Rating: 
Summary: Nice quality printing but problems detecting ink cartridges.
Review: Works well during first three months, but quality declines for those with heavy printing needs. In addtion, develop problems in detecting replacement ink cartridges.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic photo prints
Review: This printer blows away any HP photo printer with stunning results due to, among other things, the 6 color printing versus only 3 with any HP. Having had a HP P1000 prior to the EPSON P820 I can assure you of the huge difference in the photo print quality. Epson uses many more nozzles per color jet as well as varying the texture of the droplets to get truely great photos. HP also does not use black ink only mixing of the CMY inks. I use an Olympus D40Z 4 megapixel camera on a MAC G4 with Photoshop 7 and get professional looking results.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Start
Review: The first 10 pictures that have come out of this printer are simply incredible. As long as I don't see the problems others have about streaking, I'll continue to stay happy with it!
Rating:
Summary: The Biggest Bank for Your Buck is the Epson Photo 820!
Review: I needed a better photo quality printer to supplement my HP 1120C. My application is for personal photo printer not as a production or office printer.I researched all types of photo quality printers for several weeks and was going to go with the Cannon until I noticed how cheaply even the high end Canons were made. I also noticed that almost no one sold Cannon supplies like the required expensive Cannon paper. The Lexmark was far too expensive to own when it came to buying ink. I was looking at some of the better Epson photo printers when I noticed that the lowly 820 used the exact same print cartridges. Then I realized Epson has just cut the price to a hundred dollars! Subtracting the value of the included ink that means the hardware is now only sixty dollars. At that price if the print head clogs I will throw it away. But I like this printer so much I may buy more of them. It is an incredible value at its new low price. First compared to Canons at twice the price it is 'rugged'. The paper tray folds up when not in use, which serves a very practical purpose. It helps keep the dust out of the printer and dust is one of the causes of print head clogging. If you remember to ALWAYS turn this printer of using the left switch (GREEN LIGHT) and keep the tray closed you should not have many print head clogging problems. So far I haven't had any problems. Some try to get away with as few as three colors in their photo printers but the Epson 820 uses six colors and your eye can immediately see the difference. The Epson 820 produces prints like those from photo labs on high quality photo paper. The Epson 820 ink is rated to be light fast for 25 years, which is, long enough for me. My HP 1120C produces colors which start to fade within months if not days. Now look at the cost of owning the Epson. One significant feature of the HP was it had a print preview in the printer driver. I could enable it to check exactly what would be printed so I could avoid wasting expensive ink. Darn if the Epson 820 doesn't have the same the feature although implemented slightly differently. In some ways I like the Epson printer drivers better as there are so many options which enable me to get exactly what I want. Some people may be turned off by so many options but they don't have to use them. Their prints will simply be more expensive than mine will be or of a slightly lesser quality compared to what the printer could have produced. The features are there if users would learn to use them, which is better than not having them at all. I ran into a Canon salesman at MicroCenter when I bought the Epson 820. I told him he had five minutes to convince me the Canon 750 was a better value. His biggest claim was look at how you could replace each Canon cartridge individually, as not all colors would run out at the same time. Ok that is a nice feature but in real life the colors run out pretty close to each other. That means that if I replace one color I may find out that in the next picture I print I have run out of two more etc. I like being able to just swap out the empty set and be done with it. Five Canon color inks run about sixty dollars. You can buy three Epson 820 five color carts for that price and the ink will be fresher with less chance the pigments have separated from the binder. You don't want to store ink to far into the future from its date of manufacture just like you would not want to buy paint for your house and keep it for years before you used it. I have also noticed that there now are continuous ink feed systems and alternate sources of replacement cartridges for the 820 on the Internet but I am not too excited about them since I am not printing that many photos on a weekly basis. I would have guessed that such products would not exist because of the chip in each Epson cartridge that monitors ink flow and declare the cartridge to be empty when ink is low. One application my brother in law has is to carry an ink jet with him in his truck to immediately print reports and photos he takes when inspecting houses. By buying a simple voltage inverter and using a laptop to drive the printer he can achieve that goal with a better quality print output using the Epson 820. Again the 820 printer is cheap enough that if it gets damaged he can toss it. One other detail to examine. One doesn't want to get a printer that will be orphaned since so little supplies are bought by the public it is uneconomical to carry them. Amazon rates the sales for each product. Look at how the Epson 820 rates compared to any other printer. What are the cons to the Epson 820? It is slower than the high end Canons in making a photo but it is hundreds of dollars cheaper. It is nosier than my HP as it moves the paper back and forth but that is a photo it is working with and it doesn't really bother me. It has a non-replaceable print head compared to including the print head in each new cartridge like the HP does. This means it will eventually wear out. At sixty dollars net cost of hardware - who cares? I don't! Do you? Epson will probably have another hundred dollar, six color photo printer with improved technology when I need to replace the print head in five years or 16,000 prints.
