The M417 is a 5.2 megapixel camera with a 3x optical zoom and 7x digital zoom. The camera does have an optical viewfinder along with its 1.8 inch LCD. There is a brightness adjustment for the LCD. The image in the LCD is not very impressive, sluggish and grainy. The worst part about this is that it’s hard to tell if you’ve captured a decent image until you transfer it to your computer.
The built-in flash has a range up to 12.5 feet when taking wide angle shots and 7.2 feet at full telephoto. The flash modes are Auto, Red-Eye Reducing, On, Off, and Night (longer exposure with flash). The recycle times for the flash between shots was longer than most recent cameras — I had to wait at least 3-4 seconds for the flash to charge.
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The HP Photosmart M417 is the latest in a successful line of compact digital cameras from American computer and office electronics giant Hewlett Packard. Although as a 3x optical zoom 5.2 megapixel model it sits in the mid range in terms of specification, it has a couple of advantages that elevate it comfortably above the average. The M417’s second party trick is automatic in-camera red-eye removal. If you take a face-on portrait of anyone using the built-in flash on any digital camera, chances are you’ll see the red-eye effect of flash light bouncing off the retina at the back of the eye. If you find this on a photo taken with the M417, a menu option in playback mode will automatically detect red eyes and correct them. Unfortunately it simply paints over the red highlights with rather sinister looking black dots, but it is a slight improvement.
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If you have only two Benjamins to spend and still crave a 5-megapixel camera, this HP Photosmart M417 compact fills the bill. However, don’t expect any frills. This camera is delivered sans memory card, rechargeable batteries, or charger, and its feature set mainly covers the basics. But the real killer is mediocre image quality, with soft images that break down when enlarged much beyond 4×6 inches. Still, the price is right, and the camera is easy to operate. It may satisfy casual snapshooters who value simplicity over versatility.
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In looking at the results of the test shots, we found nothing spectacular, but nothing offensive, either. There was a little noise in both the daylight and the flash shots, though it wasn’t very distracting. Color saturation and accuracy were adequate. To its credit, the HP Photosmart M417 produced images with very little fringing, and no other artifacts that we could discern. Unfortunately, the daylight image had a little too much contrast, which obscured the details in the shadowy areas of our still-life model. The flash image looked better, with good, even coverage.
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The HP Photosmart M417 offers very good value for money as one of the cheapest 5 megapixel digital cameras currently available - it has an easy to use menu system and built in help which you may find useful. However, I found the camera to be frustratingly slow at times, and rarely wanted to take the camera with me in case I missed the shot. The camera is also very poor at focusing indoors or in low light, this meant that I was pretty much unable to use the camera indoors.
Whilst it offers good value for money and is easy to use, this slow and frustrating camera is best avoided, and you would be well advised to spend more money on a 5 megapixel camera, or buy an alternative 4 megapixel digital camera (for example the Canon Powershot A520, or the Kodak Easyshare DX7440).
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