I've had my share of Epson printers, and I prefer them for my main use: printing photos. When I saw the opportunity to grab one of these babies from Epson's web site for $50, I jumped at the chance.

I actually didn't open up the box and use the printer for quite some time. My olde, trusty Photo 700 was doing a mostly superb job, and it's better-constructed and smaller. The only reason I was getting a replacement was that I'd tried some cheap "alternate" ink, and it seemed to foul the still-stellar by existing standards output. I was pleasantly surprised when I did, however.

Setup was a bit confusing as you apparently have to install the drivers "twice." Once you do it once, though, you're a lifer. It has some nice options and comes with a starter pack of paper, so it's nothing to sneeze at.

The first few photos I printed out were breathtaking (most were 1600X1200 photos from my Canon S330 2MP camera, as well as some prints from my Epson Perfection 1660 Photo scanner (review at http://www.epinions.com/content_159275912836). Some are indistinguishable from traditional photos, and I actually prefer the output to Walgreen's digital photo printing (they use Fuji paper, which tends to have a greenish tint). I just have one major beef with it.

I've had a couple of paper jams with this unit, and it seems to have damaged the print head so every hi-quality photo print now has a slightly lighter than the surroundings band about 2 millimeters thick across it. Depending on how you print it, it may not be that noticeable. Unacceptable, though. More than a few times, I've had trouble with the paper-handling/loading, especially when I've tried to load 30 or more sheets.

The text quality is about average with mid-to-low-end Epson inkjet units--it's almost indistinguishable from laser when you use "fine" setting, and have clean printheads, but can look a little more middling, but still acceptable, at other times. But this printer excels at photos, when it's not eating paper, and that's what it was built to do.

Several have complained about the noise. Compared to what--laser printers? Sure, it's a little noisy, but not unacceptable. But that's so subjective a measure.

Update--after not having had used the printer for a while, I cleaned the heads 2 or 3 times until the "nozzle check" test came out relatively clear, and then printed out a 158MB TIFF file through Photoshop (saved at 720 lines per inch)--a full 8X10 printout. It came out perfectly, with no "line" across any part of the page. Back in business!



Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 50.00
Operating System: Windows