Epson Stylus Photo R300 InkJet Printer ---- Color Photograph Printing Made Easy
Written: Sep 26 '05 (Updated Sep 26 '05)
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Pros: Great print quality, easy to set up and put to use, vast capabilities
Cons: It can run through ink quite fast
The Bottom Line: A great photo printer, the Epson Stylus Photo R300 InkJet Printer is a quick and easy way to produce great images.
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| three_ster's Full Review: Epson Stylus Photo R300 InkJet Printer |
Sometimes when it comes to printing in color, you want something better than a standard color printer, and you want something that can give you an image almost as good as a developed photo. When you are printing off images of cells and bacteria, such as those that are done here, you need a printer that can pick out the finite details of the object being photographed, and print it out with a quality that astounds you with each new job. With the Epson Stylus Photo R300 InkJet Printer you have a printer that can do that and so much more. The R300 is a photo printer that can be put to use on massive amounts of photographs, but at the same time will continue to give you a product that you can be prod of when you end up seeing the results. With the capabilities to recognize all digital camera formats as well as the PictBridge norm for a direct USB connection of the cameras, it become more than a printer, and almost a developer of photographs that you have either already on your hard-drive, or are simply transferring to the printer for the first time.
With the Epson Stylus Photo R300 InkJet Printer, you get the printer, ink cartridges, a CD/DVD Tray, a Small CD Insert, CD Position Check Paper, a Preview Monitor, a Preview Monitor Base, Printer Software, a Quick Reference manual, and finally, a User's Guide. The set-up of the printer is pretty easy, just involving installing the printer driver off of the CD, hooking up the USB cable, and installing your software through all of the on-screen instructions. Upon setting everything up, you restart your computer, and you are good to go. When it comes to printing from the R300, it works just the same as every other printer in the thought that you simply must send the job through, and it queue's it up. It's interesting, because when you deal with higher quality printers, you would think it would take more work to get a better result, but with a great color printer such as this, it is simply push and print.
Selling at about $149.99 you can get the Epson Stylus Photo R300 InkJet Printer at a price that is not much more expensive than your normal inkjet printer. The difference, is that the capabilities of this one far exceed the normal one. The reason that this ends up being the case, is that you go through the ink a lot faster when you are printing out color photographs than when you are printing out a one page Microsoft Word Document. This printer really dries up the cartridges pretty quickly, so the down-side to getting it cheap at the start, is that it is going to cost a lot more in cartridges in the end. They advertise that the ink yields 630 pages of text with just black ink printing, 450 pages graphic (5% coverage), and 430 pages with color (5% coverage per color). It can be a lot of pages for the normal at-home user, but if you are using it at a work or business setting, this could be using the dye as if it were water.
The print speed varies a little bit, depending what you are going for. Typically, you can get 15 pages per minute in draft mode, take about 37 seconds for a 4 x 6" photo, and 77 seconds for an 8 x 10" photo. These aren't really averages, but the maximum amount of time you can expect one print of each to take. So, at times your rates can seem a lot quicker, and your output might seem a little bigger depending on the jobs that you are sending through the R300. For the printing itself, the resolution can be up to 5760 x 1440 optimized dpi. Good on either a PC or a Mac, the Epson Stylus Photo R300 InkJet Printer has an input capacity of 120 sheets of paper, or 20 sheets of photographic paper, if you are just printing off photos. There are many types of paper that work well with the R300, and I actually listed them at the end of this review.
The R300 is really great at taking images straight from a digital cameras memory card, and printing off vivid true-to-life photos of the images. The borders of the photographs are well defined, the colors are vividly presented, and the mix of colors is also very impressive. In addition to that, you get skin tones that make the picture look as if you were looking through a window at someone. With the USB port, you can also hook up a zip drive to transfer over as many pictures as your heart desires. The other great thing, is that with the printer you also receive a little preview monitor that hooks up to the top right of the printer. Through that you can see what you will be printing, and guesstimate how much time you have left to complete a major job. When not in use, the paper trays can fold away, the monitor minimized, and you are left with the still sleek black and grey printer, just in a more easy to store version.
The Epson Stylus Photo R300 InkJet Printer really is a great color printer that can be used for various color photo needs. With 6 ink cartridges, it uses a lot of ink, but it does a great job with the colors that it has to work with. You don't have to worry about being that patient with its use either, because no matter what you are printing off, and no matter what quality, you can have the single page print off done in far less than a minute. This beats having to go to a photo development store, and allows you the chance to make great photo quality prints from the comfort of your own home. By doing something on your computer at the same time, you don't slow down the printer, so if you have sent a lot of jobs to it, you can still multi-task while it is printing them all off. With the quality that it gives, the ease of use, and the problem free life that we have received from our R300, I highly recommend it to anyone who has printing needs such as these.
Extended Personal Use Results / Conclusions
The Epson Stylus Photo R300 InkJet Printer is what we use as a photo color printer for the various computers that we have within our department. Depending on what room you want to print from, it is on a wheeled-stand that can be moved around all the rooms, and hooked up simply to the computer. It is used on both PC's and Macs, and with either system it produces the same great results. Setting it up each time is simple, because the drivers come on a disk with the printer itself, and it is only a matter of installing it one time, and being able to use it from then on out. The printer works great with any 8x11 normal paper for normal printing purposes, but if you are going for a nice color finish I recommend using the Epson Photo Quality Ink Jet Paper. It may seem a little expensive, but it is well worth it when you have a beautiful print sitting in front of you. Changing out the ink cartridges is also quite easy to do, and even the most novice of user in our department has been able to do it. We have yet to have a clog, and we have yet to have a jam in the printer after a full year of use, so we have been quite happy with the results. Regarding the noise level, it is much quieter than previous models we have used, and is quite capable of being used while you are on the phone at the same desk. Everyone who has used the printer has come away happy with the results, which is why I highly recommend giving this baby a try.
Further Technical Specifications:
Operating systems: Windows USB - Windows 98 SE, 2000, Me and XP; Macintosh USB - Macintosh System 8.6 - 9.2, OS X 10.2.x.
Paper Sizes: 4" x 6", 5" x 7", 8" x 10" Letter, legal, A4, B5, A5, A6, half letter, executive, Panoramic 8.3" x 23.4", user definable (3.5" to 44" in length).
Memory cards: Supports CompactFlash Type I and II, Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, IBM Microdrive, xD-Picture Card, SmartMedia, Sony Memory Stick, Memory StickPRO, Memory Stick Duo, MagicGate Memory Stick.
Visual Specification
Width: 10.4 inches
Height: 8.6 inches
Depth: 19.6 inches
Weight: 14 pounds with ink cartridges
Usable Paper Types With the R300
It Supports a variety of Epson plain and photo papers, wich include: plain, bond, air mail, Epson Premium Bright White, Glossy Photo Paper, Premium Glossy Photo Paper, Premium Semigloss Paper, Premium Luster Paper, ColorLife paper, Matte Paper Heavyweight, Double-sided Matte, Inkjet Transparencies, Self-adhesive Sheets, Photo Quality Ink Jet Paper, Greeting Cards, High Quality Banner paper, labels, envelopes, Iron-on Transfers and Photo Stickers, Printable CD-R/DVD-R, and finally Panoramic 8.3" x 23.4" Photo Paper.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 149.99
Operating System: Windows
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