Epson
August 16th, 2010 by D-Photo
Can Epson top its acclaimed 3800 semi-pro printer? Gary Pearce finds out.
Following up a commercial and critical success is a hard task, but that’s exactly what Epson has done with the Stylus Pro 3880 A2 photographic printer following the retirement of the acclaimed 3800.
Outwardly there isn’t much to differentiate between old and new, but under the bonnet this semi-pro printer has undergone some 
significant changes.
Firstly, the excellent Ultrachrome K3 pigment inkset used in the earlier model has evolved further – Epson has equipped the 3880 with a Vivid Magenta ink tank for an even wider colour gamut and an improvement in terms of D-max. This is good news indeed, especially for those wishing to output gallery-standard black and white prints.
Epson has championed its piezo print head technology for some time, and the 3880 uses the latest MicroPiezo AMC that employs variable dot technology to avoid moirés and banding, and to increase detail throughout each print.
The new print head also incorporates an ink-repellant coating for more precise placement of ink droplets, while the improved software includes an overhauled look-up table for more accurate colour information.
As befits a quasi-production inkjet printer, the 3880 uses 80ml ink cartridges – not only better in terms of dollars per ml compared with the cartridges supplied with lesser devices, it also means more prints before the ink runs out. Media handling is simple, heavyweight fine art media (up to 1.5mm thick) must be loaded through the front of the machine, while photographic papers can use the rear tray. There is no provision for roll media with the 3880.
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February 4th, 2010 by D-Photo
Epson’s slender TX550W all-in-one inkjet manages to pack considerable functionality into its sleek black chassis. Along with USB and Ethernet connectivity, the TX550W is also able to be used wirelessly — ideal for remote locations in the home/office that do not have access to cabled USB or Ethernet connections.
Epson’s entry-level CMYK Durabrite inks are used; these pigment-based inks have a fairly wide colour gamut, but for photo printing I’d have liked a dedicated photo black on board as well. The only printer in this roundup to use a piezoelectric print head (the other two are bubble jets), Epson’s variable dot technology offers droplet sizes as miniscule as two picolitres. That suggested no visible dot structure, and so it was — I was unable to detect any form of dot using my keen eyesight, while viewing under a glass produced almost the same result. A decent scanner and good paper handling make up the feature set.
During my time with the TX550W I was unable to get the printer up and running wirelessly; luckily, my trusty old USB cable came to the rescue and I was soon cluttering up my office with print after print. Once I’d installed the bundled software onto my Mac (Easy Photo Print/Event Manager/Photo Enhance and so on) it was time to get stuck in.
Draft black text and colour printing was rapid at my timed 28ppm (limited by my poor old G4 Mac, I think — Epson quotes 36ppm), fed by the 120-sheet feeder (120 sheets of plain 60gsm).
Photo printing times were pretty good all round. A bordered A4 print (using Epson Premium Photo Paper Glossy) on the highest quality setting took around three minutes from the moment the TX550W whirred into action. Print quality was good here, although I felt the lack of a dedicated photo black made dark scenes a touch lacking in depth. However, it isn’t a dedicated photographic printer, but a home office device with photo printing ability. Otherwise the Epson produced a good blend of highly resolved and natural colours with excellent detail.
The scanner is also worth mentioning, providing good resolution at the maximum claimed 2400 x 2400dpi. I used it to scan some old silver-halide photos (remember those?), and the printed result was certainly close to the original, with only a subtle generational loss and slightly muted colour reproduction to separate the original and copy in terms of quality. So while the TX550W may not be the printer of choice for diehard photographic enthusiasts, it is certainly capable of some pretty good results for the majority of us snap-happy chappies.
