Epson R1800 Mini Review

[evil4blue]

Well, its late, so forgive me if some of this doesn't make any sense.

My new printer came in today, one day early (Thank You Epson!), and the first thing I noticed was the box...its big, very big. The printer itself is pretty beefy, its 24" inches wide, 13" deep, and 8.5 inches tall. The printer appears mostly ABS plastic but appears pretty sturdy. The only thing I think seems a little flimsy is the front catch tray. When the tray is fully extended it feels a little weak. I would becareful to not put any real pressure on that tray, it probably wouldn't hold up.

The printer was packed pretty well, styrofoam holder and everything was bagged individually. The box contents where as follows:

6' firewire cable
Instruction Manuals
CD print tray
Catch tray extenders
Roll paper holders
Software and drivers
Epson glossy/matte sample paper pack
Inks
Printer

I pulled out the "getting started" manual and pealed and the miscellaneous tape holding all the printer compartments shut. I then plueed in the printer and loaded the inks as recommended. Shake each ink 4 or 5 times, instert cartridge, push down until you hear a click...repeat.

Once all the inks where in, I hit the reload ink button an the printer started charging the ink system. I had heard that this initial charge wastes a lot of ink so I was ready for the worst when I fianlly got to see the ink levels in the print monitor.

Wanting to make sure I had the latest drivers and paper profiles, I downloaded all the newest files from Epson's site. Installation went smooth. Install driver, plug in printer (I choose the firewire contection), then install paper profiles.

First thing I did after installation, was check my ink level and everything look good. Ink levels still looked near 100% even after initial charge (which was surprising after seeing all the horror stories about ink wastage with this printer). I had the printer then conduct an auto head alignment. I'm not sure what the printer actually does bot it appears to print a pattern and then reads the pattern. I guess the print head has some sort of laser or optical eye to take measurements. The printer prompted me that it was done doing its auto align and everything looke hunky-dory.

Now I was ready to print.

I had prepared an image with an embedded icc profile and open qimage to print it. The image was proofed in the adobe RGB color gambut and qimage was set up as described here:

http://www.steves-digicams.com/techcorner/May_2005.html

My first print was set to "photo RPM" quality which is the printers interpolated high resolution. I printed it on one of Epson's Prem Glossy 8.5x11 sheets included in the sample pack. I'm still waiting on my shipment of Ilford paper. The print took about 5 minutes to complete since I had toggle hi-speed off. My reaction was mixed/dismayed at the first print. The photo was red shifted, big time. I thought maybe I screwed up the paper profile setting so I tried the print again. The second try was on Matte paper. I also set the print quality to "Best Photo". This is Epson's native hi-res mode (from everything I read, best photo is as good a photo RPM, but uses less ink). I hit print and waited. This time the print took about 2 minutes. The big difference in time was do to the quality output change.

Again, the print was red shifted. My monitor is calibrated, so I knew the problem was with the printer. I went into the printer properties page and printed an xp test page. Ah ha, I found my problem, the cyan cart wasn't inking. Sooo, I did a auto head clean and waited. In the head clean mode the printer prints a test pattern over and over. I could see that the cyan was starting to flow. I guess the cyan cart just didn't get primed correctly at initial start up.

Once the head cleaning was completed, I printed another xp test page and everything now looked correct. So I fed the printer another glossy sheet and give it another go. 2 minutes later, I was speechless. Wow, the printer spit out a serious piece of art work. The colors are fabulous and the resolution is fantastic. Best of all it looked bretty close to my monitor. Maybe slightly cooler, but not too off. I'll have to recalibrate my monitor again this weekend.

Unfortunately, that's all the testing I did tonight but I'll give this badboy a run this weekend.

Misc info:

The print is dry out of the printer, looks water resistent, no smudging, and no noticeable bronzing on the glossy paper.

Sorry if I rambled in this review but it's even later now. I attached some photo's. The last one is a photo of the last good photo I printed. Enjoy!

[Joe_Lorenzini]

Keep us updated on your impressions. I've been seriously looking at this printer and am interested in your continued work with it.

Thanks!

_/oe

[bburton]

Thanks for the extensive review; it should help a number of people with future purchases. Also sounds like you know your way around printers and the printing process.

[gpgyo]

Its amazing...that it comes with a firewire cable!

