Hewlett-Packard Photosmart 8750

I own an HP 8750 since july 2005. This is a serious prosumer/profesionnal printer that can produce prints up to anything else on the market at that point in time.

-Contrarily to the omnipresent Epson, HP offers prints heads directlly built on the ink cartridges. You get a fresh new head everytime you replace a cartridge which ensure optimal print quality over the long run. (The most logical approach in my view comes from Canon with it's user replaceable print assembly on the i9900 but that printer can't produce archival prints so it wasn't an option). -Head clogging doesn't appears to be an issue. So far, I usually print photographs 1 single day during the week and I happened not to print anything during periods up to 2 weeks without any problem. Actually, HP suggest to run an head cleaning routine if the printer remain unused more that 30 days, which say something about the nature of HP heads. -B&W prints are absolutely neutral and display an extremely wide tonal range. 2 shades of grey and some black ink is used (no color involved). -The prints are archival. -The overall built is very good except for the trays that could be beefier. - The consumption of color inks appears to be very low so far. I am still running on the original colors cartridges after 2 months and an half spent printing high quality 11x14 photographs.

-While the 8750 is a 9 inks machine it use 3 tricolor cartridges which may result in wastes although the consumptions of the various inks in one single cartridge is reputed to be quite even. -The consumption of grey and black inks seems high. I am about to use my third grey/grey/black cartridge while the colors one remain at 75% of their capacity (and I haven't printed thousands of B&W prints). -The paper offering from HP is limited (although their premium plus line display very high quality). I wish more different finishs were offered. - The HP marketing and distribution network is less than stellar downthere. That printer doesn't have the exposure it deserves. The fact that I am the first one to post a review say something lol.

Not personally used but closely inspected: Epson Stylus 2200, R1800 and R2400 Canon i9900 and Pixma iP8500

Good for the most part. I got some paper delivered to my door in less than 24 hours and the printer itself was delivered in less than 48 hours. Getting replacement cartridges is trickier, it can take up to two weeks....