Bunkershot Loc: Central Florida

Hey Hogs, I'm in the market for a new photo printer but due to space considerations I need an all-in-one printer. It appears that these two Epson's have good ratings. What do you know about them? I'll appreciate your candid opinions.

Tom

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

You will not really be able to get good photo quality from an all-in-one printer with only four inks. If that's all you want to buy, you would be better ordering on line from one of the many retailers, or going through a costco or something like that. You can buy quite a few small and medium sized prints, of far better quality, for the money you would spend on any printer like this. YMMV. Best of luck.

Bunkershot Loc: Central Florida

Maybe I missed something but the specs on both of these machines says that they use 6-cartridges. I agree, anything less than 6 won't work well...

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

Me bad. I missed that! That would be much better; however I wouldn't recommend anything less than the new P400 at this time. It's not that much bigger than the 960 and would do a much better job. As I said, for a low level of printing, outsourcing should be considered. For the current price, your choices might be worth giving a whirl as long as your expectations don't exceed what those machines are capable of. Better than nothing at all if that's the choice. Go for it if you're comfortable. I've had a great number of different Epson printers, including the low end, and they all did reasonably well. I would not want to use my ET-4550 for photo work, but for business use it's just fine. Best of luck.

Ratta Loc: California

I've been using the 860 as my workhorse for quite some time. It does a marvelous job. I only print 4x6 and 5x7 prints on it because I use a 1430 for large prints (same 6 inks). The 860 does a great job as a copier with a multi page auto feeder and as a scanner. The few times I've used it as a FAX it has worked flawlessly. The 960 is identical to the 860 with the capability of larger prints.
Now the caveat: the ink is expensive. I print a lot of manuals and that can chew up ink quickly. I switched over to a continuous ink system and have had no problems using it for over a year and a half. I have saved a fortune in ink costs and see no discernible difference when compared to the output from OEM ink.
All in all, I love these printers: the 860 and the 1430.

Mundj Loc: Richmond TX

I have no experience with either the XP860 or the XP960. But we have had a XP850 6 years now. It has survived two transatlantic flights, and a month sitting in the back seat while we were on vacation and trying to sell a house. It works great and provides beautiful prints up to 8-12x14 in. Looking at the specs of the subject printers, the 860 is the successor to our 850 and includes the ability to send and receive Fax. The 960 IMAX print size is 11x17 and does not include the ability to Fax. It has a larger footprint than the 860. Since it uses the same ink I suspect the print engines to be the same.

I would recommend either Epson, my XP850 has lasted longer than either of its much more expensive all-in-one Canon predecessors.