If the need for near-photo-quality printouts is driving your purchasing decision, then the Epson Stylus Photo is worthy of your attention. The company targets this well-designed printer at business, home, hobbyist, and professional users. The Stylus Photo uses six-color printing and Epson's Micro Piezo technology for added color gradations and smoothness.The Epson Stylus Photo 780 is the best printer for printing photos as well as everyday text projects because it combines high resolution 2880 x 720 dpi and standard 6-color photographically superior inks.
For lightfast photos, the Epson Stylus Photo 780 ink-jet printer offers you stunning 2,880 x 720 dpi resolution along with a quick-drying six-color ink palette delivered by 4-picoliter droplets. These impressive features combine to provide you with great borderless prints, with crisp detail and true tone quality, at up to 8.5 by 11 inches.
The Stylus Photo 780 fills your photo reproduction needs by producing breathtaking quality 4-by-6-inch prints in less than one minute, and 8-by-10-inch prints in under two minutes. Black text prints are produced at 8 ppm. Photos can be printed either with borders or in full bleed at 4 by 6, 5 by 7, 8 by 10, and 8.5 by 11 inches. With a 100-sheet-capacity input tray and a 30-page-capacity output tray, the automatic low-ink detection alerts you as your cartridges run low. Image lightfastness (related to paper quality) is rated to 25 years before fading in normal indoor display conditions. The Stylus Photo 780 is compatible with both Windows and Macintosh systems and comes with a one-year warranty plus the assurance of the Epson Overnight Exchange Program.
1 Junk
Dont waste your money. This is the last epson I will ever buy. Uses too much ink, always clogs and is a moody piece of junk. I will be buying a cannon next. After owning four epsons in six years I have had enough! The scanner I bought was also an epson. It is a piece of crap too.
2 If you don't mind clogs ...
This printer is capable of providing high quality images and color graphics. But it is a tremendous ink waster and an annoyance. I have had it for about 2 years and have given up trying to print without first cleaning the heads, even if I use it every day. Cleaning the heads requires time and ink, making this inexpensive printer much more costly than it should be.
I used another Epson printer (the C60) which had the same clogging problem. I will never buy another Epson printer again, despite the print quality.
3 Decent...sometimes.
I've owned this printer for a while, and now I'm considering replacing it with a better printer, preferably multifunction. This printer created beautiful photo prints when it was new, but now it requires constant head cleanings and always prints with horizontal banding and never crisp text. If you're looking for a printer to print occasional photos and never require sharp text, get this printer. Otherwise, look elsewhere. I have a Sony 3.3MP camera, and I print those pictures directly from the memory stick using a dye-sublimation printer from Sony... absolutely stunning!
4 the world's first disposable printer
I bought this printer around a year ago and have not been able to print one picture correctly because the nozzles are ALWAYS CLOGGED. I have yet to receive a response to my email to the Epson site for help about this problem. I guess there is no solution so they do not bother to respond. I have also gone thru LOTS of ink compared to my last printer, an hp; so much that I took it in to get it fixed because I thought there had to be something wrong because of the way it eats ink. I usually do research before making a purchase of this type but this time I was in a hurry and took the salesclerk's advice. BIG mistake. Now I will throw this printer away and purchase a different one. (I would feel to guilty even to donate it and thrust its problems on someone else.)
5 The Good, The Bad, The Epson Photo 780
I can say that I have had two of these printers. Not because I liked them so much, but because they can be very difficult to use. Original purchase was sent back to factory and it's replacement still has the same problems.
Worse yet, Print Heads constantly get clogged up and multiple cleanings are necessary to get a descent print.
Good photo output when you aren't fighting with the head cleaning feature or changing ink carts. Sorry Epson, I'm going to Hewlett Packard....
