The perfect companion foryour digital camera.Print brilliant photoswith or without a computer!A full-featured performer with CD printing andbuilt-in card slots, the Epson Stylus® Photo R300makes it easy to print outstanding photos.
Features:- Superior 6-color Photo Inks and 5760 x 1440optimized dpi: Offers incredible detail and vivid color that staysbrilliant longer
- Prints directly on ink jet printable CDs/DVDs: Includes front loading tray for quick, easy operations
- Convenient photo printingno computer needed
- Print photos directly from memory cards andPictBridge-enabled digital cameras
- Save to or print from CD-R or Zip® drives through afront access USB host port
- Provides PC-free menu selections and a large LCDpanel to choose the right print settings
- Fast print speeds: 4" x 6" photo in 39 seconds; black text at up to 15 ppm
- BorderFree™ printing in all your favorite sizes: 4" x 6," 5" x 7," 8" x 10," 8.5" x 11," and panoramic
- Cost-saving individual ink cartridges
Bypass your computer system and print photos directly from your digital camera's memory card, with the Epson R300. Just choose the photos you want from a proof sheet and press a couple of buttons, and then enjoy your borderless 4-by-6-inch photo in as little as 37 seconds. With clear border definition and
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Printing directly on CDs
and DVDs is a snap. |
color separation and genuinely realistic skin tones, the prints will be suitable for framing, as if they had come from a professional photo lab.
The R300 also does a splendid job on standard text documents, envelopes, labels or transparencies--you can even print on CDs and DVDs in both 8cm and 12cm sizes. When you're in a hurry, churn out draft-quality sheets at 15 pages per minute, or take your time and achieve the ultimate perfection of 5,760 x 1,440 optimized dpi photos.
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| Wireless connectivity: Print directly from your digital camera or, using the separately sold Bluetooth adapter, from other Bluetooth-equipped devices |
Six individual ink cartridges keep the cost of consumables low; yields of 630 black pages and 430 color pages (based on 5% coverage) mean you won't have to replace any of them too often. A convenient USB port allows you to connect a Zip drive or PictBridge-equipped camera directly to the front panel.The sleek black and silver finish adds a streamlined modern look to your desktop, and the paper trays fold away when not in use to keep the area tidy. Epson includes a one-year warranty with the Epson exchange program.
What's in the Box
Epson Stylus Photo R300 inkjet printer; one each of a black ink cartridge (T048120), cyan ink cartridge (T048220), light cyan ink cartridge (T048520), light magenta ink cartridge (T048620), magenta ink cartridge (T048320), and yellow ink cartridge (T048420); CD print tray; CD-ROM with documentation, printer drivers, and CD printing and imaging software for Windows and Macintosh; printer cable not included
1 not that great
I have had this printer for just over a year and I must say that I am not all that impressed. All the photos I print (from several different programs) are all dark. I constantly have problems loading DVDs into the printer. Just yesterday it took me 8 attempts to successfully print 1 DVD. And this thing eats ink.
2 Beautiful prints, ink problem
I've heard some complaints that people have had to greatly tweak the settings to get the printout color accurate. I've never encountered this problem, but I HAVE encountered a different issue.
I've purchased 3 sets (18 cartridges) of ink since I bought this printer. One set was generic, the other two sets were genuine Epson. I have had a serious problem with diminishing print quality. With the generic set, my ink warning light came on, telling me to replace the cartridge. When I took the cartridge out to replace it, I could feel (and hear when I shook it), that the cartridge was still half-full of ink.
Another SERIOUS issue regarding ink supply, is I've been having to clean the print heads before and after every print job. It all started when I printed a photo and a HUGE drop of cyan ink landed right in the center of the image as I was printing. The rollers then smudged and dragged the drop all over the printout. I cleaned the print heads but the real problem was the ROLLERS. They were all covered with cyan ink and no matter how much I cleaned the print heads, I was still getting cyan-colored ink lines on all my printouts. I had no choice but to open the top and go in with alcohol swabs and Q-Tips, and slowly remove all the ink from the rollers.
Then it happened when I was printing on CDs/DVDs. I put the tray in properly and the printer was telling me I was low on black in. I began printing and walked away. When I came back, I had a CD with a huge glob of black, streaky ink ALL over the CD and all over the CD tray used to print with. I had to throw away the CD and soak the tray in soapy water... and go back into the printer with alcohol swabs and Q-Tips and clean the rollers off again because now they were coated with black ink.
I've since thrown out about 8 DVDs and 4 CDs because of this problem. Who wants to keep a streaky, blotchy DVD? Even if I'd wanted to keep it, the ink seemed like it would take 3 days to dry properly because it was such thick globs that had seemingly fallen out of the ink cartridge. It's as though the cartridge has lost its vacuum and all the ink was falling out when the print head opened. The ink dried in clumps that you could actually peel off - like when latex paint drips off the side of the can it comes in.
I've since replaced ALL the ink cartridges with genuine Epson ones and I've carefully cleaned all the rollers. I have not have the leaky ink problem as of yet but I am getting dull stripes across my printouts, like the printer forgot to throuroughly print in that spot. I'm hoping I can correct this with more head cleaning and nozzle checking.
If you're going to buy this printer - don't take the chance with generic ink cartridges. It seems like you'll save money but in actuality, you'll spend more time cleaning up the mess it causes and you may have to buy a new printer in the end. I don't know if that's what caused my problem but it seemed to all start with the use of the generic cartridges. They're set up differently than geniune Epson brand cartridges. They have a hole in the top of the cartridge that is covered by a label. You must peel off the label before inserting the cartridge in the printer and you can hear a *hiss* noise as you reveal the hole - almost as though you're releasing the vaccuum that keeps the ink in. That scared me from the start and I think that could be where my problem lies.
