Customer Reviews

Epson Artisan 700 Photo All-in-One Printer (Black) (C11CA30201)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(39)

 

 

I like the printer, and I would recommend it. My only real complaint is the total cost of ownership is high. Order a set of ink at $60 when you order the printer, because within a couple weeks of starting it up, you'll need to replace them.

Pros:
1. Instructions were great for wireless install.
2. Prints quality is good.
3. Machine looks great.
4. The printer has never failed to print.

Cons:
1. 6 individual ink cartridges at $10 each, or $15 each for high capacity.
2. The printer's initial startup uses about 1/2 of the ink that ships with the printer. This is explained in the manual.
3. There is no information on the difference between the high capacity ink cartridges and the standard.
4. I don't think you'll find aftermarket Epson ink like you can with some brands.
5. Sometimes the printing takes a couple minutes to get started.
6. I get a lot of error messages, mostly "The printer has detected some print head nozzles are clogged. To help with the nozzle recovery please wait 6 hours. Then try printing again." Helpdesk's suggestion was that I go into the menu and turn off the print nozzle check. That is an odd solution, but the printer continues to print fine.
7. With the number of print errors I get, and the time it takes to start printing (sometimes), I've never felt totally comfortable with the printer. But helpdesk was responsive, and I've got the box if I need to send it back to Epson.

I have owned this printer for about a week now. It is the third Epson printer I have owned. Fundamentally, in terms of image quality this is a very good product. Printed documents, photos, DVDs, as well as photo copies and scans all look very good. I am impressed by how good the images look for how little money this printer costs. I am also impress by how fast it prints. It truly delivers when it comes to basic functionality and printing a high quality image. Also, the CD/DVD printing feature is much improved over earlier printers in the Epson line.

There are some important drawbacks though. First, Epson needs to either stop using six independent ink carts. or make the carts twice their current size. The six cart. system has no practical purpose other than to increase the amount of money consumers spend on ink. In two days I had to replace my black ink cart. If you purchase this product expect to pay a lot for ink over the life of the printer. In addition, if you print a high volume of artwork, or photos, etc. You are most likely better off with another product.

The second drawback is that this is that there are several flimsy plastic parts on the printer. For example, all the moving parts of the paper trays are very fragile, and will no doubt snap off if not handled with care.

The third drawback was the software install. I am an advanced computer user and I have not had a bad software install in many years, until, that is, I tried to install the software that came with this printer. After the first bad install, I uninstalled, and then manually deleted all remaining Epson related files. After that I reinstalled the software. Again, the installation was incomplete. Both times the install stopped prior to completion with no system error message or obvious culprit hindering the install. Regardless, enough software installed that I am using the printer but there is some bad behavior That I have yet to work through.

I purchased the product because I am an author and filmmaker. I rely on my printers do to a lot for me, I print a fair amount of photo based artwork, DVD faces, and documents. While I am very happy with the way everything looks. I can't recommend this printer if what you are looking for is an easy to use, low maintenance product. If you are looking to get a lot out of a single product and don't mind putting up with some potential problems then consider it. But consider other products as well.

I ordered this for what seemed to be the perfect mix of features that would be convenient for my family (occasional copying and scanning, printing color output for the kids, and printing photos). The wireless connection feature made it possible to not clutter the family room (already home to a laser printer and desktop).

OK, it's beautiful just sitting there - but it also works like a dream. Setting it up to add it to my secured pre-N network was a breeze. Printing over the wireless network worked fine (even with my printer being 2 rooms away from my router). The output is quick, and the prints on ultra- or premium photo paper are beautiful. The included tray lets you load regular and photo paper (and just select the one you want) for printing.

The unit has a card reader, that lets you print directly from a card. A cool feature is that you can also scan directly to a card as well. For some reason, I thought it could scan across the network, but a call to (very polite) tech support confirmed that this cannot be done. The scanner seems to be a bit slower (in auto mode) than my Epson Perfection 3170, but I haven't compared it systematically.

This is perfect for a home office, and for a family with kids.

After MUCH research to try and find a good all-in-one that also does pictures, I settled on the Epson Artisan 700. BIG MISTAKE!!! I received the printer and went through the setup process and was confronted with these issues:

1. What the ads don't tell you is that the ink provided with your printer is just about all used up just to "charge" the print head.

2. If your print head needs cleaning (which mine supposedly did on a new printer), you must have enough ink left in your cartridges or it will not work. Epson wants you to run the head cleaning process a minimum of four times before calling for help.

