, comes with HP Photosmart software and is PictBridge complaint - letting you print images directly on compatible printers without the need for a computer. An optional camera dock helps emphasise ease of use when transferring images to a computer. The R827 derives its power from a proprietary Lithium Ion rechargeable battery.

The Hewlett-Packard Photosmart R827 is priced at US$299.99 and ships from September 2006.