Hope I've helped.
3 Epson R300
I do like this printer and I have a Mac running OSX 10.3. The R300 just turns out superior prints--as simple as that. I didn't have any problems installing it and it's worked like a dream from day one. The blacks are black--and the colors great. I also use Adobe Photoshop and the colors are pretty true. I did purchase the Blue Tooth dongle for wireless printing but for photos that's way too slow. I have not tried other types of wireless printing. This is just a great overall printer--.
4 NOT very Mac-friendly!
I have wasted much of two weekends trying to get this sucker to run on a network with two Macs (one wired, one wireless) and a PC (wireless) and a Buffalo print server box. Oh, I had the PC printing in minutes. It's the Mac part that has been the nightmare. The "geniuses" at the Apple Store were of no use whatsoever -- their only solution was to buy a brand new Apple base station, and from what I've learned since, I have no confidence that this would work either. I've written to the black hole known as Epson tech support, and have heard NOTHING back.
The problem is that there are no Mac OS drivers from Epson for the R300 allowing access across a network. In doing an "Add Printer" on Mac OS X, you look at the popup list of printer drivers, and yup, there's HP, and Canon, and even Lexmark, but no Epson. There's "ESP", which I learn stands for a third party entity, and there are some highly cryptic generic Epson options there. But so far, I've only gotten Postscript commands, junk, or nothing at all to be emitted. I found a web reference to some guy who managed to get the thing working, sort of, in some kind of kluidgy way, but now he was down to tweaking deep-innards settings to keep printouts from looking not-quite-so-horrible. Mac users, be warned!
5 I LIKE THIS PRINTETR
I like this printer 'cause you can print phots and print on ink jet printable CDs witch is cool. And it uses 6-color inks and you can put in a media card nd hook up a ZIP drive or a USB writer and you can reduce/enlarge documents and photos.
6 Fantastic printer at an amazing price...
Primarily I purchased this printer for CD/DVD printing and so that's what I'll concentrate on.
Firstly the printer uses a tray system that's not physically part of the actual printer - if you want to print onto a CD after normal 8x11 printing you have to get your 12" tray and flip down the front of the printer and slide it in. You can't print on a sheet of paper one minute then onto a CD next without performing this mechanical change to the set up of the printer. It would have been SO useful if you could just pop a disc in the same way as you can with a CD drive - minor complaint but it's still frustrating to have this large tray laying around taking up desk space until you need it. Secondly, and this may also seem minor, but the tray actually sticks far out of the back of the printer as the disc gets printed on - my placement of the unit was close to a wall and I ended up having to move the print about 8" forward to accommodate the tray at the rear. Given the size of the printer plus the extra space of the tray you should ensure your intended footprint area will be large enough for it before buying.
The prints themselves are fantastic. Perfect. In fact if you buy some diamond (silver) CD-Rs and use this printer then it looks completely pro - you can't tell it's 'homemade'.
Aside from the tray getting stuck occasionally and the usual inkjet printer gripe - i.e. why do they take 30 seconds to faff about before printing I really like this unit. For the price it's hard to beat it especially if you're after one-off pro-quality CD/DVD printing.
(Extra: I've purchased many third-party ink cartidges from G&G for a tenth of the price of Epson's proprietory ones and they work fine with this printer. You'll be going through a lot of them so keep it in mind if you buy!)
7 Excellent print quality for occasional prints
I purchased this due to a recent sale and rebate from Epson that made the price very attractive. This is a second printer on my network and will only be used for photos.
I was please with the setup instructions although the individual ink cartridge insertion was a little tricky. Once done the software installed fine and the printer was easy to configure.
I have been testing the output using pictures from my Nikon D70 camera. So far I have been very pleased with the quiet speed of the printer.I am only using generic Kodak photo paper as I have not been able to find the Epson paper to test with. The colors are well defined, no bleeding and no banding as some have reported. I have just finished two 8x10 prints and they are both quality prints.
The quality is very good using Adobe Elements 3 software. I think this will be a great printer for those occasional photos that I want to give right away.
It will still be had to beat some of the online and local sites for printing large quantities of digital photos, but this will serve its purpose as it is better than my old HP 932.
8 Pointless inkjet technology!! This printer sucks!!
Don't be fooled by the "six-color separate ink cartridge" baloney. Epson does not let you print if one of the cartridges is low. I mean what's the point? I replaced the black cartridge and then wanted to do a nozzle check, but it wouldn't let me because the light magenta cartridge was low, so I had to wind up replacing that one as well--then the cyan cartridge wasn't full enough--I ended up replacing four of the six cartridges just to do a nozzle check print!! I am so sick and tired of this crap!! Epson is in the business of selling ink not printers! It's a worthless piece of junk!!
9 Don't buy this printer
I am extremely frustrated with Epson. Their printers stink. At least the Stylus Photo R300. Epson doesn't tell it's customers that the printer uses ink constantly. I mean constantly. I have printed the equivalent of four 8 x 11 sheets of photos in the year I have had the printer. In that time, the printer has used three sets of ink cartridges. At $15 X 6 cartridges = $90 to replace all the cartridges. Epson was nice enough to send me complementary cartridges while we were troubleshooting the problem, but I can't see keeping a printer around that uses up $180 a year if you print or not. Epson replaced the printer, but the replacement did the same thing.
This is what Epson printers do. They have a reservoir that constantly needs to be filled. Whether the printer is left on or turned off at night, it constantly has to keep the reservoir filled. It's not sealed so the ink is always drying. Therefore the printer is constantly using ink. Case in point: during troubleshooting, I placed brand new cartridges in the printer and kept the printer on for a month. Even though I had not printed a single color photo or graphic in the month, one quarter of the color ink was gone.
