HP Photosmart R707
Review Date: January 31st 2005
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 5 megapixel 5MP Best (2612 x 1968) mode, which gives an average image size of around 1.5Mb - 2.0Mb.
Noise
There are 3 ISO settings available on the HP Photosmart R707 which you can select at any time if the camera is in Auto mode. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting:
ISO 100 (100% crop) |
ISO 200 (100% crop) |
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ISO 400 (100% crop) |
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The noise levels look reasonable at ISO 100 and 200, but there's quite a lot of noise starting to appear at ISO 400. Interestingly, the camera never seems to select ISO 400 when it is set to ISO Auto mode, maybe an indication that ISO 400 should only be used if the lighting is really poor and you have no option but to use it.
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images at the default setting of Medium are a little on the soft side with post-processing bringing out some extra detail. Alternatively you can change the Sharpness setting on the camera to High.
Original 100% Crop |
Sharpened 100% Crop |
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File Quality
The HP Photosmart R707 has 5 different file quality settings available, with 5MP Best being the default option. There is also a Custom option which allows you to select any combination of megapixels and compression. This allows you to select a setting that offers the highest file quality - 5mp, with 4 stars of compression, as shown in the first example below.
Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.
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Custom (5MP, Highest Compression) (1,978Kb) |
5MP Best (1,486Kb) |
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5MP (1,011Kb) |
3MP (669Kb) |
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1MP (381Kb) |
VGA (87kb) |
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White Balance Issue
The file quality examples shown above highlight an issue that I experienced throughout the review. The HP Photosmart R707 had a problem with deciding exactly what the white balance should be when it was set to Auto white balance, even when the subject was exactly the same and the photos were taken without seconds of each other. Sometimes the camera recorded the scene faithfully (the "warm" examples shown above were correct), other times it gave the image a slightly cold blue cast. This was despite using the same exposure metering pattern (Average) in all the shots. You can see exactly what the camera is doing on the LCD screen, so it isn't too much of an issue, but it really should be a little more consistent.
Chromatic Aberrations
The HP Photosmart R707 had no problems with chromatic aberrations during the review. High-contrast situations like those shown below which normally cause problems with digital cameras were dealt with very well by the HP Photosmart R707, with only the faintest of purple fringing present.
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Example 1 |
Example 2 |
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Macro
The HP Photosmart R707 offers a single Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 6 inches away from the camera.
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Macro Shot (click to view full-sized image) |
100% Crop |
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The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
Flash
The flash settings on the HP Photosmart R707 are pretty standard - Auto Flash/Flash On/Flash Off/Red-Eye/Night. These shots of a white wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Flash Off - Wide Angle (39mm) |
Auto Flash - Wide Angle (39mm) |
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Flash Off - Telephoto (117mm) |
Auto Flash - Telephoto (117mm) |
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And here are some shots of yours truly. As you can see, the Flash On setting caused a small amount of red-eye, whilst the Red-Eye option lessened the effect slightly.
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Flash On |
Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Flash - Red-Eye Reduction |
Flash - Red-Eye Reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The HP Photosmart R707 maximum shutter speed is 16 seconds, which is very useful if you're interested in night photography. The shot below was taken with a shutter speed of 5 seconds, aperture of f/5.0 at ISO 100. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.
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Night Shot (click to view full-sized image) |
100% Crop |
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HP's Adaptive Lighting
The HP Photosmart R707 has a unique feature called Adaptive Lighting, which basically balances the shadows and highlights in a high-contrast image, for example a scene that includes deep black shadows and a bright white sky. If Adaptive Lighting is enabled, the HP Photosmart R707 takes the shot and then processes it (which takes longer than normal shots) so that some areas of the photograph are lightened and some are left as they are. There are 3 Adaptive Lighting settings - Off, Low and High. Here are some 100% crops which show the effects of each setting:
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Adaptive Lighting - Off |
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| Adaptive Lighting - Low |
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Adaptive Lighting - High |
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In each image I pointed the camera upwards and took the exposure reading from the sky. Personally I prefer the second image out of the sequence, which was taken with Adaptive Lighting set to Low. The first image has very dense shadow areas, and the last one looks a little too washed out.
Overall Image Quality
The HP Photosmart R707 produced images of above average quality during the review period. The 5 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default setting of Medium sharpening. They either require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you should set the camera to High sharpening. Personally I would set sharpening to the lowest setting (Soft) and then use Photoshop as it offers a lot more control. Noise is well controlled at ISO 100 and 200 and isn't too bad at all at ISO 400. The HP Photosmart R707's best performance was with chromatic aberrations, which hardly appeared in any of the test shots - only the faintest purple fringing effects could be seen in very high contrast situations. Macro performance was distinctly average compared to some other digicams on the market, allowing you to focus as close as 6 inches away from the subject. The built-in flash worked well enough indoors with only a small amount of red-eye and nice overall exposure. The night photograph was well-exposed, with the maximum shutter speed of 16 seconds allowing you to take some creative shots when darkness falls, and HP's unique Adaptive Lighting feature really does make a difference to certain high-contrast situations. The The HP Photosmart R707 did have a small problem with setting the correct white balance when set to Auto, as detailed above, but overall the camera produced a very good set of images.
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PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the HP Photosmart R707 have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.