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Hewlett Packard Photosmart R707
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Quick Review
Hewlett Packard Photosmart R707 Digital Camera
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Camera
QuickLook |
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Review Date |
10/5/2004 |
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User Level |
Novice to Intermediate
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Product Uses |
Family / Travel
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Digicam Design |
Point and Shoot, Some Manual Control
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Picture Quality |
Very Good, 5.1-megapixel CCD
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Print Sizes |
To 11x14 inches, with some cropping |
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Availability |
March, 2004 |
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Suggested Retail Price
(At introduction) |
$349.99 |
Introduction
The Hewlett Packard Photosmart R707 digital camera is the latest in a long
line of Photosmart-branded digital cameras aimed at making digital cameras
more accessible and easier to use. Early on, HP got their start in the digicam
market partnered with Pentax, but soon stepped out on their own. The HP R707
keeps the familiar "camera-like" design of past models, but builds
on it with a sleek new body and user interface, and a boatload of new features
aimed at improving ease of use. With its aggressive pricing, attractive body,
and selection of automatic and limited manual controls, the camera could be
an interesting competitor. Read on for all the details!
Camera Overview
Looking much like a traditional 35mm point-and-shoot
camera, but with modern, sleek styling and an attractive brushed stainless
steel "skin" wrapped around the front of a
rubberized high-impact polycarbonate body, Hewlett Packard's Photosmart R707
offers a 3x optical zoom and a choice of automatic or some manual controls
in a compact, user-friendly package. Measuring a mere 3.9 x 1.4 x 2.4 inches
(99 x 35 x 60 millimeters) and weighing 7.4 ounces (210 grams) with
the battery and SD memory card loaded, the Photosmart
R707 is fairly light and compact, but a little too large for a shirt pocket.
It will fit nicely in coat pockets, purses, and backpacks though. Covered
in slightly rubberized charcoal-gray plastic body panels on all but the front
and right sides (which have a thin skin of brushed stainless steel), the R707's
body features clean, smooth lines and an elegant but modern look. A deep,
curved recess in the lower front of the camera provides a solid hold for your
right index finger when shooting, and a wrist strap comes with the camera,
for added peace of mind. A built-in shutter-like lens cover conveniently opens
whenever the camera is powered on, and the lens telescopes outward in a matter
of seconds. The R707 features a 5.14-effective megapixel CCD, which produces
high resolution images for making sharp prints as large as 11x14 inches even
with some cropping, as well as lower resolution images better suited for email
distribution. With its range of exposure options, 3x optical zoom, high resolution
CCD, and excellent ease-of-use, the R707 is a versatile and capable performer.
The Photosmart R707 is equipped with a 3x, 8-24mm
lens, the equivalent of a 39-117mm lens on a 35mm camera. This represents a
range from a moderate wide-angle to moderate telephoto. Maximum
aperture ranges from f/2.8 to f/4.9, depending on the lens zoom setting. Focus
ranges from 1.6 feet (0.5 meters) to infinity in normal mode, with a macro setting
ranging from 6 to 39 inches (14 to 100 centimeters). As well as standard and macro focus modes, the R707 also offers the ability to lock focus at infinity, and to set focus manually. An unusual feature of the R707 is "Focus Search Priority", which allows you to bias the autofocus to objects that are nearer to or further from the camera, should the focus area at the center of the frame include objects at different distances. A focus assist light is available to aid with focusing on nearby subjects under poor lighting conditions.
In addition to the optical zoom, the Photosmart R707 offers as much as 8x digital zoom. (I always remind readers though, that digital zoom inevitably decreases the overall image quality because it simply enlarges the central pixels of the CCD's image.) For composing images, the Photosmart R707 offers a 1.5-inch LCD monitor, as well as a small real-image optical viewfinder. Typically for a consumer digicam, the optical viewfinder is a little tight, showing only 85% of the final image area, but the LCD is quite accurate. The LCD monitor reports limited camera information, including camera mode, whether an SD card is installed in the camera, battery life, the number of available images, quality and resolution, and a set of focusing brackets. Icons on the LCD monitor also indicate any camera settings that have been changed from their defaults, and while the shutter button is half-pressed, the expected shutter speed and aperture are shown on the monitor.
