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Viewfinder
Like most point-and-shoots, the M527 does not have an optical viewfinder. Users can instead zoom and frame their photos with the 2-inch LCD.
LCD Screen
The 2-inch LCD has a resolution of 115,200 pixels. Without an anti-glare coating the LCD solarizes at vertical angles. At horizontal angles, users can view the photos just fine. The refresh rate on the LCD is slower immediately after capture, but remarkably fast for playback review. Users can adjust the LCD brightness, but there are only three choices: high for bright situations, medium for normal situations, and low to conserve battery life. The moderate LCD resolution allows the user to check for focus, at least when zooming into the photo.
The LCD fits the design of the rest of the camera. Resting on a flat silver surface and framed with a black outline, the LCD monitor makes users feel they are watching television, rather than simply looking at a camera.
Flash
Placed in the center of the camera, the built-in flash produces evenly lit pictures. The flash has a working distance of 6.9 ft at telephoto to 12.5 ft. at the widest focal length.
The flash has four functions: auto, auto with red-eye reduction, flash off, and flash on. In the burst mode, sunset, landscape, and fast shot shooting modes, the camera defaults to the flash off mode in which the flash will not fire. The night mode allows one flash option: the red-eye reduction flash. All the other shooting modes - auto, macro, beach and snow, action, portrait, and self-timer - offer all four flash options.
Zoom Lens
The HP Precision 6-18mm lens is constructed as a single barrel. The lens has 3x optical zoom, like many entry-level cameras. With a digital zoom rating of 7x, The HP Photosmart M527 has a total of 21x zoom capabilities. The lens has decent apertures of f/2.8 to f/8.0 at its widest and f/4.7 to f/7.6 in telephoto.
With the focal length equivalent to 38mm-105mm, the camera barely covers wide enough for group photos. However, users might have to get closer to their subjects with the camera’s standard 3x optical zoom. For sports shots, the camera does offer closer digital zoom, at the sacrifice of resolution.
A common problem among the tiny lenses on point-and-shoot cameras is barrel distortion that causes slightly rounded images. The Photosmart camera, to its advantage, did not show signs of barrel distortion. The camera does not come with image stabilization though, which many other manufacturers are including on their digital cameras.
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