Very pleased with my return to HP
Written: Dec 30 '03 (Updated Nov 30 '07)
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Pros: Print Quality; Ease of use; LCD screen; Customer Support
Cons: Ink costs (but that's HP!)
The Bottom Line: It prints, it scans, it faxes, and does well, if not great, at all.
Digital shots printed without turning on the computer.
What more could the average home user want?
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| scotiaguy's Full Review: Hewlett Packard PhotoSmart PSC2410 Thermal Inkjet ... |
Background: (feel free to ignore if you wish, but it may let you know where I'm coming from)
Okay, let me be straight from the start. I am a home user of this. I don't run a business, I don't have a abnormally high throughput, and I very rarely fax from home. I do love photography, and what I'm able to do with digital.
So in summary, I mainly use my system for standard "Home Office" tasks, and for photo work. I rarely scan, and very rarely fax. I don't generally use the hardware manufacturers software, and do my creative work & editing through Microsoft Picture It! Home Publishing, which allows me to easily do everything I want, and everything I used to do in a chemical filled darkroom!
For years I was a professional traveler, and so lived with a laptop & portable printer. Reliability & cartridge life destroyed my relationship with Canon (though I still prefer their cameras), and I grew to trust HP. So when I settled & switched to a desktop, I always selected HP printers. Job hunting forced the addition of a fax & scanner to my system, which was now taking up a lot of space. Then came the advent of the Multifunction machines. I liked the idea, and was growing tired of the cost of keeping my HP in ink, so decided the time was right for a changed.
In Dec 2002 I purchased a Lexmarx X85. My desk cleared up, and overall I was very impressed with it's performance.
It was easy to install & use, cheap to run, but very slow to print.
In Dec 2003, with no warning, and for no apparent reason, the X85 decided the color cartridge was empty (which it wasn't), then refused to recognize any replacement. Black was fine, no color. Needless to say this occurred just after the warranty period expired.
Felling that I ought to get more than one year of life from a product, I decided to return to HP, and so purchased a PCS2410, now let us continue......
Review:
Why did I purchase this model? I needed a reliable photo printer, which could cope with regular document work, run off a few copies, occasional scanning, and the slight chance I may fax.
My wife wanted something from which she could print her pictures easily.
I read the reviews of the 2510, and was suitably impressed by what I read. I went to local suppliers to see for myself, and realised that the 2410 offered almost identical features, except for wireless networking, for around $100 less. So why pay for a feature I don't need? I was sold.
The ability to print directly from cards (we use both Compact flash & smartmedia cards) was an attraction, and mated with the LCD preview screen & proof sheet printing, provided everything my wife has wanted from a printer.
She could happily use this as a stand-alone item, straight out of the box, just loading cartridges & applying power. Without even turning on the computer, she can pop in her card, select the shots she wants, and print them quickly & easily.
I prefer to compose my shots on the computer to exactly how I wish, and have the ability to adjust the tones & hues to compensate for the operating characteristics of the camera & printer, to achieve the results I want on the finished item.
The hardware & software installed easily on my system without reference to the idiots guide, sorry, set-up poster, and worked well first time. A pleasant discovery here was to find that the unit had it's own modem, not requiring the use of the computers, unlike like other multifunction machines.
Fully installed, it was time to put the machine through it's paces.
Using known reference documents & images (of which I already had hard copies) I printed. The documents (both color & Black only) printed well, and certainly quick enough for home use. I compared the prints to identical I had previously done with another inkjet printer, and for the black, a laser too. This unit produced results certainly good enough for normal business or personal use, though for business speed may be an issue.
Photo wise, I printed downloaded images, taken from a digital camera, and scanned film originals. I printed each twice, once with the black cartridge (56), and once with the photo cartridge (58). I printed raw images, and ones color corrected by software.
I was impressed by the results. It is pointless to go into the color balance of the default print settings. You can correct it with software, and if it's importance is so vital to you, you wouldn't be buying a multifunction machine, but a dedicated photo printer anyway!
I believe that for the majority of people the print quality just using the black cartridge will be more than enough. (More than 80% of the population only uses a camera for "snapshots", and is looking for the memories. they just want a decent, recognizable print.) For very good digital prints, just pop in the photo ink cartridge. If you want archival quality, you won't be using digital anyway, and if you want better quality digital than this provides with six inks then you need a dedicated photo printer. As a Jack-of-all-trades, this unit does an excellent job.
Using the onboard card readers to upload images proved simple enough, but time consuming compared to my existing seperate reader, so I am as of yet undecided as to whether I should dispose of my reader.
I scanned documents & images, used in a few ways, and printed them to compare with the originals. I was satisfied with the results. As always, when scanning, we can never improve the original, only degrade it. The question is by how much? The short answer here is by a small enough margin that it falls well within acceptable limits. Reworking of the image helps, but even just a straight scan-save-retrieve-print sequence provided a reasonable enough likeness for most purposes. I would recommend touching up any scanned images before electronic distribution, but I would do this regardless of which unit scanned it. Transposition of file formats could have been simpler, but was not challenging by any means. This unit is up to the task.
As regards faxing....I feel unable to adequately critique. I have only faxed to the unit, and found it can go beyond any requirements I may have of it. As of yet, I have not transmitted a document and got feed back from the receiver, so I cannot comment.
As you can guess, I printed a few things out to check this machine. I did so on a variety of mediums, from plain paper, through photo paper & card to T-shirt transfers. I found the the handling on all media to be as good as anything else I've tried, and the magazine capabilities fine for home use. I used up the cartridges which came with the unit, and the best part of a photo cartridge, to do so. But I now feel comfortable & confident with the machine, knowing it's strengths & limitations. HP's practice of having the printhead in the cartridge makes for a consistent high quality, but expensive print cartridges. I moved away from HP once because of this, but have returned too. It's a burden worth bearing for the other benefits.
In summary this is a unit of pleasing appearance and average size. It is not a specialist in any task (though heavily biased toward color image printing) and should be up to the requirements of all but the most specialised, and finicky, home user.
UPDATE 01 DEC 04:
Needless to say, it was a busy hurricane season in Florida this year, which led to Electrical supply issues. One of these damaged my printer. Everything seemed okay, but on boot-up a strange ratcheting noise ensued, followed by an error message.
So, I picked up the phone, and called HP customer services. I went through the first level of obvious items, and got passed to a technician. I explained the situation to him, and recycled power, allowing him to here the noises. With no hesitation he agreed it was a hardware fault, and began the process of getting me a replacement. Two days later, a replacement machine arrived, and return packaging & labelling, all I had to do was drop it off at the local UPS store.
Full marks to the HP customer support services. This was a major influence on why I purchased an HP item when I switched to a DLP projection television system.
Update Nov 28 07
redundant though it probably is to update on a long discontinued item, I feel it relevant to point out that I am still using this printer. In the intervening years I have moved house, and gone wireless at home. I added a wi-fi print server to the unit, and can now print from my back yard if i so wish. I did dally with an alternative "upgrade" unit once, but kept this just in case/ Within three weeks I was back with the 2410, and gave the other unit to a friend.
Reliability has been exceptional. and there has been no degredation in quality. By modern standards this unit is now oversized, and relatively slow, but it does what I need, and I know that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 238
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
scotiaguy
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Location: Florida, U.S.A.
Reviews written: 33
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
I never did the course on growing up, and I'm too old to start now!
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