This is an excellent printer for the serious photographer. The images are clear, sharp, and crisp, and professional in every way, at least to my amateur eye. I am a picky amateur photographer, and I bought this printer so that I could easily print 8x10, 5x7, and 4x6 photos from my several digital cameras. This printer does the job. This is a beautifully engineered and solid piece of equipment.Some technical issues. Beware, when the ink first prints, it smears easily, so let it dry for a few minutes--it dries quickly enough. I am happy to say that the photo download from the card reader slot (I measured it on the CF card reader--I haven't tried it for my SD cards yet) is lightning fast, as compared to my older HP printers, I guess that is the USB 2.0 that this device features. This is a welcome improvement--earlier HP printers lagged behind even cheap card readers in speed. No more.
So far my print feeds have been flawless and jam-free. You can effortlessly switch between 4x6 and 8x10 prints, and the feeds are fine. (Haven't tried 5x7s yet, but I expect no problems.) When you first take the printer out of the box it will prompt you to put paper in the printer and let it test the ink cartridges. Beware--you need to install them first. This only takes a second, and these are the most foolproof printer cartridges I have ever seen, but the printer does not tell you that the cartridges are not yet installed, at least not until you try to run the diagnostic. No big deal; I installed them, and the printer calibrated itself perfectly!
The printer installed perfectly and effortlessly the very first time. Simply insert the supplied CD and follow the instructions. Remember not to insert the (not supplied!) USB2 cable into the computer until the software prompts you to do so.
It appears to me that some of the other reviewers (here on Amazon) of this printer made the same initial mistake I made. Specifically, here is the deal: this printer can detect what kind of paper you are feeding it (if it is HP paper anyway)--it detects it from a code on the back of the paper and it adjusts the ink application accordingly. Further, this printer is very precise as to how it applies ink to a given paper type. So if you try to manually tell it what kind of paper you are using, and if you guess wrong, you will get lousy pictures with the ink incorrectly applied. Once I figured out the rather amazing fact that this printer KNOWS what kind of paper it is printing on, I started getting wonderful pictures. (It literally never occurred to me that it could do this--I had to, you guessed it, read the manual to find this out). This is cool--you can insert different kinds of HP photo paper in the same stack, e.g. matte, glossy, etc. and expect to get perfect pictures without having to look in the printer to see what paper is next. Just tell it on the print menu to automatically select the paper type. I love the 21st century!
Personally, I think that HP has hit a home run with this one. While I cannot compare this one to its rivals from Epson or Canon (I have not reviewed these), I can say that I am completely satisfied. Recommended.
I have to disagree with some of the issues presented by other reviewers. With regards to the "dpi issue", I too noticed the dots in some of the photos, but only when I held the photos extremely close (less than 6") to my eyes. No one looking at the photos would hold them that close, and I don't think the dots are noticeable under normal viewing conditions. Some of the other reviewers also spoke about inaccurate color rendering. I had some color issues as well when I first started using the printer, but after tweaking some of the settings, my printed colors are a dead-on match with my monitor colors. Proper color management is absolutely critical to getting accurate colors regardless of what printer you have. Whether you're working in the sRGB or AdobeRGB colorspace, this involves correctly calibrating your monitor, and correctly setting up color management in your photo editing software (I use Photoshop CS2) and printer.
The only gripe I have about the printer is that it would be nice to have larger ink-cartridges, and make them transparent so that a visual check could be done against the built in ink sensor.
Buy HP Photosmart 8250 Printer (Q3470A#ABA) Now
Pros:Print speed is great (once it has performed it's maintenance cycle).
Dedicated tray for 4x6 photo paper.
Photo printing top notch, including great automatic refinishing options (red eye, smart focus, smart sharpness) as good as any photo lab on the best HP paper.
Direct print from media cards, including still capture from some movie modes.
Hopeful ink cost should be better than combined cartridge models, has 6 individual carts that are ~ $10 a pop.
Cons:
Long and noisy "start up" maintenance cycle or as I call it the daily regiment. Once completed it's fairly quiet and FAST.
Slow transfer to PC from media card readers will not replace your dedicated USB 2.0 card reader that's for sure.
HP's lovely virtual print driver...if you want to share the printer (or use it for home printing from office VPN/Remote Desktop connections) the driver needs to be manually installed on all PCs don't bother calling HP for help on that though ;-) had to figure it out on my own.
