- 2,880 x 1,440 dpi maximum resolution in black and color
- Roll paper holder and built-in automatic cutter
- Economical ink system with 7 separate UltraChrome cartridges
- Interchangeable standard and matte ink cartridges for black-and-white prints
- USB, Firewire and Parallel interfaces
I''ve owned this printer for five months and have had great results. The ColorSync profile works great and have resulted in accurate colors most of the time without tweaking in Photoshop. I recommend Epson Premium Luster paper or the Enhanced Matt paper for this printer. Luster produced prints indistinguishable from photo lab prints when viewed straight on, but does show ''ghosting'' in shadows when viewed at sharp angles. The main factor of this printer, and other Epson 7 color ink printers is the color life. The enhanced matt paper is rated up to 80 years when the paper is not exposed to direct airflow, and the luster is 20-25 years under the same conditions, which is the same as photo lab prints.
If you have a 4+ mpx digital camera and you want to make prints at 13x19 inches, which is essentially the same size you would print a 35mm negative on 16x20 photo paper, this printer is for you. And, 13x19 inch prints look good on a wall and matt nicely with standard 20x24 inch frames.
Buy Epson Stylus Photo 2200 Ink Jet Printer (C11C387011) Now
Yes, I''ve read some of the other reviews on this printer and some good points are made on which papers to use for the best quality prints. But I can''t agree with only 2 or 3 stars either. Standard glossy paper hasn''t done well for for me for some reason, neither was I impressed with Epsons archival matte paper either, but others I know like it. However, media choice is the key to getting this printer to reach its optimum potential. Using Epsons line of premium papers produces photos that rival any I have had done at pro photo labs.I am extremely fond of the Premium Luster and Premium Semi-gloss papers. The colors are very well saturated with very good contrast. After scanning the negs and doing some minimal touch-up in photoshop to my liking, I import the files to film factory. Film factory is bundled with this printer and is a very user friendly application to make printing quite easy. Yes, there is a small learning curve to see what this printer likes, but, it didn''t take long before I was producing prints that you couldn''t tell from the photo lab. In fact, after some adjustment on portraits especially, I liked mine better. The quality is excellent!
Ink usage is not bad overall, with the exception of the light inks especially the light magenta which seems to be its favorite to use, followed closely by light cyan and light black. However, because each color is in its own cartridge makes it to where you change only those that run low and not all of the colors at once.
Set up was easy and we were printing in just a short time. But as I said the learning curve on media use sure wasted some ink and paper. I cannot stress enough using the premium papers with this printers while also having sufficient file size for the larger prints. I''ve run several different 20MB 8X10''s that were tack sharp on the 1440 setting. However I prefer files of 30-plus megs and larger for most 8X10''s and 11X14''s.
With just a little practice, anyone can be printing like a pro right from your desktop. Yes there are cheaper ones out there, but I''ve learned you get what you pay for. And, it depends on your needs. But for prints that will rival most film labs, the 2200 is a winner.
Read Best Reviews of Epson Stylus Photo 2200 Ink Jet Printer (C11C387011) Here
I have had the opportunity to play around with this printer for a few days and must say that the output is the most amazing that I have ever seen from a consumer oriented inkjet printer. Now, there are some points that are problematic, but I believe that overall, this printer deserves the 5 stars.I purchased the printer as a companion for my Nikon D100 digital SLR camera. The two features that were critical in my decision to go with this over other cameras on the market are the ability to print up to 2880x1440dpi and the max paper size of 13x19inches.
When the printer first arrived, I was a bit skeptical and dissappointed to find that the OSX support is quite basic. Now, it is important to note that all features are supported in Classic mode, but as many can understand, this is a bit of a hassle. That said, I have found in my experience so far that there isn''t anything that I would like to do that I can''t with OSX. Boarderless printing might be a concern to others, so I will point out that you cannot print Boarderless in OSX. That said, as a semi-professional photographer, I don''t care for boarderless prints at all. You often loose some of the image because the size of the actual image seldom matches the size of the paper and cropping almost always happens. The paper-roll is another option that is not available through OSX, but quite frankly, I have very little use for it.
