Professional Level Photo Printing At Entry Level Pricing
Written: Oct 28 '03 (Updated Oct 29 '03)
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Pros: Convenient built in card reader, clever design, superb output quality, quiet.
Cons: One touch borderless printing restricted to 6"X4". Pricy ink.
The Bottom Line: This printer gives extremely high quality results at a very good price. It is well made, and well designed. I would highly recommend it.
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| kellynz's Full Review: Hewlett Packard PhotoSmart 7260 Drop-on-Demand The... |
Recently the little Epson c-40 I used at home broke irreparably after only 18 months use. I had been severely annoyed with the cost of Epson ink, and between that and the short life of the c-40 I went looking for another printer, determined to buy anything except an Epson. I came home with the Hewlett Packard Photosmart 7260 and I am very glad I did. This little printer is a stunner.
This printer is aimed at photo applications, and other printers in the HP lineup are oriented more to producing documents. Having said that, with the document ink cartridge fitted, the Photosmart 7260 produces pages of monochrome or coloured text to laser like standards, and at a speed not far behind the text oriented inkjets.
On first getting it out of the box it is all tucked up and stuck down with lengths of tape, but putting it together and getting all the little trays and things in place is easy. The paper input and output trays fold out in a most ingenious fashion and there is no need to look at the instructions at all. In fact, my first glance at the manual was while waiting for the supplied software to install. I noticed a warning not to plug the printer in until the software was loaded and not to plug it into a USB hub. I had done both. Never mind. It didn't seem to matter. Setup of the software was simple and I was all set to go less than 5 minutes after first opening the box. It comes with a proprietary external power supply but no USB cable: you'll have to supply your own. It connects only to a USB port.
Construction is light, and at first glance, a little flimsy. But I have owned other HP printers over the years and they all had a light, plasticky feel to them. In practice they were robust and reliable, and I expect the 7260 will be likewise. All the bits fit together nicely, and there are some excellent little pieces of design in the paper trays and ink holders. Its rated usage is for 1,000 pages per month, so HP certainly expect it to stand up to some moderately heavy home or small business usage.
Physically the printer is small, and is quite modern to look at at, with simple clean lines and a minimal control panel on the lower left fascia. There is a small cover to hide a little spare paper tray which can be fitted to supply 6x4 photo paper, and a larger cover which opens to expose the ink cartridges. The printer takes three cartridges but only two of them are fitted at any one time. A three colour ink cartridge is permanently installed and for documents, a single colour black cartridge is fitted as well. For photos, the black one is removed and another (different) three colour cartridge fitted in its place, giving a six ink printing system. There is a little stand provided to keep the redundant cartridge safe, and there is a little niche in the body of the printer to store it. The paper tray takes standard A4 or smaller plain or photo paper.
Documentation is good, with a small manual and a set up guide. The supplied software is basic but quite adequate for the job. There is a small photo viewing program,a program for making photo CDs, an online guide, and various other utilities. I use other programs, but the HP stuff would see most people through most tasks most of the time.
It's when you finally turn the thing on that you realise how good it is. In operation is is very quiet, and although at a maximum of 16 ppm it's no speed king it is more than adequate for home use. And the results! Quality from the 4,800x1,200 dpi six colour photo printing is simply superb. Even on plain paper they look good, and A4 sized prints on glossy photo paper are clear, rich and natural. HP claim a 73 year life for their coloured ink, although how they would know this is anybody's guess.
The panel on the front allows memory cards to be taken straight from the camera and plugged into the printer. There are slots for all the major types of flash card, and the cards can be read from the PC, making the printer, in effect a very useful card reader. The cards can also be read by the printer if no PC is attached. A special USB port also allows HP brand cameras, but no others, to be plugged into the printer for direct printing. There is a one button option to print borderless 6X4 photos directly from the flash card, and a special small paper tray to facilitate this. Other one button options are for printing index sheets and for saving prints to the PC. It would have been nice to have been able to print borderless A4 prints, but for a little extra money, the next printer up in the HP lineup does just that.
I am delighted with this printer. Ink is expensive, but my experience of HP printers in the past is that the cartridges last a fair while: certainly longer than the three or four weeks I got out of my Epson ones. Based on price and quality of print, and the convenience of having a built in card reader, this is an excellent printer for home photo use.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 120
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
kellynz
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Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 2 members
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