Epson Stylus Photo R220

[Jaguar]

(hope this is in the right place)

My trusty old Epson Photo Stylus 790 finally printed its last page around 2 months ago, and I had to get myself a new printer for my own personal work, as my standby HP DeskJet was getting very noisy.. So, I checked my finances to see what I could afford. Ah. Not a lot. Thinking back to when I bought the 790, I felt rather concerned, after all, it was pretty good at printing photographs, and what type of quality was I going to get for not a lot of cash?

Anyway my research finally revealed that there was very little available that could print photographs, and print directly onto CD/DVD as well (I decided that I wanted that facility) then I spotted this on the Argos website.

Epson R220 was £84.99 now £69.99

Sold! (I only had £70 to spend)

I jumped in the car (after checking the stock and reserving the last one!) and nipped up the road, paid my cash and took it home. Fairly standard Epson package (10 6x4 photo paper samples) an instruction leaflet and CD. No USB cable, but that was not a problem as I had a spare. (Note to others… remember a lot of printers do not come with cables!)

I was somewhat bemused by the fact I now had 6 little ink cartridges to play with, instead of my usual 2, but that’s progress I suppose.. Anyway, I followed the diagrams, removed the sticky tape, installed the ink, and plugged it in, following the sequence mentioned in the instruction sheet. Windows “saw” it straight away, and installation was painless. Within 10 minutes of unpacking I was printing my first picture. Using Epson’s own software, it walks you through the entire process, and is very easy to understand.

All the “advanced” settings are there if you want to tweak (i.e. ruin ) a picture, but for now the pre-sets are fine. The only fault I could find was it did not specify what way round the little photo paper was supposed to go. In the end it was “portrait style, and not “landscape” and thinking about it, that was pretty logical, as that’s the way the A4 paper is loaded…

It’s a lot quieter than my old printer, at least twice the resolution and faster. The CD/DVD printing option seems simple enough; there is a plastic tray that plugs into a little fold down hatch on the printer, and specific CD/DVD printing software is included, although I have not tested that yet, as I don’t have any printable discs (should have by Friday) It has so far tonight printed off a 30 sheet document, 10 photographs and some other bits, and quality has been top notch and as good as some of the more expensive printers we have at work (in fact, the photographs (borderless) from this are VERY good, and my friends could not believe the quality)

So in my opinion, if you want a nice little printer that prints photographs and directly onto CD/DVD media, you can’t go far wrong. Time will tell with ink consumption etc, but I intend never to use 3rd party ink for this machine, and will do my usual eBay search for the best deals for original ink

 

[Raje]

Hey that was pretty good...I am almost interested in getting one.. never had a photo printer.. and that cd printing option sounds nice... would make all my archived anime much easier to sort ( I've always hated writing on them with marker)


But what is your opinion of Epson?... I have not had the best expereinces with them, but this was years ago... I have not tried thier newer products.

 

[Jaguar]

Older Epson’s (to me anyway) around the 1980's were no different to any other printer we used except when things went wrong they were hard to get parts for... having said that, my last 2 printers have been Epson and that’s 2 in 15 years.... so if I get as long from this one as my last 2 that’s good enough for me.

The trick is a simple one. Do not use refills or compatibles in an Epson printer. I hate to bring this analogy up, but I drive an old Jaguar, and I would not dream about using 3rd party oil or fuel filters in her... I don’t mind using any type of paper for non photographic stuff, but if I am printing something out that I wish to keep I use “proper” Epson paper as well…

For run of the mill print jobs however, they are quite happy with any sort of paper. I cannot say the same for other brands, as I don’t have any experience of them, apart from what other customers of mine have passed on to me.

 

[muckshifter]

£70 ... oops, could have got you the R300.

 

[Jaguar]

£70 ... oops, could have got you the R300.

not round here, and yes I suppose I could have got one at trade, but it was a "have to have one now" moment... some legal stuff that had to be printed and sent yesterday, so I sort of had to do the retail thing (I would have to have waited 2 or 3 days for one otherwise) and to be honest i don't need the extra features of the R300. (I have a card reader and monitor, and use Photoshop for editing) And if anybody fancies an R300 Amazon have them at £79.99 but the R220 is on thier site for £96.76 (or contact mucks )

 

[muckshifter]

Yep, pulling your leg ... I actually saw an R300 at the computer show for £59 ... I know exactly how it is. I sware the "R" series Epson printer is built by someone else.

 

[Raje]

Just so you guys know.... I've decided to pick one of these up.(Epson R200) For the sole purpose of printing on DVDs. I found one on newegg and after rebate it will come to $65.00 awsome price.

I just hope its as good as the 220, or at least comparable.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Jaguar, thanks for sharing your experience with us, interesting stuff

I've written elsewhere that my experiences of Epson printers in the past have been disappointing to say the least but I have an open mind and it sounds like you got yourself a good quality bargain there.

I'm not in the market for a printer myself right now having recently purchased an HP photosmart 7960.