3. You will almost immediately have to purchase more ink cartridges to print anything or to clean the head to the tune of $77 for a full set (I paid $149 for the whole printer!) You do the math.

After MANY attempts at cleaning the head, no luck. Printer #1 back to the company (THAT part worked well at least).

Second printer arrived and THE SAME THING HAPPENED!! It now wants me to fork over another $77 for ink. I don't think so...printer #2 is now going back to Epson. This all occurred within a week.

Bottom line--I would not recommend this printer to anyone! I went out and bought a Canon MP620 (on sale at Best Buy or Circuit City for $99) and this thing runs like a champ! Setup = easy! Pictures = beautiful! Highly recommend a Canon...

THE LONG
With the recent demise of an office printer, and quirkiness of a disagreeable scanner, I decided it was time to replace them both with the purchase of a new all-in-one unit. On the day I was set to make a purchase Epson had just released a new series, the Epson Artisan all-in-one printer/scanner/copier. After perusing the specs on the Epson site, I decided to purchase the Epson Artisan 700 that day.

The printer comes in solid black, and has a very sleek and smooth appearance, slightly more refined than the similar Epson Workforce series. It is larger than a typical desktop printer, but seemed smaller than I expected from an all-in-one. Considering the unit also includes a full-page scanner, memory card reader, tilt-out control panel, built-in wireless connectivity and dual paper trays, it packs a great deal into a very conservative footprint.

STARTUP SMARTS
Setup was not without snafus. This being my first all-in-one, I was unfamiliar with the number of places from which one might need to remove secure tape and lock tabs on the inside of a printer. (These are in place to prevent the internal components from breaking during shipment.) For my part, upon startup, I was presented an error code from the printer, which I could not override. Further exploration revealed a lock tab still in place. The quick set-up guide is intended to help avoid this, but being a simple printout of cryptic graphics, I found it confusing as a set-up aide. Once set-up was properly completed, installing ink was a breeze with the easy-access ink bin, and I could run the unit through its paces. (I will address concerns about the ink shortly.)

Loading the paper into the Artisan was fairly straightforward, and presented a nifty bonus. The Artisan paper tray is dual-level. The lower tray accommodates standard full-page paper sizes, while the upper tray is designed to accommodate smaller card-sized papers and standard photo-sized papers. This alleviates the need to remove the tray and change the paper every time you need to switch from office prints to photo print mode. This is a good thing, too, because the paper tray is annoyingly delicate. Despite the solid feel of the Artisan exterior, the interior paper tray is rather flimsy, and requires handling with kid gloves. I have frequently dislodged the level separator seemingly from just looking at it wrong. The less I have to change paper, the better.

I think it is important to note, however, that the dual-level nature of the tray makes each layer very shallow, and allows for minimal stacks of paper loads.

I SAID "WORK IT"
Prominently featured on the Artisan front side is a control panel and menu display. The menus are straightforward and intuitive, and allow for many of the printer functions without the need for computer-assisted intervention. With my previous desktop printers, I have set them up to print wirelessly on my home network. This approach has generally made it difficult to accomplish various printer-related tasks such as checking ink levels and routine print-head maintenance. Such tasks required computer intervention via wired connectivity. With the Artisan, these functions are standalone procedures independent of a connected computer. Additionally, basic function such as print, scan, copy, etc are also manageable from the control panel, as is access to photos via the built-in card reader, which boasts compatibility with over two dozen memory card formats. Finally, you can also choose to print ruled or lined notebook style pages, background image stationary, and rudimentary greeting cards and other projects - all from the built-in menu system of the Artisan 700.

Tucked behind the control panel lies a CD/DVD print tray. This allows for direct printing to compatible print-on CDs and DVDs. Direct-to-disc printing is the primary print requirement in my office, and the reason I selected the Artisan. I have printed to discs via Epson printers for several years and have come to rely heavily on this feature. Although it was rather clumsily implemented on previous models, the Artisan takes a different approach by using an automated disc feeder that drops down and outward when selected, so that the user can place the blank disc onto the tray and initiate the automated print sequence. The resulting prints maintain the high quality I have come to expect from Epson, and the discs are printed in less than half the time needed with my previous printer models. This feature has provided a substantial boost to my workflow.

My scanning needs are very modest, and the Artisan performs adequately. It scans at a maximum optical setting of 2400 dpi, and the process is moderately speedy, providing clean, sharp, and reasonably color-accurate scans. Users with more demanding scanning needs might consider the larger and more robust Artisan 800 model.