Now, one might think that they could just store the color cartridges and pull them out when needed. Not true. Their engineers are smart. The printer requires a cartridge in every slot. It can't be empty either. That way the printers are always using ink. It's great for their bottom line, but bad for the consumer.
I'm throwing my $300 Epson away. It's a real shame for the prints are great, but I can't see paying $20 for a 4 X 6 print. I'm going back to my $35 Lexmark.
10 Crushing Disappointment
I've used and been very happy with numerous Epson printers over the years -- starting with an Epson MX-80 Model III in 1983. I was interested in the R300 because of the separate ink cartridges and ability to print on CD and DVD discs. Right out of the box, the yellow doesn't print. I've been through all the troubleshooting steps and, alas, the unit needs to be serviced. I will soon be replacing it with something that can print more than 50 pages without giving up the ghost.
11 great printer...a little slower than I would like
I've had the R300 for 3 or 4 months now. Initially I almost returned it because the photos came out terrible. They were blotched and blurry. It turns out that I had to make adjustments with the print settings, namely the paper type. After having the correct settings, I got great pictures. Unlike other reviewers, I my experience with the ink cartidges has not been bad. Perhaps I just don't print as many photos or very large photos. My only complaint is that even when set for gray-scale and fastest the R300 takes a longer time printing than I would like. Overall, I am very satisfied with the quality and value of the R300.
12 Epson Cartridges Waste Ink & Have "Smart Chips"
Wonder why you're getting an extra featured printer so cheap? You're probalby only getting reject half filled ink tanks included, and look at the cost of new cartridges and consider how frequently you may need to buy them unless you hardly ever do any printing.
People are fed up with printer manufacturers having cartridges with sponges that don't refill well (Lexmark), or smart chips that prevent refills (Epson), not to mention HP's methods including "Expired Cartridge" messages, etc. If we don't, as consumers, vote "no" by not buying these printers and sending letters to CEO's we'll just get more of the same scamming.
I was excited to read about Canon Pixma IP3000 & up models with separate ink-tanks & no smart chips. Examining all the Pixma models at a local store I noticed this extra pull down tray in the front-middle. After full investigation, it's a disabled/never will work CD/DVD printing bay. Yet the same models in Europe have a working CD/DVD print bay. The USA price does not reflect the non-functional CD/DVD printing either. So I will (doubtedly) try to get a Euro model or wait for Canon to release USA models that are fully functional. I may end up temporarly buying the Epson R200 but I feel like I should be ashamed supporting Epson and their smart-chip scam. There is a chip resetter device (avg. $10 to $15) but I don't know if it works well yet. Forget Lexmark unless you have money to burn on cartridges. And there's concern about Epson printers wasting/spraying ink all over the inside (read all R200 reviews) that soon causes problems (dries solid/hard). The Canon has ink tanks with no smart chips, look easily refillable, and their print head underneath the ink tanks holder is also removable (i.e. replacable, but I don't know what that will cost. If other printers' print heads go you pretty much resort to trashing the printer). It looks like the Pixma line is leading the way in printing and cartridge technology. Canon: Kudos for heading a little more environmetally responsible with the Pixmas obviously designed for long-term usage in mind but PLEASE get those CD/DVD printing trays functional soon!
13 Very Nice.....
Here we go....my second Amazon review for a product that deserves it.
I was looking for an inexpensive, high-quality printer that was capable of printing more than just the normal 4x6 up to letter size prints and so decided to see what was out there before shelling out the money to buy a wide-format printer such as the Canon 9900. The R300 fit this bill....one thing that immediately impressed me about this printer was the ability to handle panoramic prints up to 44".
First snag....the colors that I saw on my first test prints were way off. Even after adjusting, I couldn't get anything close to what I wanted; everything was way too saturated and dark. There was a heavy tilt toward the magenta colors. I returned the first one and decided to give it another try. After running into the same problem I switched from MS Picture Manager and the included software to Picasa, and BAM! what a difference! Colors were tack on and quality was great.
Panoramas are where this printer really shines. After ordering a roll of panoramic paper from Epson (8.3"x32.8') I discovered I also needed to get a high-tension spindle. I didn't want to shell out the $140 for the spindle so I put on some plastic gloves, asked my wife to hit the print key and tried to stay still for 10 minutes. Boy was it worth the wait. The panoramic I printed was in one word: AMAZING. I have already gotten multiple offers to buy it from my co-workers.
Pros:
-Great quality with the right software
-Easy to use
-Don't "really" need a spindle as long as you can be a human spindle
-Great Panoramas
-Paper handling
Cons:
-I could literally see the ink levels go down as it was printing!
-Color levels were WAY off with the supplied software as well as with MS Picture Manager. Picasa fixed this.
-Ink is mighty expensive. I think I will experiment with off-brand inks
To summarize, I haven't had this printer for very long, but for my needs, it seems to be doing the trick. I will be putting this printer to the test and so far it has been a great buy for me. Bottom line: I am saving $50 per print for some of my panoramas. by printing on this printer
14 zero stars
I hate this printer. I wasted my money. Having 6 ink cartridges is a nightmare as it will not print if you are out of ANY of the cartridges. Even if you tell it to print black ink only, and light magenta happens to be out, it will not print anything. It is slow to print. It uses a strange TSR on your windows computer. It alerts you too much before just printing. Who wants to configure a hundred things just to print something? DO NOT BUY!!!!!!!