EPSON STYLUS TX550W – Specs
Print Speed: Up to 36ppm (black and colour text, draft)
Print Resolution: Up to 5760 x 1440dpi
Cartridges: Black, cyan, magenta, yellow
Scanner: 48-bit, 2400 x 2400dpi
Copier: Approx 36cpm (draft)
Memory Card Compatibility: CompactFlash, Memory Stick, SD/MMC, xD
Dimensions: 450 x 342 x 182mm (W/D/H)
Weight: 6.1kg
CONTACT
www.epson.co.nz
PROS
- Great bang for the buck
- Nice detailed prints
CONS
- Difficult wireless setup
- Slightly one-dimensional blacks
Design 18
Performance 17
Features 17
Image Quality 17
Value for money 18
TOTAL 87/100
This article is from D-Photo 32.
October 8th, 2009 by D-Photo
Phil Hanson says all-in-one printers have come a long way but wonders if cramming so much technology into one box delivers the quality of prints photographers expect.
Quality photo printers that take up to A4 paper have become an endangered species.
These days, people wanting a printer to work with the smaller paper sizes find they have to buy a workbench space-wasting A3 or go for a multi-purpose machine that prints, scans, copies, faxes and makes the coffee. Manufacturers obviously see advantages in offering desktop Swiss Army knives, instead of single-function dedicated printers.
The Epson TX700W is an upmarket member of the TX family whose $120-ish TX200 D-Photo reviewed last year, and which effectively dealt to scepticism about whether all-in-ones could be any good.
Costing roughly three times as much, the TX700W ups the ante in all areas and adds a really useful bonus: wireless (and Ethernet) connectivity for both PC and Mac. It’ll also print on suitable CDs.
First appearances
Styled in Italy and finished in gloss and matte blacks, the TX700 is of generally sturdy construction, although the double paper trays feel flimsy. Controls are nicely arranged on a tilting panel around an LCD screen that guides the user through various modes and maintenance functions when not working the device from a computer.
At 44.5cm wide and 38.5cm deep, the TX700W doesn’t occupy too much space.
A wide range of media devices can be accommodated, including SD, xD, Compact Flash cards and USB memory sticks.
Up and running
Those who follow the simple setup instructions will be printing within minutes. I found the separate wireless connection instructions somewhat confusing, but managed to get there.
The printed manual isn’t up to much, but the on-screen version is excellent. Full marks too for Epson’s on-screen utility that allows such an easy interface for such things as maintenance and ink management.
Six of the best
The TX700W uses six cartridges of Epson’s Claria photographic inks, which D-Photo matched with the gorgeous 300gsm Epson Ultra Glossy photo paper. Letting Photoshop handle the colour management, the machine produced excellent prints from JPEGs and TIFFs — and did so at blazing speed. The results easily exceeded the TX200.
Moving right along
No nasties spoiled the scan and copy functions. It’ll scan up to a decent 4800dpi, and Abbyy OCR software is included for getting documents into a word processing program. As with printing, it scans at impressive speed. Copying is also quick and easy.
Conclusion
This is a very good machine. Who’d have thought three or four years ago that you could get a multifunction unit that produced this kind of quality work for four hundred bucks?
EPSON STYLUS TX700W – SPECS
- Printing method: Piezoelectric inkjet
- Minimum ink droplet volume: 1.5 Picolitres
- Resolution: 5760dpi (using resolution performance management)
- Paper sizes: A4, Letter, Legal, 8×10, 5×7, 4×6, 3.5×5, 5×8, A6, A5, B5, Half Letter Envelopes: No10, DL, C6
Scanner
- Scanner type: A4 flatbed colour image scanner, CIS sensor
- Pixel depth: Input 48 bits
- (16 bits/colour); output 24 bits (8 bits/colour)
- Scanning resolution: 2400 x 4800dpi
- Mono scan speed: A4 1200dpi 2.2msec/line
- Colour scan speed: A4 1200dpi 12msec/line
Copy function
- Copy speed colour/mono text (A4): Approx 39cpm
General
- Operating systems/Printer drivers: Windows 2000/XP/XP x64/Vista, Mac OS 10.3.9 or later with USB
- Dimensions: 446 x 385 x 150mm (W/D/H)
CONTACT
www.epson.co.nz
PROS
- Stellar performance for its price
- Takes relatively little space
CONS
- Below average printed manuals
Design 16
Performance 16
Features 18
Image Quality 16
Value for money 19
TOTAL 85/100
This article if from D-Photo issue 29.
