Buy a different printer
Written: Feb 15 '03
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Pros: Good quality print jobs.
Cons: Eats ink, clogs constantly, paper feed jams, expensive, proprietary ink cartridges.
The Bottom Line: High priced proprietary ink cartridges and frequent clogging mar this printers excellent print quality and low price.
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| tberry0916's Full Review: Epson Stylus Photo 785EPX Ink-jet Printer |
On the plus side, the Epson 785EPX prints very good quality pictures, has a convenient card reader for digital photo memory cards.
Unfortunately, the printer consumes massive amounts of ink, the cartridges are extremely expensive and the supposed "advantage" of having more ink colors in the cartridge are more than outweighed by the fact that if a single color runs out, you must purchase an entirely new replacement cartridge.
I was only able to print 50 photos on a single set of black and color cartridges. Epson lists the color cartridge on their web site at $18.95 and the black and white at $23.70. Why the black and white costs more than the four color cartridge is a mystery unless one suspects that black and white is replaced more often than color.
The math works out this way. In order to print 50 snapshots on 8.5" X 11" photo glossy paper it will take 13 sheets of paper at around 40 cents per sheet for a media cost of $5.20. The black and white and color cartridges together run $42.65. The total cost is $47.85 or just under $1.00 per print! Ophoto, an online service by Kodak, lists 4 X 6 processing at half this cost, just 49 cents per print while Photoworks list prints from film at 19 cents apiece.
Of course, I expect printing photos at home to be more expensive than commercial services but the price differential is quite steep. Attempts to reduce the ink cost using Rhinotek replacement cartridges have been unsuccessful as the cartridges have not worked properly in the printer.
I've seen this printer on sale for around $70. It may be cheaper to buy the printer new each time the cartridges run out and sell the unit without them on Ebay than to replace them.
The 785EPX cartridges are not refillable and contain specialized computer chips that prevent you from continuing to print. When one tank is out, the printer stops and there is no way to override and force a print with that cartridge.
The ink jets clog constantly and I have to clean them about every other time I use the printer. This consume ink unnecessarily. Often during printing when one set of prints is complete and another is started, the jets clog and require cleaning and wastes the print media (usually photo paper). Reprinting wastes - you guessed it, ink. (can you tell I'm a little sensitive about this?)
I have owned and used Epson printers since the early days of the Epson FX-70 dot matrix printer but will not purchase an Epson printer again unless I am able to find a way to reduce the operating cost of the printer.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 150
Operating System: Macintosh
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Epinions.com ID:
tberry0916
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 1 member
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