Darkroom or printer? (Epson Stylus Photo R800)

Name: malekowie

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Product:	Epson Stylus Photo R800
Date:	10.04.06 (538 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent quality prints

Disadvantages: No USB cable

I bought my new Epson Stylus Photo R800 in December last year, shortly before Christmas. Kind of present for myself! It was replacement for my old photo printer, as the name suggests – another Epson – Stylus Photo 890. It was a great printer, reliable, durable, making great quality prints until the day…

My promise to myself was to get another Epson printer as I knew the maker and loved quality of its printers and other “photo products”. I own photo quality scanner by Epson – another great piece of equipment.

I ordered my new printer over the internet, as it was December had to wait 2 weeks for delivery due to big demand for this model.

Unpacking isn’t difficult and rather exiting, the box contains:
• Printer unit;
• Power cord;
• 8 ink cartridges;
• Setup guide;
• CD with software;
• And some extras to help with printing roll paper, CDs and DVDs, etc.

Installation.

After plugging in the printer and turning it on, first what you need to do, is installing all 8 cartridges in to the printer. The activity isn’t difficult and takes few seconds for each cartridge. As always with Epson there’s a crib on the printer’s cover for those who aren’t to sure how to do it, so do not wary!

Installing the software is straight forward and easy, even for people who do not have much experience with it. Another couple of minutes and the software are ready.

Now, with all done, is time to connect your new printer to the computer. And here comes the first and the only problem I ever come across with the printer. There is no cable to connect printer and computer! Knowing about it in advance I bought my USB 2 cable, so advice you. Connect and give it a go!

Performance.

The Epson Stylus Photo R800 is slightly bigger than its predecessor and heavier (8 kg) but you need to remember one aspect of the problem: this is PHOTO PRINTER, and that is the main reason of its existents: to produce photo quality prints. The resolution for both colour and b&w printing is exceptional: 5760 x 144 dpi. Single droplet size is 1.5 pl – amazing!

On suitable media, i.e. genuine Epson media (Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper), and resolution set to the highest, prints can hardly be distinguish from photographs. Colours produced by the printer are vivid and lively, thank to 8 separate ink cartridge technology. There are: 2 blacks, one photo and the second for non photo printing; yellow; magenta; cyan; red; blue and photo optimiser. The set is capable of reconstructing any colour taken by your digital camera. Separate ink technology saves you money. When one colour is running out, the replacement cost covers only one colour not the whole set of colours. To replace all cartridges you need to pay app. £90, but again, if you consider how much would you pay for developing and printing, say, 20 film of 36 exposure (including cost of films)? Answer would be app. £240! So you really can save money and time using digital technology personify by the Photo R800.

Durable Epson UltraChrome Hi-Gloss pigment inks deliver long lasting prints. Epson claims up to 90 years. I wouldn’t be able to taste it, but my oldest prints are 5 years old and perfectly all right.

All main formats of up to A4 are acceptable by the printer; in addiction the R800 is capable of bondless printing or even using roll paper. I do not recommend using roll paper due to its labour intensive and time consuming nature. Much easier is to put pre cut paper in to the printing slot and have picture ready on the other side of the printer without installing and cutting roll paper.

Printing CDs or DVDs is also easy. There’s a special try for printing disks. Printer needs some adjustments before, but it takes just second. Quality of printing on CDs isn’t as good as you would expect, but this is possibly due to quality of the foundation on the disks.

Software.

Software included covers all basic aspects of every day home printing. Epson Photo Quicker 3.5 is extremely easy printing software. You can print your photos in 4 easy steps. Download pictures, select prints, set quality, print. It’s very simple even for beginners. Printing CD is slightly more complicated but still achievable for most of us.

Maintenance software includes:
• Auto Nozzle Check and Cleaning;
• Nozzle Check;
• Head Cleaning;
• Print Head Alignment and
• Status Monitor to automatically check for errors and also check the level of the ink remaining.

The last one is really clever software, when a colour is running out, the printer informs you well in advance to give you enough time to order you new cartridges. It even asks you what you want to do. If you want to order new cartridges over the internet it’s enough to follows its suggestions and you are done.

Overall.

If you want or need or dream of a darkroom without a darkroom – this is it. For all who are serious about good quality printing their photos at home the Epson Stylus Photo R800 is the answer. It isn’t the cheapest printer on the market but definitely one of the best. It produces exceptional prints and it’s easy to use.

Do recomend

Summary: Excellent photo quality printer.

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