Epson Stylus Photo 2880

My wife and I have been shooting professionally since the late 80?s and have been 100% digital since 2000. We believe in purchasing the better ?tools? for what we do because not only is time money but it?s our reputation too. Frankly we found that Epson printers were superior some time ago, however we no longer feel that way. We had an Epson 2400 and loved it! After several years of pretty good service and with few complaints our 2400 finally died so we purchased a R1900 and had issues since day one. Primarily the problems of recognizing ink cartridges and the constant need to clean the heads requiring a significant amount of ink.

Epson acknowledged the problems and admitted that there were issues with some cartridges. We figured they would resolve the issues but they didn?t and several months later we were still purchasing faulty cartridges. Epson was always good about replacing the bad cartridges but it became old and expensive so decided to replace the R1900 with a refurbished R2880. We set it up and it worked fine, for about 15 or so prints. As I write this I am on my 3rd, Vivid Light Magenta cartridge that the R2880 printer can?t recognize.

For the record, Epson machines print quite well, if and when they work! Being a pro we do not have the time and in this economy, the money, to play games with a multi-billion dollar company that has the ability to resolve these issues but choose not to. As one of the Epson teks told me. ?If the problems occur in less than 10% of the machines then it probably isn?t worth fixing?. I?m sure that this technician was speaking his own opinion but I have to admit the comment wasn?t far off from how I felt after spending hours on the phone in an effort to resolve the problem and/or requesting replacement inks.

In an effort not to sound as if I?m promoting another manufacturer I will not list what I found in my latest research, but I encourage that anyone looking into this machine, or Epson technology, really do your homework because between problems recognizing cartridges, recharging each time a new cartridge is installed which burns ink, clogged jets and small expensive inks cartridges; well enough is enough!

Goodbye Epson, you?ve lost a long time customer!

This is simply a superb PHOTO printer. Some posts here talk about letters and Quicken not printing....it's a Pro-level PHOTO printer. It's for serious photo work.
It is not a "point and shoot" type printer. You can buy those for $99 at office max. This printer needs adjustments and settings to be right. If you get those correct (and it's not hard but takes some effort) the results are gorgeous. Black and white are superb too. I have had mine now for 2 years and cannot say how pleased I am with this. I am a pro shooter and from time to time my lab screws up a print for my clients. I always re-print the shot myself on the Epson, and deliver in person. Makes for great customer relations too !!! Never had a complaint about the replacement print yet.