New Epson Photo Printer Released!

[kelemvor]

Hey guys,

If you're into photography you may be interested to hear there's a new Epson ECOTANK 8550 6 color PHOTO printer out for a few weeks now. It's expensive at $700. Epson claims approximately 10,000 prints with just the ink that is included. Refills are $70. It will do 13x19, cardstock and canvas up to 1.3mm thick, and even dye sublimation (although I suspect you'll have to dedicate the printer to dye instead of pigment).

I'm replacing an ecotank 4760 and artisan 835 with this printer.

It does have two drawbacks that I know of so far
1. No ADF for scanning
2. Paper tray 1 is half the size of the 4760 (about 1/4 ream instead of 1/2)

Not sure how annoying the lack of an ADF will turn out to be. I don't think the paper tray will be much of an issue for me.

Anyway, just thought I'd share that a new photog gadget was out. I don't work for epson or anything like that.

EcoTank Photo ET-8550 All-in-One Wide-format Supertank Printer | Inkjet | Printers | For Work | Epson US

They're sold out at most stores in my area. I had to drive about an hour to get one. You can probably order for shipping from office despot.

 

[kelemvor]

So I've had a day to play with it and I have to agree with this point in the sales propaganda: Lab quality photo prints. Results really are that good. I've even inspected the prints in my trinocular electronics microscope. Haven't tried any special media yet like CD's, metallic paper, transparencies, canvas, etc. Just premium gloss photo paper so far.

 

[Grantt]

Very cool. Glad it worked out for you. I haven't started printing my work yet, but I'd like to get there.

 

[BoltSnap]

What is the largest size paper it can use?

 

[kelemvor]

What is the largest size paper it can use?

13x19 inches or 329x483mm. Considerably larger print area than any printer I've owned before. I bought a pack of 13x19 photo paper and one of 11x17. Haven't bought any canvas yet, mostly because I suck at stretching canvas.

 

[bvanant]

I am confused. The $700 version is only letter sized, the 13x19 inch one is $887 (today at Amazon). It is a nice 6 color printer (CMYK plus gray and photo black). It makes nice prints but no where near as nice as say any of the 8-10 color printers. So don't expect Weldon quality. This is really a printer for an office that does some occasional photographs, but not anything that serious photographers would be using.
Bill

 

[kelemvor]

that's just someone on amazon trying to screw people. The 13x19 one is $700 at any office depot and probably other legit resellers.

there is a lower model that does 8.5x11 for 600 at office depot.


Yes, obviously there are better printers in the world, like the 10-color surecolor P700. However that one still uses cartridges for the inks and so costs an arm and a leg per print. It also doesn't have a scanner. It also doesn't have an optical media tray, it also doesn't have nice modern connectivity.


As I said, I replaced an office all-in-one and an older 6-ink photo printer with this one. I need the scanner functionality, and am thrilled to only have one printer. The most important feature of this printer is the ecotank. You're supposed to get 20,000 prints with just the ink that was included. I suspect that'll be more like 3 or 4 thousand 8x10 color photos. Cartridge printers get what, a hundred or so on a set of cartridges? How much does a set of 10 carts for the P700 cost? How many cartridge sets to print 3 thousand 8x10's?

...and like I said, the prints you get from this are good. Maybe not "museum quality" but surely as good as anything I've ordered from walgreens, michaels, shutterfly etc.

I'd rather have a printer that prints perfect (to my eye) and draws the per print photo cost down to just what I pay for the paper and about half a cent for ink. Oh, and I don't have to keep a second printer around for my wife and I to use for work. She prints thousands of pages a year (schoolteacher) on regular paper.

I'll never be a career artist, and I don't think I need a 10-color or more ink printer that's still using cartridges. Having used the non-photo ink tank printer for a couple years now, the thought of ever having to go back to cartridges is repulsive.

Also, yes it has two blacks and a grey. B&W on premium metallic papers come out looking stunning.