Marketed to the novice, the HP Photosmart R717 compact camera boasts some strong qualities, including helpful information on many of the menu screens and fairly speedy recycle times. Unfortunately, HP’s first foray into the 6-megapixel market just doesn’t generate top-notch picture quality.
The compact camera has a mostly plastic body with a brushed metal front that’s comfortable to hold. The 3X optical protruding zoom lens provides you with a zoom range of 8 to 24 mm (a 35-mm equivalent of 39 to 117 mm), but we’d like to see better range on the wide-angle side of the zoom.