Epson R300-The best photo printer I have ever owned. Solid, archival, professional results inexpensively!
Written: May 04 '04
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Pros: Solid feel to body, excellent quality consumables, realistic color, smudge-free ink, great price.
Cons: Good results with third party vendors require alot of tweaking in advanced settings.
The Bottom Line: I highly recommend purchasing the R300 for all of the reasons I've mentioned here; its one of the top three printers in its class and I've witnessed the others.
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| technogeek25's Full Review: Epson Stylus Photo R300 InkJet Printer |
I have had the R300 for a few weeks now. I am very impressed. I won’t bother rattling off all the data you can locate on Epson’s website or info culled in the many reviews on computer mags, I’ll just tell you what I’ve encountered so far. First off, Epson’s Premium Glossy Photo Paper and their inks are of excellent quality and the pics just pop when they’re used. I tried to save a few bucks like anyone, and bought a third party brand of paper and even considered inks; I had an overcast, muddied look keep appearing in the fotos. I was really disappointed, then I tried going into the Advanced settings in the printer’s preferences and I thought, hmmm, I’ll tweak the colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, etc). I played with contrast when photos seemed flat. It did help, but then I thought, I shouldn’t have to set Custom settings for every lighting situation: florescent lights, incandescent, daylight, etc. I went back to the drawing board, I left everything as it was on default with a couple of exceptions: set the paper to premium glossy, checked off enhance photos, popped the Epson premium glossy paper in you get as a sample in the box, and removed the cheaper photo paper I had in there. Voila, those photos jumped off the paper! The color is true to life, not overly saturated like some printers. For you film photographers out there, think Kodak’s colors (truer) vs. Fuji (artificially saturated). I was thrilled. I take a lot of fotos and am a former news photographer, so when I say I’ve seen my share of prints and proper color calibration, I’m not kiddin’. I knew going in to the purchase that I was buying quality not speed such as the amt. of prints per minute when compared to the Canon i860 or i960 which I read being advertised as the fastest printer. I also knew that consumables would be costly for a six ink printer no matter what, so that wasn’t a shocker for me either. I had seriously considered the Epson R800 but thought eight ink cartridges really would break the bank and a $400 price tag. I didn’t care about the feature for printing on CD’s but thought this might be a useful thing some time down the road. I also like to edit my fotos on my computer in Adobe Elements so I really didn’t desire the small monitor that costs an extra $50 and is on the R300M, I get the sense you can order this and attach it later, it appears so anyway. Its true its very quiet in comparison to the Canons to operate. A friend of mine has the i860 and I got to witness that operate. I thought it was quick but clackety and I got a distinct impression it was more vulnerable to breakdown as I witnessed hers go after 3 weeks and the problems right after the one-month warranty from the store was up. She bought the $90 duplexer for it too and was crankin’ out prints for her greeting card business. I found the Epson to feel and run much more solidly and haven’t had one odd sound or problem from it. Everyone oohs and ahhhs over my photos when I print them out on this printer. The very best thing other than the great color and quality products I found and was concerned about in other inkjets-smearing ink. As advertised (altho’ I found it hard to believe) when this ink is used it doesn’t smear, it dries immediately. I also have an Epson C80 and this isn’t the case, I’m careful not to smudge graphics and flyers when I create something colorful. I had seriously considered a Sub-dye printer previous to this purchase but realized the cost of printing 24 shots was absurd and I was not willing to lay out that kind of money. I was really pleased when I gave the moistened paper/ink test with a wet tissue and this print didn’t bleed! I tried that very gently with a print from my friend’s Canon i860 and not only did the ink bleed, the paper smudged as well too…odd. I use the Canon as a comparison only because I was considering buying the i960. The color from the canon looks good, the ink cartridges are cheaper by a few bucks a piece too and its faster. But for my money I’ll pay extra to get the features I just listed above. So go and buy with confidence. I highly recommend it. And if someone says the Epson R300 or 800 is slower, more expensive ink, etc. You need to ask yourself, what’s your priority…cheap consumables and fast prints that are over saturated or non-smudging prints with a decent speed and realistic color. I wouldn’t consider it to be slow, just average. And finally, shop around for best price, it goes $200 but I got mine for $161 at DELL with their 10% discount they have regularly on their internet site, shipping free, tax free. I got mine in five days. Everyone else was outta stock, even Epson. These two models are selling like hotcakes, now I know why!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 161.00
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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Epinions.com ID:
technogeek25
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Location: Newington, CT USA
Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Technogeek25, computer enthusiast who loves to scour the web for accurate information.
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