HP's Photosmart 385 Printer Gets a LOT of Use at My House!

HP Photosmart 385 Printer

I got this photo printer in November 2005 and have used it a LOT since then. It’s portable and prints great pictures quickly.

Features at a glance:
Crop or zoom in on pictures
View pictures on tiltable 2.5” screen
Print borderless 4 x 6 photos in beautiful vibrant colors
Printer automatically removes red eye
No need to hook up to a computer

This photo printer is just perfect for anyone who likes to share photos. And, it’s simple to use, even for a novice like me. I was able to set up the printer, install the ink cartridge and start printing by following the easy to understand directions. And, let me tell you that I am technologically challenged so it must have been easy!

Upon taking this printer out of the box, I plugged the adapter cord into the printer and power supply. Then I pressed the on button and three things happen:
1. The paper “in” tray opens
2. The tilt screen pops up
3. The paper “out” tray opens

Easy Set up
So, the next thing I did was open the door to insert the ink cartridge. The ink cartridges are the 㧋 series” and come in 7ml and 14 ml sizes. The printer actually came with a 7 ml size cartridge. The directions were simple and I just inserted the cartridge and the printer did the rest of the work. Then I inserted the paper, making sure that the glossy side faced forwards. Last, I inserted my camera’s memory card and the printer detected and showed my pictures on the screen. I was able to select the photo I wanted to print, push the print button and voila, a photo!

Features and Options
After exploring more options on this printer, I discovered that I can also choose to zoom into a portion of a picture or crop portions of the picture out. I can also choose how many pictures I print per page from 1,2 or 4 pictures. Now remember, the paper size remains the same (4 x 6) so if you choose 2 pictures per page, they are going to be 2 x 3 inch pictures and even smaller for 4 per page.

With this printer, you can also rotate the direction of the picture before printing or change the brightness. You can choose to remove red eye but often the printer automatically detects this and does it by itself. You can add color effects or add frames. Personally, I like adding frames to my pictures because I often have the subject in the middle and extraneous stuff on the edges that the added frame hides. Besides, they look really neat. You can choose a variety of patterns and colors for the frames.

Another really neat feature is that you can print an index page of your photos just like they do at the photo developing places you may go to. I like having a page of all the pictures I’ve taken even if they area all quite small. The printer will print up to 28 mini pictures per 4 x 6 page.

Print speed
The printer is not necessarily the quickest printer around but the quality is worth the time it takes. My camera’s max is 2.0 mega-pixels so my picture files are not too large. It usually takes between 1-2 minutes for each picture to print. One thing I have found is if I choose 5-6 pictures to print at once, I can load the paper and walk away to do some other chore. When I come back, the pictures have been printed. By choosing more than one picture to print at a time, I can accomplish other tasks at the same time. If I were only to choose one picture at a time, I’d have to sit with the printer and choose the next one when the first is complete.

Cost of prints
The printer came with a 7ml ink cartridge. I printed 50 photos with this cartridge before having to change to a new cartridge. To purchase the ink cartridge would cost about $25 plus I spent $5 for a 50 pack of paper. This makes the cost per picture about 60 cents per picture. Kind of costly! BUT, you can buy a multi-pack that contains 200 sheets of 4 x 6 paper and two ink cartridges (enough to print 200 photos) for $48. This brings the price per print down to only 24 cents. Now, that’s much better! I know that you can probably get prints a little cheaper if you take them to someplace like Walmart but the convenience of this printer is worth 24 cents per print!

Memory Cards
The front of the printer has slots for 6 different types of photo memory cards. The following cards will fit into the printer:
CompactFlash
MultiMediaCard
Secure Digital
Smart Media
Memory Stick
xD Picture Card

Optional accessories
Internal rechargeable battery – once installed and charged, this battery is supposed to last for the printing of about 75 pictures.
Auto adapter – this lets you print pictures while the printer is plugged into your car
Bluetooth wireless adapter -- plugs into the printer on one end and a cell phone camera or laptop computer to take advantage of Bluetooth wireless technology.

Another option
You can use the USB port on the printer to connect your printer to your computer or laptop. By doing this, you can see the pictures on the larger screen of your computer. You can also print pictures that are already on your computer or enhance pictures more than you can on the printer itself. Or, you can save pictures from a memory card inserted in your printer to your computer.

Personally, I like the fact that I don’t have to use a computer to print pictures. Computer time at my house is at a premium with 3 of us vying for time to use it. Plus, I feel that it is quicker and simpler to not have to use the computer. I guess if I had a really good picture that I felt needed enhancing, I might try it but so far I have not needed to.

Overall impressions
I take a lot of pictures with my digital camera. Not all of them are worthy of printing but for those that are, I use this HP Photosmart 385 Printer. I find that it is easier than printing through my computer because there are less steps to get to the picture and then print it. In addition, I find that these pictures are much better quality than those printed by my regular printer. Plus, I do not have to cute the 8 ½ x 11 paper to make the 4 x 6 prints. This is a big plus because I can never seem to cut straight!

Another big plus is that I can take this printer with me wherever I go. I’ve taken it to relatives houses when we hve get-togethers and I can pass out prints of good pictures right then and there, saving me the time and expense of sending photos later on. And, this way I can’t forget to send pictures!

I plan to use this printer at my daughter’s birthday party this summer. One of the things that the kids are going to do at the party is make picture frames (out of craft foam). I’m going to take pictures of each party guest with my daughter and they can put the picture into the frame and take home as a party favor/remembrance of the party.

Recommendation
I would recommend this HP Photosmart 385 Printer to anyone who likes to print a lot of pictures. The quality is good, the price per print is reasonable if you shop around for ink and paper, and it is fun!