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Epson Stylus Photo 820 Inkjet Printer

Epson Stylus Photo 820 Inkjet Printer

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Like all Epsons...
Review: This one suffers from the usual deficiencies:

* drinking ink like a fish
* noisy operation
* frequently clogged nozzles
* color shift when exposed to light for long periods of time
* poor image quality on plain paper
* poor text quality on any paper

Sure, six-color printing is nice - but unless you're looking at pictures from an inch away, not a good enough reason to buy an Epson. Do yourself a favor and get an HP instead. Contrary to popular myth, the newer models produce photographic quality prints that rival anything an Epson can churn out, as well as knock-out images on plain paper and superb quality text.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Paper jams and clogged costly ink make this printer a loser.
Review: I've had the same problem others have reported with clogged printer heads and paper jams. Very often, paper feeds through several sheets at a time, which may or may not cause the printer to jam. If it does jam, once you clear it out, it still thinks it's jammed.

I've also had problems if the printer sat for a few days: some colors wouldn't print, or there were faint lines in the text. The cleaning cycle eventually fixes the problem, but I've had to run it some 5 times to get decent output, and the cleaning cycle eats up ink.

This was only my second printer. My previous was an Epson 640 that was pretty good, though Epson had to replace it once shortly after purchase due to an unfixable paper jam. After a couple of years though, the printer heads clogged for good, and cleaning would not help. However the print quality had been decent, so I replaced it with the 820. I expected an improvement over the 640, or at least the same level of performance: boy, was I wrong.

I'm interested in good photo output, and I'll put up with some level of problems in other areas to get it, but the 820 is not worth the headaches. I'm keeping my Epson 1200 Scanner, but I'm replacing the printer with the Canon S520.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Test pattern a day keeps the clogs away.
Review: Photos printed on Epson premium photo paper are excellent. Use some type of color matching in your working environment and screen to printer color will be accurate. I use a custom workspace setup w/ Adobe gamma for photoshop, and ICM in the printer options. Again photo's are awesome, but the printer is slow @ 2880 DPI. I am picky w/ the photos and can see a difference between 1440 and 2880 so I prefer the slower 2880 printing. Also daily printing is basically a requirement for this printer or the dreaded clogs come to visit. If the printer sits for 2 days then clogs. Cost of ownership isn't too bad as I use generic inks that run about $8 for color or black..., also makes the ink wasted for cleaning easier to accept.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Epson let me down
Review: With out a doubt the worst experience I've ever had with a printer. After owning three Epsons starting with the MX-80 in 1980 I figured the 820 would rock and make me happy.

Rather than boundless joy and reliable good pix - ( when it works they are exceptional! ) I get...

1. Fantastic ink cost and consumption.
2. Endless nozzle cleaning problems.
3. Bizzare paper setup.
4. Unreliable printing.

I've had it. I threw it in the dumpster and bought an HP.

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Works Great, Great Value
Review: This is a fantastic printer. I'm printing 8.5x11 glossy and matte color photos from my Canon A40 and am delighted with the quality. It is as good or better quality than I get from my 35mm and lab prints.

Cost of operation is similar to commercial lab prints, however, you have the control and can print when you want and we find that we print 1/10 of all of our shots rather than getting all of the prints. Now we make larger prints of our excellent shots and none of those so-so shots ever make paper.

4x6 take a bit less than a minute, 8x10 take about 4 or 5 minutes. I don't care I load the paper and when I come back in a few minutes or an hour they are all done. It isn't fast but the cost and quality make up for it for me as I don't care about the speed. Labs took over night to rush 8x10 for me and cost a bundle more.

The printer is quiet enough for my home office and doesn't bother me while on the telephone.

I really like this printer.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Its clogged again...
Review: Only masochists should buy this printer. Yes, when the 820 works it provides excellent prints but let it sit for two weeks then a print head get clogged. It takes most of a [price] cartridge to clean it out with the nozzle utility, but it will clog again quickly.

Very frustrating to own.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One of the best for the money.
Review: This printer produces stunning results even at less then the highest quality setting. I use a Canon G2 digital camera and love the results from this printer. I have not experienced the clogs that others have. I've had this printer for a couple of months and haven't had a clog yet. It prints very quickly in the quality mode (not the highest), however, drinks ink pretty fast. I've gone through nearly 3 color ink tanks since I've had it. I'd say I get about 15 8x10's out of one ink tank. This isn't a huge issue though, since the color tank only costs $19. The total cost of the printer after rebate was [item price], not bad for the results which are stellar!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: excellant photo printer
Review: This printer is great!!We got this 3hrs ago and I have printed 18 pictures.It is very easy to set-up and the software is easy to understand.(a plus)The pictures are excellant quality.We used epson 4x6 paper as was suggested to us.It also prints very fast.Definately worth the money.The paper is inexpensive and the ink cartridges cheaper than our lexmark cartridges were.Thanks

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst printer ever
Review: This is the worst printer I've ever used. The print quality on both pictures or text is [poor], to say it nicely. On pictures, the colors look nothing at all like reality. Occasionally I can get some semi-decent pictures (i.e. everyone isn't green) out but that's only after cleaning the head literally about 5 times and going through several iterations of the alignment function. Essentially, if this printer sits for more than a day, you need to go through at least 15 minutes of cleaning and alignment before you have some sort of decent printing-- whether its pictures or text. I've tried their technical support many times and it is as poor as the printer itself. I recommend staying as far away from Epson products as possible.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Clog, Clean, Clog, Clean, Clog
Review: I think there are two types of reviews here...those who have used the printer for only a few weeks, and those who have had it several months or more. The opinion of this printer declines with age.

This is the first Epson printer I've owned since the dot-matrix days. My last printer was an HP Ink-Jet, worked great for 6 years.

The 820 was impressive at first. When it works, the quality is excellent.

I have had it about six months now and the head constantly clogs. It typically takes more than one cycle of the head cleaning utility to clean out the head. I think I got 5 pictures out of my second color ink cartridge because I had to clean the heads so often! (and those five pictures were not at the highest resolution either!)

The paper handling is less than stellar as well. It complains about paper jams that don't seem to exist and I end up turning the printer on and off several times to get it working again.

And speaking about turning it on...it insists on going through 2 minutes worth of gyrations before it is ready to print.

This is not the quality Epson product I remember.

I am going back to HP!


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