Customer Reviews

Epson C11C655001 Stylus Photo 1400 Large Format Photo Printer

5 star:		(74)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(38)

 

 

I've had this printer for just a week and I'm amazed at the results. It was easy to set up and is easy to use. I took a look at "Real World Color Management," by Fraser, Murphy, and Bunting, before I started using the printer. It's a helpful book, even if you just skim a few of the early chapters. It helped me to understand the printer's advanced options and to get the results I wanted. You could just use the printer with the out of the box settings, and I suppose it would produce really nice results. I'm an artist, though, and I want to be in control. That's why I bought this printer, I was frustrated with unpredictable results from labs.

A note on ink:

I have been printing on glossy paper. At $18.99 per cartridge for ink (Epson website price, with free overnight shipping if you order at least three cartridges at a time), so far,

- my 8.5" x 11" prints are roughly $1.20 - $1.80 for ink

- my 13" x 19" are about $3.50 - $5.50 for ink

(Printing in "Photo" mode puts your costs at the low end of the ranges. Printing in "Photo RPM" mode costs about 40% - 50% more and puts you at the high end of the price ranges. I usually cannot distinguish between "Photo" and "Photo RPM" modes, so I almost always print in "Photo" mode. Occasionally, I notice banding or tones which do not appear smooth on very close inspection, then I switch to "Photo RPM.")

Warning: I believe ink use varies considerably with paper type. less ink for glossy, more ink for semi-gloss, and still more ink for matte and art paper. I'm not sure though.

I am printing on Inkpress Glossy paper (equivalent in weight, sheen, and brightness to Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper) which I ordered from B&H Photo. It's less expensive than Epson paper and looks spectacular.

In fact, I recently gave two 8x10's to a friend as a gift. She thought they looked wonderful and was astonished to learn that they were inkjet prints. She thought they must have been "professionally" printed at a lab. I was pretty flattered (credit to the printer, too, of course...) She also happens to be an artist and professional web designer, so she's got a fine eye.

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Update:

I've used the printer some more. I'm still very pleased. However, I've looked closer at the Inkpress paper I mentioned above. From a distance, it looks great, but closer up, it has many problems. Almost every sheet is covered with fine scratches, and about half the sheets have at least one major defect (some as large as 1/8" in diameter) where the gloss coating did not cover the paper. The defects are like little potholes on the surface. At first, I thought I had caused these problems through poor handling. Epson Premium Photo Paper Glossy has an absolutely flawless surface, though, and I have handled the prints the same way. I don't recommend the Inkpress paper.

I can highly recommend the Epson 1400 printer for its outstanding quality of prints with sizes up to 13 inches wide. It is the least costly of the 13 inch wide format printers especially with the rebate Epson offers. The inks are Claria high definition inks which work especially well on glossy paper with an estimated lifetime of up to 100 years. The Epson ink is very costly as usual, but some suppliers (e.g., Lyson, novachromeusa) are offering bulk ink cartridges one might try if you are willing to pay for the set-up cost.
There are several problems if you do panoramic prints or black and white prints. Panoramic prints are a bit tricky to print out since Epson only offers roll paper for panoramic prints, and there is no roller in which to place the roll paper. In additon, you will have to make a custom paper size for panoramics since Epson does not include this in the standard printer software. One can cut the Epson roll paper into individual sheets or purchase individual sheets of panoramic roll paper from other suppliers such as Red River Paper. You also could purchase instead the more expensive Epson R1800 printer which does have a place for the roll paper and the software includes a panoramic print mode. Also you may have trouble with black and white prints since the Epson 1400 leaves a color tinge in the prints unless you spend some time making some color adjustments to get neural black and white prints. Again the Epson R1800 made perfect black and white prints without such adjustments.

I purchased the 1400 in 2007. At first, it worked well. Then the problems started when it started to ask for new cartridges before the old ones were spent (I had hardly used it). I bought original Epson cartridges (which are VERY expensive, $120 the set) and the printer would still think the cartridges were empty (they were in fact new). After much haggling with Epson, they agreed to send me a refurbished one. Same story. It worked well for 3 months, until it asked for cartridge replacements. I was certain that the old ones still had ink, but I bought new (legitimate) cartridges again. The printer never recognized them and insisted they were empty. I called Epson again and they said that now my printer is out of warranty (which is counted from time of original purchase, never mind the refurbished one was sent only 3 months ago) and the only option they give me is to send it to a repair center (fully at my cost). They do NOT warranty the refurbished printer they sent me 3 months ago.
This has been a nightmare. I will refer Epson to the Better Business Bureau, and will look for class action lawsuits on this problem (I now know there have been in the past). I will have to throw away my 3 month old printer and buy a new one. One thing is for sure, it will not be an Epson.
I hope you do not have live through this. I wish someone had warned me about this before I bought this product. Take my advice: don't buy.

