Customer Reviews

Epson Stylus R2880 Large Format Photo Printer (C11CA16201)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I ordered my Epson R2880 about a month ago from Amazon, as a replacement for my trusty old Epson 2000P which was about seven years old. My new printer arrived very promptly a few days later. The Vista software installation went smoothly except for the fact that a couple of the amber "ink-empty" lights did not work properly, one never came on and one was flickering, like on and off. (These little lights are located in the ink well, they all (should) come "on" upon printer startup, then go "off", one by one, as each ink cartridge is inserted into the well.) The first couple of prints I made were not good, but I soon discovered that with this printer use only Epson paper and be sure to select the particular type of paper on the screen before commencing printing. I then printed several color and B/W sample prints, examined them under a loupe, and I must say they were great. I was impressed with the quality.

Everything seems to run smoothly for the first week or so, although I noticed that the printer had a tendency to perform prolonged nozzle cleaning sessions. One session lasted between 6 and 7 minutes. That's when I started to look at the ink levels charts. This printer is really using the ink I thought. I then noticed large random dots, about 3mm in diameter on some of my prints, sometimes only an hour after a new start-up nozzle cleaning session. My last printing endeavor on this printer - just following a nozzle cleaning session - were eight 4x4" images where these dots showed up on five prints, some were in the margins and some right on the image itself.

Calling Epson was quite an experience. The person told me to simply do a nozzle clean. I told him I had just done nozzle cleans, but he insisted and I did it. The first print out had the famous 3mm dots on the paper and the print. Do the nozzle clean again, he said. At this point I confronted him with the question of how much ink a nozzle clean required because my ink indicators showed a decrease in ink level of about 15% with each cleaning. He had no answer to that, or to any of my other questions, including the amber light question.

I was now out of ink and had a lot of unwanted dots on many of the prints I had made. At this point I knew I would never feel comfortable using a set of inks priced at about $125. and only wind up with a handful of usable images. I returned the printer as I was still within the 30 days grace period.

One last observation: It appears to me, after reading other reviews, that the ink/nozzle picotechnology is perhaps behind the curve of where it ought to be. In the quest for smaller and smaller picoliter dots, perhaps a different nozzle cleaning technology is required. At least, upscale future printers like this R2880 should have the ability to just clean one (1) color nozzle at a time, as user required, instead of necessarily cleaning all eight colors at a cost I figure to be about $18. to $20. per cleaning session.

Tage Blytmann

I've been making due with an older Epson Photo EX...can't believe how much the technology has improved since then. The printer is easy to operate, and colors are nothing short of amazing...fine, detailed prints like nothing I've ever been able to produce.

Drawbacks are probably what others mention...the matte black/photo black swapping thing is just silly, the ink cartridges are too small, at highest quality settings the printer's a bit slow, no built-in network interface, and the printer's physically a little on the large size.

Still, for me it's all about the final image quality - and nothing I've seen tops the Epson in this regard.

UPDATE:

Okay, so I've been living with my R2880 for about sixteen months now, and I wanted to refute some of the claims other reviewers have made. Perhaps I'm just one of the lucky ones, but my experience with the R2880 has been nothing short of fantastic.

I've printed well over 2000 prints and gone through dozens of ink cartridges by now, and I'm happy to say that I haven't experienced EVEN A SINGLE JAM, MIS-FEED or other operational problem. I tend to use Epson's Ultra-Premium Luster for 8x10 size prints, Epson Velvet or Exhibition Fiber in 13x19 - and a few non-Epson brands including Museo, Ilford Silk and a few others. I've done a bit with canvas (both sheets and roll), though that's relatively rare for me. The short story is that everything I've tried has worked properly. Overall, I couldn't be happier with my printer.

I do use my printer fairly regularly - always at least once or twice a week, usually more. As of now, except for the cycle when I install a new ink cartridge or initially power it on, I've never seen it waste ink on a cleaning cycle, nor have I ever had to manually trigger cleaning. My volume is high enough that I deal with the ink-swapping sillyness by simply waiting until I have enough material that I can use an entire print cartridge (about 50 prints, generally). I make the switch, print till I run out of matte ink, and then I switch back. This works for me, and doesn't waste any ink.

My initial comment regarding the ink cartridges being too small is probably my number one gripe. Because the various color inks are used at different rates according to the tones in your photographs, it's not like you stop every so often and replace all the ink. You print, replace one color, print some more, replace the next one, and so on. I just find this slows me down unacceptably, and I'd like the option to have maybe 3-5 times more ink per cartridge.

