Product: HP PhotoSmart R707 Price: $2,988 Pros: Innovative features help users take better pictures Cons: Not as self-explanatory as Kodak's consumer EasyShare range
After more than a year's wait, Hewlett-Packard has released its digital cameras in Hong Kong. The company's hesitancy is understandable: the city's digital camera market is small and almost entirely dominated by well-known Japanese brands.
The first digital cameras from HP were large, brick-like blocks. But judging by the slimmed-down looks of the PhotoSmart R707, HP has taken its customers' grumbles about design to heart, though at first glance, the redesigned HP camera in a stainless steel finish comes across as yet another 'me-too' model on the market.
It would be easy to dismiss the five-megapixel, 3x zoom HP camera - after all, how can a PC maker get a camera right? But here is where HP surprises us all: the R707 is not another 'me-too' camera but has some genuinely innovative features.
Two hands are needed to operate it because of the way the control buttons have been arranged. There are not many dedicated control buttons, but the icons are recognisable and the menu system is smartly organised.
Buttons for macro, manual focus, flash settings, shoot and review, and HP's Instant Share and print menus, border the 1.5-inch liquid-crystal display screen, which is difficult to see in strong sunlight, but that can be said for most cameras.