While a bit on the big side because of its large format printing, it is a very nice printer. The quality of printing is excellent with its Claria inks. Text printing is speedy for an inkjet while photo print speed is actually quite reasonable considering its size. Price is less expensive than some of the other comparable printers but inks are very pricy in my opinion (each cartridge is $20). This is where Epson really makes its money. Everyone knows that when you buy a printer, you are buying the inks and getting a free printer for the most part. A set of inks for this printer cost $120 retail... yow.... at least they give you the 079 ink cartridges which is the big brother to the 078... same size, just more ink in them. Now I know why generic cartridge manufacturers are so popular with the Epson crowd.

I've only had this printer for about a month, but so far it has lived up to my expectations with Epson. I've owned a half dozen Epson printers in the past and currently own 3. I was looking for a printer to make 11x14 to 12x18 prints and this one was priced right. So far the prints have been superior and the printer easy to set up and use. My only complaints are: 1) It uses a great deal of inks, especially the light cyan, light magenta, and yellow. The specs said it was easy on inks, but I'm not finding that true. 2) The inks are expensive (as usual) but I can only get them from Epson store. Epson does have specials and when I get 10% off and free shipping, I usually take advantage of it. All in all I would recomend this printer to anyone needing a larger format without the larger price tag. I've tried HP and Canon and find them good printers, but I have found the Epson line of printers superior.

First of all, I rated this printer at four stars only because its an ink hog. To be fair, I print high resolution photos so I suppose thats to be expected. As for the quality of prints, my friends ooh and ahh over them. I like the way it handles high-key landscape photos. In all, an excellent printer. Now, if they just made bulk magazine cartridges...

This is the last epson I will have die on me, never again after the fourth one was only a month old and on its first ink change.

What happens:
You run out of ink and replace a cartridge. This causes a nozzle cleaning cycle to run. Nozzles that were working FINE before are now CLOGGED because epson cant figure out how to purge their ink properly. They get gummed up.

Epson's solution? Run another cleaning cycle - which makes the problem WORSE! They can only be fixed by a technician via complicated disassembly that costs more in labor than the darned printer is worth.

This is my second dead epson in one month. They print amazing when they print right but that isn't often enough for the price.

Never again, Epson...never again.

I've had this printer for a year now. I have bought Epson Ink Jet printers ever since the first one came out, and the quality and amount of ink needed has gotten worse with each new generation. I would presume greed has taken over and it is more about money than quality. I find myself using it less and less as I can barely print ten pictures before I'm looking at buying new ink jet cartridges. And even that MIGHT be OK, if the quality of the pictures were good, but they are worse than the ones I printed years ago on the first printer.
And to top it all off, the absolute worst experience I've ever had with customer service was when I called to get help with the printer. I was sent to somewhere overseas and talked to people who couldn't understand my issue, couldn't communicate at all. It was ridiculous. I would rather pay less and simply not have support. This is my last Epson.

I really do love this printer. The quality of the prints are exceptional. I only find one flaw, and that is that it's hard to find ink for it! Most office supply stores do not carry the ink, nor do the online ink sites. You must buy it directly from Epson, or if you are lucky, Comp USA will have some in stock.

I've been living with the Epson 1400 for almost a year now, and I have to give it a huge thumbs down. Yes, it produces beautiful photos. Yes, it can scale up to 13x19 inches. It's quiet and fast and all the other nice things everyone's saying about it. But oh, the cost! And I'm not referring to the price of the printer.

Epson made some horrible choices for the 1400:

- The ink cartridge is unique and, incompatible with all their existing lines.
- The cartridges are very hard to find.
- The cost of each cartridge is $20 plus and there are six of them.
- They are not available in discounted packs.
- If you actually try and print photos with this printer (rather than just text and the occasional web page) you'll spend between $50 and $100 a month on ink.
- If you print a lot of large photos - the poster size - you'll spend even more.
- Almost no ink refillers stock this cartridge. My experience with the one or two who do is, non-Epson color sucks.
- Epson won't even accept these cartridges for recycling!

If you're looking at this printer as a bargain, forget it. The ink costs will kill you. If you don't care about price, then you should be buying a better (semi-pro) printer anyway.

I wish I had my old HP printer back. Anyone want to buy a used 1400? Excellent shape!