YOU'VE GOT THE LOOK
The print quality, in my opinion, is nothing short of astounding. I am not a print professional, so I may not have as critical and eye as others regarding the output of an inkjet printer. But out of the 8 Epson inkjet printers I have had over the last few years, the prints I am getting from the Artisan are unquestionably the best I've seen. The Artisan uses Claria inks, which I don't know anything about, except that it boasts smudge-proof, fade and water-resistant prints that Epson claims will last up to 4 times longer than lab prints.

THINK INK
But this all comes with a tradeoff, which brings me to the topic of the Artisan inks. Like the R-series printers I have used for years, the Artisan uses 6 ink tanks. This allows for better color accurate prints, and theoretically more economic value in only having to replace individual ink cartridges when they are independently exhausted. I don't think I have ever seen an Epson printer eat up ink cartridges faster than this Artisan. Certainly, the printer ships with ink cartridges when purchased, but some of the ink is expended when the printer is first primed. The manual explains this, but it also notes that the shipped cartridges are full when shipped - which contradicts a long-held certainty that model-accompanying cartridges only ship at half-capacity.

In either case, after the first 5 photo prints, the printer indicated that I needed to replace one of the ink cartridges because it was already empty.

WHAT?

Luckily, I had ordered a 2nd set of ink cartridges at the time of purchase.

I have subsequently taken to ordering the high capacity cartridges (available only online directly from Epson). While I haven't been able to track down any official specifics detailing the difference between the standard capacity and high capacity ink cartridges, a commonly held belief is that they provide roughly 100% more yield, at a 50% price increase. The higher capacity cartridges have certainly seen me through longer print runs. And I must also note that because the Artisan is a new model series, dedicated ink tank solutions are not yet available from third-party manufacturers. At the moment, using an Artisan printer means using the premium-priced Epson inks, and a conscientious owner will need to factor that into the true cost of ownership.

The Artisan also boasts additional connectivity options through Ethernet or wifi - both of which can be used in a networked printing environment. I haven't used either option, so I cannot comment on those features. It is nice to know that if my office grows into networking needs, my Artisan printer can grow with it.

THE SHORT
As with many new models in a product line, it may take a while to work out the bugs - and new owners may suffer underwhelming experiences with their new devices. Some units off the line have proven to be lemons. A perusal of reviews online have demonstrated that error messages or negative experiences with new models right out of the box are not uncommon. Many reviewers, on the other hand, have had great experiences with this new Artisan printer from the very start. The Artisan launch has been a mixed bag. Luckily, Epson provides a two-year warranty on the Artisan (twice the industry norm), and promises free technical support for the lifetime of the printer. This demonstrates a high level of confidence in the product line, and suggests that if you have a little extra patience during setup and can bear the brunt of premium Epson ink pricing, the Artisan may be a sound investment for your printing, scanning or copying needs.

SHOP SMART
The Artisan can be purchased online directly from Epson, or at any number of online merchant sites, such as Amazon. You can also find it available at several popular office supply or computer stores. Through dealer incentives, rebates and sales, this model has experienced a lot of price fluctuations, so be sure to look before purchasing to ensure you get the best deal at the moment. Also, note that if you are seeking some of the accessories that go with the Artisan, such as an Auto Duplexer, or the High Capacity Ink Cartridges, they are generally only be available directly from Epson.

THE RUNDOWN
PROS:
* Competitive pricing
* Great looking printer
* 6 individual ink tanks
* Beautiful quality prints
* Standalone print/scan/copy capability
* Dual-level paper tray
* Direct to CD/DVD printing with great results
* 2-year warranty and free technical support

CONS:
* Confusing setup
* Flimsy and shallow paper tray
* Uses proprietary and expensive inks with high cost-per-print ratio

Having owned the Epson Artisan 700 Printer long enough to evaluate all of its features I rated it highly at five stars because of the following:

The quality of prints is exceptional when using Epson Premium Photo Papers (I use Gloss Premium) and when using the printers color settings. You may have to drill down into the Artisan 700 printer menus in your "Printers and Faxes" settings to use the Artisan 700 settings to best quality, however it is worth that extra effort.

After making two high quality test prints from the same known good photo while using Premium Gloss photo paper; one print using the Epson 700 ICM Printer settings (Under "Advanced" in your printer menu on the first page), and one print made by using Adobe Photo Shop Elements 6 settings,and comparing both side by side under the same lighting; the Epson Artisan 700 ICM setting is actually slightly better than the Adobe program's default settings which are already very good. Epson has done their homework on this one in terms of photo quality prints.

