HP PhotoSmart R927 Review

When you press the Record/Playback mode button, the last image captured is displayed full screen with minimal exposure information. The 3 of 79 indicates that this is the third image of seventy nine taken.

Going to the Playback Menu and selecting the "Image Info" option, will allow you 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 histogram display.

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

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

View Slideshow - Plays an automatic slideshow of images stored in memory

Stitch Panorama - Stitches panorama images together to create a single photo

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

Move images to Card - copies pictures from internal memory to the SD card

Exit - Exit the menu system

The Design Gallery menu options:

Artistic Effects - Apply a creative effect to an image

Modify Color - Creates a copy of the selected image in a new color

Borders - Add a border to an image

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

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

Crop - Select and save part of an image as a new file

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 R927'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 Design Gallery 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 (note: this animation was taken from the R707.)

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; unfortunately the R927 does not out video in either record or playback mode. If wanting to display movies on a TV set, you can use the optional HP 6221 Premium Camera Dock, which allows for audio/video output. While playing a movie you can pause it and then extract and save a still frame.