Rating: 
Summary: A real disappointment
Review: I've had my printer now for 1.5 years, and have constantly battled with it. I've returned 3 and received 3 refurbished units, all with the same problems...(banding, ink randomly dropped on the photos, constant need to clean the print heads, etc.)...I thought it might be the USB connection, but saw no improvement when I switched it to the parallel port. I do think, however, that it has to do with the computer-printer interface, to have the same problem with 4 different units. I have 80-100 pages that printed so badly that I couldn't use them, which is pretty expensive given the amount of ink the printer consumes. Epson support was of very little help. I too have a friend who gets WONDERFUL prints off of her Epson 1280, but can't figure out why I don't get the same results...
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing Quality--Forget the rest, buy Epson
Review: I've used several brands of inkjet printers... As far as I'm concerned, none of them can compete with the Epson.I currently work at a [camera] store with [another kind of printer], one of the best silver-based photo printers on the market. I've shown my customers prints from my Epson 1280, and before I told them, they assumed the [store printer] printed them. The images from this printer are THAT good. That's saying a lot when you consider you're comparing a $xxx.xx printer to something that costs several hundred thousand dollars! Pluses: Fine, fine resolution. The printer is relatively fast at 1440dpi mode, VERY fast at 720dpi mode. 2880 mode takes a while for enlargements, but that's to be expected. I like the fact that the printer uses 6 color inks to get a better range of tones. And of course, the ability to print borderless prints up to 13" wide is great. Minuses: Nothing I can think of that really matters. The only minus I can think of is that it takes up a lot of room on my desk, but it's worth it. Nobody sells the printer cartridges for this printer locally because nobody sells this printer locally, and the color cartridge is specific to this printer and the 1270. Luckily Amazon sells them at a good price. I highly recommend this printer!
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Influenced by glowing reviews on a digital camera site, I ordered this printer. Received it quickly, but the printer did not work - the cartridge carriers did not move into position for me to install the ink cartridges. Called Epson tech support (long-distance toll call). They had me try various things, but nothing worked. Finally the support person decided that the sensor must be broken, and told me to return it. I shipped it back and am now out $37 for S+H and insurance, plus whatever the long distance call will cost me. Overall a disappointing experience.
Rating:
Summary: like a Rolls
Review: It was silent....fast, on certain papers. Great prints, even better looking than the picture on my monitor, and I have a sharp one. The first night, I worked it to death, getting ready for a photography show and it kept pumping them out with no complaints. Time will tell, but as of now, I'm in love with it "the Epson 1280".The ink costs big $$$$$ but it's the good stuff, fade and water resistant....not proof...I made large prints up to 13" X 19" and best of all, the printer is not all that big! I am very happy with the printer and I'm not easy.
Rating:
Summary: The Epson 1280 Printer is a great digital photography tool.
Review: Just a couple of weeks ago my wife got me the epson 1280 printer
for a christmas gift. I had a couple of freelance jobs to print and I used the 1280 printer. Its quiet machine and it prints a nice color and Black& white photograph. I haved looked at other printers and I was not pleased with there product. Only one thing I wished it came with more software where you don"t have to buy .Thats why I am pleased with the epson 1280 printer.
Rating:
Summary: Nikon 990 + Epson 1280 = Holy Cow
Review: Look Mom, no film!!! The Epson 1280 prints so extremely well, it is difficult to believe. Slide in a piece of glossy photo paper (up to 13" wide), and watch (yea yea it takes a few minutes) a digital photograph become *real*. Paired with a Nikon 990 digital camera, this is pretty much a professional studio setup without the nifty dark-room. The only drawback is the "shorter" lifespan of the prints (10-15 years) as opposed to the 200+ years of the Epson 2000P. The 2000P does not have the resolution of the 1280, or the more reasonable price point. I just figure that 10-15 years from now, I'll just click <Print> again. In the meantime, I'll enjoy a bunch of framed prints around my home and office of my *amazing* digital photos... at least, I think they're pretty good. ;-)
Rating: 
Summary: The 5th star would be Linux drivers from Epson
Review: My 1280 died over the weekend. So I did some shopping and bought an HP Photosmart 7760. I figured I'd save some money and wait to get a larger-format printer later.
