Photos in a Flash (HP Photosmart A516)

Member Name: Nickycool

Product:	HP Photosmart A516
Date:	27/01/08 (450 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, easy to install and use

Disadvantages: none

HP Photosmart A516

These days, I use a digital camera and my phone camera to capture the greatest moments in my life. One day, I noticed that all pictures where on the PC and that if I lost them (due to computer failure), that chunks off my life in photos would be missing. I'm not one of these people that likes going into Boots and print out the photos that you want on paper. I feel it's a too personal thing to do in the middle of a shop. That's when I decided to buy a photo printer. My boyfriend (now fiancé) recommended the HP Photosmart A516. He works at Currys (yes, I hear you all booing now but a job's a job lol). Currys are retailing them at £49.99, of course, I got mine for less with instant replacement but that's with his staff discount. I paid £35 for the whole lot at the time, which is about 4 months ago.

* The Basic *

HP Photosmart A516 is a small printer that prints off photos that are stored your PC, memory card, camera, phone. These pictures can be in 4 x 6 in, 4 x 6.5 in, 4 x 8 in photo card, 4 x 12 in panorama. If the resolution of the photo itself is of good quality, the pictures it prints out are a good as the ones you get printed out at Boots.

Design: Well, to me, it looks like a very small toaster when the flap is up. On the top of the printer, there are 5 buttons and 1.5 inch LCD screen. The buttons are the On/off button, the menu button with ok and two arrows pointing left and right to scroll through options on the screen, print button, Photofix and cancel button.
When you open the front flap down, you will see 6 slots. One USB port, 4 memory card slots and the slot where the paper comes out.

Memory cards that fit are CompactFlash Type I and II, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo (adapter not included, purchase separately), Secure Digital/MultiMediaCard (we know it as SD and MMC cards) and xD Picture Card. Unfortunately not all memory cards fit into the slots on the machine. The new M2 from Sony Ericsson and some other memory cards do not fit.

You can connect your phone or camera through PictBridge that's on the printer.
You might ask what is PictBridge. PictBridge is a technology that enables you to print your pictures direct via the USB port.

Also, if you didn't receive a cable with your phone but you do have a Bluetooth dongle adapter, you could put it in the USB port and connect your phone that way without a cable. With the PC, you need to install the software.

The printer holds 20 pieces of paper but I find it works better with just a few at a time.

The software and the machine are meant to be compatible with all Windows including Vista and Mac. I use it on Windows XP but haven't tried it on my Vista laptop as of yet so I couldn't comment on if it works well with Vista.

* What's in the box *

HP Photosmart A516 printer
One cartridge
A pack of paper with 5 sheets.
The power lead
User guide and CD with the software

* How to set-up the printer for the PC *

First, if you don't have a spare printer cable like I did, you will have to buy one if you want to use it with your PC. It's okay if you're just wanting to use your memory or camera to upload the pictures and print them but if you're anything like me, you will want to play around with the picture on the PC before you print them out.

Secondly, install the software on your PC, connect the printer to the USB through the USB printing cable and Windows should just plug and play.

* Using the software *

The software that the printer uses is called HP essentials. When the program first loads, it finds all the pictures on your PC.
At the top, you will find 5 tabs. View, Edit, Print, Create and Share.

View: This is to find your photos and select which ones you want to print.
Edit: This is where you can edit pictures before you print.
Print: This is where you print
Create: This is where you can create CDs, online project and album pages with your selected pictures.
Share: This is where you can distribute and share your photos by email, HP Photosmart Share or order prints, put them on web albums or post your online projects.

Also the HP printer software, keeps on eye on how much ink is left in the cartridge and tells you when it's running low.

Also, it prints them quite fast so you're not waiting to long to see the result.

The main options I use are View, Edit and Print so I will go into a little more detail about these options.

* View *

View is nicely layed out. It looks a bit like Windows Explorer. As you have your folders on one side and your photos appear on the other side. Just like in Windows Explorer, you can change how you view them. Thumbnail, Single Image, Full Screen, Slide Show. The folders you can rearrange them by date (newest first), by date (oldest first), by name and recently used image.

* Edit *

You have a choice of 8 different options to edit your photos. Rotate left, Rotate right, Reflect, Auto Fix, Red Eye, Crop, Filters and Color & Light. You can also zoom in and out of the photo. It's very basic editor but if you need it, it's useful.

* Print *

This is the most important option. The Printing. You got many different options for how you want your photos positioned. Just one photo on a page. Two on a page and so on. Printing options are Auto Adjust Images, Shrink to fit or Crop to Fit. I find that Shrink to Fit works the best because if you use Crop to Fit, it crops it down and you might only get part of your photo on the page. You can also change the number of copies that it prints out. The paper size is A6.

* End results *

It really depends on the quality of the photo that is on your PC, camera or phone. When using my 4 mega-pixel camera on 640 x 480 and fine quality setting or higher, the photos are just as good as the ones you get developed or print out on the Kodak machines in Boots.

* The accessories *

The cartridge (HP 110 - Tricolour) and the paper that you use is important to the quality of your pictures, especially the paper. The cartridge can print on average 120 sheets.
You can the cartridges as cheap as £12 on the Internet. At PC World, the cartridges are £23.99 or you can get paper and cartridge together in one pack.

You can buy the paper, 100 sheets for around £5. Depending on the quality paper that you buy.

* My overall opinion of the HP Photosmart A516 *

I think it's a brilliant little printer for the price. I haven't got a bad word to say about it. It's easy to install and to use. The photos are of great quality. It's much cheaper than using the photo booth in Boots or developing film the old fashioned way unless you enjoy developing them yourself in a darkroom.

For more information, visit HP website. http://www.hp.com.

Summary: A little printer that gives you good quality photos in an instant

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