Spectacular prints
Written: Oct 27 '06 (Updated Feb 14 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Spectacular prints. Good ink usage. Lots of flexibility.
Cons: Extensive and invasive software installation. Very complicated combinations of cartridges.
The Bottom Line: This printer is nicely designed and delivers excellent prints. The software is too invasive, difficult and annoying.
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| stingersplace's Full Review: |
We bought this printer a month ago and have been happy with it so far. Although it emulates 4,800 x 1,200 dpi the hardware is 1,200 x 1,200. It has a 4X6 tray and holds about a half inch of regular paper. It also prints directly from flash cards (CompactFlash Type I and II, SD/MMC, Memory Stick, xD Picture, IBM MicroDrive). It also has an informative little LCD on the front that I could take or leave but it does add to the ease of use.
It uses the archival Vivera inks from HP. It came with a tricolor and a photo cartridge. There are several cartridge combinations available with separate black and gray as well as two choices for color. We're still on the first cartridge pair that came with the printer so I can't comment on longevity but the printer does have a propensity to turn itself on (thus cleaning the heads and wasting ink).
Installation was easy but very time consuming. It installs the .NET framework along with its own software and forces some default security (user logon) on WindowsXP Home that was a pain to get rid of. It also likes to be the primary printer and takes some time to force into a secondary role.
If it is your only printer and you're not picky about Windows, then you're fine. If not, you'll spend some time tweaking depending on your system.
Despite minor annoyances, the photo quality is just spectacular. The true borderless prints are as good if not better than those on the Canon i9900 that this replaced for us. Saturation is great and pixelation minimal. I self optimize and print directly out of Photoshop but the software that came with the machine appears to be extensive and helpful.
Well, this is the brief, initial review. Once we've used the thing a bit more, bought ink etc. I'll be back with more.
Update: We've used it about 5 months now and the prints are still great. The ink usage is actually a bit better than other printers we've had so we're happy with that. We purchased the 99 (high end color photo) and 100 (high end gray/black) cartridges ($45 for both at Amazon) and the prints look even better. The thing is still not the most user friendly printer. With several combinations of ink cartridges possible and only very subtle differences between them, this printer can be very complicated. I still don't like the annoying auto-monitoring software that tells me the ink is low before its time and insists on auto-running unless you manually reconfigure it. Also, you will save a lot of headaches and ink if you leave the printer off when you aren't using it. However, the bottom line is that it makes competent prints with not much fiddling, and it is capable of truly spectacular prints if you're willing to learn to exploit its capability.
Note: I write reviews because I believe in the power of the internet to inform people and make life better. I don't read comments and I don't make them - or give ratings. Any meager earnings from my reviews go to charity. Thanks for reading my review.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
stingersplace
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Member: Stinger
Location: Louisiana
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Scientist, net fundy, originally from a halcyon hamlet in PA, then across the globe.
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