Epson Stylus Photo 2200 Inkjet Printer

Rating:
Summary: This is the center of my home photo-lab
Review:
I have used this printer for over a year now to support my hobby of ultra high resolution semi-digital photography. Using a different Epson product I scan 4x5 film negatives, creating 100 megapixel images, and then print them on my Stylus Photo 2200. I use 13x19 semi-gloss paper, and typically print at maximum quality. The results are vastly better than any photo lab I can imagine. Really -- I can't think of any way to suggest print quality improvement.

I do black-and-white maybe three quarters of the time, and when I do color it's lurid. Detail is astonishing, and I have been very satisfied with the borderless printing. The printer always warns me that it might not do as well at borderless printing, but I tell it not to worry and it always does fine.

I have used only the standard 7 inks. I've been very impressed with how easy ink cartridge replacement has been. I am glad that I have left behind the bad old days of throwing out *all* the ink because *one* of the colors ran out. The 2200 allows me to only replace the ink cartridge that actually ran out, which is even more important for the cityscape photography that I do -- in color, the sky uses a lot of cyan.

I don't know about text quality, since I've never printed any of that, but the thought makes me nervous. Like it would if someone suggested using a thoroughbred horse to pull a plow. Don't do that, it's silly.

Use this printer to make great big beautiful photographic prints of flawless quality on lovely paper. For this purpose, I really can't imagine how it could be better.

If it ever dies, I'll get another just like it. If I ever get rich, I'll get another just like it except even bigger.

Thanks, Epson. Please keep doing this.


Rating:
Summary: Very Nice, But Can stand Some Improvements...
Review: The Epson 2200 Stylus Photo is a very nice printer. That said, there are still several areas that should be improved upon for the next version to make it a “perfect” printer.

Looks…
• Black & silver just does not do it for me at all.
• The color scheme does not blend in well with all my other computer equipment.
• It seems that every manufacturer is trying to be bold & different by coming up with new wild color schemes. The results are that my computer system now looks more like a modern artist painting then a computer system. Light green, dark green, black, light silver, dark silver, gray, & oh yes plain old reliable computer beige… still my overall favorite!
• The black color makes it very hard to attach the front tray as I can’t see the mounting holes (also very black) to mount it.
• Why is the front of the automatic cut-off device rounded & not flat? Because of its roundness, the front tray can not be put in an upright storage position like it can without the cut-off device. Also, there is no lock for an upright position for the front tray like there is without the cut-off device. The mounting holes for the cut-off device are a little too wide for the front tray which just barely fits without falling out… an oversight? Left hand not talking to the right?

Inks…
• Not supplying the Matte Black cartridge was a big oversight…
 Many reviews of the printer have commented on the poor text quality of the 2200. At $699.00 USD they are amazed that such an oversight could happen.
 Some of the reviewers seem to not be aware of the missing eighth Matte Black cartridge. Unless you read all the instructions, the Matte Black cartridge is not too apparent. I am sure that most reviewers do not have the time to totally go through all the instructions to find the little points like this… they simply test the product as supplied by the vendor. Even if they do happen to notice mention of the Matte Black cartridge in the instructions, few reviewers have the time to acquire & test the printer with the extra cartridge.
 An example of such a review is Consumers Reports (May 2003 pg 31). They made comments such as “If you want excellent photo printing but care little for text or graphics” & “At text and graphics, however, it was only so-so”. Consumers only mentioned seven inks so I am sure they also were not aware of the eighth Matte Black ink.
 I also was dismayed (at first) by the poor text quality until I discovered the Matte Black cartridge in combination with bright white high quality inkjet paper. This does run up the overall cost of printing text on this printer not to mention the labor cost to swap black cartridges & get them working.
 As nice a find as the Matte Black cartridge was, I believe there still needs to be some overall improvement in text printing as the only way to currently get good text is to print at higher resolutions which slows everything down & runs up the cost.
 Many $99 & $199 USD printers do a better job with text at lower resolutions.
• Switching Photo Black for Matte Black…
 Switching cartridges is a real pain in the you-know-what as each time this is done much ink is lost due to the ink head cleaning which seems to take place every time a cartridge is replaced.
 This runs up my total cost for ink & labor & is not a good thing. I’m very tired of having to constantly switch between the two black cartridges for best results.
 I find I use the Matte Black for about 90% of my printing. Often when I switch cartridges, the one just installed will not print as it has dried out in storage (yes in a tightly sealed plastic freezer bag). I loose much ink trying to get it started. Sometimes, after several head cleanings, it won’t start at all after being in storage (and opened) for awhile so I have to throw out a nearly full cartridge. A real @!#$% pain in the you-know-what not the mention the additional cost in time & dollars!

