In summary
A compact, portable printer that is easy to use and produces long-lasting snapshot-sized prints.Despite its resemblance to a pop-up toaster, HP’s Photosmart 475 printer is a surprisingly capable and versatile device. Lift the handle and you can take it anywhere. Plug it in, switch it on and it’s ready to print. Connect it to a TV set via the supplied video cable and you can watch a slideshow of images stored on the 1.5 GB internal hard disk drive or a memory card from your camera (all popular cards are supported). A remote control lets you drive the slideshow from your armchair. . . [more]
Full review
Despite its resemblance to a pop-up toaster, HP’s Photosmart 475 printer is a surprisingly capable and versatile device. Lift the handle and you can take it anywhere. Plug it in, switch it on and it’s ready to print. Connect it to a TV set via the supplied video cable and you can watch a slideshow of images stored on the 1.5GB internal hard disk drive or a memory card from your camera (all popular cards are supported). A remote control lets you drive the slideshow from your armchair.
Designed to work both as a stand-alone printer and with PC connection, the Photosmart 475’s back only opens about 30 degrees and serves as a feeder tray for the photo paper. The front panel folds flat to accept the finished prints, uncovering the four card slots, ink cartridge bay, USB port and IR receiver for the supplied remote control. This printer will also accept images wirelessly from cameraphones and PDAs via an optional Bluetooth adapter and print single frames or sequences from a video clip. And you can install the optional internal Li-ion rechargeable battery to print up to 75 photos per charge, or use the optional car DC power adapter for printing images anywhere.
Pressing the on switch raises the LCD, letting you preview, select and even edit images, although editing functions are limited to cropping, removing red-eye, brightness adjustment, sharpening and ‘auto enhance’. It also releases the paper trays. Although prints can be made on 10 x 15cm, 13 x 18cm and 10 x 30cm, only the first is sold in Australia, which limits your options somewhat. Fuelling the Photosmart 475 is simple as it uses a single tricolour (cyan, magenta and yellow) Vivera ink cartridge and the paper slots into an adjustable holder in the back (up to 20 sheets can be loaded at a time). An optional Gray Photo cartridge is available for monochrome prints.
HP’s Vivera Inks have been tested by Wilhelm Imaging Research and have a lightfastness rating of up to 82 years. Both the printer and the HP 95 series Photo Pack (RRP $62.50) come with HP’s Image Zone Express software, which makes it easy to organise, view, edit, print, backup and share images and movie clips.
The Photosmart 475 has some idiosyncrasies, the most irritating being arbitrary cropping of images that don’t match the standard paper size, which means you can’t print shots with different aspect ratios in their original format. We also found some images which were edited and then saved in the printer became corrupted during the process and would no longer print.
On the plus side, the printer can recognise both sRGB and Adobe RGB colour spaces automatically and adjust output parameters accordingly – or you can select one or the other. On-board editing functions, though limited, were reasonably effective – but not equal to those found in dedicated software applications. Slide shows provided a pleasing variety of transition effects between shots.
Transferring images from a camera or memory card to the internal memory was relatively slow and the on-board file management system proved tricky when sorting through a large collection of images. The printer automatically organises images in folders, which are identified by date, but only displays the first image from each folder. You are supposed to be able to view the images in a folder nine at a time, but this function didn’t work on the test unit. Nor did the Keyword assignment/search facility.
Prints from the Photosmart 475 were sharp and colourful, although reds were slightly over-saturated. It took one minute and 50 seconds to produce a 10 x 15cm print from pressing the Print button to print output. Emerging prints felt slightly tacky but resisted smudging. It took several hours for the surface irregularities caused by ink deposition to disappear, after which the prints looked and felt like traditional photo prints. [29]
Specifications
Maximum resolution: up to 4800 x 1200 ‘optimised’ dpi
Interfaces: USB 2.0 Full Speed; PictBridge; Bluetooth; 4 memory card slots; TV output; remote control.
Paper sizes: 100 x 150 mm, A6, 130 x 180mm, 100 x 300mm.
Ink cartridges: HP Tri-colour, HP Gray Photo.
Power consumption: Printing: 15.33 W; Idle: 7.79 W; Off: 6.72 W.
Display: 6.4 cm (2.5-inch) colour LCD.
Dimensions (wxhxd): 25.0 x 17.0 x 22.6 cm
Weight: 1.5kg
Retailers
CamBuy
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Retailer of digital camera equipment and more.
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Camerastore.com.au
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Camera-Warehouse
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Comprehensive range of digital cameras and accessories online (www.camera-warehouse.com.au) and an online print service (www.royalexpress.com.au).
Digital Camera Warehouse
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Electronics Warehouse
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1300 801 885
Australian retailer of Vapex rechargeable batteries offering factory direct prices and fast, free shipping Australia wide.
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Photographic Equipment & Supplies – Retail & Repairs. Click here for list of stores.
Ted’s Cameras
1800 186 895
Big range of cameras and photographic products with stores in most states and online.
Rating
RRP: $499
Rating (out of 10):
- Build: 8
- Ease of use: 7.5
- Image quality: 8
- OVERALL: 8.5