15 I bought mine for the CD/DVD printing
It does a really nice job. I use the white printable discs and the print colors come out pretty good. It takes 3 minutes (or just over) to print one disc. I've printed about 50 DVDs so far and all have printed without a hitch. I've even used the printer to print a few color docs and they too are very nice. The one thing I dislike is that you have to remove the disc printing board, or holder, when you turn the printer off. If you try to turn the printer on with the board in place, you get an error telling you to remove it. So if you use the printer mainly for disc printing, as I do, it becomes a bit of a hassle. I've found that it doesn't seem to use ink any more than any of my ink just printers, though the Epson inks are very expensive (they should be giving the printer away for free, and they wonder why we look for "compatible" inks). I'm pleased with the printer and glad I got it. I was going to get the new 800, but for the price, this does what I need and, unless the printing time is considerably shorter, I'm glad I have the extra $200 for ink.
16 great photo print out but not the best
I have own both R300 and i960, I compared both photo print out and i could clearly see the difference especially the big droplets on the R300 print out. If you want the sharpest picture quality go with Canon because their printers do 2 picoliter droplets.
17 best printer ever
Havent been able to use the cd function yet because I havent had the time. but printed alot of photos and it is awsome.
As far as economy of ink and pricing. This is one of the best.
Don't belive me then go to Toms hardware and check their review out. They are the masters. No problems with the printer and would have to recommend to any and everyone. Also on there lineup the r300 had the best prints. Very lifelike.
Great Printer Especially for the Price.
18 Don't be tempted to waste your time and money with this one!
As a photographer, I had done quite a bit of research before going with this printer. It boasts great resolution, and (here is the one good thing I will say about it), the photos it prints are outstanding.
However, there are several fundamental things VERY WRONG with it. It does not like any type of card stock or photo paper. I have tried several brands (including Epson's own). If you are using regular paper to print, it is fine. But if you purchased this printer, chances are you're printing photos or marketing materials. The printer jams up, refuses to feed the paper, and smears black ink all over the edges of the documents ALL OF THE TIME.
This printer also sucks more ink than the old HP deskjets were famous for. It should win an award for that! At 13 bucks a pop and seventeen for the black one, you're out $82 each time you buy a set! But don't take my word for it, read the other reviews saying the same thing.
As a small business owner, I have never been so thoroghly frustrated at something as I have been with this. It has wasted my time and several HUNDRED dollars trying to feed it ink and expensive photo paper that it has wasted. I thought about returning it, but I got way more pleasure out of putting my foot through the cheap cover and smashing it to bits. The lack of attention to this product has made me vow never to purchase anything by Epson ever again. I can only imagine the kind of soft-headed nitwits they have for product engineering and testing at that place.
Buyer Beware!
19 Decent Printer
Easy to use, good looking and good built in features.
Bought the R300 mainly for its ability to print on cd's which it does extremely well though quite slowly (I can print an A4 sized print in best quality on my old HP in the same amount of time it takes the R300 to print a cd in draft), it also has a frustrating cd loader that insists the tray isn't loaded correctly, I've found that the best method is to line up the arrows then pull the tray out very slightly then I have no problems.
A test print on photo glossy paper showed the image to be darker than the original but a quick play with the settings should sort that.
Have now printed out over 50 cd's with no misalignment, smearing or other problems and the ink isn't being used as fast as I thought.
I'd recommend this printer to anyone.
1 star deducted for the tray and slow cd printing speed.
20 BEWARE, MAC USERS!!
I bought this printer because of the cd printing capabilities - which are awesome, IF you are running OS 10.3 or earlier. If you have installed 10.3.4 or higher, the cd printing shifts out of alignment and CANNOT BE ADJUSTED. At the time of writing this, Epson is still sporting the 1.7bA driver - which was released in October 2003 and was written for Jaguar.
I've been through technical support, I've had them swap out the printer for a new one, I've had friends with powerbooks come over and they had the same problem - untilI figured out that the problem began when I updated to 10.3.4 and I had a friend come over who still hadn't updated, and lo and behold - it printed fine.
I must agree that the ink is expensive and that it runs through it pretty fast - but other than that - it prints beautifully - and the cd's look awesome. But they won't look awesome for me or anyone else who is running an up to date OS until they spice up their driver. All that to say, if youre a mac user, check the epson website to see if they've updated the driver before you buy this!
21 INK EATING MONSTER
IN GENERAL THIS IS A FAIRLY GOOD PRINTER MAINLY BECAUSE IT CAN PRINT ON CDs/DVDs, BUT UNFORTUNATELY IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW MANY SETTING ARE TRIED ON THIS PRINTER (IT EATS INK LIKE CRAZY).
I'VE HAD OTHER HP PRINTERS THAT USE LESS INK, WITH WORK LOADS OF 1000 - 2000 PAGES PER MONTH.
I'M GOING BACK TO HP.
THIS TIME A PHOTOSMART 7760 WITH AUTO TWO SIDED PRINTING (TO SAVE ON INK, PAPER, & THE TREEs).
22 Great Printer at a Great Price!
I bought this printer simple for photo printing. Besides the price being the lowest I found with free shipping and no tax, the printing is FABULOUS!! It truly prints (on glossy paper) better than if you had film developed. The media slots are great as well as the monitor for status is a great bonus. I would recommend this printer to anyone from amateur to professional. Epson has a great product in the R300.!
23 Just eats ink but a good printer
This is absolutely a fantastic printer for digital pictures. The colors are crisp, it uses 6 different color inks which give it much broader range in the colors it can make. The DPI is outstanding and it is very easy to use. You can either put a memory card (or stick or whatever medium you use) or you can connect your camera directly to the printer via a USB 2.0 cable OR you can put the pictures on your computer first, edit them, and then print them from there (recommended way).
