PC Magazine Reviews the Epson Stylus Photo R200

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1567737,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1567737,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div>"Epson seems to be on a crusade to make printing on CDs and DVDs a standard feature across all price ranges of ink jets. Witness the Epson Stylus Photo R200, a $100 (street) model with CD-printing features heretofore found only on $300 models. The R200 produces very good photos and prints from standard business applications well enough to serve as your only printer, as long as you don't demand too much speed."<br /><br />I used to be a hardcore Epson guy, but I'm a fan of Canon printers now. Still, this looks tempting - any R200 owners out there? What do you think of your printer?

[James Fee]

Same here, used to have all Epson, but now have all Canon. I'm very happy with the Canon's, but as far as I can tell, they don't have one of these...

Epson Stylus Photo R800 (http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=37472319&BV_SessionID=@@@@0070076514.1082312353@@@@&BV_EngineID=cadckecmggjlbfdmcfjgckidnk.0) http://www.djgibbon.co.uk/forum/smilies/drool.gif

An archival quality printer is all that I am really missing.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Ah, the R800. That's a nice printer. However I still can't bring myself to shell out the bucks for it, as economically speaking, it's still cheaper for me to go down to the lab to print. Maybe when I start averaging a few hundred prints a year..

[James Fee]

Ah, the R800. That's a nice printer. However I still can't bring myself to shell out the bucks for it, as economically speaking, it's still cheaper for me to go down to the lab to print. Maybe when I start averaging a few hundred prints a year..
Yea, that is kind of why I don't own it. Epson does make some great printers, slow as heck though....

[bbarker]

I love the idea of printing directly onto CDs and DVDs. I hate messing with CD labels.

Question: what kind of CDs do you have to use and how much do they cost? How readily available are they? Can you just go into a Best Buy or CompUSA and buy them?

[James Fee]

Question: what kind of CDs do you have to use and how much do they cost? How readily available are they? Can you just go into a Best Buy or CompUSA and buy them?
Just "ordinary" printable CD-Rs (http://www.imation.com/en_US/product.jhtml?Id=IM_PRD524).

[jfields]

Why the switch from Epson to Canon?

I have always done the research and bought the best quality printing machine each time and that has always ended up being Epson.

I am about at the point where I am ready to upgrade again and was wondering what your reasons are for the switch...

Thanks,

Jon

[James Fee]

Speed!

My i960 is just about the most perfect printer I have ever owned.

[Jason Dunn]

Why the switch from Epson to Canon?

For me, the two main reasons were:

Speed: I was impressed at how fast the Canon could spit out photos. There have been many times when I've wanted to crank out a few 4x6 images FAST, so speed was important to me.

Design: I really like the way the printer looks - very sleek and professinal. The separate ink cartridge approach was also a big plus for me.

The print quality from high-end Canon, HP, and Epson printers are all very similar now - I peered at all the sample pics I could find, looking for differences, but the reality is that all modern day photo printers will give you very nice output. If you're doing large format prints for a gallery, that's outside my realm of experience, but day to day prints from 4x6 up to 8x10, all the printers are quite nice.