6 DO NOT BUY THIS PRINTER!!!
I can't even begin to express the frustration that I've had with this piece of junk! I have owned this printer for just over 6 months and it has been a constant headache since the first week. Initially, I read all of the reviews and decided that this would be a good purchase because it had the same print technology as some of Epson's higher end models, bad mistake! I figured that as long as you turned off the printer when not in use, the heads would clean themselves out and I wouldn't have a problem with clogging, WRONG! All in all, I think I've printed 6 pictures out successfully. Oh yea, to get these prints I've used 3 black ink cartridges and 3 color cartridges. I've spent hours tweaking, cleaning and adjusting, all to no prevail. Last night I was working on my computer and needed to print some documents up for work the next day. When I started printing my printer made a horrible noise while I sat there and watched it grind its print gears until they were stripped. I tried to unplug it, but the damage was done. After cartridges I've spent $$$on this piece of ....! Please do not buy this printer! It is a nightmare. Don't listen to reviews from people who have only used this printer for one evening, they have no idea what they're in for.
7 Noisy, Clogs...you get what you pay for I suppose.
I got this for printing from my Olympus 2040Z as I saw good photo reviews but after living with it I'll never buy another Epson. When all the planets align
and you use good paper you get good pics BUT...the clogging drove me crazy.
*In my experience* the Epson needed to be used everyday to prevent clogs and/or lackluster colors.
I have an HP 855C that was down the basement not used for over a year and it gave me great color as soon as I fired it up.
For me.. it just took too much hoping and I wasted too much ink and paper. I want a printer that is reliable and the Epson just fell far short. It is now down the basement packed away.
8 Star of frustration
I will never buy epson again. The biggest problem is the nozzles keep getting clogged, missing lines on the black print. This needs repeated head cleaning and I can promise you, your inks runs out just doing this. Surprisingly this is a universal problem. Epson was fully aware of this. THEY STILL CONTINUED TO SELL THE PRODUCT.
9 Downgrading Our Rating!
Now that I've had this for almost a year, I am downgrading it from 4 stars to 2. Epson is rightly known for the quality of their inks and papers, but nozzle problems on this printer make it frustrating to use. The black ink nozzle in particular gets clogged VERY frequently, and it takes multiple passes with the cleaning utility to unclog it - a big waste of ink and time. And the printer must be unclogged nearly every time I use it to print pictures. When it works, it rivals anything you'll get from a photo lab. The problem is getting it to work.
10 Take a look at Canon instead
I owned the Stylus Photo 780 for a little less than a year when I started to get severe smearing of the ink. I did deep cleaning, and then I replaced all the cartridges, but that didn't solve the problem. Finally, I ended up just putting the Epson in the garage because I got a new computer that came in a package deal with a Canon S520 printer.
The difference between the Canon and the Epson is like night and day. Both print beautiful photos, but it's so much easier and quicker with the Canon. When I first got my Epson, it literally took me weeks of experimenting with the various print settings to learn what works best. With the Canon, it is so simple. You basically just set the Canon to your choice of High Quality, Standard Quality, or Draft... and the printer does the rest. The Epson is SO confusing with about a gazillion different things you can set. With the Canon, just print you photos on High Quality, and you're all set. And it prints SO much faster than the Epson. I just got used to waiting minutes for each print with my Epson... but when I printed my first high quality photo on the Canon and it came out so fast I was just amazed.
Check out the Canon S520, or the other more expensive Canon models, and I really think you'll be doing yourself a favor.
11 poor quality
I will never recommend this product.I bought one on Jan.21.2002. Up to now,I just print no more than 100 sheets,but I print something often. Recently, I found lines missing from the words, images.
Tell the truth, I just can't believe it, only two month time, and the ink is just used about one third.I think I don't want to use any products of EPSON again in the future,especial this one.
12 Best photo printer I've owned
After owning two HP photo printers, I decided it was time to get a really good photo printer. I wasn't ready to spend the BIG money on a photo-only printer, but I was ready to spend some money and get something good. I spent months researching printers and reading reviews. I read comparisons of this printer to other printers four and five times more expensive. And the Epson 780 universally got top ratings. I finally went to the store and tested out a couple of them and this one printed beautiful photos.