Rating: 
Summary: DON'T BUY THIS PRINTER
Review: We bought this printer three weeks ago. We have only printed 5 or 6 pictures and now it is streaking. The cleaning utility is useless. Nice pictures... for a couple of weeks.
Rating:
Summary: Great for printing B&W images
Review: I recently have had my 35mm negs scanned to photo-cd in 2000x3000 TIFF format and was looking for a suitable printer. After reading a review in a recent Shutterbug magazine on the Epson Stylus Photo 820 I decided to take the plunge and purchase one. My main interest is in black and white and this new printer is no disapointment. I simply go to Custom mode, Set the ink to black only and set the DPI to 2880. Using Epsons own Premium Glossy Photo paper The prints rendered are so amazingly sharp they actually look like a lab print.In short, I am very pleased
Rating:
Summary: So far so good
Review: I retired my Canon S800 after 9 months of continuous effort trying to get consistent prints. The clarity and detail of the S800 are better, but the color and brightness output of the 820 matches what's on my screen much more closely than the S800 ever did, and yes, I tried everything, including printer and monitor profile matching. Output is clean and clear, if not fast. I figure at the current rate of ink consumption I'll get about 35 8x10 prints out of a color cartridge. Maybe that doesn't seem like a lot of prints, but it would cost at least [that much] to get that many 8x10s at a photo shop. So I'm not worried too much that it "drinks ink" as others say. Plus, since I'm not worried about keeping these prints around for 25 years, I purchase Epson compatible ink cartridges, which keeps the cost per print way down. So there is a way around the "drinks ink" issue. All in all a very good printer at a great price!
Rating:
Summary: Printer nice - Ink (not sure but it doesn't look good)
Review: Ok the printer runs well, with the rebate it is cheep. The economy mode is fast and the color is good. But the ink monitor has me ready to go nuts - it indicates that all ink tanks (including black) are at the same level - so far we have been only printing B&W at economy (360 dpi) - so if I read things right I will be throwing out a full color ink cartridge when the Black one goes dry - I have contacted Epson ER (Technical support) by their website. I will POST their reply - so all the people who are considering the printer will know how good the customer support is. Good or bad (stay tuned for the news)
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable printer but a hog on ink
Review: Print quality is unmatched by any other printer in this category. But it uses a lot of ink. I'm a photographer and print quality is more important than ink consumption. I have been able to match pro-lab prints with this printer as long as you use epson paper and ink. The other stuff just isn't compatible.
Rating:
Summary: Do not buy this piece of junk!
Review: We were attracted by this printer's specs and price....We ignored a customer review which warned of streaking and poor technical support. Big mistake! We managed to print just a few sample photos while figuring out color balance et cetera. Then, just when we were ready to print photos for actual use, the printer started to streak. The problem is severe and the output awful. Epson's tests and online help suggested cleaning the cartridges, which we did. Repeatedly. The problem and photos are worse than ever. Epson's next recommendation - replace the cartridges. No way! We printed less than ten photos using these brand-new cartridges. At all times we used Epson paper, and followed Epson's instructions in detail. Epson offers only 2 support options; calling Epson at your own expense (= paying to sit on hold), or sending Epson a letter via U.S. mail. No thanks.
Instead, I have a message for Epson. Get a kennel ready - this dog is coming home! Thanks to Amazon's excellent return policy, we are done with this printer's hassles and failure to print. Don't make the mistake we did. A so-called "photo printer" that can't print photos is useless. You don't need hassles, you need a product that works. Find another printer; don't waste your time with the Epson Stylus Photo 820.
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