My trusty Epson R800 died this morning, god rest its soul. Can anyone please recommend a good quality A4 size photo printer, bearing in mind the cost of replacement inks too. A4 is plenty big enough for me, as anything larger i get done by Photobox. I will be profiling the new printer so initial setting up and colour accuracy is not too important, but print quality is.
Regards
Steve
Posted by John Robinson on April 19, 2011 at 5:35 PM
Steve
I have an inherited R285 and the quality is superb.
I do however have a continuous ink supply system which can be a bit tempremental but crikey does it save money.!
Inot sure which of the later Epsons take CISS but worth finding out.
Cheers
John
Superb gloss and pearl papers and great Epson CISS systems - go for pigment-based printer, not dye, if you can help it.
Posted by John Robinson on April 20, 2011 at 12:58 PM
Ink Express are good and thats where I get all my stuff from. Its getting hard though to get an Epson that takes CISS properly .as Steve will explain.
( They've caught on.)
I didn't mention them specifically as I am not sure about the advertising rules on here
The computer fairs at Wolverhampton race course are good and Ink Express have a stall there.
Cheers
John
Posted by Andy Astbury on April 23, 2011 at 4:40 AM
Well the Epson 1400 I've got here takes a CIS without problem, and an Epson 2880 takes the Ink Express pigment ink CIS without any difficulty whatsoever.
Different inks and different papers reproduce colours in a variety of ways - that's why printer/ink/paper combos need PROFILING in order to obtain correct colour.
Using original OEM papers and inks doesn't always get correct colour on the paper either - OEM profiles assume that the printer nozzles are all working; which in most printers they are NOT.
Custom profiles for an individual printer can vary dramatically from the OEM profile if a few nozzles in the print heads have gone AWOL.
But in reality it depends on whether you can tell the difference or not - most folk can't detect a slight colour shift in an image, or over-inking in the blacks, so ultimately it boils down to what you are happy with.
But CIS systems for Epson printers are the most catered for.
Posted by John Robinson on April 23, 2011 at 2:13 PM
My printers take the ink ok, its the fact that they stop printing half way through a sheet when the printer "thinks " a cartridge is empty. This can be infuriating.I have spoken to Ink Express about this several times and it seems you have to live with it. (Unless they are holding something back. which I doubt)
JohnR
Posted by Andy Astbury on April 23, 2011 at 3:32 PM
John - have your cartridges got reset chips in them? If the chips are not resetting then your printer will go slightly nuts!
Conversely it could be your Waste Ink Counter needs a reset.
Posted by John Robinson on April 23, 2011 at 3:56 PM
Andy
Its not the waste ink counter - That can be reset when it comes into operation, no problem.
The ssc service utility doesn't work on my model either. I've had three Epson printers with CISS in the past 5 years and they've all had problems
The cartridges reset ok but then use more ink cleaning every time than I use printing. So you have to take the "empty" out and put it back in again. No problem except the ink in all the others goes down on every cartridge clean ( Printer guesses it does !)
My complaint is the stopping in mid print, and I am reliably informed by Ink Expressthat they all do that.
Steve told me recently that many older models were ok but the newer ones were causing problems as Epson had got it sussed. He said there was nothing he could do to cure mine doing what its does, and that the latest ones were the same.Its no big deal anyway as I don't print that much.
I'll ring them tomorrow .
The only reason I raise all this is that I don't want to advise Steve to get the system and then him have problems. You can if you like.
JohnR
Discussion
9 repliesRegards
Steve
I have an inherited R285 and the quality is superb.
I do however have a continuous ink supply system which can be a bit tempremental but crikey does it save money.!
Inot sure which of the later Epsons take CISS but worth finding out.
Cheers
John
Regards
Steve
Superb gloss and pearl papers and great Epson CISS systems - go for pigment-based printer, not dye, if you can help it.
( They've caught on.)
I didn't mention them specifically as I am not sure about the advertising rules on here
The computer fairs at Wolverhampton race course are good and Ink Express have a stall there.
Cheers
John
Regards
Steve
Different inks and different papers reproduce colours in a variety of ways - that's why printer/ink/paper combos need PROFILING in order to obtain correct colour.
Using original OEM papers and inks doesn't always get correct colour on the paper either - OEM profiles assume that the printer nozzles are all working; which in most printers they are NOT.
Custom profiles for an individual printer can vary dramatically from the OEM profile if a few nozzles in the print heads have gone AWOL.
But in reality it depends on whether you can tell the difference or not - most folk can't detect a slight colour shift in an image, or over-inking in the blacks, so ultimately it boils down to what you are happy with.
But CIS systems for Epson printers are the most catered for.
JohnR
Conversely it could be your Waste Ink Counter needs a reset.
There are a few walk-arounds for this problem - have a squizz here http://www.2manuals.com/reset_wip.php
Its not the waste ink counter - That can be reset when it comes into operation, no problem.
The ssc service utility doesn't work on my model either. I've had three Epson printers with CISS in the past 5 years and they've all had problems
The cartridges reset ok but then use more ink cleaning every time than I use printing. So you have to take the "empty" out and put it back in again. No problem except the ink in all the others goes down on every cartridge clean ( Printer guesses it does !)
My complaint is the stopping in mid print, and I am reliably informed by Ink Expressthat they all do that.
Steve told me recently that many older models were ok but the newer ones were causing problems as Epson had got it sussed. He said there was nothing he could do to cure mine doing what its does, and that the latest ones were the same.Its no big deal anyway as I don't print that much.
I'll ring them tomorrow .
The only reason I raise all this is that I don't want to advise Steve to get the system and then him have problems. You can if you like.
JohnR