Epson Stylus Photo 780 Inkjet Printer

by Epson

Product Details

Product Manual [984kb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 17.7 x 9.7 x 6.9 inches ; 8.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 12 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000059SJ7
• Item model number: SP780
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1999

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

For lightfast photos, the Epson Stylus Photo 780 ink-jet printer offers you stunning 2,880 x 720 dpi resolution along with a quick-drying six-color ink palette delivered by 4-picoliter droplets. These impressive features combine to provide you with great borderless prints, with crisp detail and true tone quality, at up to 8.5 by 11 inches.

The Stylus Photo 780 fills your photo reproduction needs by producing breathtaking quality 4-by-6-inch prints in less than one minute, and 8-by-10-inch prints in under two minutes. Black text prints are produced at 8 ppm. Photos can be printed either with borders or in full bleed at 4 by 6, 5 by 7, 8 by 10, and 8.5 by 11 inches. With a 100-sheet-capacity input tray and a 30-page-capacity output tray, the automatic low-ink detection alerts you as your cartridges run low. Image lightfastness (related to paper quality) is rated to 25 years before fading in normal indoor display conditions. The Stylus Photo 780 is compatible with both Windows and Macintosh systems and comes with a one-year warranty plus the assurance of the Epson Overnight Exchange Program.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Print quality good, but beware of a few things., August 23, 2001

By 

Matt "mattfl1" (FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Epson Stylus Photo 780 Inkjet Printer (Office Product)

I work at a camera store. When I saw they lowered the price of this printer ... , I couldn't pass it up. After using it for a couple weeks, I'll say this: For the price, I don't think there's a better printer out there in terms of print quality. However, you get what you pay for, and yes, there are reasons this printer is so modestly priced:

a. It's slow. VERY slow. Printing an 8x10 photo at the *highest* resolution (2880 dpi) took well over twenty minutes.

b. It's fairly noisy.

c. It goes through ink pretty quickly (the cartridges are very small). Luckily the cartridges are fairly inexpensive.

d. One advantage HP has over Epson is that HP puts the jets right in the cartridges. That's nice because if you let the printer sit and the ink dries up and clogs the jets, you can throw out the cartridge, buy a new one, and you've got a whole new set of jets. That's not how it works on the Epson. The jets are part of the printer on the Epson. If it clogs up (which my printer already has once...at the time of writing this, I've only owned it for a month), you've got to keep cleaning the print heads over and over until it unclogs. To unclog mine, I actually had to use a solvent inside the printer. That kind of irked me.

If I were going to be printing photos at home a *lot*, I'd probably go for something better than this. However, working at a camera store, I have access to a $300,000 machine to print digital photos with. Because of that, I print photos at home only occasionally; a twenty minute wait every once in a while isn't a big deal. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to the equipment I do and therefore might do a lot more photo printing at home, which may make using this printer a bit more of a pain.

Conclusion: If you don't mind waiting a while, I highly recommend this printer. In printing the same picture twice, once on the Epson (on good photo paper) and once at work on our Fuji processor, it was hard to tell the difference between the two. That's saying a *lot* for printer in this price range. I had to rate it a three because of the speed/noise issue, plus the fact that it's already clogged once. However, if the rating was supposed to have been based on the quality of prints *alone*, I'd have given it a four or a five.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this printer!, May 14, 2001

By 

V. Walters (Lumberton, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Epson Stylus Photo 780 Inkjet Printer (Office Product)

True it may be slower and somewhat noisier than other models, but the prints that come out of it are outstanding! At first it seemed like the ink went fast but it really lasts as long as any other printer I have used. One nice feature is it tells you how many prints are remaining like that last printed. Although the warning about the ink levels comes on, you do have the option to continue printing until the ink runs out and it lasts quite a few prints beyond the warning about the ink levels. The specifications were practically identical to the higher model with the exception of the sound level, speed and no roll paper. I am totally satisfied with this printer and the quality of the pictures..they couldn't be better. The prints on the heavy weight matte paper are stunning! I love the borderless prints..they rival any print lab. I would most certainly go with Epson again.

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning quality, exceptional value, April 18, 2001

By 

S. P. Marraccini "smarraccini" (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Epson Stylus Photo 780 Inkjet Printer (Office Product)

Epson revolutionized the printer marketplace in the early 90's with the first Stylus Color printer. This printer is another breakthrough product in terms of price.

For $150 after your rebate, you shouldn't even be thinking about buying this printer, just do it! Epson's piezo-electric inkjet heads are generally acknowledged by experts as being able to produce prints that exceed the quality of traditional chemical photo processing.

It is possible to get great quality output from a 2 to 3 megapixel digital camera and print sizes up to full bleed 8.5 by 11. Results are quite good even if you spend minimal to no time editing the images. If you are interested in photography as a creative process and have worked in darkrooms then you will be amazed at the power you have with a printer like this in conjunction with an editing program like Adobe Photoshop. What used to take hours and hours of trial and error in the field and in the darkroom can now take minutes.

To put the value in perspective, consider the following. The print heads in this unit are the exact same ones as found in the Photo 890 and the Photo 1280. This is a great buy on state of the art technology even if you miss out on the rebate.