HP Photosmart R967 Review

The HP Photosmart R967 is a metallic digital camera with numerous features and technologies. This is a relatively versatile ultra-compact camera which follows HP's tradition of simplicity and ease-of-use. Surprisingly, ease-of-use does not necessarily mean efficiency-of-use, as it is described below. Also described below are the limitations of the HP Photosmart R967.

With a 10 megapixels sensor, a 3X optical zoom lens and full manual controls, the HP Photosmart R967 aims to be a general purpose camera. Its high-resolution sensor provides enough resolution for large prints, normally up to 13" x 19". The 3X optical zoom lens, equivalent to 35-105mm in 35mm terms, is minimal nowadays. This zoom range is neither wide nor long, so isolating a subject requires getting quite close to it. Such a short zoom range is not ideal for sports, wide-life or architectural photography. This digital camera's full manual controls allow for creative photography with selectable shutter-speeds and apertures in 1/3 EV steps. Only a handful of ultra-compact cameras sport full manual controls. Manual focus is also possible using a vague scale and unclear zoomed preview. With shutter-speeds from 1/2000s to 16s, movement can be frozen well and low-light photography is easily possible. It has three metering options: center-weighed, average and spot. These are useful for controlling the resulting exposure without entering manual mode.

The R967's limited ISO range means relying on its powerful integrated flash for social photography. With a quite powerful flash, shots of typical-sized rooms can come out as long as no object ends up too close to the camera. For larger rooms beyond the reach of built-in flash, like hotel lobbies or reception halls, this camera's limited ISO range lets it down. Shots in such a large rooms frequently come out with bright subjects over a dark and cavernous background. Photographers who regularly shoot in such conditions should look for a camera with high-ISO capabilities instead.

The white-balance options of this HP digital camera are suitable for even the most unusual lighting, thanks to a custom white-balance option. Saturation, sharpness, contrast and adaptive-lighting are adjustable in 3 steps to allow additional control over the final image. The R967 can focus normally from 0.5m (at wide-angle) or 0.6m (at telephoto). In macro mode, it can focus as close as 10cm from the lens. Since this minimal distance occurs at the widest setting, the resulting close up is underwhelming. There is an auto-macro focus mode which selects automatically between normal and macro focusing, at the expense of slower performance. Also, there is an infinity focus mode which is very useful for shooting from moving vehicles, shooting distance subjects when the camera cannot focus and for shooting panoramas to ensure focus consistency.

Numerous features are built into the R967 which help nailing the desired shot. For group shots and long exposures, there is a self-timer which takes one or two shots after a delay between 2 and 30s. Three bracketing modes are available when experimenting with the look of a picture: adaptive-lighting for dealing with high-contrast situation, exposure for nailing the best exposure and color-mode for choosing a color or monochrome picture, either greyscale or sepia.

With its compact size, roughly 1.1" thick, and its durable metal body, the HP Photosmart R967 is easy to carry around. There are two things to watch out for: the LCD, so big compared to the camera that it is bound to get fingerprinted and the battery compartment door, which seems so flimsy it could break off without much effort. The provided wrist-strap with tightening element keeps the camera relatively secure. Its use of standard SD cards, currently the cheapest type of memory available, makes it easy to supply it with plenty of memory. At the highest image quality, the 10 megapixels images produced by this camera are not as big as we expected. You get 174 images on a 512 MB SD card. However, video only gets you 11 minutes at its maximum resolution of 640x480 24 FPS.

It is unfortunate that this camera requires the use of a docking station for recharging its lithium-ion battery. Not only are these proprietary batteries expensive, but they are nearly impossible to find in an emergency. As for the dock, it is not such a bad thing when left at home with all its cables connected to a desktop computer. Use it with a laptop and it won't be so pleasant. Traveling is more cumbersome though since you must carry the dock, which is larger than the camera, a transformer and a power cord - plus electrical adapters depending where you go. Speaking about power, a spare battery is most likely needed, the R967 sucks one dry too rapidly. Another negative point about not having a separate charger is that the camera has to be hooked up to charge a battery.