The Epson Stylus Photo 820 is Stylusless
Written: Jan 26 '03 (Updated Jan 26 '03)
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Pros: cheap, excellent photo-color, acceptable resolution, excellent software
Cons: loud, slow, uses lots of ink, prints not 100% reliable both for texts or photos
The Bottom Line: This printer is cheap, but you really get what you pay for or less. Other models are much better at similar price. I just got rid of this printer.
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| paulphoto's Full Review: Epson Stylus Photo 820 Inkjet Printer |
I bought the Epson Stylus Photo 820 after I got fed up with my Canon Color Bubble Jet printer BJC-7004 that did not print well and wasted so much of its expensive ink; and it was driving me nuts with its unbelievably long warm-up and shut-down time. The Epson 820 was not my first choice. I had been thinking about getting the Epson 1280 for a number of months already. But getting a scanner and a printer at the same time would cost me so much money. So I decided to settle with the lower end of Epson, and this was probably a great mistake. With the Epson 820, I found similar symptoms existed in my Canon BJC-7004, even though I could get some quality photo prints from it.
The Epson Stylus Photo 820 can be connected to a computer via a USB cable or a regular parallel (IEEE-12484) port cable. Neither cable comes with the printer and must be purchased separately. I use the parallel cable (previously used on my Canon printer), since my two USB ports are being used for a scanner and video camera. Installation of the hardware and software is straightforward. The software is compatible with either Mac or Windows, and can run on almost all Windows versions, particularly Wins 98, 98SE, 2000, XP or ME. I run it on my PC with Pentium 350 MHz, OS Windows 2000.
The printer comes with its own print software, called Film Factory. With it you can load up images, create a design for the layout to be printed, with options on image size, formats, etc. The software (or bundled software) is loaded with great features, such as the unique Image Matching technology, its PhotoImpression ver. 3.0. During print process, the software even displays the current status of ink in cartridges, so you know when the cartridges need replacing. Two cartridges, the T026 (black) and T027 (color), are included with the printer.
The printer is capable of printing images at 2880x720 dpi (dot per inch) maximum resolution. It can print up to 8x10-inch photo size on normal 8.5x11-inch paper or photo paper. It uses a rear feed-in technique and prints flat on the paper. This was part of the main reason I bought the Epson, because I print a lot of labels for my mounted slides and address labels. Its rear paper-take-in technique ensures that the labels will not accidentally get peeled off during loading or printing that may cause paper jam, etc. This feature is also excellent for making photo prints on thick fine art or archival paper, because the paper just travels through the feeder, gets printed and then gets ejected out, all in one straight path. The rear paper holder can hold up to about 100 sheets. I mostly put about 20-30 sheets at a time. For photo paper, I mostly put one or two at a time. Another great feature of the printer (and its software) is that it can print border-less photos. This is very convenient, since it requires no trimming or cropping; a great way also not to waste paper.
According to the specs, a 4x6-inch photo print takes 48 seconds. This is not always accurate (or even true) since the printing rate also depends on the density of the photo and a mixture of color it contains as well as the resolution being used. For regular printing, I found that it takes longer and varies from one minute to more than a minute to print. For 8x10-inch photo print, it takes four minutes or more (compared to the stated 112-sec rate by Epson). The higher resolution being used the longer it will take to print. The printer can also print photos in 5x7-inch size, but I normally print 4x6 or 8x10. However, even at this rate, I consider it fast already and not really an important matter.
The printer is slow in terms of taking time to warm up or shut down. Print quality is not always perfect. Even for plain text document, it has problem printing it right. Sometimes, it prints partial text character, because the nozzles get clogged up or simply miss fire the ink drop. Sometimes, even when the heads are clean, a visible trace along the text line appears. Text print is acceptable, not of high quality (quite understandable and expected in a low-priced printer). I have tried a number of papers, including Kodak, Hewlett-Packard, some off-brand name papers, Epson's own high quality paper. Still I cannot get good quality text prints.
Quite a number of times, it prints the wrong color in the spreadsheet from my Microsoft Excel program. For example, a gray-fill color on my Excel spreadsheet comes out green. I noticed that this kind of problem occurs if I shut my computer down before turning the printer off. It seems that the two communicate constantly, and when I shut off my computer, the printer acts strangely by printing miss match color, a result of miss communication or some kind. It takes sometime for the printer to come back to normal operation, but only when I use its Film Factory software. It seems that the printer only performs well via the software, and thus it has limited capabilities for printing something out side its software.
