Picture Perfect!
Written: Feb 24 '01
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Pros: Beautiful picture perfect printing using Epson glossy photo paper.
Cons: The price of over $300.
The Bottom Line: There are lower cost printers out there that do a good job but, if you were going to print a lot of pictures, I'd recommend this one.
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| surferdude7's Full Review: Epson Stylus Photo 2000P Inkjet Printer |
This is a perfect printer for all your digital photo printing. There are a variety of resolutions to choose from to give you the picture quality you want. The resolutions are 1440 x 720 dpi, 720 x 720 dpi, 360 x 360 dpi and 180 x 180 dpi.
This printer will print larger projects than most other printers in its class. Most printers will only print the legal size of 8.5" wide by 11" long. The Epson Stylus Color 1270 has a maximum printable area of 12.76" wide x 18.76" long (letter) and a maximum user defined printable area of 12.76" wide x 43.76" long.
The 1270 can use both bi-directional parallel and high-speed USB ports, this is nice for those who do not have the USB hookups. PC owners can use both, parallel or USB and the Macintosh users can only use the USB hookup.
The Epson Stylus Color 1270 is made for the PC with Windows and for the Macintosh with Mac OS 8.1 or later. For the PC with a USB hookup you need Windows 98 and for the parallel hookup you need Windows 95, 98 or NT. (Not sure about Windows 2000 or Me,)
It has an input paper tray that hold 100 sheets or 10 envelopes and the output paper tray will hold 30 sheets. The dimensions are 24 inches by 30.3 inches by 16.3 inches and weighs 18.5 pounds.
With the 1270 you can add a watermark to your image, there are several to choose from or you can make your own. Add things like "Do Not Copy" over the photo or "Sample" and anything else you wish to add.
The software with it, gives you all kinds of options to tweak and finish the photo to your liking. There is the Epson Software CD with drivers and more, included is Adobe Photoshop 5.0 LE and an offer for MonacoEZcolor 1.5.
The Printing Quality
The Epson Stylus Color 1270 uses drop-on-demand Micro Piezo ink jet technology that squirts out droplets as small as four Pico-liters. Pico-liters are one trillionths of a liter, which make for a very small drop. The Monochrome head has 48 nozzles per ink, that is 48 for black and for color it is 48 times five colors for a total of 240.
Most printers have one black and three different colors for printing, the 1270 has six in all, one black and 5 different colors. There are a total of two cartridges one black and the other houses the five different colors. The 1270 adds the colors of a pale cyan and pale magenta.
These extra features give it that photo finish that everyone is looking for.
Ink Cartridges
The newer Epson ink cartridges have a computer chip in them so they can keep track of the ink usage and not some software for a more accurate reading. Epson has a rating of 540 pages for the black cartridge (Letters), for graphics at 5% it will print 378 pages and the color cartridge is rated for 330 pages at 15% with coverage.
The black cartridge can be purchased at buy.com for $24.29 and the color cartridge for $24.79, these are pretty good prices compared with other brands.
The photo prints from the 1270 are highly water resistant. You don't have to worry about a drop of water on them causing them to run the ink colors together.
Printing Speeds
Epson shows the printing speeds for photos at a 4" x 6" print at 48 seconds 8" x 10" print at 1 minute & 50 seconds and a 11" x 14" at under 4 minutes. They forgot to mention at what dpi.
Here are some of my tests: (These are not perfect tests but it will give you an idea on about how much time it could take to print them.)
8" x 10" color print - 360 x 360 dpi it took 2 minutes and 1 second, in the 720 x 720 dpi it took 4 minutes and 3 seconds and in the 1440 x 720 dpi it took 7 minutes and 59 seconds.
11" x 14" color print - in the 720 x 720 dpi it took 4 minutes and 37 seconds and in the 1440 x 720 dpi it took about 12 minutes.
Epson Glossy Photo Paper
For the best photo prints, I highly recommend using their Glossy Photo paper. Not only will it give you the best prints it will also last longer.
Their heavyweight matte paper prints should last 24-26 years and the glossy photo paper prints should last 9-10 years. Most other brands will last a lot less before they start fading.
Overall
I was impressed at the high quality of the photos and how much quieter it is compared to most ink jet printers.
Shop around, you can find the Epson Stylus Color 1270 for $344 and over $400, use the "Check Latest Prices" on the Epinion page of this review.
Warranty is one-year limited warranty including Epson Exchange.
This is one of the "Best" printers for photo printing that I have used. Even if the printing results seem slow, they are faster than most color ink jet printers.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 369
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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surferdude7
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Location: Elizabethtown, Ky.
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