Epson 820S Photo Inkjet Printer (Silver)

• Up to 2,880 x 720 dpi resolution
• Uses 6-color quick-drying inks for smudge-free results
• Supports border-free printing on letter-size paper
• Prints up to 12 pages per minute in black, or a 4 x 6 inch photo in 48 seconds
• Parallel and USB interfaces; PC and Mac compatible

I haven''t done alot of printing even tho I bought this back at the beginning of the year. Recently bought an Olympus 3020 and printed some "1st day of school" pictures. I use Epson photo quality inkjet paper to do a first print test (720 dpi), then print final on Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper (1440 dpi). If I put the "test" pics in a frame, no one would know that they were not printed at a lab. The glossy''s (8x10s and 5x7s) fool everyone I show if I didn''t tell them it was on my printer, they''d never know (of course the camera helps too). Haven''t seen a need to use the 2880 dpt yet.

Mine came with software Film Factory which is semi-easy to learn but easy to use after that. Even tho a full sheet of paper could hold 2 5x7s or 4 4x6s, the s/w won''t let me lay the print out that way. I get 2 5x7s by printing one at very top, then turn paper upside down and print again (after 1st print is dry).

If it''s not used often, the heads can become clogged. Does go through ink, so I always have replacement ready (color mostly have yet to replace the BW). I only use for photo printing. Have another for text so cannot say how it does there.

Using the USB port and can''t really say I''ve ever timed a print. I usually go and do something else while I wait I had a print freeze after 2/3 done when I went to do something else on the PC at the same time, so now I just leave it alone (system is W2k, AMD XP 1800, 512 DDR memory so the system is not anemic).

Had a few problems trying to get the USB driver set up and recognizing the printer, but after a few attempts at loading the drivers it all came together. Even w/these few problems, it deserves a 5.

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I have always been partial to Canon and Lexmark printers, but the Epson Stylus 820s blew my mind away. Never had i had the ease of setting up a printer in seconds (i am not kidding...i really mean less than a minute). It has both parallel and USB connectivity, fantastic color print even on normal paper. And get this, the contents of the package include some photo glossy paper. Aside from the fact that it looks cool, it is not noisy like other printers i have used. It also spits out text documents in little or no time. The printer boasts of a feature called Print Imaging Matching (P.I.M), which greatly enhances printouts of digital pictures in outstanding quality..up tp 2800 x 720 dpi. But enough said, i could go on and on and bore people....if you are scouting around for an affordable color ink jet printer but desire just as much quality, look no further than the Epson Stylus 820s. For [the price] it is definitely the deal of the millenium.

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This printer is good but slow. Good things come to those who wait though. You can hardly see the dots compared to HP, I won''t even dare compare lexmark''s ... output. HPs I''ve used also has banding which is very noticeable. I always get a "WOW" from people on glossy paper from non Epson photo users. 6 color inks do make a difference because even Epson users with 4 color printers notice the difference. ... The epson 820 prints only last for 1 year at best if displayed and not laminated. If I hang them on a door that is exposed to florescent light 24x7 it fades fast. When I keep them in one of those folders for pictures in good tempurature and conditions they look just as good, even 3 years from now.

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Having a Epson Stylus Color, Photo 780 and now the Photo 820, I can tell you that this is the slowest of them all. (using the same G4 Titanium Powerbook. Printing out photo quality may make you wonder if it is even on...don''t cancel the job thinking it crashed the first time you use it like I did. That said, the print quality is respectable and the price is great (free if you buy a system). See Consumer Reports latest issue...up to 12 minutes for a photo quality sheet!

Epson thought their unique print head design would set their products apart, allowing superior quality prints. Instead, it''s their printers'' Achilles heel: because the print heads are not part of the ink cartridge, you can''t just switch cartridges to fix a messed-up print head, and there''s no way to get at the heads to clean them manually. With Epson printers, when your heads are badly clogged, there''s not much you can do except bring it to a repair shop. Maybe not even that.

This printer has had chronic problems with clogging, constantly showing stripes of missing color. The heads have needed to be cleaned almost every time I''ve printed anything, and I''ve spent at least 1/3 of each (expensive) ink cartridge just cleaning the heads, that process uses amazing amounts of ink. This week, the heads seem to be permanently gunked shut. I hadn''t printed anything in color in about 5 weeks, and each of the five colors is now either stripey or completely blocked, no matter how many times I run the "clean" routine.

Another stupid design choice: when just one of the 5 colors of ink runs out, you have to replace ALL FIVE. That''s ridiculous. Unless you''re Epson and want to make a killing on ink sales, that is.

Save yourself a lot of trouble, and avoid poorly designed printers -like this one.