- Ultra Hi-Definition prints ¿ Claria 6-color ink for images with richness, depth and clarity, great for photos and everyday printing
- Professional looking CDs/DVDs ¿ print right onto ink jet printable CDs/DVDs (software included)
- Individual ink cartridges ¿ replace only the color you need
- Better than lab quality photos ¿ photos are smudge, scratch, water and fade resistant
- Fast print speeds ¿ maximum speed up to 38 ppm color, laser quality speeds of 5 ppm color, photos in as fast as 11 sec
We have purchase over 200 of these printers (even here at Amazon)
and they are pretty good until you run out of ink.
The Ink can print you about 2-3 months worth if used every
other day or so. But our customers, including ourselves,
have had nothing but head aches when it comes to changing
Ink Cartridges. 47 Customers have complained it will NOT
ACCEPT ''GENUINE'' Epson Cartridges. We owned 4 of them and
all 4 are currently wrapped up in their boxes ready to throw
out or send to a recycling center. All 4 printers
printed through 1 ink cycle then they started rejecting all
ink replacements. We bought ink here at Amazon rejected.
We tried the tech trick of pulling out the electrical cord,
and the USB cord, and it did accept 2 or 3 cartridges,
but eventually it started to reject all of them in time.
Keep in mind this printer has gotten fairy good reviews
the past year some individuals are being successful
with the printer but we suspect many reviews were
written before their 1st ink cycle went dry.
We noticed that (after installing the printers) The Epson
software started accessing the internet (or at least trying
to). This was to block any 3rd party Ink cartridges because
on one of the printers that WAS NOT on the internet it actually
acceptable 1 black ink 3rd party cartridge. The rest were
rejected even the "Genuine" Epson Cartridges.
Its difficult enough to have to purchase expensive
"Genuine" ink for these printers but to have them
rejected by your fairly new printer is appalling. We
have over 46 "genuine" ink cartridges that have been
returned to us (we no longer sell the ink). We used
some of the "rejected" ink on our Epson R260 models
and R280 model (those printers accepted the ink)
simply because the R260, R280 and this model -
"artisan" 50 use the same ink cartridge.
Customers have explained to us this printer model
has difficulty on accepting new cartridges no matter
where you purchased them. We have contacted
Epson by email, phone even writing them a letter,
but they yet to even try to return our messages.
Customers who have purchase this model, and have
not been subjected by the cartridge problem are very
fortunate and we are happy for them.
Overall, Epson has made this printer so INK
CARTRIDGE RESTRICTIVE that it has made us
impossible to recommend to anyone or even
give out for free.
While printing through its first ink cycle, it did
produce fine photos and fairly good text docs,
but after the ink was done it seems so was
the printer.
Update: We installed a CISS system on one
of the printers on Feb 1 2011: rejected.
On January 20th, the same model rejected
"Genuine ink" from a major store front. We
were fortunate to receive a refund on both
occasions. We aren''t trying anymore. Epson
keeps ignoring our calls.
Daniel J. Tyler (WJGroup)
Buy Epson Artisan 50 Color Inkjet Printer (C11CA45201) Now
This is a fantastic printer for the casual user, but can be problematic for critical uses.
This is the 6th Epson printer we''ve used. When printing out from Adobe Illustrator on all previous models, the size of the printout exactly matches the design.
When trying to print CD inserts on our new Artisan 50, booklets that are designed to be 119.5mm, end up being almost 125mm. May not sound like much, but once they''re cut, they don''t fit in the CD box. It''s very slow and tedious to modify all our layouts that are on file.
Previous models capable of printing on CD''s (such as the Stylus Photo R300) were dead on accurate.
The other annoying problem is that you can''t print from Illustrator directly to CD any longer. That was a great feature of the R300. In the Artisan 50, you have to use their amateurish CD print utility.
Read Best Reviews of Epson Artisan 50 Color Inkjet Printer (C11CA45201) Here
This is my first Epson printer. I''ve always owned HP but I was particularly interested in being able to print CD/DVD labels. I''ve owned this printer now for a couple of days and am totally pleased. The directions for getting started were easy, and I was able to begin use immediately. The quality of the labels are excellent, good color, looks professional and it prints quickly. I am not one to usually review products but this one, I found well worth the money, value, and am happy that I made the purchase. The only thing I''d change would be for the software that comes with the CD/DVD printer format, I wish it did more but I find it sufficient. I''d definitely recommend. Does well with documents as well.\\
Want Epson Artisan 50 Color Inkjet Printer (C11CA45201) Discount?
You have probably read a great deal of reviews about how wonderful the Epson Artisan 50 printer is. And as far as printing goes, especially on CDs, those reviews are spot on. Only one problem. I will wager the overwhelming majority of those 5 star reviews are coming from people who have yet to go through their first replacement cartridge cycle. Oh what a surprise they have in store for them. The SOB corporate scum at Epson engineered the printers to a) use only 60-70% of the ink in their OEM cartridges, b) retailed their own 6 OEM cartridges at prices ranging from a minimum of 350% to over 1200% of what non-OEM ink cartridge suppliers are charging (up to $35 a single cartridge) and c) have a chip-reset technology installed in the printers which will "fail to recognize" the vast majority of all non-OEM catridges and an estimated 33% of the GENUINE OEM cartridges. This is AFTER the company was sued in a 2006 case for doing the exact same thing and then went out and re-engineered the Artisan series of printers to be even WORSE!