When it comes to exposure, the Photosmart R707 offers a range of options, controlled by the Mode button on top of the camera. Main exposure modes include Auto, and Aperture Priority modes, with six preset Scene modes, plus a Panorama mode for shooting multiple images to be stitched into a single panoramic image on a computer, and the "My Mode" which lets you store and recall a group of preferred settings for later use. A Movie mode is available as well, but is accessed via a separate Video button regardless of the camera's current exposure mode. In Auto mode, the camera handles aperture and shutter speed, but allows the user to adjust all other exposure settings. Aperture Priority modes provide partial manual control, letting the user adjust the lens aperture while the camera selects the corresponding shutter speed. Aperture settings range from f/2.8 to f/8.4, with the actual maximum and minimum values depending on the lens zoom position. Shutter speeds range from 1/2,000 to 16 seconds, although shutter speeds slower than 1/60 second are not available except in Night flash mode. The six scene modes include Action, Landscape, Portrait, Beach & Snow, Sunset, and Document modes, for shooting in common, yet sometimes challenging, situations. Long exposures automatically employ a Dark Frame Subtraction noise reduction algorithm, which reduces noise by capturing a second image using identical settings, but without opening the shutter. This works well to remove the fixed pattern "stuck pixels" in longer exposures, but doubles the time needed to capture and process the image.
By default, the R707 employs a Center-weighted metering
system, which reads the entire frame and places emphasis on the center to determine
the exposure. Through the Record menu, however, you can opt for Average or Spot
metering modes. Also located in the Record menu is an Exposure Compensation
option, adjustable from -3 to +3 exposure equivalents (EV) in one-third step
increments. An Automatic Exposure Bracketing feature captures three images with
exposures varying between shots by 0.3, 0.7 or 1.0EV. Light sensitivity is adjustable
to ISO values of 100, 200, or 400, with an Auto setting as well. White Balance
options include Auto, Sun, Shade, Tungsten, and Fluorescent light sources, as
well as a Manual setting for manually adjusting the color balance with a white
card. The Record menu also offers Sharpness, Contrast, and Saturation adjustments,
as well as a Color setting with Full Color, Black and White and Sepia color
options. The Photosmart R707 features a built-in flash, which operates in Auto,
Auto with Red-Eye Reduction, On, Off, or Night modes.
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Instant Share
Help Menu |
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Image Advice
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Worthy of note are the Photosmart R707's ease of use features, which combine to
make it one of the better cameras I've seen for consumers who don't want to spend
time reading manuals, or editing photos in the digital darkroom. The R707's menu
system includes a Help screen for every record-mode option, which describes what
that particular option does in a reasonably detailed, but concise manner (most
options are described in four or five pages of text on the LCD display, or somewhere
around a hundred words). In addition to this, the R707 features a separate Help
menu, where you can find tips, a description of the camera's interface and accessories,
and instructions on how to perform common tasks. Most cameras have some level
of "help" functionality built into them, but the HP R707 goes far beyond
anything I've yet seen, practically packaging a photo tutorial inside the camera
itself. Even beyond the extensive help system though, an Image Advice function
in the Playback menu attempts to suggest what may be wrong with pictures, for
example suggesting the use of a tripod on long exposures, or the use of the Adaptive
Lighting function on a high-contrast image. This function, which is in a way reminiscent
of the stickers some photo labs place on poor photos with advice on how to avoid
such mistakes next time around, helps users learn how to improve their photographs
(and how best to utilize features of the camera which they might not otherwise
realize were available to them). Overall, the Photosmart R707's user interface
has clearly been thought out very carefully, and should provide a cure for the
problem of leaving home (and manual) without a thorough knowledge of how the camera
works.
Another nice touch is that the camera's Panorama mode can stitch together low-resolution versions of the images captured and display them as a single panoramic image, allowing you to preview the effectiveness of your panorama immediately (note that the final panorama must still be stitched together on your computer using the provided software, but this is still the first camera I've seen in a long time which lets you preview your panorama immediately, rather than viewing its component images separately).