September 23rd, 2009 by D-Photo
Taking your camera on the road is all well and good until your memory card fills up. Starting with Epson’s P-3000, Harley Ogier tests two portable storage devices that can free up your memory card and let you carry on shooting.
The P-3000 is the entry-level model in Epson’s range of multimedia storage viewers, targeted at the “professional photographer and advanced amateur”. Half backup device, half media player, it does a pretty good job of both but doesn’t push the boundaries of either.
Strangely familiar
Users of digital cameras will find the P-3000 extremely familiar: it’s shaped so like a compact camera, I can’t hold it without my index finger reaching for an imaginary shutter button. The controls are set to the right of the screen, just as you find on most digital cameras, with nice anatomical grips on each side.
The menus are like those of most cameras combined with those of a media player. You’ll find options such as My Photos and My Videos, all of which are pretty clear. The fonts are smooth, the icons simple yet sharp and the whole thing has a slick feel that really flattens the learning curve.
Backup
Being an entry-level model the P-3000 only features a 40GB hard drive that could store perhaps 10,000 12 megapixel JPEG photos or a few thousand RAW files. It’s not going to last you a month-long world tour if you shoot 500 RAW images a day, but it’s still a decent capacity for selective photographers or short trips.
The backup process is simple: just pop in your card and select ‘Memory Card Backup’. It’s not the fastest process, taking 10 minutes to back up my two-gigabyte card. Memory card support is also limited to the industry standards — if your camera uses a proprietary format such as xD or Sony’s Memory Stick, you’ll need an optional adapter.
Restoring your backups to a memory card or USB drive is simple, though connecting the P-3000 to a computer requires Epson’s proprietary software. Once the software is installed all’s well, but one wonders why it doesn’t just appear on the desktop as a normal USB device.
Playback
Avoid copying unfocussed or noisy images across to the P-3000 because its brilliantly perfect 4-inch LCD is going to show you just how bad they are. With four dots per pixel (instead of the usual three), colours are stunning.Your average LCD computer monitor just can’t compare — Epson’s top-end P-7000 viewer can actually be used as a second computer screen to check your image colours.
The P-3000 supports RAW files from a wide range of camera manufacturers and JPEGs up to 30 megapixels. A good range of video formats are also supported, along with MP3 and WMA audio files. You can’t play music in the background while working with images or anything so fancy, but the P-3000 could happily replace a basic MP3 player.
Conclusion
The P-3000 lacks any advanced backup features and suffers from limited storage. However, the display quality is superb and the model a good choice for reviewing images and making short-term backups. For megapixel-hungry professionals or longer term storage, look at the P-7000, which features a 160GB hard drive for four times the capacity.
Specs
- Display: 4-inch LCD, 640 x 480 pixels, 16.7 million colours
- Memory Card Support: CompactFlash (Type I/II), Microdrive, SD, MMC, MMCplus
- Image Formats: JPEG (up to 30MP), RAW (Epson, Nikon, Canon, Konica Minolta, Pentax, Sony, Olympus, FujiFilm, Adobe DNG)
- Video Formats: MPEG-1/2/4, DivX, Motion JPEG, WMV
- Audio Formats: MP3, MPEG4-AAC, WMA
- Size: 150 x 88.7 x 33.1mm
Contact
www.epson.co.nz
PROS
- Extensive file format support
CONS
- Check that your memory card is supported
Design 18
Performance 16
Features 17
Image Quality 20
Value for money 14
TOTAL 85/100
This article if from D-Photo issue 29.