Software…
• A lot of little things need improving to bring the software up to a more usable standard…
 After doing a Nozzle check, I should have the option to only clean the one or two print heads that need cleaning & not all of nothing. Currently all heads are cleaned if they need it or not. This takes too much time & waste a lot of ink which adds to the cost of owning this printer.
 Adding the eighth Matte Black cartridge will simplify (and make less confusing) the paper selection in the software.
 Currently, after a Photo Black or Matte Black cartridge swap, the paper associated with them does not show up in the Paper Quality & Options unless I open & close the software a couple of times. This is confusing to the user as it at first appears that nothing has happen & the printer did not acknowledge the new cartridge & paper choices.
 Changing saved settings in the Paper Quality & Options does not always take. I have to re-select it several times before it finally takes. I had the same problem with Minimize Margins.
 The Print Nozzle Check shows the colors in an improper order.
o Currently order… Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Light cyan, Light magenta, & Light black.
o Should show in the actual order of the ink cartridges… Black, Light black, Cyan, Light cyan, Magenta, Light magenta, & Yellow. This would also be in order with the Status Monitor which shows the inks in proper order.
o The reason this is necessary (other then to make more since) is because when one or two inks stop working it is very difficult to determine by the printout which cartridge to replace as I often can’t tell which color is bad as the printout for the color is missing. I usually end up playing a guessing game of elimination & comparing the printout to the actual inks until I determine which ones are ok on the printout thereby eliminating all the good ones leaving only the bad one that did not print. This is totally ridiculous & needs to be changed to reflect the actual colors in the proper order.

Next Version of this Printer (see above for details
• Go back to a more conservative color.
• Improve overall text quality!
• Add the missing Matte Back cartridge for a total of eight cartridges.
 Will actually reduce the total cost of operation to the user.
 Will simplify the paper selection in the software.
 Will improve (somewhat) text quality on plain paper.
• Change the automatic cut-off device so it better accepts the front tray...
 Flat front.
 Easier install front tray.
 Lock in upright position.
• Speed up the overall printing process. A printer of this cost should be very fast!
• Improve the software… make less confusing & easier to use.


Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Graphic Arts Printer
Review: I bought the Epson 2200 just under a year ago from Amazon. It has performed flawlessly from the first day. I don't use any color management other than my eyes--after the first experiments with various papers and settings I fell into a routine that generally gets me a perfect print the first time.

For glossy prints I found that Pictorico Gallery Gloss works best. But this printer opened my eyes to high quality matte printing, mostly Epson Enhanced Matte, Epson Water Color, Moab Entrada or Illuminata papers, with occasional forays into Arches. And for non-photographic work, I have used ordinary water-color paper from the local art supply store, which worked great for broad stroke styles of graphic art, less so for detailed work.

Unlike most of the world, I use Corel PhotoPaint instead of PhotoShop, although that may change in the future if Corel doesn't provide a good upgrade. The point being that there are probably many software solutions that will work just fine with the 2200.

I haven't yet tried any third party inks, perhaps someday. Unlike some others, I've had excellent black and white results. Sometimes with the full color set, other times with black ink only. The trick seems to be to punch it up in PhotoPaint (or -Shop), carefully adjusting contrast, making certain your blacks are truly black and your whites are truly white by adjusting levels and curves. A RIP would be the ideal solution, but it is expensive. To be sure, B&W is trickier than color--it usually requires multiple attempts to get it right.

The funny thing is I bought the 2200 to print superior architectural renderings; it does, and it's even tax deductible. But after a few months I noticed that I had the 'finest under $1000 photo printer' on the market sitting on my desk, so I bought a 5mp digital camera. Watching that first color print come out of the machine reminded me of how I felt a few decades ago when I was 12 and watched my first black and white print come up in the developer.

Highly Recomended.

Rating:
Summary: Initial Epson 2200 experience
Review: I'm an illustrator interested in being able to custom print quality reproductions on demand. Have had this Epson 2200 printer for less than a month--purchased from Amazon for about 590.00. I bucked the strong suggestions to invest in color management programs.

