Matt Freedman pointed out this new Epson printer to me and said I should care, which is something I rarely do about printers. So I asked him, why should I care about the Epson Stylus Photo R1800? And since his reply made me—who doesn’t even print anything ever—actually want one, I thought I’d let him do the splainin after the jump.
I’ll give you a hint, though: it has to do with making high-quality prints that won’t fade in a few years.
I am definitely not really an expert on this stuff, but I have read a lot of the discussions about it on dpreview. As I understand it, Canon and Epson are really the only brands of inkjet that people pay attention to for printing photographs in a serious way.
Canon prints tend to look better to most people, and print much faster. But they use a dye based ink on their printers, and because of that, prints that are not behind glass or wrapped in plastic can fade in an extremely short period of time. Weeks to months. It is mostly gas fading, not light fading, so it really depends on the chemicals in the air in a given location. The 25+ year longevity claims that Canon makes only applies to prints sealed away from the air in idea conditions.
Pretty much no professional photographer will sell prints made on a Canon because of that.
Epson on the other hand uses pigment based inks. These really can last for decades. The 2200 is the standard pro photographer printer, which prints at up to A3 size (13×19 inches). In addition to being really slow compared to the 13×19 Canon i9900, it is plagued by an issue called “bronzing” when printing on glossy papers. This means that when light reflects off the print at certain angles you can see different textures depending on ink density and color — it is not a smooth glossy finish like a real photo (or a Canon print). Matte and lustre prints look great though.
About a year ago Epson released the R800, which prints much much faster, uses the long lasting pigment inks, and fixes the bronzing issue by applying a layer of clear coat. Many many people have been waiting on pins and needles for a year for Epson to come out with a wide carriage version of the R800. This is what was announced today.
On the other hand, I also wonder whether the R1800 is really meant to be a 2200 replacement. Some people think that despite its problems with glossy, the 2200 is superior to the R800 on matte/fine-art papers and with black and white.
And I saw a post where somebody claims to have inside info that a different wide carriage printer with a whole new ink set will be coming out later this year, and that is really the 2200 replacement.
Epson announces Stylus Photo R1800 [Imaging-Resource]