The R707's Adaptive Lighting and Remove Red-Eye features also add greatly to ease of use. While similar effects can be achieved in an image editor such as Photoshop (and perhaps better effects, if you're well acquainted with image editing), these useful tools aim to correct two very common complaints in point and shoot photographs. Accessed through the Record menu, the Adaptive Lighting option (which offers two strength settings) simulates the effect of a fill flash by boosting brightness in shadow areas of images. I was surprised to see how well Adaptive Lighting worked, and how natural images captured with it looked. Of course, there's no free lunch, and the downside of Adaptive Lighting is that image noise is increased significantly in shadow areas that have been brightened. Still, I think most consumers would be pleased with the results produced by Adaptive Lighting.
The Remove Red-Eye tool in the Playback menu runs firmware in the camera which attempts to detect and remove the red discoloration in your subject's eyes, as often seen in portrait photographs taken with flash in a poorly-lit environment. This tool is completely separate from the camera's red-eye reduction flash mode, which attempts to minimize red-eye by firing a short burst of pre-flash to cause your subject's retinas to contract. I found that the Remove Red Eye tool usually did a fairly good job of finding and correcting for red-eye, although it occasionally incorrectly identified items such as reflections from jewelry for correction, and on one image repeatedly locked up the camera completely, requiring it to be powered off and on again. While it worked well in many cases, I wouldn't call the R707's Remove Red-Eye tool as much of a success as Adaptive Lighting.
In Movie mode (which isn't accessed via the Mode button, but rather by using a separate shutter release button called the Video button, exclusively for movie recording), the camera captures 320 x 240-pixel resolution moving images with sound. The recording time per segment is not limited except by battery life and available space on the SD memory card, and movies are captured with a frame rate of 30 frames per second. Like most digital cameras, the lens can't be zoomed while recording to prevent noise from the lens motor from affecting the sound track. Digital zoom is likewise not available in movie mode. While the lack of movie-mode optical zoom ensures optimal sound quality for movies, some users might have found the noise captured by the microphone is less objectionable than the noise of the optical zoom, and most digital cameras do allow use of digital zoom with minimal loss of quality given that the dimensions of the video itself are so far below the resolution of the camera's imager. The camera's Self-Timer mode provides two choices, both starting with a 10-second delay between the time the Shutter button is pressed and the time that the camera actually takes the picture, allowing you to get into your own shots. The second of the two Self-Timer modes captures two shots, with a delay of several seconds in between - useful in case somebody blinks in the first shot. The movie mode can be used in combination with the self-timer feature, for a ten second delay before the movie capture starts, regardless of which Self-timer mode is active. For shooting fast action subjects, the Photosmart R707's Burst mode captures a rapid series of three or four images, while you hold down the Shutter button, much like a motor drive on a traditional 35mm camera. Continuous-mode speed is pretty good, at 2.3 frames/second, again for up to four shots, the actual frame rate and number of images in a series will depend on the resolution setting, subject matter, and the amount of available memory space.
The Photosmart R707 stores its images in 32MB of internal
memory (of which 27MB is available for storage), or alternatively on optional
Secure Digital (SD) memory cards. (The camera also works with the slightly less
expensive MMC cards.) I highly recommend picking up a high capacity card right
away, so you don't miss any important shots. (These days, a 128 MB card represents
a good tradeoff between capacity and cost.) Connection to a host computer for
image download is via USB. The Photosmart R707 is a "storage-class"
device, which means that it doesn't require any separate driver software for
Windows 2000 and XP, or for Mac OS 8.6 and later. The camera utilizes a rechargeable
L1812A Lithium Ion battery for power (HP's name for the NP-60 battery format),
and a single battery and 3.3V AC adapter are included in the product bundle,
allowing for in-camera recharging. Unlike most Lithium Ion-powered cameras,
the R707 will also accept the recently launched single-use Duracell CP1
Prismatic battery - which as it becomes more widely available, could save you
in a pinch when you're unable to recharge your batteries. The optional C8887A
Photosmart R-Series camera dock is worth considering along with the camera,
as it allows for one battery to be charging in-camera whilst another charges
in a slot at the end of the dock, and also allows for both image transfer to
a PC, and offers NTSC / PAL video output on your TV, with a remote control (included
with the optional dock). As an alternative if you don't care for the video connectivity
of the camera dock, the L1810A Quick Recharge Kit includes a charger, spare
battery, travel pouch and camera case - which, given that the camera itself
comes with a charger, would also allow you to have two batteries being charged
simultaneously.