[Detonate]

What were upgrading from printer wise?

[evil4blue]

@gpgyo

Yeah, I know. I guess Epson was trying to make the Mac people happy. I've never connected a printer via firewire, so I said, "What the hay, let's try in." It seems to work very well off the firewire.

@Detonate

I wasn't. I have a cheapy Epson C84, but was getting all my prints made by pro labs. My decision to buy a printer was actually two-fold, first the print quality from my lab was becoming inconsistent. Having my own printer lets me control my output much better and my turn around time is 30 minutes rather than 3-4 days. Second, the photo club I'm starting to take part in makes you print you own images for competitions and critiques. I know, its a stupid rule for a photo club, but I'm the new guy and don't want to rock the boat.

Funny thing is, I've already picked up a couple "print jobs" from some friends and they're going to pay me for my time. I figure if I do a handful of custom print jobs a month, the printer will pay for itself.

[gpgyo]

This guys post some very detailed printer reviews and here's the link to the R1800. If you have not already read it, it might be worth it to see if you have similar experiences to his:

http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/int...800/page_1.htm

[evil4blue]

Originally Posted by gpgyo

This guys post some very detailed printer reviews and here's the link to the R1800. If you have not already read it, it might be worth it to see if you have similar experiences to his:

http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/int...800/page_1.htm

Thanks, but I already read it. It is a good review and recommend it to anyone. I love doing research (probably why I have 2 Masters Degrees), so I've probably read through every R1800 review available online.

[Dave-RR]

Thanks for the mini review, and for the photo's. My favorite..."The Box"

[zeroendless]

Thanks for the review, one hellda machine.

[evil4blue]

***Update***

This printer is amazing. I find myself hypnotically staring at the page as its being printed. I finally printed a few 13x19's and they look outstanding. I also printed a few B&W's and they are also very acceptable. Atleast to my untrained eye, they look pretty neutral. If I had to guess the grays are a little cool, but not unpleasantly so. I'm sure if I had a professionally printed B&W to compare it to, I'd see the difference. Using the correct icc profiles for the paper I'm using has made printing and soft proofing very easy. The prints are very, very close to my calibrated CRT.

I have also now used the following paper with great results:
Ilford Smooth Pearl
Inkjetart Ceramic Luster
Inkjetart Ceramic Glossy
Epson Premium Glossy

I used some Epson Enhanced Matte, but wasn't that impresses. Apparently Epson's Premium Matte is better, but I'm in love with the luster paper.

Both the Ilford Pearl and Inkjetart luster are great, but if I had to pick between them, I'd buy the Inkjetart again since it is really cheap. I really recommend their paper.

www.inkjetart.com

They have a deal right now, Get 4 packs for the price of 3, and they develop and make available icc profiles for their paper for free.

Ink consumption isn't too bad either. I think I used more ink to prime the system then I've actually used in printing. It looks like the cyan and magenta will get used the quickest. If you print a lot of glossy or luster prints, photo black and the gloss optimizer will be the next to go.

Buy.com has a 10% coupon floating around the internet and with it you can buy a full set of inks for ~$85.

I think this printer has given me the incentive to make a portfolio I can lug around. Who knows, maybe I can start selling some of these bad boys.

[Detonate]

The first print that ever really made eyes pop out was on Epson Premium Glossy Photo paper.

That's all I've ever tried since then.

[ndsimm]

congrats again on the purchase and thanks for the review....I may have missed it, but what is the spped for an 8x10??

[evil4blue]

The premium glossy is very nice, but I don't really like glssy prints. I will keep some on hand becasue there are a lot of people that don't think a "real" photograph comes on anything other than glossy.

The inkjetart glossy lokks and feels very much like the Epson, the colors are also pretty close. I think the IJA paper give more saturated colors, but the Epson is more accurate. The IJA would be great for a velvia feel landscape.

[evil4blue]

Originally Posted by ndsimm

congrats again on the purchase and thanks for the review....I may have missed it, but what is the spped for an 8x10??

An 8.5x11 is done in a couple minutes in Best Photo quality. In Photo RPM (Epson's highest quality) it is closer to 4:30 mins. Truthfull on anything 8.5x11 and smaller you can't really tell the difference between Best Photo and Photo RPM. Larger sizes look sharper, more accurate color with Photo RPM.