My only problem with it is that it goes through ink fast! Now that might just be how these printers are but man, the ink is expensive and you have 6 different colors to maintain (however since all of the inks are seperate, if you run out of black you can just replace the black ink, it eliminates a LOT of waste when you still might have some magenta or yellow or cyan left but out of black, before you'd have to just throw that away) and they're about $20 each, from what i've seen. You can probably print out about 50-60 pictures b4 you'd need more ink so bear that in mind. But remember, you only print out the pictures that you like so it's a good trade off.
Highly recommend this printer, but be ready to mortgage your house to buy some ink.
24 Ink Sucking Box on my Desk
Prints great and is quiet. Sucks ink like a hungry baby on a bottle.
20 8"x10" prints = $100+ in ink. Epson would give this printer away for free, but they're smart enough to know that buyers would suspect a catch. I know - charge the buyer for the printer AND continually drain there wallets in ink expenses.
Epson doesn't make money on printers- they make money on repeat sales of ink. To make more money on ink they make a printer that blows through it. A WIN-WIN for Epson! Hoo-ray Epson!
Oh....but like I said, it does print nice...but should't it anyway?
25 Outstanding Photo Printing
I am VP of Technology for a large professional photo company (not Epson) and I highly recommend this printer for home digital photo reproduction. With Epson ink and Premium Glossy Photo Paper the results are stunning.
With each ink cartridge replacable separately you no longer need to replace a $25 cartridge just because one color ran out. Individual color cartridges are about $12, although black costs more. Although not cheap, the quality of the Epson supplies are worth it. Off-brand inks and papers do not last anyway.
26 Great Photo Printer
I used a Lexmark printer until it finally died and replaced it with a the epson 6 ink tank printer which I found to have much better print quality and ink use has been great. I have printed over 200 4x6 borderless prints and less than half the ink in the color carts is gone. I also use the best settings for printing. highly recommend this printer for amature and professional photographers. the prints are photo lab quality for a fraction of the cost. It seems to work great for scrapbooking as well.
27 great image quality
Don't know what Gideond is talking about in his/her review. Ink lasts a long time and since it is individual carts, it is much more economical than HPs 3-colors in one cart. Pictures are phenominally vivid, especially if you use Epson premium glossy paper and at $15 per 100 sheets of 4x6, it will not bankrupt anyone. IMHO, print quality is better than photo lab and I have compared results. Overall, a steal at $170 with six carts included. Even if you only keep it a few years, it will still prove to be a bargain. A pox on all of the negative comments.
28 Has its good points but the bad points outweight them.
First the PROS:
1) excellent print quality on both paper and CD/DVD media.
2) Has card readers built in and ability to capture directly from it's own USB port from devices such as a digital camera.
3) card port can be used in passthrough so it acts just like a normal card reader.
4) fairly quiet overall.
5) not a bad price for the printer itself and you can get the R200, same printer without card reader basically for about $100.
But the Cons:
1) Ink costs a fortune for it and I have yet to find a generic ink that will work all that well in it. Carts are very difficult to refill.
2) Sucks up ink like cheap wine. It prints light compared to some printers so you have to set it to darken the print, using more ink in the process, if you want a true to color picture and the ink drops rapidly.
3) When you replace a cart it drops the others by about 1/10 of the meter for no reason at all. Once more way for epson to milk more ink money out of you.
4) reports ink is out far before its really gone, forcing you to use a third party utility to trick it into letting you use all your ink, and that utility can damage the printer if you aren't careful with it.
5) I've noticed some streaking from the black head on almost every cover I've printed.
6) It likes to catch the front corners of the paper and ink them black by accident. I guess because it doesn't secure the front edge before printing. This may be why I'm getting streaking too. its possible the black head is screwed up from the corners of paper poking into it.
7) takes forever to power on when you want to use it.
8) Draft printing is horrible. It comes out very light, unlike the HPs which still look good in draft mode.
Overall it gives good prints but has too many drawbacks for me. I've gotten to just using it for DVD/CD and some photo work. I'll get an HP for text and other photo work and save the fortune I'm spending in overpriced short lived ink.
29 frustrated and annoyed
At first I liked the printer... then it completely STOPPED PRINTING CDs/DVDs. And not to mention, every time I print a page of any size, (4x6, 8.5X11, etc.) it prints the CORNERS BLACK. So not only do I have black corners on all the photos/papers I printed out. I can't even print on media anymore.
30 Same problems as everyone else...
Stay far, far away from Epsons in general, as I've had nothing but ill luck with them all. I've had the R300 for, oh, 12 hours now, and I have yet to make it print ONE CD (which is all I bought the damn thing for). I'm not computer illiterate - yet I've tried everything patiently all day, and still nothing except for the usual "CD / DVD TRAY OPEN" error, which is insane since I WANT the tray open for printing. I assume the print quality is very nice, but I don't know for sure because IT WON'T PRINT. Epson should rename these things - they aren't printers, they're UN-printers. What a stunningly stinking piece of maldesigned technological crapola. And you can quote me on that.
31 DON'T BUY THIS PRINTER UNLESS YOU LIKE AGGRAVATION!!!
This printer is the biggest piece of s*** I have ever had the misfourtune to use. Don't get me wrong, IF you can get it to print, the results are beautiful, but it actually works about 2% of the time. It seems that it WILL NOT feed greeting card paper, and forget about printing out more than one copy at a time. It constantly reports jams that are not there, or that the CD tray is open when it is not, and locks up the whole printer. I have been trying to print out my wedding invitations for 6 days, at least 3 to 4 hours at a time, and I am ready to pull my hair out. It will feed regular paper, no problem, but who wants to print out their wedding invitations on regular paper? For a printer that is supposed to be a "photo" printer, you would think that it would feed specialty paper. I can't wait to get to the store tomorrow to return this damn thing. Save yourself some time, money and aggravation and buy something else!!!
