Wouldn't it be great to have a set up that ensured that you would never need to develop or buy another film ever again? None of the hassle of going down to Boots, and returning with shoddy photos with poor contrast. If you do have such fantasies, then the Photosmart 7660 may well be the answer you are looking for. With this photo printer you can get shop-quality prints in the comfort of your own home.
When I was searching for my printer I laid out some guidelines. It had to print photos, and preferably accommodate my compact flash card. There are many printers which do this on the market, all with varying prices. The 7660 cost me £140 from dabs.com. This is by no means a top of the range model, and does not match up to something like the Epson photo 950, but then nor does the price; such a machine would set you back £250.
LOOKS:
Obviously this is a matter of opinion, but I think it looks pretty smart. This is the Chris Eubank of the printer world; it is large and powerful, though refined and unintimidating. Its paper tray protrudes out of the front of the printer, and is neatly tucked away underneath a cover. The prints also emerge from the front, and rest over this cover which is a nice feature. There are quite a few buttons on the top of the printer, and of course the LCD screen which I will get to later on. It is therefore a bold and strong machine, that leaves you confident that things will not snap off or wither. The photos of the 7660 give the impression that it is housed in a metal shell, which is not true, instead it is cased in plastic.
SETTING IT UP:
The 7660 is reasonably easy to get set up. Having plugged it in, you simply install the two cartridges, which come supplied. Next you use the CD that is also supplied to install the drivers, you just sit back and watch it do the work for you. This was fine for me until I was asked to connect the printer with the USB cable, the cable that is, that was not supplied. Be warned that you will have to buy one separately. The printer can, however, run without having to be attached to a computer. This is because of the capacity for digital camera's memory cards.
STAND- ALONE PRINTING:
Without a USB cable I had plenty of time to explore this feature. There is a flap on the top of the printer which is opened to reveal five orifices. One is for attaching a camera via USB, and the other four accommodate compact flash cards (type I & II), smart media, secure digital, Sony memory sticks, ISM microdrive and multimedia cards. I guess that's about every card you can buy!
After you push in the card a small LED shines to indicate the printer is reading it. When connected to your PC, a small icon appears, allowing you to access the card. This eliminates the need for a separate card reader/writer. Because you cannot tell which photo you are about to print, the 7660 prints a sheet with thumbnails of the photos and their corresponding number. You then use this, and scroll to the number you want on the monochrome LCD screen (which tilts for easier viewing), choose the photo size, press print and hey presto, a beautiful photo emerges. The necessity of printing a reference sheet is quite annoying, and uses ink, though if you want to avoid this you can shell out a bit more money and buy the 7660's rather more sophisticated sister model, the HP 7760. This has a colour preview LCD screen so you know exactly what you are printing.
PHOTO SIZE AND FEEER:
One of the main selling points of this printer is its paper tray, and the different sizes of paper the thing accepts. Earlier I mentioned the flap which hides the paper cover; when this is lifted, you find a bottom shelf for A4 paper, and a top shelf for conventional photo sizes. After you tell the 7660 which size to print, it automatically sucks up the right bit of paper. The tray holds 100 sheets of paper at any one time.
PRINTING:
Regardless of all the clever functions, of course the most important feature is the printing. As you may have figured, I think it performs pretty well. It is true that this printer is not the quickest in the world, in fact it prints about 13 pages per minute in the rough "draft mode", and a shockingly low 0.7 pages a minute in the highest quality set. But then, any perfectionist takes a long time over work. After you've got yourself a cup of tea, and read the paper twice, the photos will have printed, and you can fully appreciate the quality of the prints. I used HP photopaper (supplied) and I really could not tell the difference between the printed photos, and those developed at Boots. The colour and contrast is exceptional, and matches the image seen on the computer, unlike many printers.
Of course it does not only deal with photos. I have printed out hundreds of pages of text, which have been of an equally good quality. I tend to find that you can use the draft mode when printing documents, which is much quicker, and looks just as good as either the normal or high quality modes. My last printer went all "streaky" and patchy, though I have never had such problems with this. I believe you can service the printer by "calibrating the device" or cleaning the cartridges, though thankfully I have never had the need.
INK:
The prints' quality, unfortunately does come at a price. The price of up to £26 for a new cartridge. What a pain this is as the ink does run out pretty quickly due to the high quality of the prints. I think I may have found a solution, refill kits. They supply 8 refills of one cartridge for £10.00 which is obviously a huge saving. I recently bought some of these from calibrecomputing.com and am eagerly awaiting the results.
Changing the cartridges is relatively painless. When you open the cover, the mechanism whirrs, and the cartridges pop up, and make it easy for you to reward them with new ink. While you change the ink, the LCD screen usefully informs you "Top cover is open" which I found a nice touch.
TO SUM UP:
Never again will I have to develop another film. With the 7660 sitting confidently beside my computer, I can tell it to print my photos with consistently great quality. It is such a simple process of sticking in the card, then printing off your image, and though not speedy, it is always reliable. The 7660's robust nature reassures me that it is unlikely to suddenly break down and leave me stranded. I expect to have a long and happy future with this machine by my side.
More details
Reliability
Excellent
Design
Good
Range of extra features / functions
Excellent
Instruction manual
Good
Manufacturer Support
Good
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