I swear to gawd, you can''t make this crap up. As is well known, it only requires one cartridge requiring replacement in an Artisan model to disable the entire machine. Meaning that if you have a black print job to do and the yellow or light magenta cartridge is below it''s functional level (usually meaning 30-40% of the ink remains but can''t be used due to the technology they installed to rip people off), you can''t finish your black only print job. And NO...every one of the six colors is NOT required to print black like I have heard some wags out there stating falsely. Even if that were true, in an emergency where you needed to print a single black text page out, you couldn''t even print it in lighter gray to get by. If you buy the non-OEM cartridges you might...just MAYBE get one or two of them to work for 2 or 3 off and on cycles of the printer, but eventually they will require replacement when the orange print light starts blinking and the "non-compatible" error appears on your screen. This is apparently due to the ability of the software to stealth "report" information on the replacement cartridges through Epson''s online access portal and then order the printer to shut down if the information retrieved fails to jibe with an OEM chip code. Even if you buy the OEM cartridges (which I did) and get lucky through the first four or five recycles, once you hit the end cartridge (dark cyan) the party is over. I have yet to hear of an Epson Artisan 50 that made it through two OEM dark cyan replacements without a cartridge rejection. Mine never made it through one. And for the record...Epson claims the ink usage issue is due to their fear of your precious printer being "damaged" should the ink level fall too low. To which I and most others say "BULLS***". The technology doesn''t even read the ink levels...it "estimates" them...all to the manufacturer''s massively profitable cause of "erring on the side of caution". What a surprise.
The bottom line here is that the engineers at Epson set out to rip off every person that ever bought their printers by making them dysfunctional in the presence of all but OEM cartridges and then radically overpricing those OEM cartridges to wring massive profits out of hoodwinked consumers. And not only that, they installed this bug filled technology so that it goes haywire (an estimated) 33% of the time and rejects even their own overpriced replacements forcing the NEW AND UNUSED overpriced cartridge to be tossed and replaced with another NEW overpriced cartridge. The factual truth being that any buyer of these printers will likely have FAR more than the $120 cost of the printer invested in ink before the second cycle of cartridges is used up. Sort of like Exxon offering super cheap new cars to people that get 2 MPG and then raising the price of their gas to $500 a gallon knowing all along they engineered the super cheap new cars to self destruct if off brand gas is put in them. Doesn''t take long to see that the price or handling/styling/quality characteristics of the car never figured into the equation to begin with.
Get the printer if you want....it actually does print pretty good and you might even pick one up for nothing from a current owner who hasn''t yet dropped it out of a 12 story window or backed over it with a truck after the ink ran out. There is a wealth of technology out there you can buy to circumvent the corporate Epson thieves. Supposedly there is a $30 chip reset device that overrides the reject tech and Amazon sells CIS ink tank equipment ($35-$80) which, if carefully installed, provide an endless ink supply and eliminates the problem at the source. But my question is why support these corporate scumbags and use their stuff to begin with knowing that you actually will have to go out and spend another $100+/to defeat their thieving chip reset tech? REQUEST: Any updates on NEW class action lawsuits against Epson would be helpful in this review section as well. Maybe the second or third class action lawsuit against these SOBs will be the charm.
UPDATE 2/19/2012: I contacted Epson to see what they would do about the failure for the Artisan 50 to recognize the infamous cyan (dark) cartridge. I spoke with a service rep. She ran me through everything I had already tried then promised to immediately send out another cyan cartridge to see if that would solve the problem. She was, of course, lying her ass off and I soon found out why. They had checked the warranty on my printer after I had given her the serial number, realized it was going to run out in 7 days, and never sent the cartridge. Once I tired of waiting for it and contacted them again with the reference number for the call, they told me..."Oh, we''re so sorry...your warranty has run out and we can no longer help you". Epson aren''t just low-life scumbags...they are criminals in my opinion. They have floated these absolutely worthless printers out there for the public to buy for the sole purpose of selling them enormously over-priced ink cartridges with technology designed to cause failure. Anyone who''s had the misfortune to buy one of these printers should explore joining into a class action suit against the company.
The Artisan 50 printer worked fine for 14 months and I went through 3 ink changes. The printer utility notified me that I needed new color ink. I changed the 5 color ink cartridges with new Epson brand cartridges costing $75. The printer would not recognize the new cartridges and issued a warning to use only Epson brand. I called Epson and they said it is a hardware problem and since the printer is beyond the 1 year warranty they could only offer me a discount on a new printer. So, the printer is now e-waste recycled and I will never buy an Epson product again.
