Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Machine
Review: I knew there had to be something about this printer, considering every shop, both local and online, seemed to be out of stock. I started seeing them turning up on ebay at 20-30 dollars above retail. After I finally tracked one down and installed it, I can understand why. This is one beautiful machine. All of the pet peeves that I had from my older Epson (Stylus Photo 740) are gone. It doesn't take time to warm up, it has a small "footprint" on my desk, it is very quiet, it has 7 separate ink cartridges, you can click a box and print in black and white even when the color inks are dry, and the software is top-notch. The CD/DVD printing works...well, MUCH MUCH better than I ever imagined. I couldn't believe I was holding a CD-R when I was done. The fleshtones on the photos that I printed were very realistic. I asked my wife to pick which was the photo and which was the printout and she couldn't tell. Used in tandem with my Perfection 2400 scanner, the R300 printer is a powerful tool.
Rating: 
Summary: Very unhappy!!
Review: I originally bought this printer at xmas 2003..At first I found the printer to be excellent..However,after a couple of weeks my problems started...The problems I had all related to the cd/dvd printing mode..The first problem was the tray refusing to feed itself in and needing to be "nudged" to start the feed...Next,after printing, if I was not watching what was happening the printer would continue to try and feed the tray out even when it was already out resulting in the "paper jam" error...On top of these problems on numerous occasions the tray would travel too far into the printer and on coming back jam on the drop-down flap resulting in another error..I returned the printer and a new one was received under the d.o.a agreement as it had all happened within the first thirty days..Again,at first no problems but within a couple of weeks all the above problems began happening again!!!...I am now in the position where I have to "wet-nurse" the printer by sitting next to it for every print job in cd mode to prevent the errors happening!!...I suppose I may just be unlucky but a friend is having exactly the same problems as me....Not recommended!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent print quality for occasional prints
Review: I purchased this due to a recent sale and rebate from Epson that made the price very attractive. This is a second printer on my network and will only be used for photos.
I was please with the setup instructions although the individual ink cartridge insertion was a little tricky. Once done the software installed fine and the printer was easy to configure.
I have been testing the output using pictures from my Nikon D70 camera. So far I have been very pleased with the quiet speed of the printer.I am only using generic Kodak photo paper as I have not been able to find the Epson paper to test with. The colors are well defined, no bleeding and no banding as some have reported. I have just finished two 8x10 prints and they are both quality prints.
The quality is very good using Adobe Elements 3 software. I think this will be a great printer for those occasional photos that I want to give right away.
It will still be had to beat some of the online and local sites for printing large quantities of digital photos, but this will serve its purpose as it is better than my old HP 932.
Rating: 
Summary: The disk destroyer
Review: I purchased this printer specifically to print CD's. When I brought it home, I tested it on 4 x 6 Epson Photo Paper, and the reults were impressive to say the least. I printed 3 photos. I then setup to print CD's. the first dozen or so discs came out beautifully. After that, it was nothing but disaster. Ink contaminating the roller wheels for the cd tray has ruined the disks. After carefully cleaning all exposed parts and using all cleaning functions available on the printer, the same thing occurs. Once it starts leaking ink, it becomes a nice looking paperwight. I am days behind schedule. I returned the printer to the store I purhased it from and they happily replaced the printer without any problem. New printer, same problem. I can find no support at Epson's site mentioning this problem. The disks are good quality (Mitsui) and a bit expensive compared to standard blanks but I wanted a better product. I have $650 invested in this project. I will now have to buy more disks.
If you are just printing photos, you will be very happy.
But if you want to print CD's, I suggest another brand of printer might be more practical and less aggravating. One last thing. Epson's site has enough bad links to make support search a frustrating experience. I requested support via email a couple of days ago, still havent heard back, tomorrow I go the live telephone route and if that doesnt help, the Canadian Head office is around the corner from me, and I will take it directly to them. Stay tuned for update.
Big disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: A pure pleasure to use
Review: I spent months evaluating printers before picking the r300. I am very satisfied with my choice. I'll start out with the negatives. I have 4 criticisms about the printer:
1. The ink warning light comes on long before you are out of ink.
2. The default print settings appear to be designed around (dark) Adobe Gamma PC video
3. It is not designed to make borderless prints on 3rd party (Kodak) photo paper
4. While the CD printing produces gorgeous images, the ink will smear if it gets wet. Each of these issues is addressed very easily:
1. Don't change the ink cartridges until you really run out.
2. Use the advanced options to tweak the gamma, brightness and contrast and save the settings. Pros will make their own curves anyway.
