Epson Stylus Photo 890 Inkjet Printer

Rating:
Summary: Great surprise
Review: I had no problems with installation of the Epson Stylus Photo 890 Inkjet Printer. I ran several copies on plain paper just to make sure I was getting the correct margins, etc., nothing exciting, then I ran my first print with Epson Glossy Paper and I could not believe the results. The photo was great! Looked like the photos I bring home from the photo labs. I am having a hard time finding Epson paper in our local retail stores, I can order it from Amazon.com ... which shipped my printer within 24 hours, but the paper is taking 2 weeks, too long!! Might want to check out availablity of paper and cartridges, it is worth the extra effort in my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: Poor reliability
Review: I had this printer for 2 years, then had to trash it when it started printing blue lines across everything. It also had a tendency to smear ink. It isn't smart enough to tell when it's printing off the paper, which can happen if you're using poorly documented software (which includes the software bundled with the printer). When it was cooperating, it was great; but that hasn't happened for a few months now. Time for something more reliable.

Rating:
Summary: Poor reliability
Review: I had this printer for 2 years, then had to trash it when it started printing blue lines across everything. It also had a tendency to smear ink. It isn't smart enough to tell when it's printing off the paper, which can happen if you're using poorly documented software (which includes the software bundled with the printer). When it was cooperating, it was great; but that hasn't happened for a few months now. Time for something more reliable.

Rating:
Summary: Was OK while it worked
Review: I had this printer for about one year.
The GOOD:
The inks are really good and long lasting. You can drop water on them one minute after printing and they won't fade.
The printer accepts many different kinds of paper sizes and printing media.
The drivers have lots of settings and you have enough flexibility to be creative.
The BAD:
The drivers have lots of settings and you never know if you have chosen the right one, and at times, when the collors are wrong and any setting seems to be wrong, after you go through tons of ink and paper, you might have to do as I did, take the pictures to a photo shop, in a few minutes, at a fraction of the cost when you add the waisted paper, ink and time.
Printing is very slow. A real picture of 8x11 takes "forever" (10-15 min). (How can they claim that the printer is fast? Fast comparing with what? Drawing the page by hand?)
The ink cartridges clog constantly and one every other page comes out with random tiny red lines across. Customer support didn't want to talk to me unless I paid, and then they just told me to take the printer to a repair shop (After 20 minutes of waiting and paying the fee, the service call was over in about 30 seconds). Waist of money and time calling customer support. A repair shop will charge to diagnose and repair the printer (change the printer heads and allign them) more than what a new printer costs today.
I have no choise but to buy a new printer now.
Oh, and another thing, in one year I mingled with it enough to get acceptable pictures out, but I could never get on the paper the same collors that I would see on the screen. I got some special pictures with all the basic collors and different mixings, and to save my life I could not set the printer to reproduce those collors. I waisted days and nights downloading upgrades and changing settings, I bought the printer's tech book (I am an electronics engineer by trade, so I HAD to read the manual :-)).
Guess what... I am looking at Canon and HP now.

Rating:
Summary: THE BEST !!!
Review: I have a couple of printers, this by far the best on the market place for photos. If you look at the reviewer that says "GET READY TO SPEND MONEY " DON'T LISTEN TO HIM (GOOD THING I DIDN'T)!
I took a quite a few photos with only praise at the quality.
Buy this one you won't be disappointed.
One more thing, the quality of the printer(Machine)itself is
EXCELLENT!!!

Rating:
Summary: Great photo quality
Review: I have used this printer for several months and it produces beautiful quality photo prints. I have used it with 5 megapixel images in Photoshop 6.0 without any problems. I have only used the recommended Epson papers and inks, so I can't say that it works well with other companies' papers. It does use color ink fairly quickly, though.

Rating:
Summary: Don't hesitate anymore, great quality of prints, great value
Review: I hesitated a long time before buying this printer, in part because HP Photosmart printers seemed a bit cheaper, and also because I had heard horror-stories about some Epson Photo papers. I am glad I finally bought this printer. Installation was a breeze under Windows 98, the printer was up and running in less than 5 minutes, the quality of prints is unbelievable.
The printer is nearly noiseless, it's well protected from dust, etc...
The ability to get borderless prints is a great step forward. I have used the roll of paper and am amazed at the colour and the clarity of definition. I printed around 50 prints with the colour cartridge before it ran dry, but as I know some of the cartridges "given" with a printer are not completely full, I cannot say whether this is an average.
All in all, I heartily recommend this printer to anyone who wants clear, beautiful prints of good-quality photographs, either taken from digital cameras or scanned from old slides.
As for Epson photo paper, just make sure you don't buy an old roll of paper with the mention "for prints under glass or photo-albums", as this mention implies that paper may age when exposed to air. The new paper seems very stable, by all accounts.
Last but not least, use only Epson color ink cartridges if you wish to print photographs.

Rating:
Summary: 4 YEARS AND GOING STRONG!!
Review: I purchased this Epson 890 in Dec. of 2001. It has worked perfectly since day one. The pictures when DPI is set to 2880 are stunning. If your having a problem with the color I have noticed you need to go to custom settings before printing and set to 2880 DPI. I have always used Epson ink & paper. Using Epson ink has to be the reason why I never had a clog. If you have a chance to still pick up this work horse refurbished jump at the chance. Good Luck!!

Rating:
Summary: Printing under Linux is PERFECT
Review: I purchased this Epson Photo 890 to replace an earlier competitor's model based on the recommendations of linuxprinting.org (a must read for Linux Printer reviews... I am not affiliated with them in any way).

First, Epson has made HUGE advances in its cooperation with the Open Source Community, and Linux drivers and tools are available to make this printer (and others) work as good, if not better, than under other proprietary operating systems from Redmond WA :)

Using CUPS under RedHat 7.3 I have set this printer up with multiple "profiles" so I can print to a virutal printer at just about any color/resolution/paper combination at the stroke of a keyboard or mouse and the quality is <gasp> near perfect.

I hooked this printer up to a Windows box as well for comparison, and I could not see the difference in quality, and Linux seemed to actually print faster.

If you are looking for a printer that gives amazing output, that can also run under Linux then look no furhter, this is the one you want.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Photo Printer
Review: I purchased this printer about 2 months ago and I can't stop raving about it. I have it connected to my Windows 2000 machine here at home and am constantly printing out shots taken with my Canon G1 camera and people are always amazed to see the prints that I'm able to make. Perhaps the only annoying thing about this printer is that if you want to make really sweet prints, you'll have to sit down and look for the color profiles that can be found on the net. These profiles are for use under Adobe Photoshop and can sometimes really change the look of a shot to make it much more photo like in terms of color. Otherwise, I really can not complain about the quality of the prints. Great printer.