The end of the story is I bought one and months later after sharing photos with my mother and sister, they each went out and bought one too! We've all been very happy with the printer. However, the one note is that it can be temperamental. The first one I bought had many problems and I could never get the ink cartridges working well. I went through two black and two color cartridges before I finally took it back and exchanged it. However, this new one had some instructions taped right onto the top of the printer stating that it is important to install the cartridges before the printer is hooked up to the computer. I cannot imagine why this is important, but when I followed these instructions exactly, I never had a problem again (and I've now installed this printer on three different computers!) I would suggest buying it from a reputable retailer where you can take it back if you have any problems.
I've been really happy with this printer and I love the photos I've printed. Someday maybe I'll get one of the outrageously expensive photo printers...but until that day, I'm sure happy with this one!
13 big waste of time
I would not recommend this printer at all. The printing quality is great when it works. Guaranteed, the majority of the time something will go wrong with your print, whether it is a feeding problem, or annoying ink splotches on your printout, or faint or faded colors printed. Trust me, i've gone through several Epsons and they've all performed this way. My last Epson died after less than a year. Plus you'll spend a fortune on paper and print cartridges. Frankly, if i worked for Epson i would be ashamed of the lack of durability and the excessive maintenance required for this and their other machines.
14 Best $...I ever spent
I spent too much time making my printer decision, with repeat visits to review sites and numerous comparisons with my friends who own photo printers. Looking back, it all seems simple now... after three months the Epson 780 printer is perfect so far.
The images themselves are 100% photo-lab quality (using images from my 3.3 megapix camera), even at sizes as large as 8 X 10. You cannot beat this print quality, in my opinion it exceeds the HP models. This is my third color printer (the others were older color inkjet HP), and I was impressed with how much better inkjet photo printing has become even in the last few years. I never thought $... could get me such a good printer.
The photo processing software is adequate (2 programs are included). The Epson product (FileFactory) has some nice retouch capability, but afterward (even after exiting and re-launching the program) the retouched version of the file is always displayed. It is a little awkward to back out to the original version of the photo, and it can be hard to figure out where the retouched photo files are stored by the program.
I use Windows 2000, and once or twice the print driver seems to lock up after printing and I have had to reboot. However, I have a very non-standard PC configuration that locks up on me a lot in general, so I do not believe this is an Epson-related problem.
The printer itself is somewhat loud and somewhat slow, and it does have small ink cartridges. I needed a refill on the color cartridge after a combined total of about three 8X10 and twenty 4X6 images. These minor issues, which have received a lot of attention in the reviews here, should not sway anyone away from purchasing this product.
15 Nice for a second printer
I bought this printer when my trusty Personal LaserWriter LS died suddenly after 8 years. Never have I taken such a backward step with new tech item. Don't get me wrong, I like the 780 but I would never recommend it, or any other ink jet for that matter, as the only printer for anyone who prints any volume of black and white pages. At its best, the black and white output is good but not up to the quality of my 8 year old laser printer the day before it quit. The color output is simply amazing when you use Epson photo paper. Take a good quality digital photo, set the 780 to the highest quality mode and with gloss photo paper you are hard pressed to tell the output from your average photo processing. For kids stuff, the low quality mode works well with normal paper as long as there is sufficient white space to not saturate the paper with ink. The 780 is both slow and loud, not the best combination. Of course, this is in comparison to a printer that was quiet and about 8 times faster. Compared to other ink jets, its is quieter and faster than any of the HP's I have used, faster but louder than the Cannon printers I have used. The first unit I got died after a month. The print would not align. I called Epson (toll call) and they sent me another one by UPS and a prepaid UPS to ship my old one back. It even included new ink carts (nice!). Save some empty ones if you ever need to do a service swap since they want them shipped with ink carts. All ink carts are expensive but the 780's are even more so. Actually, the entire "Photo" series (780, 790, 870, 890, etc) uses the same cart and they are much more expensive than the 760 family carts. Additionally they are smaller, especially the black cart. This translates to a higher cost per page. If you are going to use this as your primary printer, go with a 760 family printer instead if you cant get a laser printer. A nice printer but not up to daily, heavy use.