3. Epson paper is better than anything else, but if you have to use other paper, you can "fake" it to get borderless prints with a custom paper setting.
4. Don't get the CD's wet. Excepting my own tests, I've never had the slightest smear on a CD that I printed from the Epson. Odds are that it'll never get wet, so don't worry. I should add that when I print on quality Epson and Kodak photo paper, the ink sets very well, so that it won't smear EVEN if it gets wet. I swear, my friend dropped one of my photo-prints in my fishtank and it looks just as good today as it did before it got wet. I've left prints in the sun in the back of my car. The r300 ink hasn't faded (on Kodak and Epson photo paper). The prints that I had from my old Epson and HP printers are very faded. This ink is durable! I've discovered that I can even get superior iron ons from crummy inkjet iron on paper when I use this printer. It's more than just the resolution. Where other inks tend to vaporize under the iron, producing fuzzy edges, the r300 images remain sharp. I've tested the output on this thing every way from Sunday and I haven't found the flaw yet. I tried the smart memory slots and I hooked up a USB zip drive and yes, it all works although I'll probably never use those features for more than contact sheets. The uncorrected prints were exceptionally good. Basically, what I'm saying is that the printer is vastly superior to any other inkjet that I've used in my home or at work -- and I do graphic design for a living. I find it hard to believe that anyone who tries an r300 won't fall in love with it.
Rating: 
Summary: great printer...a little slower than I would like
Review: I've had the R300 for 3 or 4 months now. Initially I almost returned it because the photos came out terrible. They were blotched and blurry. It turns out that I had to make adjustments with the print settings, namely the paper type. After having the correct settings, I got great pictures. Unlike other reviewers, I my experience with the ink cartidges has not been bad. Perhaps I just don't print as many photos or very large photos. My only complaint is that even when set for gray-scale and fastest the R300 takes a longer time printing than I would like. Overall, I am very satisfied with the quality and value of the R300.
Rating:
Summary: Crushing Disappointment
Review: I've used and been very happy with numerous Epson printers over the years -- starting with an Epson MX-80 Model III in 1983. I was interested in the R300 because of the separate ink cartridges and ability to print on CD and DVD discs. Right out of the box, the yellow doesn't print. I've been through all the troubleshooting steps and, alas, the unit needs to be serviced. I will soon be replacing it with something that can print more than 50 pages without giving up the ghost.
Rating:
Summary: Great printer but...
Review: If you don't need the card readers or pictbridge, buy the R200 instead. It has exactly the same print engine and software as the R300 but at half the price! I checked the specs at Epson and they're the same. On the Canon printers you have to go to the i960 to find a six color printer for the same price as the R300 and still not get the card readers on the R300. All of these are excellent printers but I think the Epson dye printers have a slight edge over the Canon in print permanence based on the statistics that I've been comparing.
Rating:
Summary: I bought mine for the CD/DVD printing
Review: It does a really nice job. I use the white printable discs and the print colors come out pretty good. It takes 3 minutes (or just over) to print one disc. I've printed about 50 DVDs so far and all have printed without a hitch. I've even used the printer to print a few color docs and they too are very nice. The one thing I dislike is that you have to remove the disc printing board, or holder, when you turn the printer off. If you try to turn the printer on with the board in place, you get an error telling you to remove it. So if you use the printer mainly for disc printing, as I do, it becomes a bit of a hassle. I've found that it doesn't seem to use ink any more than any of my ink just printers, though the Epson inks are very expensive (they should be giving the printer away for free, and they wonder why we look for "compatible" inks). I'm pleased with the printer and glad I got it. I was going to get the new 800, but for the price, this does what I need and, unless the printing time is considerably shorter, I'm glad I have the extra $200 for ink.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally a Good one
Review: My wife and i bought this printer becuase she likes to print all the digital pictures she takes, and this printer has the slots for the media cards. We actually went through three printers before we got one that worked right. The other printers the removable media slots kept connecting and disconnecting randomly. The software was install correctly, we brought two of them back and finally got one that works. Now that we have a working printer, it is great. One big draw back if just one of the ink tanks is empty the printer will not print, i thought that was odd. Very easy to use and set up and the media slots now that they work are very nice, we don't even have to dock the camera anymore just put the card in the computer and use the photo software that came with the printer to change the pictures on the computer. Great buy.
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