OK, I'm going to order this printer....

[lomond]

.... The Epson Stylus Photo R1800.

Unless someone can give me a good reason why I should choose something else. :)

[ssim]

I haven't heard anything bad about this printer. I had a couple of Epson printers a few years ago and had terrible luck with them. They didn't stay around long. Have you looked at the Canon Pixma printers. I have the 8500 and it is without a doubt the best printer that I have ever owned. It took a short while of experimenting with it to find the paper I liked best and I have settled on Ilford papers as they supply a ICC profile for each paper they make. The results are very good from this.

[Carzee]

We have the R800 and the print mech is just wonderful. The inks are great. We've had 4 months or so and love it. The A3 version would be fantastic.

[lomond]

I haven't heard anything bad about this printer. I had a couple of Epson printers a few years ago and had terrible luck with them. They didn't stay around long. Have you looked at the Canon Pixma printers. I have the 8500 and it is without a doubt the best printer that I have ever owned. It took a short while of experimenting with it to find the paper I liked best and I have settled on Ilford papers as they supply a ICC profile for each paper they make. The results are very good from this.

I agree, the 8500 is great printer and as a bonus it looks great too. However I would like the potential to print to A3 occasionally.
For A4 only the 8500 would probably be my first choice.

Oh yes, I sometimes print on epson panorama paper which, correct me if I'm wrong, is not possible with the Canon.

[lomond]

We have the R800 and the print mech is just wonderful. The inks are great. We've had 4 months or so and love it. The A3 version would be fantastic.

Carzee, thanks for that.
I'm glad to here you like the ink.

Have you worked out the cost per A4 print ?

[Rob612]

Any thought about the new Canon Pixma either Letter or A3+ format ? They give great results and at the same time the have 8 SEPARATE ink cartridges, this really means something in terms of cost reduction, you only change the ink that is finished.

[lomond]

Any thought about the new Canon Pixma either Letter or A3+ format ? They give great results and at the same time the have 8 SEPARATE ink cartridges, this really means something in terms of cost reduction, you only change the ink that is finished.


What model would that be ?

[atleypnorth]

I think he means the i9950 which has been out for a while.

[lomond]

I think he means the i9950 which has been out for a while.


Mmmmhh.. I thought so, but I thank him for his input anyway.

I thank you, too for the clarification.

[Rob612]

Correct, the i9950 if you want large format, otherwise the IP8500 will do the same job on a smaller size. The results are great, if you use the right paper.

[gkas]

.... The Epson Stylus Photo R1800.

Unless someone can give me a good reason why I should choose something else. :)

I got one of the first ones out a few weeks ago. I love it!! It not only does a great job with color, but an excellent job with BW right out of the box. Make sure you check the newest drivers from Epson. I upgraded before I even printed my first pic. The new Epson profiles are very good. I was considering a 2200, but I'm glad I waited for the R1800. I knew I wouldn't miss the cutter, or the ability to print on heavyweight canvas. If I need to use either, I can always use my son's 2200!!

[mdr]

Prints can be too dark or saturated if you are running Windows XP with Service Pack 2. The latest drivers and printer profiles seem to do the trick.

[canon2od]

I have the R1800 and love it. So far I have only printed 4" X 6". I don't really have much to compare it to, before now I had an HP Photosmart 1215. The 1215 was barely OK for its time.

I am just learning about aRGB and sRGB so I haven't printed a picture yet that was taken in the Adobe format.

[Carzee]

OT, I like your avatar lomond.

I'm P & D. Here's a pic from a very hot day above the tropic latitude in FNQ. I'm the fourth hat from the left of pic. My in-laws are flying in for some geneology hunting in scotland -dumfrieshire- in 2 weeks' time. Daughter plays pipes too.
http://remlr.150m.com/pics4/p&d_ract2003.jpg

[Hellashot]

I have the R1800 and love it. So far I have only printed 4" X 6". I don't really have much to compare it to, before now I had an HP Photosmart 1215. The 1215 was barely OK for its time.

I am just learning about aRGB and sRGB so I haven't printed a picture yet that was taken in the Adobe format.

No matter what color space your image was taken in, you need to also select what print space to use. With the R1800 you need to select it in either the printer driver/setup OR in your program, e.g. Photoshop Elements 3. You need to choose the print space for your Epson R1800 and likely use "relative colormetric" I found relative to give the most true print. I noticed a BIG difference in realism when I printed my first image when actually choosing the print space for my printer. Setting your print space to Adove or sRGB will not give as good results as when you choose the print space setting for your printer.

[canon2od]

Hellashot,

Thanks for the advice. I think my printer is set on Photo RPM (suggested in the manual)...I will try your suggestion.

[MTalley]

I've had an Epson R800 for about 9 months now. Expect ink costs to run close to $2.00 US per 8x10 high-quality print. The ink levels will fool you at first. I kept a spreadsheet on ink costs through the first ink change and the levels stayed at or near 100% for the first 10 pages or so, then started dropping at a fair rate.

When you go to change any one ink cartridge, realize that the printer will purge all eight cartridges immediately after. I made the mistake of replacing one of the color cartridges when another one was at about 15%. AFter the ink purge cycle from the first cartridge, the other one was then down to about 5%, flashing a warning again.

That's the only gripe I have so far. OTOH, replacing a single three-color cartridge because one of the three colors is almost empty and the other two are half full is about as wasteful (think HP).

I've read various horror stories about Epsons clogging pretty easily. I've never had a head clog in 9 months of off and on duty. Though I did read a few people suggesting that if the printer has sat idle for more than a week or two, you should occasionally just print a single picture - maybe a 4x6 - to make sure everything remains flowing well.

I had to play around with the manual color settings to get my prints to match the screen. Colors were spot on, but it tends to print very dark (rich and deep, perhaps). I'm using the manual settings with gamma set to 2.2 and the brightness slider moved all the way over to +22. Your mileage may vary, of course.

If you get a chance, pick up a package of the Epson Premium Luster paper. Can't tell a difference from the high-quality stuff that most good film photos are printed on. I used their premium glossy for a while and it does a good job, but the luster paper is unbelievably nice.

[dewmuw]

Cameron I have a 1290s and am really happy with it. In fact the pictures I got into the local gallery have been commented on as people have said they look like professional prints.

Enjoy your printing.

[lomond]

Hi guys, thanks for all the input.

I've bought the R1800 and i'ts an impressive beast.
I'm going through the colour management learning curve at the moment. :( :?

Previously I printed using "Photoenhance" without worrying about profiles, print space etc. :o

I'm gradually getting there. The colours are right but the prints are on the dark side.
If I increase the shadows by around 20%, using shadows/highlight in PS, the prints match what I see on the monitor (before the shadows increase).
I've calibrated my monitor using Spyder 2.

[MTalley]

Just went through the color management thing for the second time on my R800 (I've got to quit playing with the Adobe Gamma thingie...). In my quest for fixing greenish-cast images (didn't find a definitive fix), I did run across a new driver at the Epson site which, among other things, was purported to fix dark images. So far, it seems to have done the trick. Now, all my images are about the right lightness and contrast as compared to the screen - though my green cast is still present a little. (This is for color prints - I know that B/W's will print a little green or a little magenta).

[lomond]

Thanks for the info Malcolm.
I downloaded and installed the latest driver (according to Epson UK) version 5.5a released 30/3/05.
Still on the dark side. :?