Photo print quality is not always reliable. Sometimes, it prints images downloaded from a web page with a wrong color (similar to what I mentioned in the previous paragraph). Although this printer can produce outstanding images with beautiful and faithful color when the Image Matching technology is applied, it seems that excellent color prints can only be achieved via its own print software (Film Factory). Occasionally, on some photo prints, I can see traces or smear of ink that are not evenly printed. I have to reprint to get good quality photos; clearly a waste of paper and ink here, not to mention time.
The problem I have experienced above can be understood by looking at how the Epson print heads are designed. Epson uses a micro piezoelectric (normally referred to as Piezo) ink-jet technology by means of pumping ink through nozzles using a squirt-gun-like pressure. The process is done via an electrical current that passes through a material. The material then swells up and thus forces ink through nozzles onto the paper by means of a mechanical process. There are 48 nozzles for black and 240 nozzles for color and per color. To put it bluntly, the piezoelectric inkjet printer is mechanically unstable because it is highly sensitive to small air bubbles residing inside the chamber, a process regularly occurs in a liquid either due to weak vacuum pump or pressure. When this happens, it requires flushing with ink to get rid of the trapped air, which in turn can waste a lot of useful ink. The flushing sometimes does not work, and that explains why I do not always get clear and clean prints, but photos with traces or dots. This also explains why the printer is slow to start up (or warm-up) when the sensors sense these kinds of problem. I believe this is the key element to the reliable print quality problem I experienced with the Stylus Photo 820.
Like most low price inkjet printers, the Epson Stylus Photo 820 uses 6-color ink (CMYKcm) technology. It uses two cartridges at one time: Black ink cartridge and 5-color ink cartridge (containing Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, light cyan and light magenta). The cartridges are reasonably priced (black T026 $24, color T027 $20). With these two cartridges, photo prints or text prints can always be made. Text is printed with true black using the black ink cartridge. This method seems to be economical compared to other printers, such as the HP 7150/7350 series that uses two 3-color cartridges (by mixing three colors to make black). But since the Epson 820 printer uses so much ink, ultimately it is not cost effective after all.
The printer has a unique and clever design on the front paper tray (or holder). It can be folded back onto the printer to close the front opening, thus preventing dust from entering the inside compartment, even though the print heads or cartridges are parked to the side when the power is off. I always fold the tray back to help protect the inside components and to keep dust away when not in use. Therefore, the problem I had with the printer was not dust related, but the print heads or the printer itself.
I read somewhere in a magazine about Epson being the leader in photo print quality, best known for lightfastness that can preserve photo print quality, such as color, from 10 to 100 years, and no other manufacturers can match. After using my Epson Stylus Photo 820, I'm having a hard time believing this. What use is the photo quality if it is not worth preserving, for the quality of photo that the Stylus Photo 820 prints? Perhaps my opinion and experience with Epson might be different had I used the Stylus Photo 1280, which I originally had planned to get, or a higher-end Epson printer. But after using the Epson 820, I am afraid to risk my money on another Epson printer.
According to the number of reviews posted here, more than 50 percent of the Epson 820 users are very satisfied with the printer. I, on the contrary, think this printer is worthless for the quality it provides. It completely failed to meet my expectations, and therefore I am reluctant to recommend it to someone new looking for a good affordable and reliable printer.
Currently, there are a number of good affordable printers that can perform far better than the Stylus Photo 820 in the $149 price range. I personally do not recommend the Epson Stylus Photo 820. If you are looking for a printer with outstanding photo print quality at around this price range, you should consider the Hewlett-Packard HP PhotoSmart 7150/7350 printer. When I bought my Stylus Photo 820 (back in March 2002), there was a $50 rebate. I paid $149 for my Epson 820 (bought locally at Office Max), but with the rebate I ended up paying only $99. The HP PhotoSmart 7150 is $149 (being sold locally). When I bought it back in late December 2002, Staples offered an instant $20 rebate. So I ended up paying only $129 for it. Still, at this price, comparing to the Epson, the HP is far superior and really worth every penny of your money spent on it. I will post my review of the HP PhotoSmart 7150 soon.
Specifications: Epson Stylus Photo 820
Resolution: 2880x720 dots per inch
Print Speed black text: 12 page per minute
Paper Size: Legal, Letter, A4, B5, A5, A6 etc.
Maximum printable area: 8.26x44 inches
Color Pallette: 6-color Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Light cyan and magenta (CMYKcm)
Cartridges: one black color ink (T026) and one 5-color ink (T027).
Drop size: 4 picoliter / 48 nozzles in black and 240 nozzles per color.
Interface: USB , Parallel
Input Buffer: 32KB
Size: 18.5 x 10 x 18.5 inches
Weight: 7.5 pounds
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 99
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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