Epson Stylus Photo 820: Beautiful Photos At Your Fingertips
Written: Mar 22 '02 (Updated Mar 22 '02)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Paper Handling: |
|
|
|
Pros: Excellent quality borderless photos, affordable
Cons: Ink cartridges are expensive and run out quickly
The Bottom Line: If you want to be in control of your digital photo quality, this printer is an excellent, affordable choice.
|
|
|
| Dr_Steph's Full Review: Epson Stylus Photo 820 Inkjet Printer |
You know, the problem with buying one new high tech gadget is that it inevitably leads to another. In November my husband and I bought ourselves a Canon Digital S110 camera to take on our family trip to Hawaii. We came home with lovely memories and hundreds of photos. I was thrilled at the prospect of printing my own pictures for the first time. However, when I tried printing several of our pictures with our three year old Epson, I was very underwhelmed with the quality, to say the least.
I was bound and determined to get a new printer to go with my new camera, much to the chagrin of my husband. He just doesn't understand my lust for gadgets. However, he knows better than to put up a fight so he resigned himself to the inevitable. At first I bought the Epson C80 because it was recommended very highly by multiple sources. However, I never even set it up because I realized that it didn't have two features that were very important to me. I returned to C80 to Costco and found the printer I really wanted at OfficeMax.com - the Epson Stylus Photo 820.
What's So Special About the Epson Stylus Photo 820?
The Epson Stylus Photo 820 has a number of attractive features but the two that mean the most to me are borderless printing and the 6-color Micro Piezo ink jet technology (CcMmYK). You can print photos right to the edge of the paper on a variety of paper sizes. This eliminates several steps in the trimming process and gives your photos sharp, definitive edges. In addition, the 820 (and other current stylus photo models) print with six colors instead of the standard four on most color ink jet printers. This allows for greater precision in matching the photo colors.
An added bonus that I noticed about this printer is that it's much faster and quieter than my older model. I'm pretty sure the same advantages are true for the C80 that I returned. The print speed, according to the manufacturer is 48 seconds for a 4" x 6" photo, 1 minute and 42 seconds for an 8" x 10" photo, and up to 12 ppm for black text in economy mode. The improvement in noise reduction may not be as remarkable for someone used to HP printers but its impressive compared to the older style Epsons.
Another feature that I really like about the Epson Stylus Photo 820 is the on-screen ink monitor when printing is occurring. You can see an image of a cartridge with each of the six colors as well as a black cartridge and visually see how much is ink is left. The EPSON Photo Ink is considered a "lightfast ink" which means it's estimated to maintain its lightfastness for approximately 25 years before noticeable fading occurs.
The Epson Stylus Photo 820 is very easy to set up and install the ink cartridges. The printer weighs less than 8 lbs. and has a sleek rounded top with a smoky black transparent plastic cartridge cover. The easy-to-attach paper input tray holds 100 sheets of paper at a time while the lowerable output tray holds up to 30 sheets. The printer can handle a large variety of paper types and sizes.
So How Are The Photos?
In a word - breathtaking! I bought some 4x6 Epson high gloss photo paper and use the borderless printing option. They look as good as the ones I used to get from the photo developed downtown. Plus, I have the ability to control the color and touch up the photos before I print them. It has taken me awhile (and some wasted paper and ink) to figure out the custom printing options but now I feel pretty comfortable with the process.
I don't really know if this is a cheaper option than having someone else print the pictures for me because both the ink cartridges and the paper are pretty spendy. However, I appreciate the ability to control the outcome, rather than settling for what some else thinks is good enough.
What About Other Printing Jobs?
We also use the Epson Stylus Photo 820 for any color printing we need (cards, letters to Grandma, kid creations, etc.), as well as some black and white (though we usually use LaserWriter for that). I'm very impressed with the crispness of the print quality. I was having trouble printing a page from a PDF document with the laser printer yesterday so I tried the Epson instead. As far as I could tell, the quality rivaled what I normally get with my laser printer.
Compatability and Software
I have the Epson Stylus Photo 820 connected to the USB port on my Blue and White G3 Mac. I'm running OS 9.2 on this computer but the Epson should also work with my new G4 iMac that runs OS X. It is also compatible with Mac OS 8.6 and Windows USB (Windows 98, 2000, Me, XP) and Windows Parallel (Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000, Me, XP).
In addition to the printer drivers, the Epson comes with Epson Software Film Factory with PRINT Image Matching support and Arcsoft PhotoImpression 3.0. It has taken me awhile to feel comfortable with this software and there is probably a lot left for me to figure out, but I'm happy with my prints so I guess that's what really matters.
Dr_Steph's Recommendation
The Epson Stylus Photo 820 is a fast, reliable, and excellent quality choice for home photo printing as well as other non-photo color and black and white jobs. Even my husband grudgingly admits that it was a good purchase. If a piece of technology can please him, it can please anyone.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 130
Operating System: Macintosh
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.