August 18th, 2009 by D-Photo
Epson’s Stylus Photo R1900 brings to the party a set of new pigment-based UltraChrome Hi-Gloss2 inks that includes an orange cartridge to help deal better with skin tones. There’s also a gloss optimiser cartridge that sprays a clear overcoat on top of glossy paper to enhance the appearance that users of that medium favour.
This newest member of the Stylus Photo range is no shrinking violet. With input and output trays extended, the $1299 printer measures 60 x 41 x 78cm, so it needs a good workspace, especially as Epson suggests you put it at least 100mm from the wall when using longer papers.
Within that generous footprint lies a versatile machine. It can print on a wide range of paper types and sizes, either sheet-fed or on a roll; it can print directly onto suitable CDs and DVDs; it’ll print web pages; print from a scanner or directly from a digital camera that has PictBridge or USB Direct-Print.
Setting up was so simple I kept thinking I’d missed a step. But no, 20 minutes after pulling the big boy from its box, I was ready to push the button. It wasn’t supposed to be quite that quick. I had scoured the box for an instruction manual but there wasn’t anything beyond a fold-out setup guide.
Epson puts all its user information on a CD, and very clear it is to. But I miss a printed manual, which can be quicker and easier to use — and I was going to read it in bed that night to become a total expert before committing the first sheet of that big A3 paper. Printing the 59-page guide is always an option.
Whole books (and a good part of the Epson guide) have been written on colour management; it can be a huge and involved subject, but I wanted none of it. I get frustrated by the minutiae of colour profiles and related matters; I want a printer that gives the best possible result with the least fuss — in other words, instant gratification.
So I was delighted when the first print rolled out of the printer about 80 seconds after pushing the button. I had printed a TIFF from Photoshop exactly as it sat on the computer, except for assigning Epson’s glossy paper profile, letting Photoshop do the colour management.
The colours and contrast in the print were spot on, but overall the print was a little light. I tweaked the levels, tried again and got a print worth framing. It pays to take your time to save wasting paper and ink.
Some colours sometimes seem hard for inkjets to render well (blues and purples for example), but the R1900 with its new inks and a wide colour gamut took them in its stride.
Epson provided three types of its paper to try: Premium Semigloss, Premium Glossy, and Acid-Free Cotton Rag Velvet Fine Art in A3+. Each has its place but working with the thick (260g/m2) and luxurious Velvet was a tactile as well as visual treat. The prints were lovely, even though the R1900 is said to be optimised for glossy paper.
The simplest way to print is straight from a suitable camera via a USB port on the front. Epson makes the process simple and intuitive and I mostly couldn’t fault the quality of the prints that it sucked from the JPEGs in my dSLR.
Specs
- Size: (Stored) 616 x 322 x 214mm
- Printing technology: Micro Piezo eight-colour pigment inkjet, 180 nozzles x 8
- Ink: Epson UltraChrome Hi-Gloss two-pigment, photo black, matte black, yellow, magenta, cyan, red, orange, gloss optimiser
- Paper: Single sheet or roll to 0.11mm thick
- Resolution: 5760 x 1440 optimised dpi
- Print size: 9 x 13 to 329 x 483mm (A3+)
- Print speed: 44sec to 1min 32sec depending on size
contact
www.epson.co.nz
Pros
- USB printer cable supplied
Cons
- Black and white prints a little soft
Design 16
Performance 17
Features 18
Image Quality 18
Value for money 17
Total 86/100
This review is from D-Photo issue #023.
July 23rd, 2009 by D-Photo
Phil Hanson unboxes a multi-function printer, scanner and copier with big ideas, and finds a value-for-money, one-size-fits-all solution for people with limited desk space
I’m a little wary of all-in-one products that everything but make your morning coffee. If one part of it breaks, the whole thing has to go away for service, depriving you of all its functions. And I’m sceptical about whether a multi-function machine can do any task as well as a single-purpose device.
Others, however, love the convenience of multi-function and that they take up far less bench space than the separate devices of a printer, scanner and photocopier.
