Good printer for digital pics

[cisco2]

I just ordered a digital camera and am thinking I should upgrade my printer. I have an HP 762C at home, its been a great printer but its perhaps a bit behind the times.

I will NOT buy a printer that's gravity fed, horizontal feed trays only.

Outside of that I'd like to hear from anyone that has some good info on a printer for photo quality digital pictures. I'm a fan of HP printers and I'm thinking of getting an HP PhotoSmart model.

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

I have an HP Deskjet 5550 and it's great. Also does automatic double sided printing with the optional duplexer. If you really want a photosmart series get one from the 7000 series, but all they have more is card readers or direct printing from cameras. The print quality on the Deskjet 5550 and Photosmart 7000 is exactly the same. Don't bother getting a photosmart 1000 series, the quality will be just like your HP 7XX.

Or, if you want to wait a few week get the HP deskjet 5560 I beleive the model is, I will get it in a few months, here is what the 5560 does more than the 5550:
-21 pages per minute (vs 17)
-True borderless printing at any paper size (vs only 4x6 borderless with bottom tear off tab)
-Probably a few more things I'm forgetting

[3FS]

I think HP's are great, and that's from both a service and user standpoint. HP's are easier to service than most other printers, and the parts are easier to obtain.

I bought my wife one of those HP all-in-one deals for photo printing. I'm not a big fan of them myself, but for her it's great, she pops the card in, hits proof sheet and it spits out the proof sheet, then she simply shades in the bubbles of which photos she wants and what size she wants, lays it on the scanner glass and hits go. It's perfect for her, she absolutely HATES computers, so she can do this without even turning the PC on.

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

Originally posted by 3FS
I think HP's are great, and that's from both a service and user standpoint. HP's are easier to service than most other printers, and the parts are easier to obtain.

I bought my wife one of those HP all-in-one deals for photo printing. I'm not a big fan of them myself, but for her it's great, she pops the card in, hits proof sheet and it spits out the proof sheet, then she simply shades in the bubbles of which photos she wants and what size she wants, lays it on the scanner glass and hits go. It's perfect for her, she absolutely HATES computers, so she can do this without even turning the PC on.

I would have gotten one of those... until I read they can't do automatic double sided printing like the standalone printers. I can't beleive HP didnt include this feature in the all in ones :mad:

[cisco2]

Thanks for the input, I've been leaning toward one of the photosmart 7000 series printers, I'll take a look at what the 5560 has too.

[silencio]

I can tell ya this, we have two HPs and they both print great if I use HP photo paper. If I use kodak paper (much cheaper) it bleeds and never seems to dry even if I play with the saturation settings.

[King Grover]

I just bought an HP photsmart camera and went out last nigth looking for a photo printer. I ended up buying the HP 7350 photprinter. It rocks. It has slots for all memeory chips and i can just plug my camera right into it. i'm tottally satisfied with it. got the dude to throw in a free pack of paper too.! :D

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

Originally posted by silencio
I can tell ya this, we have two HPs and they both print great if I use HP photo paper. If I use kodak paper (much cheaper) it bleeds and never seems to dry even if I play with the saturation settings.

Saturation has nothing to do with ink bleeding, its to adjust the colors like when you adjust the saturation of an image in photoshop. What you should try is set the ink volume to light in the advanced properties, or try choosing matte or plain paper in the settings to it puts less ink.

[silencio]

Originally posted by ClickHere2Surf.com
Saturation has nothing to do with ink bleeding, its to adjust the colors like when you adjust the saturation of an image in photoshop. What you should try is set the ink volume to light in the advanced properties, or try choosing matte or plain paper in the settings to it puts less ink.

played with all the options and no go with the kodak paper. it always looks like crap.

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

Originally posted by silencio
played with all the options and no go with the kodak paper. it always looks like crap.

Is the kodak paper you have made for inkjet printers, I thought I read good things about kodak paper in the HP printers

[silencio]

Originally posted by ClickHere2Surf.com
Is the kodak paper you have made for inkjet printers

Yep, tried glossy and matte.

I hit photographyreview.com. Some people have good luck but most people seem to have the same results as mine with the kodak paper. I tried to verify the HP paper but there was only 1 review!

http://www.photographyreview.com/PRD_133038_4335crx.aspx#reviews

http://www.photographyreview.com/PRD_133040_4335crx.aspx#reviews

[meatwad]

If you want to spring the cash for it, get an Epson 2200. The printouts are absolutely amazing.

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

Originally posted by meatwad
If you want to spring the cash for it, get an Epson 2200. The printouts are absolutely amazing.

The prints from the <$100 HP Deskjet 5550 looks about the same as from the Epson 2200, it's not worth paying 8-10 times the price for quality that is barely better.

[cisco2]

I'm getting lazy, usually I do more research up front. I decided to buy the HP 7350. Then I read the reviews...

Of course it has interfaces for prit near every memory card interface except XD cards. And I bought a Fuji Finepix 3800 that uses XD cards...

Thats sort of moot though as apparently (from the review I read) the documents printed via the memory card interfaces are of lesser quality than documents created and sent from a PC. So the memory card interfaces are likely to go unused in the long run. The recommendation was to buy a 7150 as the print quality was the same, just no memory card interfaces. Save $50.

The other caveat was that you have to change print cartridges to get quality B/W prints or color prints. Other inkjets I've used always have had room for both the color cartridge and the B/W cartridge. I guess that's not the case here. Maybe the 6 color cartridge is too big to allow both? I think you can make B/W prints with the color cartridge but they're not good quality.

I may wind up sending the 7350 back unopened, looks like the 7150 is just as good and, as it doesn't include features I won't use anyway, I might as well save the $$$.

I'll have to look into this changing cartridge issue though. I don't print that much at home but still that sounds like a pain in the a--

[meatwad]

Originally posted by ClickHere2Surf.com
The prints from the <$100 HP Deskjet 5550 looks about the same as from the Epson 2200, it's not worth paying 8-10 times the price for quality that is barely better.

I've got to see this 5550 then, because the 2200 my boss has is unreal.

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

Originally posted by cisco2
Thats sort of moot though as apparently (from the review I read) the documents printed via the memory card interfaces are of lesser quality than documents created and sent from a PC.

This is true, but when printing by memory card you get the same input quality as any printer (600dpi), it's just that when you print from the PC, you get twice what any other printer uses, 1200DPI, so this isnt really a problem, it will still be excellent quality.


The other caveat was that you have to change print cartridges to get quality B/W prints or color prints. Other inkjets I've used always have had room for both the color cartridge and the B/W cartridge. I guess that's not the case here. Maybe the 6 color cartridge is too big to allow both? I think you can make B/W prints with the color cartridge but they're not good quality.

The printer uses 3 cartridges, either:
Color (CMY) & Black (K): For normal color graphic and text printing
Color (CMY) & Photo (cmk): For photo quality printing

C: Cyan
M: Magenta
Y: Yellow
K: Pigmented black for laser quality text
c: Light Cyan
m: Light Magenta
k: Black

So it is basically a 7 color printer, the HP PS 7550 can hold all 3 cartridges at once but I really dont think its worth2-3 times the price just so you dont have to swap cartridges (and you get a built in color LCD which is quite useless if you print from your pc), it only takes 5 seconds anyway.