HP releases new pocket cameras and camcorders

20.02.2010

The compact cameras all include 25 scene modes. There are the usual scenes consumers have come to recognize on point-and-shoot cameras, including Party, Portrait, Snow, Sunset, and Night modes. A sports scene mode is good for capturing action, and also includes the ability to take a burst of photos if you hold the button down.

The uncomfortably named "Love Portrait" mode is specifically for pictures you shoot of yourself and another person. It uses face detection to ensure the picture isn't taken until you're both in the frame. A Soft Skin mode does a bit of automatic in-camera retouching, smoothing out skin textures. Another new scene is the Auction mode, which saves images as smaller, easily-uploadable files for posting on sites like eBay or Craigslist.

Also present on each camera are smile and blink detection. Smile detection waits until you're properly cheerful before taking the shot. If a person was blinking when their picture was taken, the blink detection feature will alert you to the error and ask if you want to keep or delete the shot.