16 Excellent... when it works
This is my 5th Epson printer and I have found quality to be generally good. I have been using this printer for about 9 months and have, on occasion, gotten wonderful results. However, it took a LOT of trial and error to match colors and tweak the printer. The cartridges seem fairly priced, but so much ink is wasted on photos that are not up to snuff (and on endless head-cleaning), not to mention the reams of wasted, high-quality paper. Other problems came up too: The signal from the computer to the printer sometimes gets lost and rebooting is necessary. Also, after about 8 months the printer died. Epson has good support and finally replaced it with a "new-refurbished" one. Don't get me wrong, some of the results have been breathtaking, but unfortunately, not enough of them.
17 Photo Printing is excellent. Price is unbeatable.
I have been using an old Lexmark for years. Like many beginner photo enthuiasts, I decided to upgrade to a photo printer when I upgraded my digital camera.
The hours of necessary research I did proved to be sucessful. The installation process was simple and went smooth. There have been no clogs, jams or mishaps.
The photo quality far surpasses any other brand of printer in the same price range. The price of ink is very reasonable.
Yes, I too heard the clunks and clinks of the printer when it is preparing to print. However, it doesn't bother me in the least.
My advice it to try it. You will like it.
18 Great image quality, but...
This printer provides great image quality at a low price, but the heads clog WAY too frequently. I have to do so many cleaning cycles, usually to fix black problems, that it almost isn't worth the low price. Don't get me wrong, when the printer works it is amazing (i was a commercial photo printer for many years). If only you could do cleaning with the color cartridge removed, but you can't, so you waste so much ink. The cartridges should be half the price because of this.
19 You get what you pay for...
Epson's 780 does a very good job at printing near-photo-quality images. However, getting the colors properly calibrated took forever (and a lot of expensive ink and a lot of expensive photo paper!) The printer's color-matching mode didn't work well with my monitor, so I had to tweak the settings manually. Fortunately, the printer's interface is intuitive and the help files are actually helpful.
Also, the photo-editing software that came with the printer is terrible - you can find freeware versions of better photo editors on the web, or splurge on Photoshop or something similar.
Still, once you get it properly calibrated, it's hard to beat this printer for the price. Colors are rich and well saturated, especially on Epson's premium glossy paper. And black-and-white prints are crisp and clear, with nice subtle shades of gray. Now, if Epson would only drop the price of their ink...
20 You get what you pay for...
Epson's 780 does a very good job at printing near-photo-quality images. However, getting the colors properly calibrated took forever (and a lot of expensive ink and a lot of expensive photo paper!) The printer's color-matching mode didn't work well with my monitor, so I had to tweak the settings manually. Fortunately, the printer's interface is intuitive and the help files are actually helpful.
Also, the photo-editing software that came with the printer is terrible - you can find freeware versions of better photo editors on the web, or splurge on Photoshop or something similar.
Still, once you get it properly calibrated, it's hard to beat this printer for the price. Colors are rich and well saturated, especially on Epson's premium glossy paper. And black-and-white prints are crisp and clear, with nice subtle shades of gray. Now, if Epson would only drop the price of their ink...
21 You get what you pay for...
Epson's 780 does a very good job at printing near-photo-quality images. However, getting the colors properly calibrated took forever (and a lot of expensive ink and a lot of expensive photo paper!) The printer's color-matching mode didn't work well with my monitor, so I had to tweak the settings manually. Fortunately, the printer's interface is intuitive and the help files are actually helpful.
Also, the photo-editing software that came with the printer is terrible - you can find freeware versions of better photo editors on the web, or splurge on Photoshop or something similar.
Still, once you get it properly calibrated, it's hard to beat this printer for the price. Colors are rich and well saturated, especially on Epson's premium glossy paper. And black-and-white prints are crisp and clear, with nice subtle shades of gray. Now, if Epson would only drop the price of their ink...
