Thoughts on the Epson photo 830u

[ice]

Hello There

I have a photo 870, which until an unfortunate cart ink leak and
failed repair I have decided to change and get a new one.

I don't do much colour printing, mainly b&w for letters, but I would
like to print the occasional photo which I would like it to be as
close to normal photo print quality as possible. Is the Epson photo
830u any good? Do the other more expensive photo printer range have
superiour print quality, or is the increase in price just to do with
faster printing, more features but the same print quality?

Cheers
Ice

 

[wally]

Hello There

I have a photo 870, which until an unfortunate cart ink leak and
failed repair I have decided to change and get a new one.

I don't do much colour printing, mainly b&w for letters, but I would
like to print the occasional photo which I would like it to be as
close to normal photo print quality as possible. Is the Epson photo
830u any good? Do the other more expensive photo printer range have
superiour print quality, or is the increase in price just to do with
faster printing, more features but the same print quality?

Don't know anything about the 830u but....

Replaced our (my wife's) 870 with an 825 because I found it on
sale at Best Buy for $99 with a $20 Best Buy gift card "rebate"
and it takes the same cartridges as the 870 so my spares weren't
wasted!

Since I print mostly photos I really like getting true borderless
frame ready prints on standard 4x6 5x7 8x10 and 8.5x11 paper with
no trimming or perferations! The 870 had very good print
quality, I think the 825 is a bit better, about as good as my
large format Epson 2200 (very different inks).

I use her 825 for routine photo prints since the 870/825 inks
work very well on Kodak Premium Glossy paper which is
significantly cheaper than Epson's glossy. Actually the few times
I've printed the same file on Epson and Kodak glossy paper with
the 825 I've liked the Kodak results a bit better, although it
takes longer to dry before framing. My 2200 does rather poorly
with the Kodak paper, but really rocks with Epson glossy photo
paper or Epson Enhanced Matte paper..

--wally.