HP Photosmart M425

Manual Control Options
The HP Photosmart M425 has a smattering of manual control settings; however, it is really intended for the point-and-shoot camera market. The camera provides control over Exposure Compensation, ISO settings and preset White Balance settings. The only one of these settings that provides users with a live view is the ISO mode, which produces a sliding scale overlaying a real time display.

Focus
Auto Focus
The Auto Focus settings for the M425 are the only focus controls that can be altered by the user. Auto Focus controls for the M425 are limited to Normal and Macro. To enter the camera into Macro mode, the user must switch the camera into the Capture menu and enter the Shooting Modes submenu. Once entered into this menu the Macro Mode setting will be listed along with a description of this feature. The autofocus worked fine; focusing time was acceptable and resulted in appropriate focal depths and subject frames.

Manual Focus
The user of the HP Photosmart M425 will need to rely solely upon the Auto Focus controls for the camera, since this model, expectedly, does not contain a manual focus setting. But seeing as how the R927, HP’s top-end model featured in the R-series, was equipped with a less than functional manual focus mode; the lack of this feature on the M425 isn’t a real loss.

Metering
The M-series does away with the manual control over metering modes that was available within the R-series, forcing users into relying entirely upon center-weighted auto exposure metering. This will be fine for evenly lit situations with proper light sources, but any situation with multiple light sources, backlighting, or other complicated lighting scenes will find this setting insufficient. The M425 is also missing the Adaptive Lighting feature that was found within the R-series.

Exposure
The Exposure Compensation settings for the M425 are located within the main Capture menu on the HP Photosmart M425. Once this setting is selected, a live view window is displayed with a horizontal EV Compensation scale in the center of the LCD screen. This scale has a range of +/-2 EV with 0.5 stop increments throughout the scale. This setting is controlled via the left and right arrows on the camera’s four-way controller. The shutter speeds and aperture settings for the M425 are controlled automatically and will provide users with a shutter speed range of 2 seconds to 1/1000 and aperture settings of f/2.8 to f/8 in wide and f/4.7 to f/7.6 in telephoto.

White Balance
White Balance settings for the HP Photosmart M425 are entirely composed of preset and auto shooting modes, which manage to cover basic situations. The lack of a manual white balance could be seen as detrimental, but for the point-and-shoot camera market, it may not be so important. The M425 has an auto mode and the following presets: Sun, Shade, Tungsten and Fluorescent. To access these settings the user must enter the Capture menu screen and select the White Balance setting. Once this setting has been selected, the White Balance submenu will appear on the LCD screen. This opaque screen provides each setting with a thumbnail image example and a text description of when this setting would be appropriate to select. The Help setting provides an overarching explanation of when manipulating White Balance settings would be feasible.

ISO
The ISO settings are one of the few controls that may be manually adjusted. The ISO range on the M425 is the same as that on all the cameras listed within the M and R-series released by HP this year. The ISO settings are located within the Capture menu and are placed within a submenu that offers an explanation and image examples of when this setting can be used. The ISO scale for the M425 allows users to select between Auto, 100, 200 and 400 ISO, which is a truncated scale within this price range when compared to other manufacturers’ offerings. An additional lower setting, like ISO 50 or 64, is common.

Shutter Speed
The shutter speed range on the M425 is identical to that found on the M527, though small when compared to the R-series. The M425’s shutter range is fully automatic and will produce images with shutter speeds varying from 1/1000 to 2 seconds. This range will cover well-lit situations, although darker scenes such as night shots may be underexposed. Users will need to manually adjust ISO levels or engage the flash.

Aperture
The aperture range, like the shutter speed, is fully automatic when shooting with both the M425 and the M527, another unsurprising decision considering the intended automatic market this is aimed toward. The aperture range for the M425 allows for settings of f/2.8 to f/8 in Wide, and f/4.7 to f7.6 when in Telephoto.