Epson Stylus Pro 4880 Printer (SP4880K3)

• Professional media handling from letter size up to 17 inches wide
• Epson UltraChrome K3 with Vivid Magenta ink technology
• Epson MicroPiezo® AMC¿ print head technology
• Built-in, high-capacity paper tray holds media from 8x10 to 17x22
• Standard, 17-inch wide roll feeder with automatic cutter

I have been using this printer for about 3 weeks and it has worked wonderfully. The color profiles I''ve gotten from Epson and Ilford are close enough that I will not bother with custom profiling until I find a lot of spare time.

Ink usage is pretty moderate. The instructions warn that the first time the printer is "Charged" there will be less ink available for use, but that it will be better when the next cartridge is inserted. I printed about 250 color 8x10 photos on 8.5x11 cut sheets plus a few 16x20 on roll before my black ink ran out.

I really like this printer with 3 exceptions.

1. It''s extremely large and heavy. It came on a pallet, large.

2. Photo black and Matte black use the same slot so you''ll have to swap and waste a ton of ink to switch back and forth. I do little matte (for now) so it''s no big deal for me, but I think I will prob NEVER do anymore Matte until I get a big job that can cover my ink loss!

3. The bottom print margin on cut sheet is .55 inches!

So it cannot do borderless prints on cut sheet and most of the templates I used had to be modified to work around this huge bottom print margin!

This caused a huge headache for me. However, once I rebuild my own scripts and templates, I believe I can work around this.

Overall I really like the printer and one of the reasons I chose this printer over the 3800 is one that few people know about. The 4880 has this suction thing that will prevent the paper from curling up and hitting the print head. I had issues with this from time to time on my Canon i9900.

So far the printer has been relatively fast for me and I am so confident in the prints that I just let it print and print. If there is an issue, with my print, it''s usually been a poor setup on my part (forgot to set proper profile, forgot about unusually LARGE print margin).

I won''t give it 5 stars because I still want more for the price I paid for this printer. The .55in bottom print margin and swapping ink cartridges should be addressed before I can say that I would freely recommend this printer to anybody.

However my prints look great and come out pretty quick!

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I chose the Epson 4880 for several reasons: past experience with Epson products, my estimate of the printing cost and the quality of the samples I''ve seen. I have not been disappointed.

Let''s start with the pros:

Epson quality. After nearly a thousand 8 x 10" (and equivalent) prints over the past three months, this printer looks and acts as good as new. No breakdowns, no degradation of print quality, nada.

Economy. I keep a close watch on consumables. I''d estimate that my per-print cost is around USD 0.75 0.85 per 8 x 10" page, excluding paper. This is considerably less than cheaper inkjet printers and with few notable exceptions, is unrivaled by same-class inkjets or most labs for that matter. My notable exception is the "minilab" class of device, which for an up-front investment of tens of thousands of dollars, can product 4 x 6" prints for under a dime.

Quality. This printer produces professional quality prints. I''ve had many compliments and never a complaint about the print quality.

Now, the cons.

Matte vs. Photo Black. If you want to switch between them, you''ll burn about USD 40-50 worth of ink each time you do this. As such, I started with the more versatile Photo Black cartridge and intend to stay with it through the life of this printer.

Bulk. At 90 pounds, it''s difficult to take to events. A custom Pelican case for this printer will run several hundred dollars.

All told, I''m very satisfied with my choice. Next time I''m in the market for a printer, I expect to purchase a descendant of this printer, perhaps one or two generations down the line.

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I really like the way this printer prints. The color and clarity are almost flawless. It is a very expensive printer to keep up. each ink cartridge is in the range of $55 to $60 and it takes 8. that is not that big a deal until you have to print almost three times a week to keep the print heads clean. you can''t let this printer sit for more than a few days or it clogs the heads. I use more ink doing test prints than actual prints. If you have a business where you print constantly then this is a great printer, but if you only do occasional printing then I would look for something different.

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I''ve had this Printer for about three weeks now and I love it! However, It is a beast! Make sure you have a heavy solid stand to put it on. It does weigh 150 lbs! I have mine on a solid Oak coffee table. I am a Photographer, and So far I have framed a few 13" X "19 prints and they look stunning! I''m excited to make some larger ones. Very professional looking prints! I''m very happy with it!

This purchase was for the replacement of an Epson 4000 printer that was no longer supported using Mac OS 10.6. There were some minor difficulties setting up the network printing options, but support had seen the issue before and had me reset the network card via the control panel on the printer... everything is fine.

The output is better than the 4000 and the print speed seems a little faster. Ink usage I''m still testing, but it seems to be a little better.

Highly recommended.