2. Capture Menus

The rear of the R827 is not encumbered with lots of multi-function buttons or dials. Rather, there is a zoom control, a delete button, and a Menu/OK button surrounded by four buttons for scrolling through menu choices. A tap of the Menu/OK button brings up a tabbed menu interface with five tabs. Each tab controls access to a sub menu with options arranged vertically along the left side of the screen. The five tabs are for Capture; Playback; Design Gallery; Settings and Help (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Tabbed menu interface

The first and perhaps the most important item on the Capture menu is the Mode button. There are 14 modes to choose from - each optimized for different shooting conditions. The default mode is Auto in which the camera chooses the best combination of aperture and shutter speed. Of course, there are modes for landscapes, portraits, sports, night portraits, night scenery, beach, snow and sunsets, etc., with each mode using an optimal setting appropriate for the mode. For example, the night portrait mode combines the flash with a long exposure to capture both the foreground and background. As you scroll through the modes, a sample picture is displayed along with an explanation for how the mode works.

There are a couple of modes that deserve special notice. The R827 includes a Panorama mode (Figure 4). You can choose whether you will be shooting a panoramic shot from right to left or left to right and shoot between two and five pictures. For example, shooting left to right, as you shoot your first picture, a portion of your first image is outlined and scrolls to the left of your screen. As you shoot your next picture to the right, you line up the outline so that it overlaps with the objects in the screen for the next shot.

Figure 4: Panorama mode

Using this method, you never have to "guess" at how much overlap you need for a good panoramic shot. When you've finished your panorama shots, you can preview the panorama and save it. The R827 does the stitching for you without any external software. We shot multiple panoramic shots, and if the outlines were lined up properly for each subsequent shot, the resulting panoramic photo was stitched perfectly (Figure 5). There's also a theater mode in which the camera sounds and flash is turned off, and the ISO speed is cranked up.

Figure 5: Panorama shot

The Capture menu has some other features that will appeal to consumers who want more that a point-and-shoot camera. The R827 supports three modes of bracketing - taking multiple exposures of the same scene with different settings (Figure 6). You can bracket your exposure with by 0.3, 0.7 or 1.0 f-stops. If you select 0.3, the camera will take three pictures - the first one with no exposure compensation, the second at -0.3 and the third at +0.3.

Figure 6: Bracketing mode

Alternatively, you can bracket using Adaptive Lighting, or bracket for color, which gives you Color, B&W, and Sepia. When bracketing is active, a small icon appears in the lower left corner of the screen showing which bracketing mode has been selected.

The Capture menu also has a wide range of controls that let you tweak the camera to your preferences. Though the factory defaults are fine for most purposes, you can change setting such as White Balance, Auto Focus area, Auto Exposure metering method, ISO Speed, saturation, sharpness, contrast, Image Quality, Video Quality, exposure compensation and the self-timer. You can also choose whether to include the date or date/time imprint on each picture.