Printing otherwise: In addition to the above mention, the Artisan 700 produces surprisingly good color prints on Plain Paper of color photos; far superior to the Semi-Professional level Epson R800 Photo Printer that it replaced. And on the default lowest setting of "Plain Paper" it makes excellent copies of text. Printing on CD was also excellent, HOWEVER SEE THE BELOW FOR A TIP ON HOW TO AVOID DAMAGING THE PRINTER IF YOU DO CD PRINTING.

In addition I used all of the printer settings for all of its available functions to evaluate the remainder of the settings for other tasks:

Scanning: Excellent; with some color shifting on some photos scanned that can be corrected in the fine tuning mode which allows you to set the color settings. However the photos used ranged from older to newer ones so this may be subjective.

Photos: I used the USB input on the front and it worked perfectly,have no reason to believe that the other Data Inputs do not work equally well.
Also, as mentioned above, I also used photos from my computer's "My Photos" files and it printed them perfectly directly from the computer files.

However if you are going to purchase this printer you should be aware that it is critical that you follow some rules from the instruction manual carefully to avoid damaging the printer. Failure to do this may be the cause of some of the reported problems that that other users encountered.

CD PRINTING: You must follow the instructions exactly, DO NOT TRY TO FORCE THE PRINTER CD DRAWER OPEN OR CLOSED. It takes the printer time to open and close the CD Drawer and if you try to force it open or closed you can damage it. Wait for the CD Drawer to open and close itself; The mechanism is plastic,it will break if you force it.

THE CONTROL PANEL: DO NOT TRY TO CLOSE THE CONTROL PANEL WITHOUT PRESSING THE "UNLOCK" BAR FIRST AND HOLDING IT WHILE CLOSING THE CONTROL PANEL. Failing to heed this can break the Control Panel.

This is an excellent printer and is far superior to the Semi-Professional Epson R800 Dedicated Photo Printer that I replaced it with, but it is not a printer that you allow your small children or pets to play with. If treated harshly it can break.

Cordially, Fred Tate

P.S. For some reason Amazon,com has listed this review as of December 12, 2008. Uhhhhhhhh......No, Amazon.com, it's actually January 11, 2009 as I write this. Nice automatically correctly dating the review there Amazon.com! However once they see this review the review date might actually change to the correct date.

Based on 5 weeks' ownership before returning for full refund (thanks, Amazon! - great service):
Positives: sleek, handsome industrial design, with a lot packed into a small footprint. Excellent feature set, nifty controls on the touch screen. Setup gives you lots of options, and while a bit complicated, went off without a hitch (I used it on ethernet connection to a wireless router). Excellent documentation. Copying works smoothly and quickly. Didn't test photo or CD printing, couldn't test scanning (see "Negatives"). Good though not great printing using high quality.

Negatives: despite the fine design, the main purpose of a printer is printing, and here the Artisan 700 was deficient. Whether the problems were in design, or this unit was physically defective I will never know. But consider:
* Ink consumption extremely high. In 5 weeks I used up two full sets of color cartridges and about 1.5 high-capacity blacks; that's a total of $131.52 at current Epson prices, or $1,368/year in ink (projecting the same rate of usage). For that I printed about 50 pages (i.e., $2.63/page), no photos or CDs, and most not in color; the majority were black and white word processor files or photocopying. When I phoned Epson tech support to see if this was normal, they had me run some tests (one head cleaning and several test pages); I kept track of the ink levels, and the tests alone used roughly $25 of ink. Epson did offer to replace the printer, but refused to replace all the ink I'd burned through, even in their tests; hence I returned it to Amazon to avoid throwing good money after bad. I'm still out the $73 I spent on extra cartridges (bought direct from Epson, so not Amazon's responsibility). Summary: I'd need a government bailout to afford owning this printer.
* Printing quality: the printer actually never printed acceptably in "normal" mode, with uneven ink distribution (light bands across page). It printed ok in high quality mode. But after returning it I hauled out a Lexmark Z32 I'd gotten free with my Mac in 2001 but never actually used (I had an Epson 740 workhorse that did great 2000-2009). Guess what? The print quality on the "cheap" Lexmark is far superior to the Artisan 700 -- cleaner, sharper, crisper, and darker. And the ink cartridges are far cheaper, ink consumption lower.
* Print speed and sound: the advertising is misleading on both counts. If the printer is already warmed up and printing, speed is indeed snappy. But if you are turning it on, or it is on but hasn't printed in a day or two, it took about 2 or 3 minutes to print the first word processor page. As to sound, it is indeed very quiet when actually printing, but when it does various maintenance jobs at frequent intervals (somewhat mysterious) or is getting ready to print it goes through all sorts of noisy gyrations.
* Tech support: variable (I had to call 3 times), I scored 1/3. All appear to be in India or someplace with heavily accented English. One person I couldn't understand at all and gave up; the one who helped me run the tests was somewhat helpful when I understood him (most of the time); the one who took 30 minutes to walk me through software deinstall and reinstall (see next point) was truly outstanding.
* Scanner conflict: not documented anywhere I've seen is a significant limitation: you cannot connect two Epson scanners to the same computer. I already own an Epson Perfection V750 for scanning negatives and slides (very fine machine). After installing the Artisan 700 neither scanner worked. With excellent help from an Epson tech (who instantly knew of the problem), I had to remove the entire Artisan 700 software installation and reinstall minus the Artisan 700 scanning software. The reason is that the scanner drivers for both machines have the same name (how dumb is that?!). So I could not use the Artisan 700 as a scanner and thus cannot comment on its performance as such. If you already own an Epson scanner that you want to continue to use, be aware of this limitation.