Black and white printing ... not really black, more of a greenish grey. Oh well, it's a photo printer first.
Read Best Reviews of HP Photosmart 8250 Printer (Q3470A#ABA) Here
I must first disclose, that this is my first in-depth experience with printing color photos in significant volume. I am using the HP Photosmart 8250 for a work project, and cost of printing is not a major issue, as my employer is demanding near photo quality.Personally, I have always been a "gray-scale" fan for my own personal ink jet use, and if given a choice, I would use our color laser printer for printing the photo brochures that I am printing on this HP 8250 (yeah, I know....lasers do not give a real photo-like image, but at 10% of the cost.....).
So, here is my experience.....a co-worker bought this printer, and since the boss demanded "a quality product" for our advertising brochures, the laser printer I prefer using was voted off the island. My first prints on this printer were horrible! I started with regular copy paper, then bright multi-use paper, and finally Office Depot glossy presentation paper. All of these showed blurry, smeared prints, with no color definition.
I learned, by accident, that this printer wants HP brand paper. Any HP paper. I know many say they have had good results from store brand paper, but I had no luck, even after adjusting the printer settings. Even the cheapest HP multi purpose paper showed a nice photo, giving a better result than the high dollar Office Depot brochure paper. Thankfully, HP paper is not much more expensive than store brands. HP really scored a victory here -they are ensuring, by whatever auto-sensing method this machine uses, that users will likely buy their paper.
I am printing mostly on glossy 44 lb stock, and there are some minor defects where dots are visible, or the photo shows some scaliness. However, one must look very closely to see these defects. I have gotten much better results on matte brochure paper---visible dots disappeared. But, the boss likes "the shiny ones."
Finally, and most important, is ink cost. I have printed about 250, 8.5" x 11" brochures, all full color with about 80% image coverage, and my ink cost is now over $300.00. HP represents that the 8250 has a low ink cost, and perhaps this does represent a low cost. Since my experience in printing large quantities of photos with inkjets is limited, I do not know. Do single cartridge inkjets use this much ink? Perhaps those of you that print lots of photos are used to this cost. I love gray-scale.
One observation that could save you a fortune: the cartridges in the photo pack ($35 for all 6 refills, plus 150 4x6 photo sheets) seem to last about as long as the individually sold $10 cartridges. In fact, I tried to find out the volume of ink in the photo pack refills. I called HP to get an answer. Somehow I got switched to what seemed to be their India division (hope I don't get a long distance bill), but the foreign lady still was willing to try to help. After about 20 minutes of persistence, I was told the photo pack 'custom' cartidges have 9 ml of ink in each. Hmmm....
If that number is accurate, they contain much more ink than standard cartridges (3.5 ml to 6.0 ml each), and at a cost more than 40% less than individual refills. Actual testing is needed to confirm, but HP seems to go to great lengths to hide the ink volume for 'custom' cartridges. However, after going through 40-50 cartridges, I have noticed no difference in longevity. Further, the actual ink volume is not important, as the sensor on the cartridge estimates ink levels. So, give the photo value pack a try---you may lower ink costs by 40%.
So, to recap: this printer does produce images most would call very good, at least if you use HP paper. It is easy to use. I can confirm the paper feeding problems others have described, especially with heavy papers. Any volume printing requires many ink cartridge changes. And, printing gets very expensive, however perhaps the expense is not unique to this model.
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WOW! That is all I have to say about this printer. HP has finally shown that once again it will always lead the pack and make everyone else copy their technology. I just got this printer about a 4 days ago, and the speed and quality of the prints are faster and just as close as my i9900. The first thing that allured me was the ink and printhead being seperated which allows for a more continuous flow of the ink which by the way seems like it never runs out. There is a new closed tank system where the ink is recycled when it is used during maitenance procedures!!! Great plus! Also the printhead has 3900 nozzles which makes this puppy push out photos faster than some of my other pro photo takers have ever seen. I love this printer and suggest for anyone into photography from casual printers to serious ones (that can take the limit of 8.5" x 24) to go get this printer. For around the $200 price range and only $34.99 to replace the ink and get paper!!! IT IS THE BEST DEAL AVAILABLE! HP you have once again won me over. Keep the creativity flowing.
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