- Nine Epson UltraChrome K3 Inks for Stunning Black and White or Color Prints
- Fade-resistant Black and White Prints last up to 200 years
- Three levels of black -light-black,light-light black, and black inks.
- Prints and 11x14 matte photo in as fast as 2 minutes 6 seconds
- Borderfree 4x6, 5x7, 8x10, 8x11.5, 12x12, 11x14,13x19 photos
The color output is also tops. Although this printer is more optimized to print on matte papers, it can print both color and black and white perfectly fine on glossy papers (if you swap in the photo black ink instead of the matte black) and in fact, to my eye even on glossy paper, the prints look better than the photo lab! And on matte paper (my preference), the prints are pure fine art-just lovely.
As a professional photographer, I''m concerned about the archivability/lastibility of prints. Epson has this covered with the Ultrachrome K3 inks that the r2400 uses. Prints are rated to last approximately 200 years. I''m sure my clients will approve.
The ink cartrdiges seem to print out for a surprisingly large number of pages, certainly no worse than the previous model Epson. And since there are 8 different color cartridges, at least you only have to replace the one that is low, not all of them at once.
In terms of price, it does seem a bit expensive, but consider that the next larger printer, the Epson 4800 model is over $1,000. more and it uses the same archival Ultrachrome K3 inks (just in bigger cartridges). With the 4800 you pretty much only gain being able to print 16x20 prints-it prints up to 17" wide whereas the r2400 prints up to 13" wide. The 4800 also has larger and more expensive ink cartridges and when you swap out the photo black (glossy) ink for the matte black ink, you have to waste about $100. worth of ink. When you do the same process on the r2400, you waste only about $10. worth of ink because it doesn''t have to purge as much ink out of the system.
The r2400 seems like a real bargain next to the next higher model.
With both output and lastibility that rival the photo lab, this printer is a no brainer. Buy it and take the control of how your prints look away from the lab, and put it back in your own hands.
Buy Epson Stylus Photo R2400 Ink Jet Printer (C11C603011) Now
As per the reviews on other sites, this printer works like a charm providing excellent quality on both glossy and matte media. Rather than prolong that discussion, I would like to compare it to the printer it is replacing, my five year old Epson 1270. In terms of image quality, I do not see much difference in color pictures, perhaps more detail in shadow areas. Not quite the wow I was expecting. But then wow would have been difficult since my 1270 produced excellent color prints. Rather I see two improvements: (1) Superior B&W, and (2) really good profiles. In addition, the prints should last my lifetime. Unlike another reviewer, the printer software installed easily with no problems.The major problem is ink useage. To switch between glossy and matte media you have to change the black ink cartridge. The whole system seems to go through a purge resulting in the wasting a lot of precious ink. At over $14.00 a pop per cartridge, the care and feeding of this thing could be quite expensive.
Read Best Reviews of Epson Stylus Photo R2400 Ink Jet Printer (C11C603011) Here
Summary:I had been using the Epson 2200 for about a year, and it has given me great prints and reliablity. The only drawbacks were it''s print speed and it''s use of only two black inks which made printing in b&w less than ideal, but still acceptable.
Well, here comes the 2400 to finally replace the old industry workhorse. It sits in the same tight spot on my desk as the 2200, so the footprint is close to the same, however the 2400 looks to be a bit taller. The machine is a rugged looking, handsome unit, silver and black in color. It has a new paper catch tray that slides out with the touch of a finger similiar to a giant CD player tray. This new unit does not come with the paper cutter and fabric paper catch bin that the 2200 shipped with. I never used those accessories and found most people did not, and so I guess Epson figured it was not worht equipping with any longer.
After firing it up and using it now for a couple of months, I can say that this latest entry into the world of fine art printing is everything it should and needed to be to improve upon the already great 2200. Everything from the software , hardware, and inkset has been improved upon.
First off, and most importantly, the inkset has improved by the addition of a third black ink called "light, light black. ( thus giving the name of the inkset K3) What this does is allows the printer to reproduce the nuetral grays without having to use color inks to do so. This virtually eliminates metermerism, which is the shifting of color tints when viewing a print under different light sources. The b&w prints take on a nuetral tone and resemble traditional b&w prints. And in addition to this third black ink it seems Epson has improved the dmax of the black set. The black from the 2400 is noticeably deeper than that of the 2200, and i can only guess that Epson has added some more dye to the black ink ( Dye ink obtains deeper dmax than pigment) as black ink is less vulnerable to fading and therefore will not hurt the archival abilities that the Epson pigment inksets are so famous for.