22 VERY GREAT QUALITY BUT IT SLOW AND VERY NOISY
Overall, I love this printer. Print quality is looks like real photo and installation is fast and easy. The cartridge for this printer is fairly inexpensive. Uh, what else? It also has good exterior design although I put it under my desk. The only drawback is the noise when you press the on/off button and when printing. And I can say that this printer is slow, but I don't care, I can do something else while printing. The good reason to buy? Well, its a printer with photo quality 2880dpi.
Pros: printer for great photo quality result. Easy to install. USB/Parallel/IEEE. Good design. 3 free software. Its Epson.
Cons: Its too damn noisy. Slooooooow.
Deserve 5 stars? I think 4.5 is fair.
23 Very poor color quality - I'm disappointed
The Epson 780 prints with magnificent resolution on the Epson Photo Paper. Too bad the skin tones look like bad flourescent lighting. I have tried every setting under the sun and nothing makes the tones any better. I spent quite a long time on the phone with their somewhat misguided tech support, who tried to convince me that because I could print out Word Art in MS Word that the color was fine (I was hoping to get photo prints, not word art) and that the problem was with the images or my camera, even though I had printed the same image from the same computer with a different printer and had gotten accurate color details. The images are dull, pale, and generally unacceptable. Maybe something is wrong with this printer since others have liked it so much, but this one is going back and I'll try a HP. I don't know if it is software or hardware related, but after almost four hours of tweaking and tech support, I give up. I give it two stars only because there is no grainyness visible; the pictures could easily pass for real photos, but they lack so much color you might think they were real black and white photos, not color :-).
24 I love it!!!
I was not in the market for a new printer however I bought a digital camera and then found out that my HP did not have the ability to print photos. I saw this product in a friend's house who showed my some photos that he had printed and I could not believe the quality. When I checked out the price I was even more impressed. The printer appears to be clunky and make odd sounds, however the quality of printing (documents, etc.) is equal to or better than my much more expensive HP. I found photo printing easy to do with excellent results. The reason I rated it 4 stars is because photo printing is time consuming, but for regular documents it is the same as my HP. To sum it all up for the price this is a great printer just expect to spend a little time printing top quality photos.
25 Great printer/great value
I bought this printer looking for a photo-quality printer at the best possible price. From the research that I did, there is no printer available that gives this quality of printing for such a great price. The printer is indeed a bit slow and noisy, but I am able to print out photos that almost look like the original (and I am comparing this to professionally taken photos). If you want to upgrade to the 890 or better, then you can get the speed as well. Initially I had some problems installing the driver (my PC did not seem to be communicating to the printer) -- I called Epson tech support and within 15 minutes, it was working perfectly! My only complaint is that the photos come out looking more pink than they should, so I always have to adjust the color (about -12 on the magenta) before I print. Otherwise, I love it!
26 try this trick
I've dealt with 4 of these Stylus Photos before, and all of them had the same problems at one point or another: skipping a line of black ink every 1/4" or so. I've tried cleaning, reinstalling drivers, etc. The problem is not in the sprayhead clog, but rather in how the printer processes the data. By chance I found the simple remedy. Turn on the printer and wait for it to finish it's setup and calibrations (green light stop blinking) before you turn on the computer. No problems ever since I've been doing that. Could be a coincidence, a bit inconvenient, but worth trying. Same appies for USB or Parallel connections.
27 Clog Monster!
I've had my Epson Photo 780 for 90 days now and am learning to hate it more and more with each passing day. The only saving grace of this printer, is it's color photo output, which is fantastic. Unfortunately that doesn't make up for the constant clogging of the black ink and the way Epson keeps ignoring my requests for relief. I have used nearly as much ink running cleaning cycles as I have printing photos of the kids. Nearly every time I attempt to print a text document I end up having to run cleaning cycles and not just one mind you but as many as 6 or 7. Spare yourself the pain and expense of owning this printer and buy something else like I now wish I had.
