I've had my 1280 for about a year and a half. I replaced an Epson photo 700 with it. The 700 gave me excellent prints, but it took me a awhile to make it work. When I first rec'd my 1280, results from the 700 were equal (or better) than the 1280, but I thought that after I understood the printer I would get better quality prints. I certainly should with the 6 color ink system (the 700 had 4 colors).

It took me a long time to find the sweet spot, but I was correct. The prints from this machine are so good that no-one believes they are from an ink jet printer. I've just finished printing out some pictures I took with my Sony DSC-F707 camera on a trip to "Boyds Bear Country" in Pennsylvania (my wife collects 'em.). The results are stunning.

As I said, it took me several months playing with it to get the results I now see. Because of this, I would have to say that this printer is difficult to use. Hanging out on DP Review web site's Printer forum is where I found the information I needed. The manual and documentation, while getting it working quickly, didn't give enough detail to get the highest quality from the 1280. In particular, prints which were reduced in size were somewhat fuzzy. This was a result of letting the Epson printer driver do the work. Most graphics print programs just dump resizing off on the print driver, which does a lousy job. I now resize (up OR DOWN!) the print in a graphics program before I print. The results are outstanding.

I also recently started using PIM, since my camera and the Epson both support it. I've been very satisfied with the results.

I tried using non-Epson carts with bad results. The colors were way off and the printer clogged frequently. It seemed as if the color profiles would drift and I had to constantly redo the color balance, wasting lots of ink and paper. No savings here. I've had no problems with clogging of the print heads with Epson Inks. The colors are consistantly right on. Because of the use of Epson inks, I've had my best results with Epson paper.

Recently, I've bought profiling software to reprofile the printer for other, cheaper, brands of paper. I've chatted with others who have done this and are pleased with the results. The alternate choice is paper made by Red River.

In all, I can only give this printer high ratings. It's not easy to use if you want professional results. You generally don't get them right out of the box, but if you take the time to set the printer up correctly you will be awarded with prints which are higher quality than those from the 1 hour photo machines. This printer gives professional results but it requires some dedication to learn how to use it.

Recommended: Yes