Basic Features
- 5.14- effective megapixel CCD.
- Real-image optical viewfinder.
- 1.5-inch, 120k pixel color TFT LCD monitor.
- 3x, 8-24mm lens, equivalent to a 39-117mm lens on a 35mm camera.
- 8x digital zoom.
- Automatic and Aperture Priority exposure
modes, plus six preset Scene modes.
- Shutter speeds from 1/2,000 to 16 seconds.
- Maximum aperture f/2.8 to f/4.9, depending on lens zoom position.
- Built-in flash with five modes.
- 32MB built-in memory (27MB available for image storage).
- SD/MMC memory card storage.
- Images saved as JPEG files.
- Power supplied by included L1812A Lithium Ion rechargeable or optional Duracell CP1 Prismatic disposable batteries, or included AC adapter.
- HP Image Zone software (including HP Instant Share, HP Memories Disc Creator, and Arcsoft Panorama Maker 3.5), and USB drivers included for both
Windows and Mac platforms.
Special Features
- 320 x 240 pixel movie mode with sound recording, featuring separate "Video button" shutter release.
- Burst shooting mode.
- 10-second Self-Timer and double-shot Self Timer for delayed shutter release.
- Voice Memo mode for recording audio captions.
- White balance (color) adjustment with six modes, including a manual setting.
- Adjustable ISO with three sensitivity settings and an Auto mode.
- Average, Center-Weighted, and Spot metering options.
- Color, Saturation, Sharpness, and Contrast adjustments.
- Two-step "Adaptive Lighting " function boosts brightness of shadow areas in pictures, simulating fill flash
- "Remove Red Eye" function looks for and corrects red-eye in images during playback
- Panorama mode assists in lining up of multiple images for stitching into a single panoramic image on a computer, and offers a preview stitched panorama on the camera
- Extremely detailed help system featuring descriptions of menu items, external controls, and camera functions.
- Supports printing via USB to PictBridge compatible printers, as well as some HP Photosmart printers, some HP All-in-ones and USB-equipped HP Deskjet printers (cable included).
- USB cable for connection to a computer (driver software included).
Recommendation
With its relatively high 5.1 megapixel resolution, automatic and selected manual exposure
controls, "Adaptive Lighting" and "Remove Red-Eye" functions, plus the rest of its superb ease-of use features, the Photosmart R707 is a stylish, full-featured yet surprisingly
affordable compact digicam. Though the camera features some manual exposure
capabilities, its simplified user interface and available automatic modes make it
approachable for less-experienced novices who want to gradually learn more about
digital photography. A 5.14-effective megapixel CCD delivers good quality images, with
enough resolution to make sharp 8x10 prints, with a lower resolution option available
for email and other electronic uses. The R707 is compact enough for travel, and has enough exposure features to handle most situations. The R707 would make a good choice for anyone looking for a compact
digicam with ample features, that is truly easy to use, and available at an affordable price.
Design
Hewlett Packard's Photosmart
brand name covers a wide array of digital cameras designed to suit a wide range
of experience levels and price points, from entry level to models offering high
resolution and long zoom lenses. The newest addition to the pack is HP's Photosmart
R707. The R707 offers a range of exposure control options, a high resolution
5.1 megapixel CCD sensor coupled with a 3x optical zoom lens, and has an easy
to learn user interface, all at an affordable price. Shaped like a traditional
35mm point-and-shoot camera but with an emphasis on style, the R707 has a rubberized
high-impact plastic body with a deeply recessed grip for your index finger.
Wrapped around the front and right sides is a brushed stainless steel skin that
curves smoothly to give a sleek and sophisticated look. The R707 sports only
a handful of external controls, resulting in a user interface that should be
swift and easy to learn. Measuring 3.9 x 1.4 x 2.4 inches (99 x 35 x 60 millimeters),
the Photosmart R707 is probably slightly too bulky for shirt pockets, but should
slip into coat pockets and purses without trouble. The camera's plastic body
helps keep the weight down, despite the metal skin on the front, at 7.4 ounces
(210 grams) with the battery and SD memory card loaded. A wrist strap accompanies
the camera for peace of mind when shooting, but I'd recommend picking up a small
camera case to protect the finish of the charcoal grey plastic body panels when
traveling (the stainless steel front and right panels should offer good scratch-resistance,
although they do show fingerprints easily).

