When you press the Play mode button, the last image captured is displayed full screen with minimal exposure information. The 1 of 5 indicates that this is the first image of five taken. The volume icon indicates that a voice memo has been attached to the image.

Go to the menu and select "Image Info" to see the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO values that were used. The top right shows the storage media being used (SD), file name, file size. At the bottom is the resolution/compression level used, the time & date the image was captured and the zoom lens setting.

You can quickly search through stored images using the Index playback function which is activated by pressing the Wide zoom control button. Nine thumbnail size images will be displayed and you can select one using the 4-way controller and then pressing the Telephoto zoom or OK button.

The Playback menu options:

Delete - Delete current, all or format

Remove Red Eyes - Corrects the red effect which appears in the eyes of a subject when using the flash

Image Advice - Provides an analysis of the image, to identify problems with focus, exposure, etc.

Image Info - Shows all of the settings used when the image was captured

Preview Panorama - Displays a low-resolution preview of a selected stitched panorama image

Rotate - Rotate image 90° clockwise, may be used multiple times

Record Audio - Records up to 60 sec. of audio to be attached to a still image

Exit - Exit the menu system

You can magnify an image in Playback mode by pressing the telephoto zoom control button. This allows you to check images for critical focus, etc. You can then scroll around the image by using the 4-way controller.

Images captured in portrait mode are auto-rotated, thanks to the built-in orientation sensor.

You can easily take care of red-eye without having to transfer your image to a computer, thanks to the R817's in-camera red-eye removal. Going to the Image advice option will notify you if there is a possible occurrence of Red-eye, then you select Remove Red Eyes in the playback menu and it eliminates any red-eye and allows you to preview what was changed (see above), then you can opt to save it or cancel. When you save it, it overwrites the original, so if you do not want to lose the original file I would suggest copying it to your computer first.

Up to 60-second voice memos can be attached to still images and then played back through the camera's speaker.

The motion video and audio clips are played back full-screen on the LCD or a TV (when using the optional HP R-series Camera Dock.)

While playing a movie you can pause it and then extract and save a still frame.

Selecting the Instant Share menu. The first option is Print, the next option is Share all images, which allows you to share all of the images on the internal memory or the inserted memory card. The last option is HP Instant Share Setup, in order to use all of the Instant Share Menu features you have to first connect the camera to your PC, then set it up by following the onscreen instructions.