A review of the Hewlett Packard Photosmart R727 digital camera
Hewlett Packard seem to be quiet on the digital camera front and their offspring are nothing to be quiet about. They have released some good contenders in the Photosmart range and they are smart indeed. They might not have the high specifications that some competitors specialise in, but nevertheless some very good images have been produced using their range, so we were looking forward to having a go with one of their slim cams. Design |
| The Hewlett Packard Photosmart range, especially the latest models, looks very similar and sleek they are too. The Hewlett Packard Photosmart R727 digital camera is one of the newer ones and has some slender curves and a cool silver finish. On the front there is a small flash in the right hand corner with the flash next to it. The main part of the body has a brushed chrome finish with a curved live that falls across the front and separates a section that is matt silver, leaving the front very minimal and modern looking. The top of the camera is quite different to other digital cameras, but similar to others in the Photosmart range. There is the video button and shutter release button to the right and along the rest of the top there are shortcut buttons in a row. These are flash, macro, portrait and playback. The power button is situated on the back near the top. The back also has the 2.5” LCD screen and a d-panel to the right. Above the d-panel is the zoom rocker, which is shaped in an ‘r’ shape rather than the usual straight function. Below the d-panel is a delete button. The camera is a nice handy size that you can take anywhere with you as it’s slim and compact and you don’t even have to worry about knocking the lens. |
| Features |
| There are plenty of different features on the HP Photosmart R727 to get stuck in to and you really could play around with it for hours. Along with the 6.2-mega pixels, 24x total zoom and 2.5” LCD screen there are some great editing and image enhancing features, one of them being the Slimming feature. If you feel like the camera add a few pounds when you view your images, this feature will stretch out the image so your subject appears to be slimmer, but really they just end up looking stretched and a lot taller, depending on how much you stretch it. This model is supplied with an impressive17 shooting modes to ensure you achieve the best results in almost any shooting situation. The Panorama function is particularly interesting and enables you to take up to 5 shots and the camera will ‘stitch’ them together to produce the wide-angle shot you were after. HP has also included Adaptive Lighting technology, which will automatically detect if an image has details that are lost in shadows and bring them out. Clever hey! The R727 also has that feature like its brothers and sisters in the Photosmart range, which helps you when you get stuck, just go into the Help screen in the menu and your problem will be solved. There are also 27 in-camera enhancements and editing options so you can get creative with your images and produce all sorts of weird and wonderful designs. |
| Performance |
There were some particularly good images produced from the Photosmart R727 and we were pleasantly surprised as colours were accurately reproduced with clarity and sharpness. We did notice slight purple fringing around some subjects, but it was hardly worth mentioning really. The start-up to shoot time was a bit sluggish at around 3 seconds and 1.5 seconds between shots. The shutter lag was also a little disappointing at 2.1 seconds. The battery seemed to last a long time although it was switched on and off quite regularly. It took around 300 shots before it gave up though, so not too bad. |
| Overall Opinion |
The Hewlett Packard Photosmart R727 is a good, user-friendly digital camera with many basic features and loads of enhancements and editing options to play around with. The Photosmart R727 would be more suitable to the digital beginner rather than the professional as it is quite basic and simple to use. This is good news for those who are looking for a simple digital camera that takes great pictures. |
By Hayley Malyon |
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Pros + Good images produced + User-friendly + 6.2 mega pixels |
Cons - No image stabilisation - Basic features |
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Picture Quality 8/10
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Battery Life 8/10
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Setup Simplicity 8/10
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Build Quality 8/10
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Ease of Use 8/10
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Overall Rating 
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