Anyway, I wasn’t expecting a lot from the Epson Stylus TX200 that prints, scans and photocopies, all at a bargain price of $129.
Readers of D-Photo will mostly know Epson for its range of high-quality inkjet printers, including the impressive new R2880. But the company is extremely active in the office and home office market, too, which is where the TX200 is clearly aimed.
First glance
At just 43cm wide and 27cm deep, the TX200 has a tiny footprint and it stands 17cm tall. The unit is finished in various hues of gloss and matte black plastic and the big, clear controls are arranged on a panel to the left, with slots for media cards directly below.
It’ll take SD, xD, CF and MemoryStick, and also has PictBridge. Build quality is on the light side and I suspect it will be better suited to home office-type use.
Plug and play
It’s easy to get the TX200 up and running, thanks to a clear and simple installation interface. If you follow this you’ll be using it within minutes. Connection to a computer is via USB. This ease of getting going is noteworthy because even now, in this digital age, some printers and similar products come with confusing instructions and are frustrating to set up.
The installation CD includes a good user manual, backing up a rather basic booklet, and a file manager. Another disc contained a copy of Abbyy FineReader OCR software to get the words on scanned documents into your favourite word processing program.
Picture this
The first things to remember are that the TX200 is not meant as a high-end photographic printer and that it also maxes out on A4 paper. It makes do with just four ink cartridges, cyan, magenta, yellow and black, whereas a top inkjet printer may have eight or more colours in its armoury.
So you’re probably not going to choose this printer for making exhibition-quality prints. But within its limitations it does a good job and the A4 prints I made on Epson’s Premium Glossy paper were more than satisfactory for even semi-critical uses. It’s also a fast printer.
Early prints showed horizontal lines running across the picture, an indication that the heads needed to be aligned. Evidently that’s fairly common for the TX200 and the manual guides you though the steps to remedy this.
Duplicate
Copying is dead easy, and can be done in colour or black and white. The results are good. Scanning is via the Epson Scan program that’s part of the package. It’s easily used and gives good results in most cases — competitive with inexpensive flatdecks, but not a match for higher-end scanners.
Conclusion
I loved the convenience of the TX200 and could see it fitting nicely into my home office for when I needed quick copies, scans or prints. For critical work, I’d sooner have higher end dedicated equipment. But as an electronic ‘gofer’ this multi-faceted product gets a thumbs up, especially at its price.
SPECS – EPSON STYLUS TX200
- Printing Method: Piezoelectric inkjet
- Minimum Ink Droplet Volume: 3 picolitres
- Resolution: 5760dpi with variable-sized droplet technology
- Paper Sizes: A4, letter, legal, 8×10, 5×7, 4×6, 3.5×5, 5×8, A6, A5, B5, half letter; Envelopes: No10, DL, C6
- Scanner Type: A4 flatbed colour image scanner, CIS sensor
- Pixel Depth: Input 48 bits (16 bits/colour); output 24 bits (8 bits/colour)
- Scanning Resolution: 1200 x 2400dp
- Mono Scan Speed: A4 300dpi 2.2msec/line
- Colour Scan Speed: A4 300dpi 7.2msec/line
- Copy Speed: Colour Text (A4)+ approx 30cpm (draft)
- Operating Systems/Printer Drivers: Windows 2000/XP/XP x64/Vista, Mac OS10.3.9-10.5
CONTACT
www.epson.co.nz
PROS
- Good performance for its price
CONS
| Design |
16 |
| Performance |
16 |
| Features |
18 |
| Image Quality |
14 |
| Value for money |
19 |
|
|
| Total |
83/100 |
This review is from D-Photo issue #027.
June 11th, 2009 by D-Photo
Tim Steele tests Epson’s new A3 printer, a model that employs the same technology found in some printers used in professional photo labs
The Stylus Photo R2880 is the latest A3+ printer from Epson. At $1699 it’s hardly a cheap shout, but it does deliver Epson’s ultimate photographic quality eight-colour inkset and all of the latest innovations from a company that — according to its own research — is favoured by more than 70 per cent of New Zealand’s professional photographers.
