Color (7.9)
Since most consumers don’t want pictures of green lips and purple eyes, we test every digital camera’s ability to reproduce accurate colors. We do this by photographing an industry standard color chart, manufactured by renowned color experts GretagMacbeth, in optimal lighting. We run the images through Imatest Imaging Software, which lets us know exactly how accurate colors are. The HP Photosmart R927 went through this rigorous test, and below is a modified chart to show how accurately it reproduced those colors. The chart has been modified by Imatest to show the ideal colors in the vertical rectangle of each tile, the R927’s colors in the outer square of each tile, and the original colors corrected for luminance by the software in the center of each tile.
For some, it may be difficult to determine just how accurate colors are with the naked eye, so we have included a more qualitative chart, also produced by Imatest. Shown below, it plots the ideal colors as squares and the camera’s colors as circles.
Ideally, all we would see are circles. However, the HP Photosmart R927 isn’t perfect. It’s white and black tones, or white balance, is nearly perfect, but the other colors dance around the graph. The warm reds and oranges, along with cool blues, are the most inaccurate colors for this camera. They aren’t out of control, but the colors definitely have their inaccuracies that result in a 9.17 mean color error. Colors were over-saturated by 16.7 percent, which is a bit on the heavy side for in-camera saturation. For its average performance, the HP R927 earned a 7.9 overall color score.
Still Life Scene
Below is a shot of our intricate still life array, captured with the HP Photosmart R927.
Resolution (5.92)
The HP Photosmart R927 advertises 8.2 effective megapixels on its image sensor. We tested their effectiveness in reproducing complex images by photographing an industry standard resolution chart. We tried several focal lengths and apertures to be sure and get the absolute sharpest result the camera was capable of. The best picture, shown below, was taken using an aperture of f/4.4 and a focal length of 19mm.
Some cameras show barrel distortion in the resolution chart, but the R927 does quite well in keeping the image straight. There's some noticeable chromatic aberration though, which is unfortunate. As for its resolution, it looks like the camera performed fairly well. To confirm our suspicions, Imatest output some quantitative data in units of line widths per picture height (lw/ph). This unit tells us how many theoretical alternating black and white lines could fit across the frame vertically and horizontally.
Imatest determined that the HP Photosmart R927 resolved 2113 lw/ph horizontally, and did so with 10.1 percent oversharpening. The camera resolved 1986 lw/ph vertically with 1.69 percent oversharpening. These results are impressive, especially when compared to competing cameras like the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W100. The 8-megapixel Sony W100 read 1856 lw/ph horizontally and 1310 lw/ph vertically. Colors are certainly not the HP R927’s strong point, but its resolution seems to capture a lot of detail. Its 5.92 resolution score is above average, even for 8-megapixel compact digital cameras.
Noise – Auto ISO (4.55)
We tested the R927’s automatic ISO setting to see how it would do in optimal lighting, and its performance was average. It produced more noise than the manual ISO 200 setting but much less than the ISO 400 setting. If we had to make a guess, we’d place it around ISO 250. This is just okay; most cameras choose lower ISO settings for this test and thus are capable of containing image noise more effectively. Still, this HP ended up with a 4.55 overall automatic ISO noise score.
Noise – Manual ISO (8.27)
This is HP’s top-of-the-line compact digital camera, but its ISO range is still stuck in the dark ages. Indeed, it has only 100, 200, and 400 settings for use at full resolution. There is a manual ISO 800 setting, but it can only be used with miniscule images that can hardly be printed. It is our policy to test only the settings that work at full resolution. We tested the noise levels at 100, 200, and 400 ISO and plotted them on the chart below.
The HP Photosmart R927 handled noise quite well, although since its sensitivity range is so much shorter than other cameras, it will not offer the flexibility and potential low light capabilities of many of its competitors. However, when we put the individual noise levels into a regression analysis, the R927 earned a respectable 8.27 overall manual ISO noise score.
Low Light (5.75)
We tested the HP Photosmart R927’s ability to snap properly exposed pictures when lighting was less than ideal – because that’s often the case with photo moments. Our low light test actually consists of four evaluations at 60, 30, 15, and 5 lux. The 60 lux test is about the lighting found in a room after dusk when two soft lamps are on. A 40-watt light bulb gives off the amount of light in the 30 lux test. The last two tests are approximately the amount of light in a basement with the lights off; photography in these situations will be a rare occasion, but we test them anyway to see just how sensitive the image sensor is. Testing at the extremes tends to bring out other issues if there are any.
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Low Light Tests
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60 Lux
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30 Lux
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15 Lux
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5 Lux
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The HP R927 didn't have any difficulty keeping images properly exposed even when light was hardly present – which is surprising for this type of camera. It performed very well, although colors became less and less saturated the longer the shutter was open; the 5 lux image almost looks pastel. The metering system had a tougher time with longer exposures, fluctuating the exposure, and obviously the longer shutter speeds led to an increase in image noise. The chart below shows how much noise (vertical axis) was in the image at the shutter speeds (horizontal axis) used in the low light tests.
There’s a steady and slow increase in noise until about 5.5 seconds, when the noise jumps significantly. The HP Photosmart R927 still performed marginally well for its styling, earning a 5.75 overall low light score.
Speed / Timing
Startup to First Shot (5.87)
The HP Photosmart R927 started up and took a shot in 4.13 seconds. That’s a long delay for a relatively simple camera. Some super-zoom cameras, which have to extend their lenses further, take a long time to start up, but the R927 has a 3x zoom. There doesn’t seem to be any reason it should be so slow. A 4-second delay is long enough to make users miss spontaneous shots.
Shot to Shot (7.8)
The HP R927 managed to shoot 2.2 frames per second in its burst mode, for a total burst of 3 images. Users who want faster rates and longer bursts can find them in competing cameras. The 3-frame burst is limiting in many situations – it’s not long enough for the moment when someone blows out the candles on a birthday cake, for instance.
Shutter to Shot (7.2)
The HP R927 isn’t a fast camera by any of our measures, but its worst rating is the lag between the moment the shutter is pressed, and the moment the camera actually takes the shot. The R927 lagged 0.9 of a second – too long for anything but posed pictures, landscapes and still lifes. The R927 is not appropriate for candid shooting at all.