And off topic, I drive a 21 year old Mercedes and although I always try and fit original spares, sometimes it's very hard to get them. And it's currently in my local garage for an MOT and waiting for one front brake caliper to arrive, the wrong one arrived today, which didn't cheer me greatly

Thanks again for taking the time and trouble to write about your printer.

 

[Cache-man]

I got one of these printers myself the other day, and can vouch for all Jaguars comments on the superb quality!

The CD/DVD printing option works very easy, and produces extremely high quality disk prints.
I'll have a full review done for it as soon as I gert the time.

It is also available at PC-World at £63.59 (it was only £57.50 when i ordered mine the other day though) with free delivery http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/st...dhhmdgml.0&sku=809034&tabIndex=3&page=Product

 

[Cache-man]

Oh, the ink can also be found very cheap on ebay

 

[Raje]

cacheman...make a log and keep track of how long the ink lasts. I will be getting the R200 soon, for the cd/dvd printing option alone. I' just curious as to how often I will have to get it new cartriges. Thanks.

 

[Cache-man]

Raje, I have started keeping a user log of what I'm printing, but it might take a fair while for the cartridges to empty, as it seems to run pretty economically. Epson claims that the R220 will print over 400 pages B&W, and over 400 pages colour with the supplied cartridges (obviously on the lower settinds mind you, but still quite promising).

I have also completed a review of the R220, and if anyone wants to take a look, you can do so here:
http://www.cache-community.co.uk/content/view/93/26/

 

[Cache-man]

OK folks, my monitoring software keps alerting me that the black ink cartridge on my R220 is nearly empty now. So here is a rough print log of what I've been printing, followed by a screenshot showing the other ink levels.

Colour CD/DVD's = 59
6"x4" borderless HQ Photo = 12
A4 Black and White Text = 53
A4 Text and colour graphics = 24
A4 Colour Photo = 23

It is also worth noting that upon first installation of the first set of cartridges approx 5% of each colour is used to "charge the print heads" according to the Epson literature.
I have been extremely impressed with the performance and superb photo quality of this printer so far and would highly recommend it to anyone.
And I found a full set of cartridges on ebay (1 of each of the 5 colours and 2 blacks) manufactured by Datawrite for under a tenner delivered. I'll let you all know what the quality is like when I start replacing the Epson ones - but at £50 cheaper than a full set of genuine Epson carts I wont be grumbling.

Anyway, heres the screen of the ink levels.

 

[Raje]

Hey Boys and girls... I got me an r220 as an early christmas gift. Only had time to run 1 DVD but I'm impressed so far. And the print DVD program is such an easy program to use. I mean as soon as I opened it, I took a whole 30 seconds to figure it out. Printed a test disk messed with the interior circumference and rendered a pretty nice looking disk.

I am very pleased so far. This is an awsome printer...

 

[Cache-man]

Yeah, the PrintCD software is amazingly easy to use, and creates great results. I've been printing a lot of them recently for customised wedding photo cds, and other albums for a few friends and family, and everyone has been really impressed at the pro looking quality.

I still cant quite believe the quality of the printed photos at the best quality setting. They're indistinguishable from professionally printed ones.

 

[Raje]

Oh and I almost forgot... verry rude of me, my appologies. Cache-man thank you for the log on the ink. I see that the printer does print quite a bit before the ink runs out... not quite as fast as some of the exagerated comments I've scene about it.

I am looking forward to your results with the 3rd party ink.

 

[spudsrboiling]

Epson ink

The last post is true, I have just bought replacement cartridges from e-bay for my R200 (which I think I bought for £60) which I paid just under £29 for. These would be around the 40 quid mark in PC world etc.

I also agree that this is a great printer for the moeny. I have printed many pics up to A4 size and they all look superb.

Spud.

 

[Cache-man]

Another update on the R220 inks for you all. I'm now about halfway through the replacement "Datawrite" branded ink cartridges for my R220, and the quality is superb, I cant notice any reduction in quality from using the original Epson carts, even when printing HQ photos. Obviously, I cant vouch for the quality of all the other brands or replacement carts, but the Datawrite ones are well worth trying....I know I will be continuing to use them, In fact I've just ordered another 2 full sets off of eBay.

 

[Raje]

Awsome... much thanks for the update Cache-man.

 

[bill_in_warrington]

r200

I just thought i'd share my obervations having run one of these for about six months of business use and got through about half a dozen complete sets of cartridges.

Overall a good printer and the CD printing faccility is excellent. My only gripe is that despite having individual cartridges, they all basically go down at the same rate so when your getting near to the end of one colour, you may just as well change the lot and have done with it. Also if you do any amount of normal black and white documents, your black will allways run out well before the others. Why they didn't make the black cartridge twice the size of the others I'll never know.

BTW I've beed a cheapscate and used low cost refills from the local computer fair and haven't noticed any difference apart from the dosh in my pocket!

Bill