The front of the R707 is almost flat, with the exception of a very slight protrusion around the lens, and a deep recess at the lower right hand corner (when looking at the camera from the rear) which serves as a grip for your right index finger to gain purchase on. The R707's front panel is finished with a smooth "skin" of brushed stainless steel which wraps gently around the right hand side of the camera. When powered
on, the lens extends approximately three quarters of an inch from the camera front.
A shutter-like cover protects the lens, automatically sliding open when the camera is activated and closing again when the camera is turned off. There's thus no need for an easily-lost lens cap.
Also on the front panel is the autofocus assist lamp (at the very top left of the camera), which doubles as an indicator lamp for the self-timer. Adjacent to this lamp is the small, circular optical viewfinder window. Continuing further right, the next item is the tiny single-hole grille for the camera's microphone. Finally, near the top center of the camera, just left of the HP logo, is the built-in flash strobe.

The right side of the R707 (as viewed from the rear), wrapped in the metal skin that curves around from the front panel, is almost perfectly smooth and featureless with the exception of a small eyelet for the included wrist strap.

The opposite side of the camera, constructed of rubberized high-impact plastic, is likewise almost smooth and featureless, with the exception of soft rubber cover attached to the camera which protects the two connectors, bending aside to reveal them. The camera's USB and DC In connector terminals are located on the connector panel under this cover.

The Photosmart R707's top panel is smooth and uncluttered. A twenty-hole
speaker grille, the camera's Mode button, the Shutter button, and the Video button (essentially a shutter button dedicated to recording videos) are all located on top of
the camera.

The remaining camera controls are all on the rear panel, along with the tiny real-image optical viewfinder and 1.5-inch color LCD monitor. The viewfinder lacks any form of dioptric adjustment, so eyeglass wearers will need to wear their glasses while using the viewfinder. It also doesn't have a particularly high eyepoint, so you'll likely find yourself having to press your eyeglass lens up against the back of the camera to see the full frame. To the right of the optical viewfinder are two small LEDs, the upper of which illuminates red when movies are being recorded. The lower LED lights solid green to indicate that the camera is ready to take a photo (shutter button half-pressed, focus and exposure locked, and flash charged if applicable). When focus lock can't be achieved, the flash isn't ready, or the camera is still processing the previous shot, this LED blinks green. If the camera has an error, both LEDs blink together. To the right of this is the Power/Memory LED and On/Off switch, a spring-loaded slider which turns the camera on and off. The Power/Memory LED indicates that the camera is on (solid green), writing an image to the internal memory or SD / MMC card (fast blinking green), turned off and charging (slow blinking green), or turned off (not lit).
Seven buttons curve around the top and right sides of the LCD display; the MF Focus button, Flash button, Timer / Burst button, Live View button, Playback button, HP Instant Share button, and Print button. The MF Focus button selects between the available focus modes - Normal Focus, Macro, Infinity or Manual Focus. The Flash button selects the flash mode, with choices being
Auto, Auto with Red-Eye Reduction, On, Off, or Night modes.
The Timer / Burst button accesses the camera's Burst mode and
two Self-Timer modes (one of which captures one shot after ten seconds, and the other of which captures a shot after ten seconds, followed by another two seconds later). The Live View button turns on and off the LCD display in Record mode, with an information overlay showing certain camera settings that cannot be disabled. The Playback button switches the camera to Playback mode, where images and movies can be reviewed, and voice memos added to images. Pressing the Playback button a second time returns the camera to Record mode with Live View disabled; alternatively the Shutter button or Live View button can be half-pressed or pressed respectively to return to Record mode with Live View enabled. The HP Instant Share button
is used to flag images for sharing once the camera is connected to a computer. Finally, the Print button
is used to flag images for printing once the camera is connected to a computer.
To the right of the LCD and surrounding buttons is the Four-Way Controller with central Menu / OK button. The Four-Way Controller is used to navigate menus, scroll through images in Playback mode, and to pan around images when using the Playback zoom. The Menu / OK button calls up the camera's menu system, and acknowledges changes to menu options. At the top right of the camera's rear is a two-way Zoom rocker button, nestled around a circular indentation that helps your thumb keep a grip on the rear of the camera, and makes it easier to roll your thumb to reach either end of the rocker. The Zoom rocker controls the optical and digital zoom in Record mode (except for when recording movies, when zoom is not available), as well as controlling the playback zoom, and accessing the nine-image thumbnail view (by pressing the wide end of the rocker when not using the playback zoom).