Trusting to a Sony G400 monitior bought for $70.00 on ebay and that arrived the day before, I pulled up a scanned 4x5 color transparency from Apple G4 (scanned earlier on a Microtek 1800F), guessed at the density shown on the screen and printed a 8.5 x 11 sheet (Red River luster paper).

The results looked very pale, though color looked to be a good match. I then adjusted the screen brightness to match the print, then adjusted the image in Photoshop 7 to get a denser screen image. The next print was simply magnificent.

Playing with Red River luster and Epson semigloss and luster surfaces, I've gotten beautiful results--running a proof on 8.5 x 11 paper first and following with 13 x 19 inch prints after making minor adjustments in contrast or brightness in photoshop and color ink adjustments on the Mac OSX print window selections. General rule so far is to short red by 2 to 7 points and/or add 1 to 2 points for yellow and blue to counter magenta tints.

Scanned 4x5 B&W negatives, after being desaturized, produce very detailed images and near neutral greys--if you short red a little and/or balance with a little more yellow and blue. Degree of color adjustments seem to depend on who's paper is being used. But once its determined, it seems to produce consistent results. There is a noticable color shift in the finished images depending on whether viewed under incandescent light or daylight--something looking too tinted toward magenta under a light bulb looks fine in sunlight.

My Sony LCD is useless for color determination--but the ebay G400 CRT was the key to determining quickly some degree of good color and density management. It appears, so far, that careful proofing before large paper size runs is all that will be needed to make very satisfactory reproductions of scientific illustrations. The one landscape photo scanned from a 6x6 cm transparency of the Yellowstone River was equally easy to adjust and print.

I have yet to explore printng on matte archival papers, though I tried some Pictorico gallery glossy papers for B&W prints--very nice. The Epson printer instructions make clear that OSX will not allow straight-through printing of heavier papers (a requirement for using velvet fine art papers)--and I've yet to see if OS 9 will fix this limitation. I don't know if Epson has any new up-grades to address this.

I'll post again if any significant problems emerge. Nice printer--stunning photo reproduction. I even dry mounted some results after letting the ink try for a few days--though I've seen advice to avoid the heat involved. The printer drinks the lighter colors and the light black ink--buy a few extras of the light colors. I'll evetually spring for the Epson 4000--the 2200 is good for learning the ropes.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, but only after very specialized help
Review: Several years ago, I had sniffed around printers like the epson 1280 and 2000P, noticing that they were suddenly archival. Then I lost interest for a while, never picking up one. A few weeks ago I looked again and noticed this series, which has been around now for maybe a year (which makes most printers ready for retirement by now). I like the print size and the specs about the increased gamut.

I had expected to just plug and play, but the first prints were horrific: chalky magenta messes. Then I read a bit more, turning off color management. These were heavy, dark green trash. What's up!?

There is a photoscience department where I work, and I inquired about all this. I was given a Gretag/Macbeth ICC color calibration file to print out and return the next day. Each little color square on it was miles away from the intended hue and value. (My monitor was fairly close, though I don't really subscribe to other reviewers mentioning that monitor calibration is so crucial. The software that comes with photoshop to do this is fairly sufficient.) My issue was the that the included profiles from Epson for my paper (premium semigloss) were complete junk- not even close. This was not a new complaint: other folks I know had bought the printer and had identical problems. The only was I could get sort of close was by turning ColorSync on.

The calibration print was put under a gazillion dollar densitometer and all the little color squares were remapped into a new color profile. It worked beautifully. The blacks are now rich and dense. The whites are clean and crisp, and everything in between just leaps off the paper. I rate the quality as somewhere between a traditional print, like a cibachrome, and a really nice magazine reproduction, such as vogue or similar. The printer is very capable. Even B/W prints with the new profile come out neutral with a rich tonal scale. I'm not saying you have to have the same fancy color profiling machinery to get these results. I believe there are services out there that can provide the same custom profiles.

Why the included profile were so far off is still a mystery to me. It seems unlikely for such a widely released product. I still think I've got some swich flipped the wrong way.

If I could do it over again, I'd probably spring for the 4000 printer with the 17" width, even though it's a beastly machine weighing 85 lbs and deeper and wider than any normal desk. The price is amazingly cheap, considering what it can do and it looks built like a tank. The 2200 is most certainly NOT built to be serviced and run in a production environment, but it works nice anyway. The 4000 ink costs are remarkably cheaper in the long run, and having that size capability makes for some pretty impressive prints.

jk