New Printer Opinion: I am replacing an older Cannon Ink Jet Printer. I am thinking of an Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500. I am concerned about getting the best quality photoprints with a...

latebloomer Loc: Topeka, KS

I am replacing an older Cannon Ink Jet Printer. I am thinking of an Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500. I am concerned about getting the best quality photoprints with a tank printer. I will print some text documents, but no more than 5 pages a week. I can afford up to price of the ET-8500.
Please give me your opinion or suggestions. Thank you for your advice. It has really helped me in the past.

hahersh Loc: Burlington, ON, Canada

The Epson ET-8500 has three colour inks and maximum print size is 8.5" width. The Canon PIXMA PRO-200 Wireless Professional Inkjet Photo Printer has five colour inks and a maximum width of 13". It does not have scan and copy
functions. More colours will produce more accurate prints.

ratchley

I agree with hahersh. I own a Canon PIXA PRO-200 and have been very impressed with photos it produces. Plus it's a wide carriage.

RoswellAlien

Ditto ratchley. Very happy with it. (Also have an older canon copy/print/scan with 5 cartridges-one is large black-and it just keeps doing its thing.)

rcarol

latebloomer wrote:

I am replacing an older Cannon Ink Jet Printer. I am thinking of an Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500. I am concerned about getting the best quality photoprints with a tank printer. I will print some text documents, but no more than 5 pages a week. I can afford up to price of the ET-8500.
Please give me your opinion or suggestions. Thank you for your advice. It has really helped me in the past.

I replaced an Epson printer with a Canon magatank printer. It has three colors plus black. It produces suprisingly good photos.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

I think you are at a cross road. A tank printer or a quality photo printer. To print quality photo prints you need more different color cartridges. In my case I use a Canon Pro 1000 with 12 print cartridges, which I am not trying to have you get, but your print is your show peace of all your work and expense (cost of camera, lens, computer, software and time) so why save at the last step?

one_eyed_pete Loc: Colonie NY

latebloomer wrote:

I am replacing an older Cannon Ink Jet Printer. I am thinking of an Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500. I am concerned about getting the best quality photoprints with a tank printer. I will print some text documents, but no more than 5 pages a week. I can afford up to price of the ET-8500.
Please give me your opinion or suggestions. Thank you for your advice. It has really helped me in the past.

The first thing you need to decide is maximum print size. Both Epson and Canon make excellent photo printers. If you want to go the Mega/Eco tank path Epson has the ET-8500 (8 1/2") and ET-8550 (13") and Canon has the G650 (8 1/2"). All are CMYK printery with gray but the Canon adds Red to the palette. Reviews seem to indicate either can produce surprisingly good photos. Tank printer options may increase in the future but that's the field now unless you go with a cartridge photo printer. Cartridge printers can expand the size limit and increase the color palette. Some people reduce the ink cartridge cost by refilling techniques. You may want to check out JToolman YouTube videos on printers and printing. You can learn more than you ever wanted to know.

willaim Loc: Sunny Southern California

I, too, agree with hahersh. I have the Pro-200 and am very happy with it. The colors are very close to what I see on my monitor. BTW, it has 8 ink tanks. A wide printer that will take up to 13 X 19 paper.

bebop22 Loc: New York City

I have the canon pro 100 and it does a very good job on photos. Like all inkjet printers, it must be used on a regular basis or else you will have clog problems.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

I found if I do not use my printer of 2 weeks I just make a print to keep my head clean. I guess a 4X 6 would do. I make a large print as I use it for stock.

hrblaine

latebloomer wrote:

I am replacing an older Cannon Ink Jet Printer. I am thinking of an Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500. I am concerned about getting the best quality photoprints with a tank printer. I will print some text documents, but no more than 5 pages a week. I can afford up to price of the ET-8500.
Please give me your opinion or suggestions. Thank you for your advice. It has really helped me in the past.

I've been using a Canon Pro 100 (not a Pix) and after using Epsons for years, I really like this printer's output and wouldn't go back to Epson as things stand now. I don't know anything about tank printers but if you can get the 100 with tanks, go for it. Harry PS I've had a 13x19 print from the 100 (with Canon ink) on my bulletin board forever. I's in indirect natural light, direct artificial (lots of light bulbs) and to me it looks as good as the day I put it up, hasn't faded at all. Harry

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

I have the ET=4760.
I do not think you want this technology for printing photo images. Just not made for that in my opinion.
My first experience was trying to print a brochure. I couldn't match the reds to the original I had. I kept getting more of a magenta look.
Had several conversations with Epson but that got me nowhere. There are several color setting but I tried them all and never could get what I wanted.
It's a good printer for like "color copiy" type prints. Not photo quality.
That's just my opinion.

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

p.s., haven't had any print head issues and I've gone a week without using it. It does self cleanings and the tanks last a long time. Since I'm not interested in photo print quality, I bought 3rd party inks on Amazon.
Since I don't print my images that much if I need some I just take them to the local photo lab which I sold to a camera store. They still do silver halide prints.