7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
Good, fast all-in-one
Date of Review: Dec 23, 2006
The Bottom Line: Solid, cheap photo-quality printer
I recently took a look at the new RX580, a sub-$200 printer that offers the new Claria version of Epson's ink. It's supposed to be better and longer lasting than normal inks.
The out of box experience was good. Like my other Epson (Rx-770) this one takes six ink cartridges, including black.
Inserting them is a no-brainer and I was quickly up to speed.
Of course, there was no USB cable included in the box, my pet peeve. My second pet peeve is the big box stores charging $25 for a $2 cable.
Installing the software was easy and brief in Windows XP.
Then came the test. I selected the same print and printed both on my twin Epsons and then compared with one made from the photo lab.
The verdict? Assuming you select the right settings there's really no doubt that you can get photo lab prints at home. At 5x7 size I really could tell no difference.
If anything my home prints were better because I had more of a chance to redo them and use the included software to fiddle with my raw photos.
That said, if you just insert some paper and hit print you're not going to get very good quality. Before you print anything, you need to hit "properties" and make some important selections. First, you need to pick the orientation (Profile or Landscape) and then select exactly what kind of paper you're using. (I like glossy photo paper.) Then you need to pick the level of photo quality you want. (The higher the quality, the higher the ink consumption.)
The printer also will print right on the face of printable CDs and DVDs, which is great for mixing CDs and photo discs.
I found the scanning quality to be fine and the software easy to use.
Those who are doing photo restoration will love that feature as well.
The only downside is the noise the unit makes when it starts to print; these things are anything but silent.
You can get details at www.epson.com