Despite these slight bad points, I was able to everything that I would ever want to do right out of the box. It took me a few test strips to get the first truly impressive print and from that moment on I''ve been getting fantastic picture one after another. I''ve tested a number of types of paper in a number of settings and have found the following: Colorsync (the setting in OSX that is supposed to match the image on the screen in terms of accuracy) was not really desireable. Colors were weak, blacks were not on target, overall lackluster. I found that photorealistic created fantastic output at 2880-1440dpi. Also, it is VERY important to note that the quality of prints jumps DRAMATICALLY between regular matte photopaper and actual glossy or semi-glossy photopaper.
A word to film photographers: terminology in digital, injet printing paper is slightly different from regular photographic media. What we know as "matte" paper is a lot more like regular printer paper. I would recommend Semi-glossy, or Pearl if you want heafty paper, but not "shiny." I have tested the Epson brand of semi-glossy and it is very nice. The only problem is that it is on the whole more expensive that third party paper. I''ve done some research and testing and found that Ilford inkjet printing paper is fantastic with used on the 2200. Ilford recommends that you set your printer to Premium Glossy, but I tried both Premium Glossy and Semi-glossy and got equal results as far as I could see with the naked eye.
I have also experimented with 13x19 prints and they are fantastic and gigantic. Printing times using a 600mhz iBook, 650mb ram, and firewire at max resolution are about 5 minutes for 8x10 and about 15 minutes for 13x19. Given the quality and the fact that the output looks as good as anything I''ve ever gotten from a professional developer, it is fine worth the wait. For the record, I am printing Tiffs recorded at the highest resolution that the D100 will handle. Each print is about 17.4MB in size. It may be that with prints of smaller file-size the printing times are reduced, but for archival purposes, I max out the file-sizes of my digital photography and I find it to be equal to that of film (at least as far as I''ve compared to my old film-based prints)
One last minor problem is the ink. The cartriges (seven total) are small and after printing about 15 prints, all at max resolution, I find that some of the colors (the light colors in particular) are about 1/4 of the way used. This leads me to two thoughts: 1. do not print max resolution until you are doing your final prints. 2. They could have made the cartriges bigger in order to make it a bit more cost effective.
That said, this is perhaps the best printer for digital photography that I have ever seen and I am more than willing to give it 5 stars despite some minor problems here and there.
N.
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Overall, I really like this printer. The colors print out quick and sharp even on ordinary paper, and the option of printing on Super A3 is a huge bonus. There is one huge caveat, though. Ordinarily, having the ink split into 7 different colors would be a good thing, as you only have to replace that particular color when it does go out, and individual cartridges for the Epson 2200 are fairly inexpensive. But the colors do run out, and fairly rapidly at that. Within a day after getting the printer I was forced to start looking for cartridges, with none to be found at any place I went to in the Los Angeles area, even at the place where the printer was originally purchased. I found a few of the cartridges offered through Amazon.com, but I am still frantically searching for Light Cyan. Even Epson itself seems to not be supporting this product, as you cannot get the most of the cartridges from their own web site. Perhaps the product is just too new, but I find the lack of support disheartening.
I knew there had to be a printer out there that could meet my expectations. After shopping around I purchased one that claimed to print over 5 megapixals, but returned it after reading it''s poor reviews. (Lex....)
Enter the Epson 2200... Wow...all the reviews and information I read on it sounded GREAT, so I ordered it, and waited impatiently for 2 weeks for it to arrive. I ordered extra paper and cartridges, knowing I would burn a lot of both to get the hang of the printer.
So far the pictures have exceeded my expectations, and then some. I have used the Epson Premium Gloss, Semi-Gloss, Premium Luster, Archival Matte, and Watercolor papers. The Premium Luster produces the most professional looking, and feeling photo, and contrary to other comments about the matte paper...I have had excellent results with it. (I have only used the Epson Archival/Enhanced Matte Paper on the "auto" mode using Print Image Matching) In fact, it rivals the depth and color of my glossier paper, without the glare...and my B&W prints never looked better.
A word to the wise. This printer specifies only certain papers for best results. I would not put low grade gas into a fine auotmobile, nor cheap paper into my Epson 2200.
I am still learning the software, and how to edit the photos for best color, etc. So far, with the exception of a couple of prints, I have had the best results printing the photos untouched, with Print Image Matching. It seems to print my pictures very close to the way they appear on the Monitor.
As for the ink, I have printed over 30 8x10''s or larger, and my lowest 2 cartridges are around 25% ..the rest at still half, or above.
To say the least, I am VERY happy with this printer. It has re-kindled my desire to frame that perfect photo...and givin me the ability to flawlessly transfer it onto paper.
Happy photo taking! JW
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