Something Extra for the Photographer
Written: May 29 '00 (Updated Jun 10 '00)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Paper Handling: |
|
|
|
Pros: Quiet, fully featured, great quality prints
Cons: Uses a lot of computer resources, photos require tweaking for best quality
|
|
|
| jwhutsn's Full Review: Hewlett Packard PhotoSmart p1000 Ink-jet Printer |
Before buying the HP Photo/Smart 1000 I checked out consumer reports, ZDNet, CNET and of course Epinions.com. I have owned Canon and HP printers and at the time of purchase was using a HP 722C with which I was quite pleased. I decided to upgrade because of conflicts between my parallel printer and my parallel port CD-ReWriter (Micro-Solutions Backpack). I also wanted the enhanced ability to print photographs offered by new printers from Epson & HP. I compared this product to the HP 952 and the Epson 900. I did not need two-sided printing, ruling out the HP Photo/Smart 1100. From the reviews I became convinced that although Epson might have a slight edge on some types of paper, the HP had more useful features for the photographer, e.g., two trays, and the ability to print without firing up the computer.
I have now used this printer for two weeks, and am very impressed with print quality, versatility, and quietness. Pleasant surprises include: (1 ) ability to quickly download images to the computer, using the HP as a card reader or virtual drive, (2) the ability to make "instant" contact sheets, and to make 4x6 prints of selected photographs without turning on the computer, (3) the HP Photo/Smart software which allows you to print multiple images of varying sizes, number, and format on a single sheet of high quality paper, and (4) the excellent quality of the prints. I tweak virtually all photographs, and noticed that quality is improved generally by increasing saturation and contrast. The software does a better job printing what is on my screen then did the software shipped with the 722C. I did have some initial problems with 4x6 paper jamming, but with more care loading the paper this problem disappeared. The choice of papers is limited when printing from the printer rather than from the computer (plain and photo, whereas software is calibrated for the many variations of both available from HP).
Overall, I would rate this computer at 9-plus on a scale of 10. In fairness I have not yet used all of the features of either the hardware of software, and am running the printer on a 233 Pentium II machine (the printer pretty much uses all of the computers resources while printing, limiting the ability to do multi-tasking, even with 126 RAM).
PS: I found epinions.com invaluable in the selection process, as "facts" neglected in industry reviews come to light very quickly.
June 10, 2000 update: I have had occasional problems with the USB driver, with the printer refusing to print, or stopping mid-print. The error message suggests changing to raw spooling, but the classic microsoft solution works: shut the system down and reload it. Also, when using the printer interface (rather than computer) response times are a little slow. None of this changes my enthusiasm for the printer. As the problem has reached print, I am optimistic HP will solve the problem with software updates.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 399 plus taxes and warranty
Operating System: Windows
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
jwhutsn
|
|
Member: Jeffrey Hutson
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.