If nothing less than state of the art will do, then the subject of this review may be just what you’re after. This is a photo printer with sheet and roll capability that uses Epson’s Ultrachrome K3 ink with vivid magenta.
The vivid magenta and light vivid magenta portions of the inkset combine to widen the colour gamut of the R2880 over earlier models, making the reproduction of a broader range of colours possible. This is particularly noticeable where blues and purples are concerned. The new inkset has migrated down to this model from the Epson large-format printers such as the Pro 9880 and 11880 found in commercial laboratories, signage and commercial graphics companies.
If you need one printer capable of making everything from a postcard to an A3+ print then an R2880 will do the job. It also has the ability to print on compatible CD or DVD discs.
Every new Epson seems to produce prints a tiny bit sharper than its predecessor, more quietly and more easily. The R2880 is no exception and every print I made, colour or monochrome, looked stunning. A range of Epson papers was used for testing, in both glossy and matte surfaces.
Variable-sized droplet technology combines with the Epson’s ‘Active Meniscus Control’ for accurate placement of every single drop of that precious ink — in droplets as tiny as three picolitres. That’s a droplet smaller than the diameter of a human hair and it’s what makes a resolution of 5760 x 1440 dots per inch possible. The net result is fine detail and absolute separation from neighbouring colours.
As with other high-end photographic printers from Epson, users of the R2880 must change the black cartridge — swapping from matte Black (MK) to photo black (PK) — depending on the paper surface being used for each print. It makes good sense to print in matte or glossy batches rather than in a haphazard fashion, as some ink is wasted in the changeover process.
I liked the second USB connection on the printer that allows you to connect two computers to the R2880 at the same time. It’s ideal for those with a Mac and a PC, or a desktop and a laptop, as you won’t have to swap a single USB cable between your computers.
Independent Wilhelm Imaging Research data claims that prints made with this inkset will remain lightfast for up to 108 years for colour and 200-plus years for black and white prints. Just make sure that you stay within the family of Epson inks and papers to ensure that long-life print; use anything else and it’s a lottery.
Overall verdict
Stunning results from a stunning printer.
SPECS
- Model: Epson Stylus Photo R2880
- Price: $1699
- Printing Technology: Epson piezoelectric inkjet
- Print Head Nozzles: 180 nozzles per colour x eight colours
- Ink: Epson Ultrachrome K3 ink with vivid magenta (photo black or matte black, light black, light light black, cyan, vivid magenta, yellow, light cyan, light vivid magenta)
- Max Resolution: 5760 x 1440 optimised dpi
- Max Paper Size: A3+ sheet / A3+ width rolls
- Print Speed: 9ppm (A4 draft black text or colour text memo); 8×10-inch photo approx 91 seconds
- Interface: USB2.0 x 2, PictBridge and USB direct print port
- Paper Capacity: 120 sheets A4 plain paper (other sizes/weights vary)
- Printer Features: Borderless printing in 4×6, 5×7 and A4; Mac and PC compatible
- Size: 616 x 322 x 214mm (W/D/H – closed)
- Weight: 12kg without cartridges
CONTACT
www.epson.co.nz
PROS
- Stunning quality prints
- Long print life
- Stylish design and build quality
- Comprehensive software bundle
- Twin USB ports
CONS
- Need to change out black cartridges
ALSO CONSIDER
- Other Epson A3+ printer options: Epson Stylus Photo 1410 A3+ $799 (Uses Epson Claria inkset), Epson Stylus Photo R1900 A3+ $1299 (Uses Epson UltraChrome Hi-Gloss2 inkset)
| Design |
17 |
| Performance |
18 |
| Features |
16 |
| Image Quality |
17 |
| Value for Money |
17 |
|
|
Total
|
85/100
|
This review is from D-Photo issue #026.
Tim Steele