It was a bad move. The HP is going back, and I've ordered a second 1280. I used my first one hard. For two years. I used it for everything -- normal documents, and lots and lots of digital artwork on matte paper.
Amazon currently has about the best price on ink cartridges and matte paper around.
I did my own tests on the inks -- both water resistance and ultraviolet light resistance. My Bic pen that marked the sample faded in two weeks of sunlight, but not my printed image! (I put a control in my filing cabinet to compare to.) I will not buy compatible cartridges, because I've already investigated the quality of the Epson ink and paper myself. I sell what I print for $185 a page. Sometimes a little less. With framing, more.
If you are a Linux user (and if you don't know what that means or you aren't sure, you can disregard this), you are in for a tough trip. The gimp-print drivers don't come close to matching the Epson Windows drivers for color quality. Not one little bit. Bug Epson about this. There are some adjustments possible with gimp-print, but it would be entirely trial-and-error.
I don't suggest going to the HP side to fix the Linux problem. HP says they "support" over 200 printers with Linux drivers, but the one I happened to try was abysmal. It couldn't even center the image on the page, Gimp didn't work at all, and neither did OpenOffice. At least with my Epson 1280, I have a little printing support (albeit with crummy colors).
If you've used other Epson printers, the 1280 might have slightly different color rendering. I had a Stylus Photo 820 which produced beautiful blues for sky and water. On the Stylus Photo 1280 (under Windows -- we're no longer on the Linux subject), these blues were more grey. I wish the 1280 came with the 820's coloring.
One other thing I like about the 1280: you can print very close to the bottom of the page. Not all the way, but closer than many other printers. This is very helpful.
I wish Epson made an affordable six-color printer like the 1280 with a wider format, perhaps 17" or 22". In my view, they don't.
One warning; Epson claims that the 1280 can print up to 13" x 44". I haven't found a supplier for paper that size. Epson doesn't seem to sell any. At least not in matte finish.
I never print glossy stuff (longevity considerations), so don't consider me to be any kind of authority on glossy stuff.
Rating:
Summary: I was blown away
Review: My fiance and I are both art directors and we bought this printer to primarily update the work in our portfolio's. Both of us were somewhat skeptical about the level of quality we would receive, being used to having high quality proofs in our books. Well it's amazing, but this printer produces very high quality stuff. Frankly, it's not easy to differentiate between the Epson print and a C-print sitting in a portfolio. It's not the speediest printer in the world, but then I didn't expect it to be. If your like me, you won't bother to print on the "fast" setting much, when you get used to the primo quality of the "quality" setting. The other thing I like is that it's really not that big of a printer considering it will print 13x19 paper. I had expected it to be much larger, but it fits pretty nicely in the exact spot my laser printer occupied. Also, despite being a photo printer, it does text pretty well. I haven't printed out that much text, but the things I have printed on the "quality" setting, have looked pretty good to me. The output I get from my Canon S300 digital elph are also great. I have pics up in my office and everyone is shocked when I tell them it's not an actual photo, but an epson print.
Rating:
Summary: Satisfaction guaranteed
Review: Originally, I purchased the H-P 1218 Photosmart printer and experienced paper jams right out of the box. Additionally, that printer was ergonomically ugly and featured a confusing menu. I sent it back and bought the Epson 1280 and my printing woes have been laid to rest. First of all, this printer just looks sleek. The set-up was easy, software and hardware. Loading paper is simple. Print-outs look gorgeous - to my unprofessional eye - and I haven't experienced a single jam. Admittedly, I haven't tried all of the features, like the 4" roll attachment, but so far I am a happy camper.
Rating:
Summary: Overated Hype
Review: Reading your reviews and Epson's tech data leads one to believe this is the best thing since sliced bread. The only comparison I can make is that the faint horizontal lines on all of my prints remind me of sliced bread!
After using all remedies offered, lines persist and the printer is a bust! Does not even compare favorably with my HP 882C DeskJet quality. This is a poor product in my book.
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