32 Very unhappy!!
I originally bought this printer at xmas 2003..At first I found the printer to be excellent..However,after a couple of weeks my problems started...The problems I had all related to the cd/dvd printing mode..The first problem was the tray refusing to feed itself in and needing to be "nudged" to start the feed...Next,after printing, if I was not watching what was happening the printer would continue to try and feed the tray out even when it was already out resulting in the "paper jam" error...On top of these problems on numerous occasions the tray would travel too far into the printer and on coming back jam on the drop-down flap resulting in another error..I returned the printer and a new one was received under the d.o.a agreement as it had all happened within the first thirty days..Again,at first no problems but within a couple of weeks all the above problems began happening again!!!...I am now in the position where I have to "wet-nurse" the printer by sitting next to it for every print job in cd mode to prevent the errors happening!!...I suppose I may just be unlucky but a friend is having exactly the same problems as me....Not recommended!!!!!
33 RGB instead of CMYK!?!
I bought this printer to replace my epson 1270 and it was a definite improvement. Extreme quite, even better photo quality, but that's the catch. It can only print RGB files, my CMYK turns out truely horrible. 600 dpi looks like really low res web pics. And yes, I double checked all the trouble shoots. Has anyone else had this problem?
34 Great printer but...
If you don't need the card readers or pictbridge, buy the R200 instead. It has exactly the same print engine and software as the R300 but at half the price! I checked the specs at Epson and they're the same. On the Canon printers you have to go to the i960 to find a six color printer for the same price as the R300 and still not get the card readers on the R300. All of these are excellent printers but I think the Epson dye printers have a slight edge over the Canon in print permanence based on the statistics that I've been comparing.
35 They made me happy
Notice the post above. After a slow start with tech support, I got to see the staff at the Epson Canada ofice in Toronto. They actually brought me inside and checked it out. The only real flaw is the nature of the feeder tray. It is a bit on the flimsy side. Just remember to be very gentle with it. They replaced the tray and sent me on my way. With my gratitude. I have a feeling the tray will be mentioned in Epson's in-house product enineering issues. All in all, I ended up satisfied, even though more then a few disks were destroyed.
36 The disk destroyer
I purchased this printer specifically to print CD's. When I brought it home, I tested it on 4 x 6 Epson Photo Paper, and the reults were impressive to say the least. I printed 3 photos. I then setup to print CD's. the first dozen or so discs came out beautifully. After that, it was nothing but disaster. Ink contaminating the roller wheels for the cd tray has ruined the disks. After carefully cleaning all exposed parts and using all cleaning functions available on the printer, the same thing occurs. Once it starts leaking ink, it becomes a nice looking paperwight. I am days behind schedule. I returned the printer to the store I purhased it from and they happily replaced the printer without any problem. New printer, same problem. I can find no support at Epson's site mentioning this problem. The disks are good quality (Mitsui) and a bit expensive compared to standard blanks but I wanted a better product. I have $650 invested in this project. I will now have to buy more disks.
If you are just printing photos, you will be very happy.
But if you want to print CD's, I suggest another brand of printer might be more practical and less aggravating. One last thing. Epson's site has enough bad links to make support search a frustrating experience. I requested support via email a couple of days ago, still havent heard back, tomorrow I go the live telephone route and if that doesnt help, the Canadian Head office is around the corner from me, and I will take it directly to them. Stay tuned for update.
Big disappointment.
37 Finally a Good one
My wife and i bought this printer becuase she likes to print all the digital pictures she takes, and this printer has the slots for the media cards. We actually went through three printers before we got one that worked right. The other printers the removable media slots kept connecting and disconnecting randomly. The software was install correctly, we brought two of them back and finally got one that works. Now that we have a working printer, it is great. One big draw back if just one of the ink tanks is empty the printer will not print, i thought that was odd. Very easy to use and set up and the media slots now that they work are very nice, we don't even have to dock the camera anymore just put the card in the computer and use the photo software that came with the printer to change the pictures on the computer. Great buy.
38 Using the Epson Stylus Photo R300 for About a Week Now
Seems easy to use and prints both text and pictures impressively. The only drawback is that it prints relatively slow, but, since I bought this for home use, this doesn't really come in to play too much. I was wondering if anyone has tried any of the non-Epson (less expensive) replacement ink cartridges and what the print (especially photo) quality and coloring results were ?? Do you know of any inherent drawbacks? Do you also know if the non-Epson ink cartridges are of a similar ink/pigment type and technology as the Espon ink cartridges? Please respond via a review.
(p.s. 1 Star reduction for being slow).
39 Great inkjet printer
I had an HP Deskjet 952 that was starting to make noise when loading paper and decided to start looking around for a new printer. I never was satisfied with the blockiness of the blacks on HP photos and I was impressed with the samples that I had seen from the Epson photo printers. I bought this one because of the photo printing and the CD printing. I hate CD labels. I'd rather use a CD pen and write on the CD.
Bottom line, this printer has performed well, printed great photos and I didn't see any problem printing text. The CD printing worked well and I love it. The price is low which is a great thing. Technology improves so quickly. We don't need to be investing major bucks in highly replaceable hardward like printers.
40 ? about the cd printer
I just bought the printer a few weeks ago. I bought it for the Cd disc printing. They look great. The instructions say you have to use printable cd's only. I was wondering has anyone tried to print a cd label on a regular cd, and if so, how was the outcome? I know they say not to use a un-printable cd, but will it distroy the printer if you do? Will the ink just run off the regular cd surface? I like the printer, photo's look great, but i do feel it is slow at printing the job.
