Massive Espon rant(bad/good) page here...

[Photomax]

Check out: http://www.macintouch.com/readerrepo...853.html#dec13

I have owned three Epson's and wavered between "these machines are great" and "I will never own an Epson again..."

Max

[Brian Ellis]

Check out: http://www.macintouch.com/readerrepo...853.html#dec13

I have owned three Epson's and wavered between "these machines are great" and "I will never own an Epson again..."

Max

I've owned three Epson printers, an 1160, a 1280, and a 2200 over a period of about six years. I've never had the first problem with any of them. When I moved last January the movers got to the 2200 before I did. They just unplugged it (fully loaded with ink), packed it upside down in a box, tossed the box on the truck with everything else, and drove 3000 miles in the middle of winter from Florida to Oregon. While we were getting the new house ready it sat like that in the box in our garage for about two months. When I was finally able to get fully moved in I unpacked it and figured there was no way it was going to work after sitting upside down in a box for two months. I was wrong. It worked perfectly on the first try and has been working perfectly ever since.

[Ron Marshall]

I had read so many nozzle clog horror storries that I was very hesitant to buy my 2200. But it has been a dream to use, only 5 nozzle cleanings in 8 months.

[Photomax]

I used to have one of the 11x17 photo printers, but was glad to get rid of it. I now have a R200. Its very tempremental at printing on discs. I also can never seem to get the yellow to pint evenly as well.

I have not read all the posts on the Macintouch page but it does look like most of the negative comments are more focused on the cheaper consumer inkjets than the larger "art print" machines.

I was at a professional camera store (Glazers) in Seattle today, drooling over the new Epson 3800 which looks really nice. They had some prints samples that looked amazing...

Max

[Bill McMannis]

Hmmm...

I have own three Epson printers and a 4870 scanner.

First, the scanner has never given a problem. I feel I have pushed it beyond its intended use and expect to get two years of additional HEAVY use from it.

Printers: I have a 2200, R300 and R200.

Starting with the R300: It was replaced Five (5) times under warranty for paper feeding. It never really had a problem with the print head. Epson has a great warranty program and I really got my money's worth for the R300. The printer is in use today, but really does not have a heavy workload.

The R200 was purchased as back up for when I was waiting for a warranty R300 replacement. It has never let me down (though it has a light workload.) I use it mostly for printing CD-Roms.

The 2200: This is the mainstay of my operation. I had atleast five units replaced under the one year warranty; mostly paperfeed issues though atleast one had a clogged head. Epson really took pride in supporting the 2200; whenever I called they warranty support they bent over backwards to see that I was taken care of. They even covered one replacement that was techninically a few weeks out of warranty!

I was really concerned a few weeks ago when my 2200 began acting up (clogged jets plus grinding gear noises). The unit was more than a year out of warranty. I dropped the 2200 off at Duraline in Henderson NC and for $40 and three days later my 2200 was as good as new!

Since getting the 2200 back, I displayed a print for some rather critical fellow photographers. The print was a scanned transparency (my 4870) and printed on my now venerable 2200. My fellow photographers were surprised to hear this was an inkjet print. No kidding, they thought it came from a Pro Lab.

By the way: I was formerly a big Hewlett Packard fan: but that was for their calculators and HP abandoned that market a decade ago. It is unlikely that I will ever by HP again. Anyone should keep this in mind: If HP will abandon a market where they were king (High-end PROFESSIONAL RPN calculators), why would they not tell the photography market "Happy Trails" if they decide the photographic printer market was meeting their stock analysts' expectations?

I am sold on Epson. When it comes time to replace my 4870 and/or my 2200 (probably several years down the road) there is only one make I will consider: Epson.

[neil poulsen]

I have a 4000. All things considered, it's been OK. My problem is that I don't use it a lot. For example, I was gone unexpectedly for about two months. I was able to get it going with multiple head cleanings, then three four more weeks of non-use (out of town again) and it took $80 to get it going again.

Since that time, I try to use it once a week, and it's been working OK. Obvious moral: use it or lose it. I'm probably lucky it didn't need a new head.

As to why I don't use it a lot, my direction in photography has taken a different turn. Glad I got it though, compared to current models. The K2 inks are better for digital negatives.

Purchased separately, I have the Pro version of the ColorBurst RIP. (Not the one supplied with the pro version of the printer.) This RIP is sweet. It's full-fledged and gives me true cmyk capability.

[Frank Petronio]

i deviated one generation cycle and tried an HP that gave me fits. Now my money goes to Sieko (Epson). Like the scanners, I probably buy a new printer every 3 years or so at this point, not counting office/home printers for the kids, wife, etc.

[Ben Calwell]

I write this with the smell of fixer still on my hands, but how much does it cost to put inks in these inkjet printers, such as the Epson 2200, etc. Are the inks very expensive, and how many, say, 8x10 prints could you crank out before going back to the store for more ink?
I don't know very much about digital output, but would like to explore it a little more.

[Frank Petronio]

The 2000/2200/2400 are very expensive ink-wise. If you need to print more than 200-300 8x10s per year you break even going to the 3800/4800 series with their less expensive, higher capacity ink carts.

I figure each 8x10 costs $2-3 a pop, it depends...

[Greg Miller]

All inkjet printers, not just Epson's, are prone ot print head clogging if they are used infrequently. The easy solution is to turn them off after useing them. THis caps the print head and delays drying of the ink in the head. When turning them on for use just run a nozzle check prior to printinig just to be sure all is well. I have owned quite a few Epsons and have bee happy with all. My 4000 was more prone to clogging than the others, but the 4800 that replaced it is much improved.