Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Quality but Helps to Know What You're Doing
Review: I have used the 1280 for about a year-and-a-half, mainly to print fine art photographs in large format. I use a quad black ink set from Lyson, rather than Epson inks. The machine absolutely delivers. It is consistent, reliable, and has remarkable paper handling ability.The head does have a propensity for clogging, since it is permanently attached to the printer and does not get replaced with each cartridge. However, I have found that cleaning the storage cap (right side, parked position) from time to time (with lint-free cloth!) helps. I also print a small full-gamut image once a week, if I am not cranking out the big stuff. Always check a company's web site for updated drivers when installing! My drivers (XP Pro/Presario) have been well-mannered. Also, if you aren't satisfied with the image, keep testing the profiles that come with the 1280. Be patient. It took me a while to get the right combination, even though Lyson provided profiles for its own ink set. But once I got it, I was off to the races. I am about to start printing fine art color, and for that I will buy a second 1280. Call me satisfied.
Rating: 
Summary: I just got it...
Review: I just set up my new Epson Stylus 1280 printer. It works great with my iMac computer. The only drawback I can see is that I was looking for a printer that used separate cartridges, and this one doesn't. Otherwise, it prints beautiful pictures, although I like the ones I printed on the Matte paper better than the ones I printed on the Glossy paper. It prints great documents, too. I think I'll keep it, for awhile.
Rating: 
Summary: epson printers weren't built to last
Review: i purchased an epson 1280 printer a little under two years, it served me on an adequate basis, but ran into intermittent problems. and just recently, the printer completely died on me. i took it to an authorized service bureau and they told me the repairs would cost aroun $400. the inkheads needed to be replaced and the flat data cord needed to be swapped for a new one. thus i called epson and they told me all they could do is sell me another printer for $350. not the type of customer service you would expect from a "mutlimillion dollar" company. so they moral of the story goes i purchased a $500 dollar printer that lasted me only two years. if i knew this to begin with, i wouldn't have wasted my money on an epson product along with the countless amounts of wasted ink cartridges. a plea to epson, please build better products or at least try to accomodate the little people who help keep your company running. as for myself, i will never buy another epson product again. in my opinion, buy an hp.
Rating: 
Summary: A Big Disappointment
Review: I recently bought a 1280 after having owned an Epson 740 for several years. Because I had had such good results with the 740, and because the 1280 was recommended to me, I had high expectations. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. The prints had a strong magenta color cast and "banding" in blue sky areas. I tried to correct the color cast (about -7 magenta), but could not get good results. The banding I could not correct and that condemned the printer for me. Thus I had to go through the painful process of returning the printer to the store.
After having read a LOT of printer reviews, I am wondering if perhaps the increase in the number of inks has greatly increased the difficulty of achieving both color balance and evenness of color. With four variables it was hard, but with six, seven, or eight colors it is probably much more difficult to achieve. I wonder if manufacturers are being forced to sacrifice good color balance and evenness of color for highlight and shadow detail.
I was also struck by the high expectations we users have for these inkjet printers. I think that basically they are ok for home use, but when we start using them professionally, they are are little marginal.
I also looked at the Canon 9900 and the Epson 2200, but they were a little out of my price range.
Rating: 
Summary: buy a different printer
Review: i recently purchased this printer, it was unable to print even one page before an error message popped up on my monitor and the printer stopped. i have tried everything and now i give up, i'm sending it back today.
Rating:
Summary: Tough, Pro Quality Printer for serious Users
Review: I teach digital photography and computer graphics for a living. The community college I work for has had a 1280 for 2 years now. Students beat the heck out of this machine and it keeps chugging along with few complaints. We really put this machine through its paces by running water color paper and all sorts of media through it. I cannot say enough good things about its reliability! And yes, we use MACs for graphics, which is the way it should be! Epson has a great driver for OS X Jaguar. Download it from their website. Don't blame Epson if you're crummy Windoze XP goes belly up. It's NOT the printer.... That said, it's not a perfect printer. It really does suck ink like Kool-Aid. I'll be looking into the Lysonic inkset for this problem. Epson should have put individuals ink tanks on this thing.
It really is designed for high volume. The more we print, the better it seems to work. So do not buy this printer if you only occasionally print 4x6 snapshots. That's a waste of its capabilities and your money.
As for software, you should have Adobe Photoshop 6.0 or later. If you think you'll get a decent print from Jasc, Corel, or some other silly program, you'll be frustrated.
Some of the best Photo Quality inkjet papers are made by Ilford. Give them a try with this printer and you'll be impressed. It can even output negatives onto transparency material that you can contact print in a darkroom. I like the college's printer so much, I'm going to buy one for myself at Amazon! Did I mention it can make borderless prints too? It does.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing but problems
Review: I've hardly had a decent print from this printer. I only bought it for cheap color prints, not photos, but it's not even good enough for a birthday card. Streaks, fine breaking lines, wildly inaccurate colors: in short, lots of wasted paper and I was completely ripped off. I bought this printer new and I've used every kind of paper. Works better with Epson's abusively expensive inks, but it's cheaper to ship out work to Kinko's or wherever for printing.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best Photo Printers Available
Review: I've read all the prior reviews with interest. I bought my 1280 over a year ago based on reviews on several well known and trusted Digital Photography sites. I have been very pleased with the output of this printer. Yes, the printer takes more work to get a really GOOD print then the HPs. But then I have the HP printers also and they do not measure to pure quality of print. Yes, the ink cartridges are small and do not last long if you print alot of 8x10, 13x19 like I do. But, for 250 bucks you can buy a CIS (continual inking system) that pays for itself in 3 months. Yes, the Epson ink will jam the heads IF you do not use the printer at least once every few days. Again, the printer is for PHOTOGRAPHS, not text, not the occasional print job and certainly not the occasional picture. This printer is for the professional or serious amateur photographer. I have seen alot of prints from other printers and even with the flaws, this printer is the best. I wish a few things. Epson would update the drivers more often. The supplied software is marginally usable and they ding you 30 bucks for the real package. At 400 dollars for a printer, Epson could have given us the software given the price tag of the ink cartridges. I have run Epson, Illford and Inkjetart paper through this printer will very good success.
Rating:
Summary: Borderline Perfection!
Review: If photographs are your true love, this is your printer of choice! I don't know where that "electronics fan" was coming from when he gave it one star (the star being that the printer turned on?), but he obviously never printed out that one in a million shot that we all aspire to! If you have that shot, this is the printer that will come through for you!
Rating:
Summary: it will kill your PC
Review: it will disable your OS! the product drivers that come with the printer managed to completely disable my system (Windows xp home). my computer would just shut itself off without warning, restart, and turn off, on, off, on, repeatedly. all by itself! after lugging the machine to CompUSA a couple of times and getting pissed off at them for no reason (in hindsight...) i FINALLY confirmed it was the printer after i tried (like a fool to install it for the 3rd time). The Epson tech support fessed up to the problem, and suggested i get the latest drivers from their website. 'sorry the software we sold you completely f**cked you over!' please, do not buy anything from Epson unless you enjoying executing a complete SYSTEM RECOVERY on your computer, which is what I am now doing... by-the-way, that means loosing all the files, programs, peripherals, etc. that you have ever installed on your computer. i hope you have it all backed up! enjoy!
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