Secondly, the hardware has been improved upon in many ways. The 2400 printer is almost twice as fast as the older 2200, and I have printed full 12x18 at highest resolution in about 6 minutes. A 5x7 or 4x6 in under a minute. And very quiet at that. The resolution of this printer has been brought up to an astouding 5760x1440 dpi. However, it is almost impossible it seems for the human eye to tell the difference between 2880 and 5760 dpi. But more is more, and who should complain. Next, the printer now has three paper paths. I print quite often on heavy fine art paper and with the 2200 I had to feed it through a straight paper path at the rear of the printer, which was a bit awkward to do. The 2400 allows you to feed heavy art paper through the top like a regular sheet, except it uses a different path located just behind the normal, or sheet path, as Epson calls it. Also is the ability to now print on heavy board type media, which I do not think i will ever use, but the option is there. It feeds through a feed path at the very front of the machine which is revealed by opening a cover at the front. The media feeds in through the front and the printer prints it in reverse sending it out the rear. Quite convenient and versatile.
Finally, there is the improved software. Similiar to the older software is the user-friendly look and set-up as well as all the options for paper sizes and printing enhancements and features. It seems Epson is very aware and ok with the fact that many users of the 2200 liked using different media from different manufacturers, even though Epson offers a wide variety of quality papers. I myself, have found the line of Moab papers, especially the Entrada fine art and the Kayenta matte, to be what I prefer to use. After much experimenting I have found these papers to produce excellent results with Epson inks and they are acid and lignin free as well. However, the Kayenta matte, which is not a heavy fine art paper and therefore should feed through the sheet path, uses the "Watercolor-Radiant white" epson paper setting for best results. however, Epsons "Watercolor-Radiant white" paper is a heavy stock and needs to go through the heavy paper path. When I set the software for "Watercolor-Radiant white" Epson software tells me that I am using the wrong path. however, it gives me the option to ignore the warning. This is great because what that tells me is Epson is aware that we will be using third party papers at times and they require different settings than what Epson suggests for their own and thus allows it''s software settings to be side-stepped. Big thumbs up for them on that note alone.
Next is their b&w printing option in the software. I had truly underestimated this feature as I like to do evrything as far as editing in my PhotoShop software and do not touch a photo in any other way. I convert to b&w,ready my image and then send to the printer to print as it is, with the appropriate profile for the paper I use. Well, b&w prints look very good this way, but I soon found out that by using the b&w setting on my already converted b&w images , I get far beter results. It seems to be that this is a sort of built in RIP software which actually throws down a different combination of inks when using the b&w mode. It also enables one to easliy adjust the tonal range and to tint a b&w photo to give warmer or cooler, and of course, nuetral tonal quality I have printed the same b&w image in both ways and the b&w mode setting in the software gave me very noticeable benefits.And lastly, the bronzing condition when making glossy prints on the older 2200 has been tackled by an adjustment that can be made before printing which eliminates any pure white areas and covers them with a fine light gray ( I would guess) which supposedly greatly reduces the effect. Bronzing is when you would look at a glossy print from a side angle and it would seem to shimmer or glisten like a holographic effect. I have not tried a glossy print yet, as i print almost exclusively on matte and fine art paper so I cannot confirm this situation has been remedied. As for reliability, I cannot give any opinions as I have only owned this machine a few months, but
I can say the 2200 never gave me a single problem and I never even found the need to run any of the maintenance utilities. I would be willing to bet that this machine will fare very good in that respect as Epson has proven to be the best in the business, and for good reason. Ink consumption actually seems to be a little better, but I''m guessing this is because of the additional ink cartridge putting less of a drain on some of the other colors. I would guess overall it comes out to be the same as the 2200 in the end. So there you have it. I''m sure there are other additional benefits and improvements that I have not uncovered yet, but I am enjoying this remarkable machine and am always eager to print on it.
Strengths:
Speed Improved inkset with third black ink and deeper Dmax ( Archival) 5760x1440dpi resolution Three convenient and easliy accessible paper paths Improved software Beautiful styling and rugged build. firewire cable included
Weaknesses:
None that I have come upon at this time, other than no USB cable provided. I use USB 2.0, not firewire. Relatively steep price
Want Epson Stylus Photo R2400 Ink Jet Printer (C11C603011) Discount?
