Say, what’s that huge file clogging up our email pipeline? Looks like another enormous photo attachment from Uncle Roy. Don’t get us wrong, it’s great that he’s so into that digital camera at his age. And we’re touched that he wants to share the excitement of shuffleboard night with us through a series of poorly-composed hi-res snapshots. We just wish he knew how to make the pictures a manageable size – but if you think Uncle Roy is going to sit still for a Photoshop tutorial from some kid with a chin piercing, well, you don’t know Uncle Roy.

The spry old shutterbug, bless his cantakerous heart, oughtta get himself one of these HP R507XIs. This 4.1 megapixel digital camera makes it easy for even the most tech-illiterate (or, if your prefer, iltecherate) pitcher-taker to view, transfer and share photos without breaking down in tears of rage and befuddlement.

For one thing, forget those monstrous JPG attachments. If he can master the concept of email addresses – and frankly, he’s mastered our email address a little too well – he can master HP Instant Share, which puts pictures on a secure website for painless viewing by friends, family, and associates. Then there’s the idjit-resistant docking station. Instead of gathering around the computer monitor to view the pics – an activity with a vaguely unwholesome, effete, beatnik air about it – Uncle Roy can summon the brood to the good old all-American TV set to enjoy the digital photos displayed thereupon. It can even negate Uncle Roy’s notorious knack for capturing his subjects’ eyes at their reddest.

Oh, and they’ll be decent-looking pictures, too, thanks to the R507XI’s 4.1 megapixel resolution, 3x optical zoom, 7x digital zoom, and eight shooting modes. This is an HP product, fellers, not some Malaysian-made bauble that’s more at home inside a Happy Meal than a camera store. But the best things about Uncle Roy’s pictures are what they won’t be: they won’t be fifty kazillion megs, and they won’t be obstructing your email downloads. Now, if only we could get Uncle Roy to stop forwarding us all those inspirational stories about angels…

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