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HP 38 Photo Black Pigment Ink Cartridge in Retail Packaging

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HP 38 Photo Black Pigment Ink Cartridge in Retail Packaging

(5 customer reviews)

List Price:	$41.53
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SKU:

peb-c-0170025440432

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Features

Print brilliant, true-to-life photos and fine-art prints with HP's new pigment-based Vivera inks
Get precision color consistency and vivid, true-to-life hues
Produce affordable studio-quality photos
Cherish long-lasting color photos that resist fading for more than 200 years
Replace only the cartridges that runs out among eight individual colors

Description

HEWLETT PACKARD HP 38 PHOTO BLACK PIGMENT INK CARTRIDGE FOR USE IN SELECTED HP PHOTOSMART PROFES Manufacturer : HEWLETT PACKARD UPC : 882780390805

Product Details

Product Length:	5.7 inches
Product Width:	4.0 inches
Product Height:	1.0 inches
Product Weight:	0.15 pounds
Package Length:	5.3 inches
Package Width:	3.7 inches
Package Height:	1.1 inches
Package Weight:	0.18 pounds
Average Customer Rating:	based on 5 reviews

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review: 4.5

( 5 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 found the following review helpful:

Monochrome print wonders Aug 28, 2009 By Dr. Stuart Gitlow
One acid test that I've been throwing at today's digital photography printers is to see how closely a black and white print from the digital printer matches a darkroom produced photographic print. I miss film, darkroom chemicals, and the touch and feel of enlargers, and watching prints slowly resolve as they wash through the developing agent. But I especially miss the silvery blackness of the prints against the glistening whites of the paper.

The whites have been captured well. Inkjet paper, at its best, looks as good as photographic paper finally. But what about the blacks? Here, we've been dependent upon the ink to carry the day. And black ink doesn't typically look just like the black of a monochrome print straight out of the wash sink.

The HP 38 line of ink comes incredibly close. Can I still tell the difference between a real print and an inkjet print? Sure, but the ink is becoming less the critical factor. With the HP printers, you can sometimes see the telltale sign of the geared wheel that drives the paper forward. And up close, you can see the spray of the inkjet on large solid areas of the image. But stand back a foot and those issues disappear. Now the question is simply: do the blacks match?

The HP38 Photo Black is about a 9 out of 10 where 10 would be a match for a photographic print. We're real close now, with only an oil like sheen when the light strikes the print from a certain direction to differentiate the inkjet print from the real print.

As others have noted, these inks run out quickly. If you like 13x19 prints (that's the whole reason to get the printer), then you'll go through these quickly. And when they run out, it might just be in the middle of a picture. You can swap inks, however, in the middle of a print run should that happen so my rule of thumb is to have one extra of each cartridge, ordering another one as soon as I've fed the replacement to the printer.

The carts have expiration dates on them, however, so you want to make sure that it's not going to sit on the shelf for two years before you feed your printer with it (the printer, amazingly, knows if the ink has expired and warns you and tells you that you're voiding the warranty, blah blah blah, before accepting the offering).

So great ink, incredibly expensive per drop but you have no choice in the matter. If you have the printer, you must have the ink.

HP #38 Ink Aug 09, 2011 By Betty G. Arnold "barnold"
Most local stores do not carry #38 ink. It is great to order it online and get free, fast delivery from Amazon!

Good, But WAY Overpriced and Far Too Small Mar 01, 2009 By Greg Robertson
Is this good ink? Um...sure. It's at least as good as any other, so by all means don't hesitate to buy it based on quality. That said, it comes in tiny cartridges that don't last long -- especially the blacks -- and are about $30 each, which wouldn't be so bad except the printer in which I use them (HP's B9180) requires 8 of these cartridges to even operate. Thus, it's a rather expensive printer for a small business to keep operational, unless your circumstances allow you to charge clients for this expense as part of your projects. Most of my clients, on the other hand, would balk at that. But I digress.

Anyway, I should also note that when I say that I think this cartridge is overpriced, that does not mean that you should buy a generic alternative cartridge for less instead. Not only would they probably not be guaranteed to last 200 years, but to my knowledge, you can't. They do not exist. Which is all the more reason to consider again whether this is the way to go.

Of course, you may read this and think, "Hey, that's more an indictment of the printer than of the ink cartridge." True enough, but given their intertwined relationship, I think it's fair to point out that if you are now exploring the real costs of operating a piece of machinery for your office (the B9180), it's definitely worth looking around some more to see if you might get just as good a capability via another printer at a lower ink cost.

2 of 4 found the following review helpful:

Runs out too fast! Oct 18, 2007 By David Hiebert Photography "The DeskTop"
Hey,

Just one thing about this ink. It runs out too fast!

1 of 3 found the following review helpful:

Perfect for B9180 Jan 14, 2007 By James Hatsis "AHR"
This is more a review of AMAZON's great service than the ink. If you own the HP B9180 then you simply Must use this ink.
My local photo stores and office supply stores simply do not stock this ink... and ordering from other online shops id "iffy" at best. With Amazon (And an Amazon Prime account) I get super fast FREE shipping and Amazon has not been out of stock yet.

Great service!~

James Hatsis