41 A Smart Buy
The prints made by this printer really do look like what you'd get from a photo lab, and I dare say better if you know how to use Photoshop or any similar image editing program. What I see out of my monitor is exactly what I get out of the printer, and this is without doing any calibrating whatsoever. This printer has exceeded my expectations, especially when one looks at the $180.00 price tag. I like how it monitors the ink levels by counting each drop that comes out of each cartridge. And each cartridge can be replaced individually. It prints best on Epson premium glossy paper, but Hammermill and HP premium glossies work well too. This printer is a smart buy.
42 A damn good printer
I bought this to replace m old 744. I gotta say that my old 744 was a good photo printer. But man this printer blows it away. I had a lab do a 5x7 for me and then printed the same photo on kodax ultima paper. The printout I feel was better then the lab print. You can't go wrong with epson printers for photos. And if you use pictorico paper in and use the best photo settings you can print 8x10's that are equal or superior to anything you order from a photolab.
43 What a treat!
Forget any negative reviews you read about this printer. My only explanation for those reviews is either those people got a defective unit, or they're one of those people who throw their hands in the air and give up if things don't work on the first try. The photos this thing produces (on Epson paper) are great. But enough about that. I bought this printer for one main reason... it's ability to print directly to injet printable cd/dvds. Doing so could not be easier. I will say this READ THE DIRECTIONS. They tell you how to verify the alignment using a cardboard mock CD that comes with it. Also if you slide the CD try all the way in, it won't work. Slide it in until the arrows match up (about 1/4 inch of being in all the way.) Not mentioned in any other reviews here is the software that comes with it for printing to disks called Epson Print CD. If you've ever used Adobe page maker or or MS Publisher, you'll be printing CDs in 10 minutes. Want to change the background? Click Background. Want to add a picture? Click on the icon of a photo, same for text, etc. Plus you can save your design to use again (or modify slightly IE family movies disk 1, 2, etc) For under $200 you can't beat it. A full set of ink (SIX cartriges) will set you back over $70, but that's true with most ink jets. If one COLOR runs out, you can only print in Black and white. If Black runs out, your shut down until it's replaced, but that's true of most ink jets. Buy this printer, then buy stock in Epson. HP better catch up quick.
44 Epson R300M
This printer was rated the best of every photo printer in an Office Depot store, by one eventual buyer. He tried them all. The Canon 900 was a distant second. Other than the superb quality of the prints, the amazing thing is that it will take a CD driver, so you can print from your CDs. It will also burn the pics in your camera card to a CD. What talent!I sold a HP Photosmart 7550, when I got this one. The R300 is the basic printer. If you buy the R300M, it includes a plug-in LCD viewer. The viewer is pretty important, in my judgement, for photo printing.
45 Spits ink out on envelopes
I have not yet tried to print photos from this printer, but I have tried invitations. When printing on white invites this printer spit black on almost on every other enevelope. It also runs out of ink very quickly.
46 Great Photo Printer for Anyone......even the picky!!!! LOL
After much researching photo printers I decided the Epson R300 was best for me. Then after much waiting and searching for the item I located it and immediately set to work getting it set up. Let me tell you, it was very easy and quick....a big plus in my book. I printed my first 4 x 6 and was extremely pleased. Made me want to call my local photo developer and tell them goodbye. The ink usage is far less per photo than I would have ever imagined and the fact that there are separate ink carts. will in fact save you money. I can't even begin to tell you how great the photo quality is.....you really just need to buy the printer and find out all of it's marvelous points yourself, trust me, you will not be disappointed. This machine is definitely worth the wait and aggrivation trying to find it. Read all the other reviews and you will know you will be making the right decision with the R300. One last thing, I spoke to a local, well known portrait photog and she uses this epson to showcase a lot of her work and she said she wouldn't go back to any other printer after this one. That should say alot. To sum it all up.....Go Buy It....You Will Love It!!!!!
47 Absolutely great printer for the money!
I am very picky about image quality. So I don't buy anything at first glance. After thorough investigation and looking at reviews here and other sites, it came down to this vs. a comparable Canon and the HP 7760. I went with this because of its size, six separate ink tanks, and its CD printing feature. I use it exclusively for digital pictures from my Olympus digi camera (family pics mostly, nothing fancy) and an older DeskJet for any charts or presentations.
I expected simply good quality prints, but this printer has really surpassed my expectations. My prints look like them came from a lab. The local lab will never see my money again. In addition, Epson paper is great and has a good price. The ink tanks are modestly priced as well. For less than $300 you can't go wrong with this printer. Enjoy.
48 Epson R300 prints are outstanding, competes with 35mm
After very happily owning a Durabrite Epson C82 I decided I wanted richer prints of my digital photos, so I picked up an R300 even though it does not support the truly amazing Durabrite technology. The Print Image Matching attracted me being an owner of the Sony DSC-F707. I got it home and set it up in about 5 minutes which was a smooth process.
After 15 minutes of reading the manual about PIM2 I fired up the plug-in and prepared to make my first borderless print onto a sheet of included complimentary 4x6 glossy paper. I made the mental note to not waste ink and get all settings correct the first time. Print Image Matching made this easy. I followed the steps, finalized print settings and pushed the button. The print that quickly emerged is incredible, accurate, rich, and sharp. If only my retailer (a major computer superstore) was able to sell me inkjet printable CDR's I would have tried that neat feature too. Unfortunately they did not know what I was talking about when I pointed to the R300 box. I highly recommend this product. In my opinion this unit is a milestone in the digital photography revolution! This is the first printer I've seen yet that can print a digital photograph with stunning results.
49 problems from day 1!!
