HP Photosmart R725

Viewfinder
Like all three newly released R-series cameras, the R725 does not have a viewfinder. Although an optical viewfinder could be used to save battery life, there is a tendency to design viewfinders on point-and-shoots that are ultimately undersized, poorly framed, and inaccurate, so a viewfinder at this price level would be riddled more with problems than with benefits.

LCD Screen
The HP Photosmart R725 comes with a moderate 2.0-inch LCD screen which is a fairly large drop from the overly generous 3-inch LCD found on the R927. HP reduced the pixel count as well, offering an LCD with a resolution of 153,600 pixels. This reduction in both size and pixels directly impacted the legibility of images and menus, and made navigation more complicated during extended use. It is possible to manipulate LCD brightness by entering the Set-up Menu.

HP states that this LCD has a viewing range of 170 degrees, and while this seems like an overly ambitious statement, the LCD can be legibly judged at angles fairly far off of 90 degrees.

Flash
The flash for the R725 is horizontal and placed to the right of the camera’s fixed lens, and flush with the surface of camera body. Not surprisingly, there are no accessory flash options or hot shoe. There is a slight amount of manual control over the flash settings, though it’s not as extensive as it is in other models within the point-and-shoot market. The user is able to select Flash on, Flash off, and Flash auto. These settings are initiated through the Flash button positioned on the top of the camera.

One of the larger selling points of the R725 is the automatic Red-eye reduction mode functional during capture, which is offered in tandem with the previously featured postproduction Red-eye correction. As mentioned before, the flash is positioned off the center of the lens axis, a design that will have a tendency towards causing harsh shadows from one direction.

Zoom Lens
The lens on the HP Photosmart R725 is a 3x optical zoom lens system set into the body of the camera. This small lens is easily covered by wandering fingers of, thanks to its positioning near the edge. The fixed HP Precision lens is 6.5-19.6mm and has an aperture range of f/3.5 to f/7.4 in wide and f/4.2 to f/8.8 in telephoto. While the lens on the R725 does not protrude from the camera body, the top model in the R-series this year, the R927, features a telescoping lens.