9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Better output than any photo lab
Date of Review: Mar 3, 2006
The Bottom Line: After a year and a half, I wouldn't go with any other printer. Best output, not so costly on ink.
I've owned this printer for 18 months now. I shop carefully for both paper and ink. Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper 4x6 can be found at 11.5 cents/sheet online (including shipping). Ink cartridges can be found for around $12 each. I use on average one ink tank (across all colors) every 100 4x6 photos. That means I am paying about 23 cents per shot. I decided to try out various online photo services to compare. Prices online can be about 30% cheaper, but the photo print quality is terrible by comparison. There's literally no comparison. Contrast is more accurate, colors are truer, resolution is higher and durability of the Ultrachrome inks (as priced above) is 90+ years compared to 25-30 years for processed photos. I have manually calibrated my printer to my monitor, and my prints are exactly what I expect every time. As far as I'm concerned, there is no better alternative to this printer on the market, if you're looking for an affordable desktop photo printer with great results. In high speed mode (which I use exclusively), this printer outputs about 80 prints per hour. Occasionally, a nozzle will clog requiring automatic cleaning, but generally only after long periods of non-use with an old cartridge that has nearly run out of ink.