Print quality continues to be amazing...the only other printer I've seen that beats it is Epson's newer 7900 - a much larger printer that costs five times what the R2880 sells for. Yes, I'm a perfectionist with top quality gear, all the best software, calibration equipment, and I spend a lot of time fine tuning everything to get the best possible image quality. But I feel I've been rewarded for this work, and everyone who sees my prints comments as to the quality.

I am an artist who creates giclee prints of my paintings, and used an Epson Stylus Photo 2200 for six years. It was a reliable printer which gave me high quality prints. The Epson Stylus Photo 2200 worked great from day one, and I never had to speak with an Epson tech.

I purchased the Epson Stylus Photo R2880 as a replacement printer. It would not print 13" x 19" paper. I kept getting paper jams and error messages stating I was using the wrong media for the paper tray. I spent hours on the phone with Epson techs, who finally told me the printer had a defective paper sensor.

I returned the first Epson Stylus Photo R2880 and purchased a second printer. The second Epson Stylus Photo R2880 not only had the same problems, but it also gave me communication errors. I spent another hour on the phone with an Epson tech who refused to call me back as my calling card ran out of minutes.

In my opinion Epson has inadequate service techs, poor customer service, and a poor quality product in the Epson Stylus Photo R2880. I believe this printer was never tested in a rush to get it to market. The only reason it even deserves one star is because it prints 8.5" x 11" sheets. Because my need is for a printer that prints 13" x 19" sheets, I cannot recommend this printer.

PS. Does anybody know where I can get a refurbished Epson Stylus Photo 2200?

I bought this printer mainly because of additional feature of the CD/DVD direct printing, as my Epson R2400 does not have this capability. After completion of installation of the software, ink, etc., the printer went into what seemed like an extended cleaning mode. After printing one 7x5 image, the printed showed the photo black ink approximately one-quarter left. The rest of the ink levels had dropped to almost one-half level. Two days later, I turned on the printer and the printer seemed to kick into another cleaning cycle, and an extended one at that! After the printer was in the cleaning cycle for approximately four minutes, I noticed the printer icon bouncing in the dock at the bottom of the computer screen. When I opened the software, it showed me that the photo black ink was completely consumed and the printer wanted it replaced. I replaced the photo black ink and after approximately two more minutes of printer moving the head left and right, I was able to print. After printing a grand total of eight 7x5 images, the rest of the inks were totally out! At this point, I made arrangements to have the printer replaced. Well, I got the new printer and unfortunately, it has behaved the same as the first one. The only difference being that all of the inks went down almost even as opposed to the photo black ink going down first. After a total of two print sessions, all of the inks were consumed by the printer. For the whole set of inks, I managed to print ONLY TWO 2.5 inch x 1.4 inch size images! Actually, I had to replace the light light black ink along the way. I searched the internet and found no complaints with this device. I have no idea what is going on. All I can say is that this is not the case of user error as I have been using inkjet printers for a while (Canon S800, Epson 1270, Epson 2200, and Epson 2400).

I was eager to see how the Epson Stylus Photo R2880 compared to my trusty old Epson Stylus Photo R800 Inkjet Printer which is still a great printer and was Epson's first true photo-quality printer. The first thing that I noticed was the R2880's size and design. When the doors are opened up for printing, the printer takes up considerable real estate, but when closed up it really doesn't seem that big. The build quality is top-notch and the styling is sleek and solid-looking.

There are 2 USB ports on the rear of the printer which allow the connection of 2 computers at the same time. Not exactly a network-ready solution, but it works well for me. There's a PictBridge port on the front of the printer, but given the cost of the consumables for this type of printer, I can't really see anyone printing their photos directly from their camera without at least previewing them.

Setup was very easy using the supplied software wizards. I took the time to allow the software to install the proper drivers, and the printer was ready to roll (after installing the ink cartridges too). I noticed that the size of the cartridges for the R2880 were actually a smaller capacity than my R800. This was a bit disappointing since the cartridges for the 2 printers are about the same price.

My first color prints were absolutely stunning, right out of the box. I printed on both glossy and matte paper and was totally impressed with the quality which easily surpassed that of the R800. It's disappointing, however, that you have to swap out the Photo Black with the Matte Black cartridge when switching between Glossy and Matte paper. I printed B&W and Sepia photos using the Advanced BW printing mode and had great results each time.

Overall, the Epson Stylus Photo R2880 has all of the features I need in a color photo inkjet printer and I would recommend it to anyone desiring a quality printer. There are some reviewers who have complained about the amount of ink that this printer uses, but if you look at the reviews here on Amazon for comparable printers from HP and Canon, you'll find that there are an equal amount of complaints about their ink usage too. The bottom line here is that you are paying for the ability to manipulate and control the output of your photos. There are many cheaper ways to have your photos printed, but always with a sacrifice in color quality.

