Canon IXUS 240 HS
Canon PowerShot SX240 HS
Nikon D800
Samsung DV300F
Olympus OM-D E-M5
Nikon Coolpix P510
Canon PowerShot SX260 HS
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ30
Nikon Coolpix S9300
Hooray for Hewlett-Packard!
In this week’s Sunday Morning Photographer column Mike Johnston explains why he’s buying the $150 HP 7660 printer to use exclusively for black and white prints:
“Print color (the Achilles heel of color printers using colored inks to make B&W output): Outstanding. There’s no perceptible metamerism (color shift), which is the great failing of the Epson 2200, for one, in B&W mode. HP’s highlight, shadow, and paper-base colors are well integrated, and the print color is perfect: in formulating its #59 inks, HP seems to have deliberately mimicked the look of a neutral/cold conventional paper with light selenium toning, long the standard look for fine-art B&W prints. They did a good job on this.”
Website: Sunday Morning Photographer: Hooray for Hewlett-Packard!
Canon IXUS 240 HS Review
Canon PowerShot SX240 HS Review
Nikon D800 Review
Samsung DV300F Review
Olympus OM-D E-M5 Review
Nikon Coolpix P510
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ30
Canon PowerShot SX260 HS
Fujifilm X-Pro1
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX200V
#1 Marco F.
There's just one thing standing in the way for me to go HP.. the way it transports the paper..
I'd love to use Oriental FB glossy paper (which is 320g paper), but this is just something that is not possible with the "bend around" way of transportation.. too bad, since the b&w possibilities of HP look good, but what good is B&W if you can't use high quality paper...
3:35 pm - Sunday, December 14, 2003
#2 Marco F.
that should be 260g paper in my comment above, not 320..
3:41 pm - Sunday, December 14, 2003
#3 SeanB
This backs up the review on photo-i which seems to agree that the HP7960 produces excellent out-of-the-box black and white prints.
Maybe Epson's new R800 will rival it for B&W quality.
The problem with both of them is that there are A4 size printers. I would like to see an A3 variant of the HP7960, or the R800 if it is as good in B&W mode. Then I might be tempted to upgrade my Epson 1290.
Sean
6:40 pm - Sunday, December 14, 2003
#4 Ade Rixon
I bought a HP 7660 recently to replace a knackered, and very unsatisfactory, Epson 830. Absolutely no complaints; it's quiet, fast, requires almost no tweaking and works well with Linux. B&W is a cinch. I've been using Ilford papers rather than HP, but I've had no problems.
9:58 am - Monday, December 15, 2003
#5 Mark Goldstein
Sounds tempting, especially as the 7660 only costs around £140 in the UK. That's a pretty cheap equivalent to a black and white darkroom!
10:00 am - Monday, December 15, 2003
#6 seanB
The 7660 sounds a good buy for doing B&W prints. Although I am not sure how cheap or expensive the HP ink cartridges are, or the HP glossy paper. The 7660 could be useful though until a good B&W A3 printer arrives on the scene.
9:27 am - Tuesday, December 16, 2003
#7 Mark Goldstein
I believe the HP consumables are where they make most of their money e.g. they're pretty expensive. The No, 59 b&w cartridge has an RRP of $29.99!
11:50 am - Wednesday, December 17, 2003
#8 Pill Slim
At $150 (street), the HP Photosmart 7660 is the low-end printer in this trio. But standing by itself, it looks anything but low end, with a top panel that has ten buttons, an LCD that tilts so you can see it comfortably at any angle, and an access door that opens to reveal the memory card slots and a USB connector for a camera. The LCD is strictly monochrome, unfortunately, so you have to print an index sheet to see thumbnails of your pictures. But once you have the index sheet in hand, the buttons work with well-designed menus to make it easy to print the pictures you want.
4:38 am - Monday, November 15, 2004