I have read an awful lot of positive reviews about the epson r300 so I believed I was making a 5 star purchase. From day one, I had problems. It seems that a large job (over 1 copy) is impossible when using photo paper. The printer will not feed the paper, the screen reads paper jam when there is none and you must keep resetting. It sounds trivial but is actually quite frustrating. Since I have had the printer, I have made 20-30 copies most being excel documents AND YELLOW INK IS OUT ALREADY! DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU CANNOT PRINT ANYTHING EVEN BLACK AND WHITE if one color cartridge is out? In my opinion, multiple cartridges is pointless when one color outage shuts down all opertations. The quality of the prints is Ok but surely not the greatest. When people compare images that I have printed from this printer with those I printed from the free HP pavilion that came with the computer- everyone thinks the HP is crisp, clear and perfect. So I must give Epson a thumbs down. If I had only kept the box, I would have taken this Epson back to the store in a heartbeat.
50 A pure pleasure to use
I spent months evaluating printers before picking the r300. I am very satisfied with my choice.
I'll start out with the negatives. I have 4 criticisms about the printer:
1. The ink warning light comes on long before you are out of ink.
2. The default print settings appear to be designed around (dark) Adobe Gamma PC video
3. It is not designed to make borderless prints on 3rd party (Kodak) photo paper
4. While the CD printing produces gorgeous images, the ink will smear if it gets wet.
Each of these issues is addressed very easily:
1. Don't change the ink cartridges until you really run out.
2. Use the advanced options to tweak the gamma, brightness and contrast and save the settings. Pros will make their own curves anyway.
3. Epson paper is better than anything else, but if you have to use other paper, you can "fake" it to get borderless prints with a custom paper setting.
4. Don't get the CD's wet. Excepting my own tests, I've never had the slightest smear on a CD that I printed from the Epson. Odds are that it'll never get wet, so don't worry.
I should add that when I print on quality Epson and Kodak photo paper, the ink sets very well, so that it won't smear EVEN if it gets wet. I swear, my friend dropped one of my photo-prints in my fishtank and it looks just as good today as it did before it got wet.
I've left prints in the sun in the back of my car. The r300 ink hasn't faded (on Kodak and Epson photo paper). The prints that I had from my old Epson and HP printers are very faded. This ink is durable!
I've discovered that I can even get superior iron ons from crummy inkjet iron on paper when I use this printer. It's more than just the resolution. Where other inks tend to vaporize under the iron, producing fuzzy edges, the r300 images remain sharp.
I've tested the output on this thing every way from Sunday and I haven't found the flaw yet.
I tried the smart memory slots and I hooked up a USB zip drive and yes, it all works although I'll probably never use those features for more than contact sheets. The uncorrected prints were exceptionally good.
Basically, what I'm saying is that the printer is vastly superior to any other inkjet that I've used in my home or at work -- and I do graphic design for a living. I find it hard to believe that anyone who tries an r300 won't fall in love with it.
51 Excellent Machine
I knew there had to be something about this printer, considering every shop, both local and online, seemed to be out of stock. I started seeing them turning up on ebay at 20-30 dollars above retail. After I finally tracked one down and installed it, I can understand why. This is one beautiful machine. All of the pet peeves that I had from my older Epson (Stylus Photo 740) are gone. It doesn't take time to warm up, it has a small "footprint" on my desk, it is very quiet, it has 7 separate ink cartridges, you can click a box and print in black and white even when the color inks are dry, and the software is top-notch.
The CD/DVD printing works...well, MUCH MUCH better than I ever imagined. I couldn't believe I was holding a CD-R when I was done. The fleshtones on the photos that I printed were very realistic. I asked my wife to pick which was the photo and which was the printout and she couldn't tell. Used in tandem with my Perfection 2400 scanner, the R300 printer is a powerful tool.
52 Best Epson Printer so far
I had purchase the Epson Photo 900 printer because I really wanted CD/DVD printer capabilities. I also wanted it to do a nice job of photo printing. Several weeks after purchasing the 900, I saw the R300 in action and kind of kicked myself for not doing some extra research before buying the 900. I finally sold the 900 on ebay and purchased the R300. Let me tell you this, every aspect of this printer is simply awesome. I am using this with MacOS X and it is simply flawless. The CD/DVD printing is 10 times better then the 900, the media reader works perfect, the computer-less printing works amazing, design of how you go about printing onto CD/DVD is superior over the 900 or any other product in this price range I have seen. The only exception to this printer would probably be the R300M which has the color preview monitor. BTW, the photo quality output of this printer is literally second to none. I have seen this compared against HP and Canon and it holds well against both!!!
If you are looking for an awesome all around printer at only $180, this is definitely the way to go!!!
53 GREAT Printer
I had an Epson Stylus 660, which was an older model, slow, noisy.
So I upgraded to the R300, WOW. It is also very quiet, has seperate ink cartriges and I have had no problems with it. Pictures come out beautifully!! And as an extra bonus you can print on CDs.
54 Very frustrating -- bad design on Epson's part
I bought this printer in late October so I could boost my home photo printing and to possibly use the print on disk feature. Well, after a few days I was very discouraged to find out that it had an error every single time I tried to print. It would say to check the printer documentation on how to solve the error, but that would never work. I did, however get 20 good quality pictures in about 3 minutes each picture I'd say...that's the only reason why I give it a one star (I would give it 0/5 stars, but you can only give it 1). ...
This product may be good for others, but it was not the printer for me. Everyone I've talked to talks so highly about it and says the quality is great, performence and everything, however I just didn't have that experience and therefore I very much dislike it, even if I am 1/1000 that got a defective. I'm trying to provide you people with the experience I had, and I should NOT come across as being vein, arrogant or illogiced.
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55 epson r300
great printer, bought it to print some 4x6 photos. the six color ink printing is great compared to the 4 color types. using it on a usb 1.1 connection slowed it down to about 1.5 minutes per picture ( 4x6). ink useage after 66 4x6 was less than 1/4 of one cartridge ( lt magenta ) this was after printing 6 8x10