Here's a summary of my review. The cons are really pretty minor issues that are vastly overshadowed by the pros, so I gave this printer 5 stars. It really is that good.

PROS:
Stunning color print quality
B&W and sepia printing
Features/Design

CONS:
Small cartridge size
Photo/Matte Black cartridge swapping

I had an Epson 2200. I loved it. I upgraded to this. I hate it in every way.

You have to swap out the ink from matte to glossy if you change paper types. It insists you do. There is no way around it (There was on the 2200). This means that every time I print on a DVD, I have to switch the ink. To do so, the printer primes itself and literally takes 7-10% of the ink to do it. Then to switch it back there goes another 7%. I have gone through so much ink I can hardly stand to look at it.

Sorry Epson, but the jig is up. This swapping ink system is a scam.

Just for kicks, here is the final straw that triggered this review:

I had just printed a glossy b&W print. Then I needed to print a CD so I switched out the photo-black to the matte-black like a little monkey. As the printer primed the inks, it literally ran itself out the last 10% of both magenta and light cyan. Now I can't print. I have to go to the store and buy more colored ink. Of course this is NUTS since I was only doing black and white prints.

Yuck.

Features:

1. Make prints up to 13 x 44 inches (via paper roll)
2. Resolution of 5760 x 1440 dpi
3. Droplets as small as 3 picoliters
4. Use various media from plain, photo, presentation and fiber paper to fine art papers and boards as thick as 1.3mm
5. Print directly to a supported CD/DVD
6. Two (2) USB 2.0 ports to connect to multiple computers
7. Available downloadable ICC profiles


Thoughts:

The Epson R2880 Large Format Photo Printer is big and bulky as you would expect for a large format printer. First and foremost make sure you have the space on your table for it. Don't take for granted simply measuring the width of the printer, but the span from rear to front once it has been fully assembled with the paper lids down.

I was excited to have a chance to come back to Epson printers after a long hiatus in using an HP photo printer. My surprise is that there seems to be a lot of compromises I wouldn't expect at this price level.

- Granted the printer has been advertised to produce excellent grey balance and tonal range, but you are left having to decide which black ink printer cartridge to install. Epson has introduced 9 colour cartridges for this printer, but only 8 can be loaded at one time. The obvious side of this is that as a semi-pro photographer you should be able to know if you want to install Photo Black or Matte Black to match the paper media. But then as an artist, how about not being able to be limited to one type at any given time. This way we do not have to waste ink from the charging process.

- Oh and did I mention that each ink cartridge is of relatively capacity. For a large format printer, this is something that's not logical to me on how a manufacturer can afford this mistake. Or at least give us an option to install a larger ink capacity that my USD50.00 printer is even capable of handling.

- As I mentioned earlier, the printer is able to accept various paper types. Unless you're using the usual plain or photo single sheet paper, you'll have to have the manual by your side in order to successfully insert the paper or roll without creating a jam. I would love to tell the printer what type of paper I'm using at the drop-down box, but can't it do the rest from that point. For example even the simple task of printing a CD/DVD is not so simple. You're not only going to have to remove any loaded paper, but remove the single sheet guide, then close the paper support, make sure the output tray is open but don't pull out the extensions, open the front manual feed slot and slide the edge guide left. At this point you can now insert the CD/DVD tray. Now after having done that, make sure to put the settings back when going back to paper mode. I'm not asking for a fully automated process, but we all know that all printers can be offered cheap because part of the long-term expense is patronizing the ridiculously expensive ink cartridges. So it wouldn't hurt to give us a more thoughtfully designed process so we can keep this for a longer period of time and then keep on buying inks from you guys especially at this printer's price point.


WOULD I BUY IT? If I were to be printing one, two or three types of paper media for all my photographic printing needs, I wouldn't mind investing in this printer especially at the offered rebate price. If you're a small business owner looking for an all-in-one photo printer that prints photos, cards and CD/DVD I would wait or purchase a second printer for that need.

For the printing quality, I definitely give it five (5) stars.

For the price versus the features and convenience in accessing those features, it only deserves three (3) stars.

Hopefully the next revision will trump all the limitations of this current model.

As a previous owner of an Epson R1800, I expected nothing short of extraordinary with the R2880. The R1800 met every need I had and produced quality prints with absolutely no hassles. Does the R2880 live up to the same standard?