28 Print quality good, but beware of a few things.
I work at a camera store. When I saw they lowered the price of this printer ... , I couldn't pass it up. After using it for a couple weeks, I'll say this: For the price, I don't think there's a better printer out there in terms of print quality. However, you get what you pay for, and yes, there are reasons this printer is so modestly priced:
a. It's slow. VERY slow. Printing an 8x10 photo at the *highest* resolution (2880 dpi) took well over twenty minutes.
b. It's fairly noisy.
c. It goes through ink pretty quickly (the cartridges are very small). Luckily the cartridges are fairly inexpensive.
d. One advantage HP has over Epson is that HP puts the jets right in the cartridges. That's nice because if you let the printer sit and the ink dries up and clogs the jets, you can throw out the cartridge, buy a new one, and you've got a whole new set of jets. That's not how it works on the Epson. The jets are part of the printer on the Epson. If it clogs up (which my printer already has once...at the time of writing this, I've only owned it for a month), you've got to keep cleaning the print heads over and over until it unclogs. To unclog mine, I actually had to use a solvent inside the printer. That kind of irked me.
If I were going to be printing photos at home a *lot*, I'd probably go for something better than this. However, working at a camera store, I have access to a $300,000 machine to print digital photos with. Because of that, I print photos at home only occasionally; a twenty minute wait every once in a while isn't a big deal. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to the equipment I do and therefore might do a lot more photo printing at home, which may make using this printer a bit more of a pain.
Conclusion: If you don't mind waiting a while, I highly recommend this printer. In printing the same picture twice, once on the Epson (on good photo paper) and once at work on our Fuji processor, it was hard to tell the difference between the two. That's saying a *lot* for printer in this price range. I had to rate it a three because of the speed/noise issue, plus the fact that it's already clogged once. However, if the rating was supposed to have been based on the quality of prints *alone*, I'd have given it a four or a five.
29 High Quality Photos at a Bargain Price!
The Epson 780 is a fine photo and text printer. Photos being it's strong qualities. I recommend using Epson paper, as this product works best using it's own products especially for photo printing. The printer is no speed demon especially when doing photo quality prints with the highest resolution settings, however the results are excellent. Most will not be able to tell the difference between what the Epson puts out, and that of a photo lab. The average time for a 8 1/2" X 11" photo using premium photo glossy paper with printer set at 2880 dpi is about 14 - 16 minutes... using 5" X 7" took around 8 minutes. If quality is what you want, and speed isn't a factor, The Epson 780 is a very good choice. Not recommened for office use!
30 Not bad for the money
I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the prints put out for a printer priced under $100.00. As I knew before I bought it the cartridges go through rather quickly, but then I use it only for work requiring better than average prints. If you are going to use this as a default or only printer you will need to buy extra cartridges up front. Sound level is more than expected but a good tradeoff for the good points. I was happy enough with it to buy a second one for my office as a backup for the laser unit there.
31 Awesome
This is an awesome photo quality printer!!It is hard to tell the 'real' photo from the Epson
32 Prints look better than photographs!
I recently purchased a digital camera for my small photo business. Of course, I wanted to be able to print out the gorgeous pictures I was taking...so I started doing a little research. I didn't have [a lot of money] to spend but I figured I would have to for a true photo quality inkjet. After doing about 20 hours of research on the Internet, I read several reviews that put the Epson printers in a class by themselves (for photo printing.) WOW! I was not disappointed! My HP 842C printer can't touch the Epson 780's print quality with a ten foot pole. If you want your prints to look as good or better than silver halide prints from the photo developer...GET THIS PRINTER!
33 Nice printer - shame about the after sales service!
I recently purchased this printer. It is extremely good value for money & works like a dream ... up to a point. Within 2 weeks of purchase it failed to feed paper. On contacting Epson everything went wrong. Epson probably have some of the WORST customer service available. I waited 3 weeks for a technician to call & repair the machine. Despite repeated appointments having been made to visit my premises under the terms of the guarantee, there were no visits nor phone calls made to apologise or reschedule. I ended up buying another printer - sadly the same model. This too broke down in the same way after 2 months use & Epson failed yet again to keep their appointment to repair it. There is no way I will ever buy an Epson printer again. You have been warned!
