HP Photosmart 385 Compact Photo Printer (Q6387A#ABA)
See it at Amazon.com for $148.88Average Customer Rating
(3.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(5 out of 5)HP 385 photo printer
I find this printer to be versitile, extremely portable, and economical to use (as it doesn't require the manufacturer's cartridges as some other small photo printers do). I carry this printer with me on trips and on family visits. In combination with my Sony 7.2 megapixel digital camera, I can print clear, color bright prints on the spot. I have even printed my grandchildren's less than clear photos from their simple digital cameras and watched as the printer cleaned up unclear photos. I have not found the paper to print panoramic prints, but I look forward to using this option. The advantage to this printer over the earlier, cheaper models is that it gets rid of red eye, allows for some photo cropping, and has a fun 'framing' option.
(5 out of 5)Nice printer with only a few problems
This is a solid printer with problems typical to HP photo printers.
The dedicated paper path prints with only very limited image drift. This is something you can't get on a printer that prints other paper sizes. Talk to HP about image drift and they will deny it but it is very real. If you are trying to print composed images this is something that will be important to you.
Yield per cartridge using hp hi capacity ink is about 120 6x4 images per cartridge. You will need to clean the print head at about every 30 images then print a dummy image (to saturate the head) to avoid noticeable banding and a more subtle banding that occurs in wide strips about 4 across the page. I use medical alcohol wipes to clean the heads.
If you are printing a black or photo grey back you can use the hp photo grey cartridge for that, this printer will accept that ink cartridge as well. Also old cartridges that no longer print color accurate print black just fine for a while.
You can only fit about 7 to 10 pages in the paper tray at a time without introducing multiple sheet feeds, jams, or slippage.
The PC drivers tend to convert your images to 300 dpi. This printer runs best when you put the image on a cf or other memory card then print from the memory card. Then you can print full 1200 dpi images and never hang up. When you try to print 1200dpi images from the pc, you will be either down sampled or the image will be ignored. Using the memory card, you can preview the images and decided which and how many of each to print.
This is one of many HP printers that when given a 6x4 inch image will resize and crop the image on its own. The only way to print something near your 6x4 inch image accurately is to add a small amount of bleed space around the edge to allow for the possibility of the paper going through a slight bit askew (even commercial printers do this) then add a border to make the size 7.5x5 inches. Put the image on a memory card, then when you print it, program the printer to crop it to 1.25. This will print the inner 6x4 inch image. I kid you not. This is a simple process and literally the only way to print your image as a 6x4 inch image. The automatic resizing software cannot be defeated. I have talked to HP engineers about this.
Best color accuracy and image quality are achieved using a good paper like MOAB Kokapelli and printing tiff images through a memory card. Jpeg images are fine and if your image starts that way, leave it alone. If you shoot raw images than transfer those into Photoshop or something like that, just save them out as tiff files on your memory card. This printer does not accept CMYK.
Image quality is very high. When printing through a PC, I personally find all the HP software designed to "improve" my image to be annoying as I have to constantly shut it off as their setting don't like to stay set. This is another reason to just print from a memory card.
This device also functions as a card reader/writer and allows your memory cards to show up as disk devices independent of the printer. This allows you to pull the memory from your camera and plug it into the printer to transfer images instead of plugging the camera into the PC.
Overall this is a good device. I do think the paper sensor may be going out but this is from attempting to pull paper out once printing has started - be warned. So far I have printed about 2000 images from this printer. Average wasted paper per run of 40 is 2 sheets.
It would be nice to be able to clean inside the unit. Most of the interior is sealed. This printer ships with low capacity ink cartridges.
(1 out of 5)Regional coding
I cannot recommend HP to anybody anymore. The company introduced regional coding, which means printer cartridges from one region cannot be used in another. For most this is probably not an issue, for those busily traveling around it is. Also, it is an issue of principle, its bad enough for DVD, but printer cartridges? HP has introduced this rather secretely and if you don't read the box cover etc very carefully, you may not notice. The main issue is in Europe. I got caught out. I bought a 3 catridges overseas - I could not use them on my HP printer. I asked for a refund, HP Email Support (US) was nice but ineffective. HP Customer Support (Europe) was snotty and very rude. I think HP does not care about its customers and this cost me over US$75, almost 50% of my printer (my sixth and last HP). Don't buy HP.
(4 out of 5)Worth every penny
I bought it at a great price during Christmas break. Since then I have taken numerous pictures with it and it is just great. Works like a charm and no one can ever tell the difference if is home printed or shop printed photo :)
The second great thing about it is that it accepts all types of memory cards. So I usually take my Sony memorystick pro card out and insert it directly into the printer. All my photos show up instantly which I review on the small LCD screen before printing. It saves so much hassle of hooking up a computer or reviewing pictures on computer before printing.
Oh, it is very light and easy to take around.
(5 out of 5)Excellent printer
This printer prints great quality photos. I've gotten pictures printed through other companies (online and Walmart) and the HP photos print out as well, if not better than some of them. I compared my professionally printed photos with my HP-printed ones and my dad couldn't even tell the difference! He even commented on how vibrant the colors appear.
It was also very easy to install. Five minutes after taking everything out of the box, I was already printing photos. Very easy to use - I didn't even have to read the manual. Now I can print all the borderless 4x6 photos I want in no time.
The only downfall is that there is no USB cable included but a lot of printers don't come with that now... plus you can buy a cheap one on amazon. ;)