Rating: 
Summary: Get ready to spend money.
Review: This printer is capable of producing excellent results on Epson paper and with Epson ink. But get ready to spend big money. You never get the print right on the first try. The second try is also a bust. By the third try, you might get something that is somewhat close to what's on the screen, unless you are trying to hit skin tones. Then you can expect to use up an entire pack of paper and ink cartridge to get one print. Why not just go to the photolab and have it done in the first place?I tried the luster roll paper, and aside from the poor design of the roll paper holder on this cheaply made machine, the results are very nice. But the cost per print (I got about 12 out of one ink cartridge) is in the neighborhood of $3.50 to $4.00. Considering you'll make three bad ones for each good one, you'd still be better off sending them to a lab. I'm still not sold on digital photography, especially from a professional standpoint. Your time is money, and there is no way you can charge enough for a print to recoup all the time of scanning, retouching, color correcting and making numerous bad prints to arrive at the one good one. If you have lots of time and money, buy this printer. If your time is valuable to you and are trying to make living from photography in this dead economy, let the photolab make the mistakes and concentrate your extra time on marketing. For the person who is a hobbyist, I would assume this printer is all you'd really need to print family photos and the occasional enlargement. If you can afford it. By the way, don't try to use off-brand cartridges on this thing. I bought one of the "fully compatible, made-in-China" deals from a major ink jet site and it spewed ink all over the machine and ruined part of a role of luster paper. Epson will own your soul if you buy this machine.
Rating: 
Summary: Just a quick review on initial use
Review: Yesterday, I received the Epson 890. SETUP IN UNDER 1/2 HOUR Within 1/2 hour, I had it hooked up and running. I have Windows ME and a Soyata 733MHz computer. (A Soyata is a Rochester NY company that assembles computers) RECOMMENDED BY A PROFESSIONAL PRINT EVALUATOR I had been recommended this printer (the Epson 890) or the Epson 1280 (for larger print sizes) based on a co-worker's experiences with an Epson 870. She is a professional print evaluator and told me it was the best on the market. Not quite as good as traditional photos, but for a high mega pixel camera, almost indistinguisable to the amateur (which I am). LOOKS AS GOOD AS A PHOTO Well, she was right....WOW! I would be hard pressed to tell the difference in the prints it made, and I was using a photo created by a 1.2 MP camera. Either I'm easy to please or it was real good (Both, could be true). SETUP NOTES A couple notes about the setup... All very good. HUGE BOX FOR SHIPPING, BUT PRINTER VERY LIGHT The printer arrived in a very big box, but the actually printer box wasn't that big. You had to lift a plastic covered piece of card board with all the small stuff (paper extensions, manuals, etc.) and underneath was the printer. You lifted two pieces of styrofoam and could easily grab the printer. It wasn't really that heavy. Despite the lack of weight it looks solidly built. None of the plastic housings bend when you handle it. SETTING UP THE PRINTER SIMPLE You have to remove less than ten peices of very visible blue tape used in packing. It leaves no sticky residue, so this was a cinch. (Don't forget the stuff in the inside too.) QUICK START WELL DONE The quick start guide was huge, but well illustrated. I did find it a little confusing on how to put the back paper holder extension in place. As I'm a former mechanical engineer, they might want to work on that a bit. However, once I got the orientation right, it went together simply. DOES NOT COME WITH CABLES (OTHER PRINTERS DON'T EITHER) I hooked up the power and USB cable (It does not come with either USB or parallel cables). Ironically, I had ordered a USB cable, but it is being shipped later. Luckily another device I have (a CD burner) had the right size cable and I borrowed it. Following the instructions for PC was simple. The Macintosh instructions are there too. INSTRUCTIONS WERE ACCURATE It told me how my computer was going to act and what to do accurately. The software installed seamlessly. There were 3 or 4 photo programs included and I just picked one to use. Mind you have have about 3 already installed on my computer as it is. RESULTS WERE EVERYTHING I EXPECTED It came with a roller attachement and paper for it, plus a couple more 8-1/2 X 11 sheets. However, I had some 4 X 6 epson paper on hand that I had used on my other printer. When I used this on this printer, it was phenomenal. Granted, Epson most likely optimized their printer for their paper. They did a good job. It was like night and day from the output I received from my other printer which at 1440 X 720 dpi, was no slouch. The print was on Epson 4 X 6 photo paper. You would be hard pressed to tell the difference from a tradition photo. P.S. This review was before I had used Kodak's One Touch to better Pictures. Please see my Kodak Paper review prior to making your paper buying decision. I was really impressed with what Kodak did to make their paper work with this printer.
Rating:
Summary: JUST BUY IT !
Review: You can't improve on perfection. It's fast, quiet and the quality is superb. Don't let the price of supplies scare you. Compatible color cartridges are available ... from many vendors and the quality is the same. Try eBay for Epson Paper. Sure it's 2880 DPI, and some of the new ones are 5760 DPI. If your eyes can detect 2880 dots in an inch, you are obviously Clark Kent. There's enough rebates out there that you should be able to get this printer for around $99. Look, don't read any further, take my word for it, JUST BUY IT !
Rating:
Summary: JUST BUY IT !
Review: You can't improve on perfection. It's fast, quiet and the quality is superb. Don't let the price of supplies scare you. Compatible color cartridges are available ... from many vendors and the quality is the same. Try eBay for Epson Paper. Sure it's 2880 DPI, and some of the new ones are 5760 DPI. If your eyes can detect 2880 dots in an inch, you are obviously Clark Kent. There's enough rebates out there that you should be able to get this printer for around $99. Look, don't read any further, take my word for it, JUST BUY IT !
Rating: 
Summary: INK BLOTCH
Review: I will try to make this as easy and technical at the same time. I have been using the epson 960 for about ½ month now. The print quality is 4 out of 5 when you have the printer set to 1440 dpi and high quality. The borderless print option is fantastic EXCEPT you get an ink blotch at the very corner of the page where the ink cartridge catches the corner of the paper everytime it goes over to the corner.
Now, comes the killer part. The rated lasting period for the color ink cartidge is 300 pages. So you would think 300 pictures, after all this IS an epson PHOTO Stylus 960, right? WRONG! I called Epson and that is 300 pages of low quality paper and 15% usage of ink on the paper set at a whopping 360 dpi! They don't even test these things at 1440 dpi! What that means in lamens terms is this: If you have one colorized paragraph per each sheet of low quality paper set at one of the lowest ink settings with nothing special turned on to help the quality of the print then you will get 300 pages out of the ink cartridge. But now, if you want photo's which use 100% color and you want great quality on your pictures so you set it to 1440 dpi you will get about 30-40 8½x11 pictures before you have to buy a new cartridge. I don't know about you but I can take my 36 picture roll of film to a one hour place and pay the same price I am paying for one of their cartridges. (especially since you have to go to the local store and get them because Amazon is usually back ordered and it takes 2 weeks even if you are paying for overnight) I thought getting a printer was supposed to be more cost effective, not more cost! I for one am sending this printer back as soon as I find another one that does borderless prints. Wayne Leiser
President
Leiser Enterprises
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