Summing up: I have written a longer review (beyond Amazon's suggested length) to provide full information. Others have apparently liked this machine, so maybe I had a lemon (I will never know). If Epson ever solved its performance problems they'd have a winner, since the machine rates highly on design and features. Finally, Amazon's customer service was exemplary in this matter, going beyond the letter of the law in their rules, responding affirmatively within hours to my complaint, and I will happily continue as their customer.

I just got the Epson Artisan 700 delivered to me last night. [...] Even with the free ship I had it in 2 days. So far I love this printer. I have had other Epson printers but this one is by far the bestest. With the help of my hubby via cell phone I was able to install a wireless USB adapter and get the printer running wireless. It has so many great features and comes with very nice software too. I was up till midnight playing around printing photos and testing out the scanning and copying and all. I can't wait to make some very cool projects with it. I highly recommend this printer. I chose the 700 because I don't need a fax and I don't think I would need the auto scan either.

Except for my first Okidata dot matrix printers back in the 80's (yes I'm that old), I've only ever owned Epson printers because they are the BEST in terms of print quality, non-smearability, features, speed, and overall quality. I pre-ordered this one back in Aug 2008. Got it as soon as it was out and am equally amazed at this one. Should be called an "Almost All-in-One" since it doesn't have a built-in fax machine. But if you don't need that feature, this printer is perfect. First it's a GORGEOUS shiny black printer out of the box, if you care about that stuff. Makes me sad that we hide ours in a wall unit. I had the printer totally unpacked, setup and ready to use in 15 minutes (including installing the software for wireless). It's laid out perfectly and I love the "Tilt" front panel so you can see it/use it easier (just don't forget to "unlock" it to push it back down. I LOVE the separate paper compartments in one tray for both 8x11 plus 4x6 or 5x7 photo paper. And the built-in print wizard makes printing unusual photos a snap. Since we've only had it a couple of weeks, can't comment on reliability yet. But we've owned 4 Epson printers in the last 18 years or so, and only had a problem with one (screen on our Photo RX600 went black after about 4 months), which Epson immediately shipped us a new, upgraded model (Photo RX620) for free. They didn't wait to receive our old one first. That's great service. Trust me, you won't be disappointed!

this is the first all in one I have owned. I owned a HP printer a while ago and I can still recall the whole table shaking when I was printing with that. (Ewwww). The Epson Artisan 700 is very quiet while printing. It only takes 1 minute to print a high quality 4 x 6. You can scan old film photos with the 700 and it automatically touches them up with the supplied software CD. I can print digital photos that can rival and beat high quality film prints with this printer. If you want a high quality printer- get a 6 ink cartridge printer. You will pay more with 6 inks- but you can find a ink refiller company in any medium size town where you will only have to pay half price. Alot of people complain about the high cost of printing on this machine- well its true but I would put the blame on the people who print 50 photos per week or more. It is a proven fact that the hi quality printers take the 6 ink cartridges. YOu will be stunned and blown away when the Artison 700 spits out the hi quality photos. Also remember that you can click on the management tabs and determine what quality of photos you want to print.I paid $200 in November 2008 so I would not pay any more than that as prices tend to go down. I will say that you cannot go wrong with this all in one package. Great quality and I am glad I purchased this unit. Go for it !