34 Uses too much ink!
The unit worked good for a month but used up the color very fast as others have claimed. I changed the color ink ... and it was gone in two weeks even though I printed only 3 full size photos.. After 3 months, the photos being printed were much too dark plus the fact that I kept on seeing bands in the photos which meant that I had to clean the print heads often which also uses more ink. I was satisfied with the Epson 740, but I am very dissatisfied with the 780 and will buy a different color printer!
35 Very good pictures but uses alot of ink and is slow.
First let me say that I think this printer has the capability of printing excellent photos.
However, there is a learning curve and cost associated with this printer. I have printed only 4x6 and 11 x 8 1/4 photos so far. I followed the setup procedures that came with printer. When I printed the larger photo's I kept having a problem where after completing 1/2 to 3/4 of the photo, the printer would stop and spit out the paper. I wasted a ton of ink.
It Took the 4th Epson customer service person to figure out the problem. If you have a decent digital camera and store/send a large mega pixel picture to be printed, the information is sent too quickly for the printer to handle.
On setup if you are using a parallel connection, you have to change the port from an epson port to a more standard setting. The good is that the pictures get completed. The bad is that the printing is slowed tremendously. It takes over 12 minutes to print out the larger photos.
I am already out of color ink as a result of this problem, I will update my opinion after more pictures are printed.
36 I love this printer!
True it may be slower and somewhat noisier than other models, but the prints that come out of it are outstanding! At first it seemed like the ink went fast but it really lasts as long as any other printer I have used. One nice feature is it tells you how many prints are remaining like that last printed. Although the warning about the ink levels comes on, you do have the option to continue printing until the ink runs out and it lasts quite a few prints beyond the warning about the ink levels. The specifications were practically identical to the higher model with the exception of the sound level, speed and no roll paper. I am totally satisfied with this printer and the quality of the pictures..they couldn't be better. The prints on the heavy weight matte paper are stunning! I love the borderless prints..they rival any print lab. I would most certainly go with Epson again.
37 This is a loud piece of junk
This printer was loud and a real disappointment!!! I purchased it to print photos and my parent's HP prints much better abd is not a photo printer!!!!! It also has difficulty with communication with the computer---Save your money
38 Stunning quality, exceptional value
Epson revolutionized the printer marketplace in the early 90's with the first Stylus Color printer. This printer is another breakthrough product in terms of price.
For $150 after your rebate, you shouldn't even be thinking about buying this printer, just do it! Epson's piezo-electric inkjet heads are generally acknowledged by experts as being able to produce prints that exceed the quality of traditional chemical photo processing.
It is possible to get great quality output from a 2 to 3 megapixel digital camera and print sizes up to full bleed 8.5 by 11. Results are quite good even if you spend minimal to no time editing the images. If you are interested in photography as a creative process and have worked in darkrooms then you will be amazed at the power you have with a printer like this in conjunction with an editing program like Adobe Photoshop. What used to take hours and hours of trial and error in the field and in the darkroom can now take minutes.
To put the value in perspective, consider the following. The print heads in this unit are the exact same ones as found in the Photo 890 and the Photo 1280. This is a great buy on state of the art technology even if you miss out on the rebate.
39 Ink guzzler
This printer really gobbles up ink. Since this is my first photo printer, I can't say how the ink mileage compares with other printers. The first thing you need to do when after installing the printer is to calibrate your printer to match the colors of pictures on your screen (Adobe PhotoDeluxe that came with my digital camera had a function to do this). Unfortunately after I printed only 10 4x6 pages, I have already used up 25% of my color ink which comes out to about $0.50 per pix just for the ink! If you plan to print out a lot of photos it may be more cost effective to go through Ofoto.com rather than purchasing this printer.