The R707's bottom panel is almost totally flat, with a plastic threaded tripod mount at the very rear left corner of the camera. This position is less than perfect for people interested in panoramic photography, as it is not centered under the lens and will contribute to parallax error when making panoramas; it also will not provide the optimum stability on a tripod given how close the mount is to two edges of the camera. The battery and SD / MMC card compartment is at the right rear of the camera, covered by a sliding door which, when pushed backwards, will pop open on a gently spring-loaded mechanism. The tripod mount is just far enough away from the battery / SD compartment to allow quick battery or card changes while working on a tripod. I always appreciate this, given the amount of studio work I do, and am glad that the battery and memory card slots are both accessible while working on a tripod. A sliding switch locks the battery in place, to prevent it from accidentally falling out when opening the compartment door. Also located on the bottom of the camera is a connector for the optional HP Photosmart C8887A camera dock, which is not protected by any kind of cover, so you'll want to be careful to avoid debris damaging the electrical contacts inside.
Camera Operation
With only a handful of external camera controls and a well-organized LCD menu
system, the Photosmart R707's user interface is straightforward and easy to
grasp. The Mode button on the top panel controls the camera's main operating
mode and the level of exposure control available. The R707's efficiently laid
out LCD menu system is easy to understand and relatively quick to navigate.
Given the camera's straightforward setup and user-friendly design, most users
should be able to operate the camera right out of the box, referring to the
manual only for more complex operations.
Record-Mode
Viewfinder Display: In record mode, the R707 displays an information overlay
on the LCD screen or electronic viewfinder, which cannot be disabled. Information
shown includes exposure mode (except in Auto mode), capture menu settings (if
not default, including white balance, metering mode, ISO sensitivity, Adaptive
Lighting function, color mode, saturation, contrast, sharpness, exposure bracketing,
and date / time imprinting), exposure compensation (if a compensation adjustment
has been made), image size and quality setting, flash status (except in Auto
flash mode), burst mode, self timer, macro mode, manual focus, infinity focus,
number of shots remaining on the memory card or internal memory, battery life
remaining, and a set of focusing brackets. Aperture and shutter speed are reported
when the Shutter button is halfway pressed.
Playback-Mode
Viewfinder Display: In playback mode, the R707 displays the current image,
a battery gauge, and an indication of the current image number and how many
images are on the flash card or internal memory. A limited information display
can be called up through the playback menu. For still images, this offers a
display of the capture menu settings (if not default, including white balance,
metering mode, ISO sensitivity, Adaptive Lighting function, color mode, saturation,
contrast, sharpness, exposure bracketing and date / time imprinting), shutter
speed, aperture, exposure compensation (if a compensation adjustment has been
made), ISO sensitivity (duplicating the previous ISO icon if ISO was set manually),
image file name, file size, macro mode, flash mode, image size and quality,
and date. For movie files, the information display includes file name, file
size, date, and clip length. (An example of an info screen for a still photo
is shown as the last frame of the animated screen shot sequence above right,
against a blank photo, so you can see the text more clearly.)
Pressing the up or down-arrow key on the Four-Way arrow pad adjusts the playback
volume (even for images that have no attached audio). Pressing the right-arrow
key when viewing the last image in the series, or the left-arrow key when viewing
the first image in the series, calls up the Total Images Summary screen, listing
the number of images on the flash card, the number of images which can be taken
using the current settings, and the number of images marked for printing or
sharing, as well as the remaining battery life. Through the playback menu you
can also zoom in up to 140x (although at such a high zoom you're literally only
seeing an area of about 19 x 14 pixels, even at the highest image quality) to
check fine details, focus and framing, and can scroll the enlarged viewing window
around the full image using the camera's arrow keys. There's quite a long pause
when you first it the zoom toggle to zoom into an image, while the camera loads
the image file into its working memory. Once that's done though, zooming in
or out and scrolling around the enlarged image are very fast.
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