revhen Loc: By the beautiful Hudson

I have a Brother laser printer for b&w documents, a HP Envy inkjet for quick and easy color, and a Canon Pixma 300 for large and more permanent color prints. It may seem like overkill but it works for me.

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

I have eco tank 8550 that in a year has been replaced 5 times in a year due to ink smudging on prints. At no time did customer service ever say don't print borderless
I finally found out that if I print with a small white border there is no mess. I'm not going to buy the next size paper and trim it down. With Edison paper 11x14 a dollar a sheet all the money saved on Ink would be spent on paper.
5 different machines in a year.

Real Nikon Lover Loc: Simi Valley, CA

I have had 2 of the Epson Ecotanks printers and both printed great photos. When I bought mine it came with a year of ink (based on average use) and a second year of ink sealed in a bag! I print a lot of 8x10s. Currently I own the ET-4550 which was actually given to me in exchange for an earlier ET model that died and couldn't be repaired. I bought the original printer from Best Buy (on sale) and the authorized repair dealer exchanged my printer for the upgrade to the ET 4550. I have had that printer now for 5 years and works like a champ.

If you are a Costco member they often have good deals on these and have a great return policy.

Note: These color printers require regular printing of color documents in order to keep the ink heads from drying up. It is far better to use these regularly than to let them sit and take a chance of premature failure from drying out. I print a color photo at least once a week to keep the heads clean. Head cleaning is important and is done as a menu option. There have been several posts on UHH that address this and flushing ink.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

You can "overspray" *light* in an optical laser printer using silver halide light-sensitive paper. But overspraying ink in an inkjet printer just leads to trouble. I know Epson's marketing borders on deceptive, but I also know that every product has its real-world limitations. I print everything smaller than 8.5x11 on 8.5x11 paper, using the "package print" layouts in Lightroom Classic. I designed custom layouts for larger print sizes on standard papers.

Years of experience with Epson 44" professional printers taught me the PRACTICAL limits:

> Use OEM inks if you use OEM papers with the built-in profiles. Otherwise, the colors will not be right.

> if you want accurate color when using third party inks, make your own ICC profiles for each paper stock you use. This is time consuming and expensive, so think twice before proceeding.

> NEVER use third party pigment inks (in Epson PRO series printers) after using Epson OEM pigment inks. You'll get precipitates in the heads and ink lines and have to replace them.

> NEVER print borderless if you want the printer to last.

> Buy papers in the most popular sizes to get the lowest prices.

> Don't tear or cut paper with a dull blade and run it through the printer. Paper dust eventually will damage the heads.

> Epson default margins are set that way for a reason. There is usually .56" on one end of the paper so the image isn't smeared on that end. When your printer is relatively new, you can shorten it to .12 or whatever the other three default margins are, and get away with that. But for best quality, maintain conservative margins.

> When using third party papers with their downloadable ICC profiles, use OEM inks, because the profiles were made with OEM inks!

Flyerace Loc: Mt Pleasant, WI

I bought one of the first, ET2550, and am extremely happy with it. It will do a very good job printing photos and documents.

I would expect the newer models will have better capabilities. I, too, had a failure of the first one and they sent me a new one with a return box and postage. Haven't had a problem since.

I would recommend this over all the ones that have cartridges. They gave me "2 years" worth of ink with the printer. I guess I don't print too many things. The ink they gave me is still kicking it (with the exception of black-that I've purchased)

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

I’ve had the Epson eco-tank ET 4850 printer for about a year now and absolutely love it. I’ve had no problems with it whatsoever and print 4 x 6, 5 x 7, and 8 x 10 Prints that look absolutely fine. I’m still on the original set of inks that came with the printer.

Prior to this printer I had an HP all in one photo printer and every other month would spend about $170 in ink. Best decision I ever made with this new printer.

Drbobcameraguy Loc: Eaton Ohio

If you buy a Canon or Epson printer get your ink from precision color. Great company have used them for years. Also Jtoolman on utube is a great source for information on those two brands.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Reds are a problem with those inks, as Jose points out in his tests... You will need a custom profile — for each combination of paper, ink, and printer — to reduce this problem.

bobbyjohn Loc: Dallas, TX

Depending on how quickly you would need to print photographs, and depending on how much you are willing to pay for color ink, you might consider this methodology which I have used for many years.

I only print B&W, mostly documents, so all I need is a good laser printer (I have HP P2035). On the rare instance that I might wish to get a good color print, I will either go to a local shop to print JPGs...or better yet upload the pictures to MPIX.com which has excellent print quality, and they will mail your print copies back to you. I'm sure there are other online print sites also. With this methodology, you never have to buy color ink at high prices...I only buy a (non-OEM) laser toner cartridge which typically lasts many years for me. YMMV.

joelbolden

I bought the Epson ET-2800 about 6 months ago to supplement my HP LaserJet printer and have done some photos with it. It does a perfectly acceptable job on up to 8 X 10" prints and so far I'm still on my first 4 bottles of ink.

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

Due to an unplanned back issue I didn't use my eco tant 8550 for 3 months and no ink head clogging issues at all.

one_eyed_pete Loc: Colonie NY

First let me suggest you check out youtube videos by JToolman ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0AmcGCYRG8 ). Jose has 18 printers, both Epson and Canon.

We hear about the guy who buys a new car and has to take it back to the dealer 5 times in the first year. We don't hear about the guy who buys a new car and keeps it for 20 years. Both cases are not the norm. I have been printing at home for about 30 years and gone thru 3 Epson printers in that time. Printers are highly technical devices which require frequent use and periodic maintenance. Yes, I have used aftermarket carts and even refilled carts. A few months ago I got an ET-8550 based on Jose' comments and have been thrilled with it's performance. Not printing borderless is not a concern because I print with a 1/8" border which is hidden by any mat or frame.

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

Not printing borderless is KEY.
it should not be sold as a birderless printer.
I went through 5 printers,8550 in the first 7 months. Ink spots all over every print due to over spray

one_eyed_pete Loc: Colonie NY

Agree. Another example of "marketing" foolishness.

joelbolden

I recently bought an Epson ET-2800 wireless and it come with an Epson Photo3 setting. I've printed out a number of 8.5x11 photos with it and quite frankly I like them better than the ones I've received from The Darkroom.