latebloomer Loc: Topeka, KS

I have found that an item with a rebate can often be found on another site than the site that no longer has the rebate.
A lot of people on this site, besides B&H, like Adorama, Amazon, and some other recommended sites. Do a search on UHH, and you can find trustworthy sites and sites to avoid at all costs.
Good Luck

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Adorama has the rebate deal now.

aubreybogle Loc: Albuquerque, NM

As usual, agree with the sage, well informed, advice from burkphoto, with one quibble. I own both quality Epson and HP printers. Both are perfectly capable of producing good quality 11-14 prints using their proprietary inks and appropriate paper. Don't try ink offbrands, sigh. I also color calibrate my UHD monitor and printers monthly.

loubee

Hi, Just took your advice a few days ago & bought a Canon Pixma Pro-100 at B & H. I don't know if it's still on-going, but they had some celebration specials going & the printer w/free paper (& free shipping!) ended up being $59.99! Absolutely incredible,...hope you can still get that price!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

As long as it’s a true photo printer, and not just CMYK office color, an HP might be okay. The problem I’ve seen is that people want to do double-duty with a four-color HP all-in-one made for offices. HP is the most common office printer brand. Photo printers use 6-12 inks.

johnbee418 Loc: Manchester Conn.

Hi Anna. Quick immaterial and irrelevant question: Does M-W stand for Mae Wong?

Disspayne

What is the rebate code?

rfmaude41 Loc: Lancaster, Texas (DFW area)

That's probably 'cause you din't use it according to their directions (print something regularly); I have an "old" R1800 that has had NO PROBLEMS as I print a few (Demo) pages every month.....

rochephoto

Epson... Print through photoshop using a printer/paper profile...

HardwareGuy

Uh, no, you would be incorrect on your presumption. Epson printers are well-known for their clogging tendencies. By my 3rd one, I printed a test sheet every few days and it still goofed up.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I managed the digital printing departments of a very large professional lab back in 2000-2005. In 2003, we bought a $5000 Epson Stylus Pro 9600 that used the original Ultrachrome inks. It replaced a dozen seldom-used large format optical (silver halide) printers. It totally changed our large print quality, pricing structure, cost structure, labor, QC, etc. — for the better.

That beast ran for two years, flawlessly, using only Epson ink. When third party inks came out, the guy who ran the printer for me wanted to try them. Stupidly, I ordered a sample supply from a reputable printer supply company. The printer clogged about three days after we started using the third party inks.

The head replacement was around $1800 in 2005 money. The Epson technician showed me the problem... the two inks we had replaced had reacted with the Epson inks. A hard, tarry-like precipitate developed in the ink lines from those two cartridges to the head, and some of that gunk clogged the nozzles. He had to replace those two ink lines along with the head.

The new head lasted another three years. Meanwhile, we added a Stylus Pro 9800 and Stylus Pro 9880. They were still going when I left the lab in 2012.

At home, my wife and I have used several Epsons. The only time we ever had a problem was when my wife insisted on using third party inks in her small business printer. She bought refilled cartridges from one of those strip mall refill centers. She went through three of the same printer model before I convinced her to use only genuine Epson inks. The fourth one lasted about five years.

I had a Stylus Photo 925 that I won at the PMAI show in 2003. It lasted five years, finally clogging through lack of use. We had a couple of all-in-ones later. Both failed when my kids tried to print on construction paper and the fibers from the uncoated stock got stuck in the head. I'm using a WF-3640 now, and it's been flawless. I just updated the firmware in it 20 minutes ago.

The keys to avoiding clogs are to use the printer often, at least once a week, preferably with OEM or PROVEN-compatible inks. Don't let your inks sit in the printer longer than six months after you install the cartridges, and don't use cartridges past their expiration date! This is more important with pigment-based inks than with dye-based inks, but both will deteriorate over time. Old ink WILL clog your heads. Don't buy more than you can use, and don't be afraid to toss out old cartridges.

There are some third-party inks that run just fine in Epsons. Some of the UHH folks in the Printers and Color Printing forum know what to use. I would follow their advice if I were going to use third party ink.

One very important thing to remember about home photo printing is that it is NOT a way to save money on prints! Do it for control, if you understand — and can discipline yourself to practice — good ICC color management techniques. Do it for privacy, if you make prints of a sensitive nature. Do it for immediacy, if you "just gotta" have a print in a hurry. Do it because you want a better print life than a lab offers. Do it for LARGE size prints (most labs charge outrageous prices for large prints, because they can!). Large = 24" on the short side. Do it for the wide range of substrates you can use, such as canvas, art board, archival quality cotton rag papers, etc. Do it for a wider color gamut than it is possible to reproduce with silver halide papers and wet processing (RA-4).

If you want cheap, there are plenty of professional labs who have GREAT remote order entry systems. You can upload images from your computer, and the prints arrive a few days later. You can get their profiles to use for soft-proofing in Photoshop, for What You See is What They Print color.

HardwareGuy

I should have specified that my problems have been with Epson home and small office printers. You are correct that Epsons are frequently used in professional capacity without those issues.
Just go onto an Epson forum and "clog" comes up a lot.