Excellent
Written: Dec 30 '00 (Updated Feb 15 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Quality and quiet
Cons: Use Epson paper for best results
The Bottom Line: Print quality on normal paper is excellent, but where this printer really excels is on specialty paper. Well worth the cost.
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| Daxman's Full Review: Epson Stylus Photo 870 InkJet Printer |
Before I get into the review of the Epson 870, I’d like to take a moment to thank a few individuals who encouraged me to improve the original review I wrote. They are: 29th_Candidate, CASwrite, and loves2run. Thanks for the suggestions and encouragement, it is members like you that make this Epinions community a better place!
Basics
The Epson 870 is part of the Epson line of photo quality inkjet printers. Data transfer is either via the parallel or USB port. I’ve used the USB connection and found it to be fast and reliable. The printer uses six colors in two cartridges. One cartridge is for black only, while the other contains light cyan, light magenta, yellow, cyan, and magenta.
Setup
The printer was extremely easy to setup, install the cartridges and software, and begin printing. The time it took to unpack the printer from the box and have it up and running was approximately 15 minutes.
Software
Included on the setup CD-ROM are Adobe Photodeluxe 3.1 and Epson Film Factory. Adobe is the premier image editing software on the market. The Photodeluxe program is most basic of the Adobe line, so don’t expect too much. Regardless, you will still be able to do some pretty powerful editing on your photos without having to take a course on the software. The Epson Film Factory is even more basic. The best part of this software is it allows you to print out several pictures at a time using the roll paper media that is provided. That is, you can load a 10 meter roll of photo paper into the printer and the software will print out as many 4X6s as you want. This is good if you want to print out lots of pictures quickly. However, once you are done printing, you will need to cut them out yourself.
Print Quality
There are several modes to choose from: 1440 X 720, 720 X 720, 360 X 360, and 180 X 180 dpi. There are additional advanced modes to select as well. For example if you select photo realistic, you can further select from another menu if the image is from a digital camera. By selecting that feature, the printer will automatically optimize the gamma settings to give you the best possible picture. Further, you can change settings to optimize your pictures for landscape/nature pictures or human/portrait pictures.
Print quality on normal paper is excellent, but where this printer really excels is on specialty paper. The coated inkjet paper really brings out the colors vividly and the glossy photo paper photos are comparable to those you would get back from a professional developer. You also don’t have to wait long for your pictures. A 4X6 print takes about a minute and a 8X10 takes about 2 minutes.
Cost
In Feb 01, the price came down to a $179 from its initial price of $299 from last year. I bought this printer through buy.com for $230 in Dec 00 and am extremely pleased even at that price. The black and color cartridges cost roughly $20 each to replace. In three months of heavy printing (mostly photos) I’ve only had to replace the color cartridge once. A nice feature of the print driver software is that it shows you on the monitor how much ink remains in each of the cartridges. In my case, I still have over ½ of the black ink remaining.
Miscellaneous
A word of advice for printing photos, use Epson brand paper. I had some old HP photo paper that I tried with dismal results. I recommend the 4X6 photo paper and the matte photo paper for 8X10. The matte photo paper is a very heavy type of paper that is excellent for other uses as well like greeting cards.
Happy printing!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Daxman
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Member: Dave
Location: Fort Rucker, AL
Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 45 members
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