Great printer but with some caveats
Written: May 17 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Faster, quieter, smaller drop-size, archival ink-sets
Cons: still print same size as the 1200, ink carts harder to find (for now)
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| PeterH's Full Review: Epson Stylus Photo 2000P Inkjet Printer |
The 1270 itself have some great improvements over its predecessor:
•Improvements such as smaller drop size (4 picoliter ink droplet compared to 6 picoliter) translating to smaller dots and smoother gradations
•Bi-directional printing (prints both directions so it prints faster). Although it will still choke if one is using a computer with small amount of RAM (anything less than 64MB) and scratch disk (Hard drive space for spooling the files). Also, I recommended having at least a PowerPC 604e processor or later (ie. G3 and G4)
•Better new archival ink-set with slightly bigger capacity (priced similar to the Epson 1200 cartridges ) . When used with Epson's HeavyweightMatt Paper , it is rated as having a 25 year rating for fade resistance by Wilhelm Research. Also, Epson have no plans of releasing the new archival ink-set to older Epson printers (basically anything older than their new line)
•Much quieter startup and operation
•More accurate and easier to access ink capacity indicator (in software)
•Better color cast control (especially beneficial in doing black and white prints) and good color accuracy out of the box (especially using the included profiles)
•High-quality construction
•I have seen prices on it fall as low as $360 before shipping and taxes (with coupon code) from major an online store (buy.com)
THE BAD (maybe)...
•Ink carts have microchips in it making third party ink carts perhaps non-existent (unless someone is willing to pay a licensing fee to Epson)
•Comes with only parallel or USB ports (no more serial ports for Mac users using older pre-G3 or first-generation beige G3). So for anyone with a older Mac, an USB card is or the Ethernet Network using the Axis 1440 print server ($140+) will be necessary. Also, no USB cables are included in the box
•Print-size capability is still the same as the 1200 (13"x44")
•Ink-carts are harder to find (many online stores still do not carry the ink carts for the 1270)
•Still have the old pizza-wheel design to grab paper (thus on glossier papers, one can see the pizza-wheel tracks, however, it is faint enough that most people will not see it but it is still there)
•Some people report getting lemons (the paper grabber won't work correctly unless one sheet was fed at a time) but it does not seem to be wide-spread
The Verdict:
I would still recommend this to anyone who needs or want a good larger output photo printer. I am a photo-major at an art school and everyone who has a printer have a 1200 or (1270). In addition, I see more and more photographers out in the market using the Epson printers to print their portfolios. Still, although Epson printers are good printers, a lot still have to do with how the user prepares his file for print (scanning and color calibrations, etc...). The older saying still applies (garbage in, garbage out no matter how good the printers are).
Anyway, for anyone who already have an Epson 1200 and are not in need of archival output, I recommend waiting for the next model (unless if one have money to burn).
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
PeterH
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 4 members
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