I needed to upgrade my Epson 1270 at some point, and I almost went for R1800, but didn''t like the fact that you could not use heavier media in R1800. Then I found R2400 was going to be released and around the same time, a gallery asked me to hang a show of some of my photojournalism. I needed to produce around 40 11x14 prints suitable to hang on short notice. I ordered Gretag MacBeth Eye One Match and R2400. Hardware setup easy; it is a large printer and you''ll need a stable location for it. Cables come with it so you don''t need to buy a set. Software setup should have been easy, but in my haste I made simple mistake and prolonged software install. Check online for updates. Ink install was very easy as well. (The printer software walks you through ink changes when a cartridge runs dry). Once I fixed problem, I tweaked an image for output in Photoshop CS2, and color management is ridiculously easy with CS2 (and if you''re a photographer and you don''t have Scott Kelby''s book, you''re missing the boat). I used Enhanced Matte and selected "Best" setting for a 65 mb 300 dpi file. The printer hummed to life and started churning out a print and shaking my somewhat flimsy printer stand. Wow, I thought it was the Loma Prieta Quake Redux. I reduced shaking with foam under printer feet. First print out looked good, but a little underexposed. But there was fine detail in shadow and highlights weren''t blown out and colors were astonishing. A little tweak in Photoshop, and 2nd print was perfect, and went into box for gallery show. In one week, I printed about 75 prints approx 10x12 on 11x14 paper and used only 7 cartridges. And about 45 test prints at 5x7 inch. I still have plenty more ink left. The ink indicator is fairly accurate, and it tells you exactly how many more prints of whatever size you''re printing you can do. Using a Logan Compact Mat Cutter, and a stack of 16x20 4 ply mat board from Redimat in Novato, CA, I put together a gallery show in TWO WEEKS.I can''t wait to try black and white. I would also recommend trying other papers the Epson Enhanced Matte is very, very good, but you might find something else that will give your images that extra edge. This printer is truly worth it. Take the time to calibrate your monitor. Oh, and shoot in RAW if your camera has it.
I loaded the Matte ink and have dedicated the printer to producing B&W images on matte papers from scanned 4x5 B&W (and larger) negatives--for the time being. Results are very good. It won''t turn a badly taken, developed and scanned negative into a great picture, but if one is using a negative able to produce a good B&W print the old chemical way, the printer will give you very pleasing inkjet print results.
I haven''t run it through very many of all possible functions. I will just comment on some of the refinements of the R2400 over the Epson 2200 (which I also have and intend to keep, as it works reliably and so well for color reproduction of original art work). The R2400 has a tighter dpi pattern--the resolution has grown from the 2200''s 2880 dpi to 5760 dpi (in one direction--it remains 1440 for both printers in the other direction).
Anyone familar with old silver-based papers knows that inspection of a photographic print with a lupe can show astounding detail even as the image vanishes into the silver grain pattern--something inkjet reproduction cannot duplicate. However, using an 8x power lupe, I simply cannot see any obvious inkjet dots in large, finished B&W prints on 13x19 Epson velvet paper printed with the R2400. Also, the degree of fuzziness of the image on velvet paper at 8 power is only slightly more than in the digital image seen on my Apple Cinema display. It seems the paper resolution has increased dramatically over results from the Epson 2200 (where 8x inspection of prints shows the image demolished in noticable dots). So, the R2400 produces prints that appear wonderfully sharp with the naked eye.
Another surprise is that my 20" Apple Cinema''s LSD image provides a near dead-on means of determining the appearance of the print on velvet paper. For printing color on my Epson 2200, it is necessary to use a CRT monitor and still make guesses based on experience. The Epson R2400''s functions all work on Apple OSX 10.3 using a G5 2.5 gHZ Powermac.
The R2400''s paper loading is more sophisticated than on the Epson 2200. Heavier Epson papers can be loaded into a second steeply tilted single paper loader--not needing be fed in straight and level as in the 2200. Other brands of heavy matte papers must be fed straight in, but through the front. In all cases, whether using the single sheet loader or the front end loading, the printer eventually grabs the paper and positions it prior to printing.
Nice printer. Gives me reason now to start loading my old cut film holders again and hauling big camera''s around without the need of launching whole hog into a chemical darkroom other than what is necessary to just develop film.
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