This is an excellent printer for any photographer. The images are clear, sharp, and crisp, and professional in every way in my amateur opinion (although I am picky).The printer is easy to install with some great features including the ability to instantly download pictures from a photocard and either print them and/or store them to your computer from the printer. In addition, you can very easily switch between 4x6 and 8x10 prints without needing to change the paper, very cool! As with all ink jets, when the ink first prints, it smears easily, so be careful initially.

leigh88055

Lincoln, NE

Somewhere, I read a positive review on the Photosmart 8250.  Man, it was wrong.  I am lucky to get 10 copies before the out of paper message pops up.  I never let my printer run out of paper!  Printing on anything, except standard copy paper, is a chore.  My old Canon would print on anything.  This is definitely my last HP.  Trying to get an online answer to this service problem has proven impossible.  HP just runs you through a series of FAQ's...never someone to directly anser your question. The software continually causes me to have problems with my otherwise perfect Compaq FS7555 computer and XP.  And it shakes the desk when it goes through its long manintenace cycle.  Never, ever, again will I buy an HP

cageguy

Memphis, TN

First of all the print actually does a good job printing.  It is quick and the quality is great.  It also does a great job with the borderless photo printing.  That being said, there are significant flaws in the printer that forced me to give it a maximum of 2 stars.  The first being the ink.  I know HP is notorious for making their money in the ink and this printer is no exception.  There are 5 ink colors and the black ink.  The real problem happens when one of the inks runs out.  The printer will warn you that it is low.  Then it will only allow you to print black and white even if your print does not have the low color.  Then shortly after that it will tell you that your ink level is dangerously low and it won't let you print ANYTHING, not even black and white.  It is an absolute scam.  I have 4 black ink refills that I will never be able to use because the color ink won't last that long.  I would not recommend this printer for that reason.

cadams22

Kuna, ID

We bought our HP Photosmart because we have to drive 40 minutes to get anywhere that develops pics and wanted something we could use quickly.  This printer does the job we expected it to and it does it well.  I don't have it hooked up to a computer.  I've printed lots and lots of pictures, including 4x6, 8x10 and multi photo sheets and they come out great! A few things I'm not fond of is it takes a while to start up once you turn it on.  Once it's going, it goes along nicely.  If you use a big sd card, you have to flip through them to get to the one's you want to print and that can be timely.  The other thing is the ink is pretty pricey.  Because of the price, we only use it when we need to because it's cheaper to stop by the drug store and print them out if I'm already out shopping.  It doesn't cost much to have prints made up these days. All in all, if you're looking for a decent home printer that prints good quality photos, this is a good machine.

gretalynn

Granville, VT

The HP Photosmart 8250 printer will do a lot of things: photo printing, regular document printing, you can insert a memory card and print directly from the memory card, it has BlueTooth connectivity.  It has a lot of things going for it.  But the one BIG problem with this printer is that it takes 5 (count 'em FIVE!) ink cartridges!!!  That's 4 color cartridges and 1 black cartridge.  Now the really stupid part about this printer is that if even ONE of those cartridges goes empty, the whole printer becomes unusable.  If one of the color cartridges goes out you can't just print in black and white (that would make too much common sense!). What this means is that you must always have a bunch of back-up cartridges on hand as the colors don't run out in a uniform manner.  The silver lining to this printer is that it will use the generic brand ink cartridges, which are a fraction of the over priced HP name brand ink. Bottom Line: use it if you have to, but there are much better printers out there  

joshmetcalf81

Tomball, TX

I really love this printer. It does a great job pf printing pictures.  The only drawback is that cartridges are different in the amount of ink they hold. Some have more than others which can cause you to run out in the middle of a job.

MaiaMom

Webster, NY

My Canon died after 1000's of copies over a 5 year life span.   The HP Photosmart 8250 was highly rated, so I bought one.  What a disappointment!  The software regularly snarls everything up on my Compaq PC.  My scanner has never been the same since it had to start sharing PC space with the 8250.  For no reason, the printer fails to recognize that it has paper.  Equally frustrating, it often fails to recognize that it has all of its ink cartridges intact!   Did I mention how noisy it is?  This thing shakes and creaks and scratches and screams everytime it cranks out a print.  Using this printer is just a crap shoot.  Fortunately, at about the same time I bought it, my print demand decreased.   So...I'll limp along with this piece of printer garbage for another six months or so and then I'm going back to Canon.

cageguy

Memphis, TN

We bought this to save money in photo printing when I was about 8 months pregnant and ready to scrapbook! :)  We love the printer. The ink cartridges aren't very expensive, and the picture quality is excellent. Our baby's grandparents LOVE us because we keep them supplied with baby pictures.  I'm sure the printer has already paid for itself.

nicheless

Portland, OR