The R2880 is not a direct upgrade from R1800 (which was replaced with the R1900), so I will not compare the two in every aspect. However, as an amateur photographer I have gotten used to the prints that the R1800 produced. The R2880 is a very large printer and you should plan to have some workspace set aside for it. The footprint is about the same as the R1800. When fully expanded with the paper trays you will need almost an entire table for this printer.

I have tested the printer with various print sizes (4x6, 5x7, 8x10, up to 13x19). Thus far, every print has been clean and crisp. The colors are well saturated and the tones are dead on. I enjoyed the gloss option that was on the R1800, but it's not a deal breaker. The colors were vibrant, but also impressive was the black and white prints. The detail and tones were amazing. I prefer the Epson Premium Luster Paper for most of my prints and the R2880 does an excellent job on that paper. I was truly impressed.

The speed of prints was on par with similar models. I have not timed them, but it does have decent printing speed. By simple comparison, it might be a tick slower than my previous R1800. But again, I did not time them.

The features that are included with the R2880 work out fairly well. I tend not to use the roll mechanism, but it is included. The CD printing tray works perfectly. I do wish they would include an ethernet connection on these models though. For this price range, I think it should be a default feature. USB works fine, but in this day and time an ethernet connection for any printer over $600 (or even $300 for that matter) should be assumed in my opinion.

My complaints are fairly minor, but only time will tell if they get worse. First, is the price of the ink. The R2880 uses a smaller cartridge than my previous printers, yet, the price per cartridge remains the same. I realize the ink itself is different (and to their credit, seems to do a great job), but at my current rate this printer will likely cost me almost twice as much to operate. I'd recommend shopping around, as I've seen almost a 35% difference in cartridge price at different stores. No matter what you do, be sure to keep extra ink cartridges around. The size of these cartridges relegates their printing capacity in a major way. After my initial test prints, my ink levels were showing about 50%.

My second complaint is somewhat related to ink. There are times during the start of a print job (my printer is already on, but I haven't used it in days) that it will take almost a minute to begin printing. It appears that it is going through a cleaning or preparation procedure (usually done only when you turn the printer on or off). I'm not sure if any ink is being used, but my major complaint is the time. I should not have to wait for a simple word processing document to print out.

My third and final complaint is the fact that I have to swap out the photo and matte black ink cartridges. I'm not entirely sure why Epson chose to do this, but I was really disappointed. This is an expensive printer and outperforms its competition in so many ways, but they couldn't include a slot for both cartridges? Seems strange.

At the end of the day, I do highly recommend the R2880. The prints are fantastic! While the printer does have some pitfalls, it does do one thing very well: create outstanding photo prints. I would hesitate recommending that a person upgrade from an Epson R1800, R1900, R2400 or similar model. It would be difficult to justify the costs. However, if you are in a market for a new large format photo printer, this should be one of your choices.

Once you get the R2880 calibrated, the printer produces excellent color results. With the UltraChrome K3 pigments, you can get long-lasting prints that will impress for years to come.

My problem with the R2880 is bang-for-buck. This printer GUZZLES ink like a large SUV. At a cost of $100+ a set of ink carts, this printer becomes expensive fast. It loves to go into cleaning sessions on its own, and it will soak through your inks quickly. After 20 or so A3+ prints, you're probably out of light magenta and desperate for black. This is a horrible printer for university settings or the casual home user, as it's just too expensive to maintain.

If you're looking for the best of the best, this is definitely up there, but if you're a price conscious person, look at the Canon Pixma Pro9000 for MUCH lower ink consumption with nearly identical color accuracy.

I bought the Epson R2880 printer two months ago and have changed cartridges successfully. My replacement cartridges came directly from Epson's on-line store. Yesterday I changed a cartridge and received an error message, "Ink cartridges cannot be recognized".

I tried to fix the problem by turning the printer off and on. I then tried to joggle the cartridge. Failing to do any good, I made a web search on the error message + Epson and was amazed to find that this has been a problem with Epson printers for years. To date, neither the Epson site or the general web lists a decent fix. Many posts refer to the Epson help desk "advice" that off-brand cartridges are the issue, and that genuine Epson cartridges are the fix. I used only Epson cartridges from the Epson on-line store. Unfortunately, Epson and the web have no other suggestions to get my printer going again. It appears that Epson is blaming everyone but themselves for the problem. Maybe the bulk of the problems are associated with off-brand cartridges, but that is no excuse for not investigating the problems that the rest of us are having and providing us with a fix.

It is amazing to me that a multi-year Epson problem remains unfixed on this newly released printer.