A question for Epson 2200 owners

[Seb]

I folks,

I am aware than some of you guys own this printer and I am thinking about the possibility to purshase it along with monitor/printer calibration tools later next year.

Now, I was wondering, what is the running cost of this thing? I would actually buy it for the sole purpose of geting 8x12 and 11x14 prints for my portfolio and the occasional framing (I have strictly no interest in 4x6 prints). I am not into volume, I will only prints few "keepers" from times to times.

I am not familiar with Epson printers (or with any photography specialized printers). I will have to consider the cost of paper and ink cartridges but I was wondering if the printings heads are integrated to the cartridges or not. Moreover, how would you guy's estimate the actual cost of say, a 8x12 print with this printer?

thanks a lot

Seb

[wburychka]

As to operating costs, you need to look up some professional reviews where there are people to calculate such things. My subjective observation is that this is a fairly expensive printer to operate. It "seems to me" that I go through a lot of ink cartridges. Light magenta and light cyan the most...maybe 3 to 2 to the others. I know there are bulk ink systems available for this printer, but I'm just not crazy about having all those jars of ink and tubes running into the printer. I've also never heard a positive report on such systems. I buy ink from itsupplies.com for $10 a cartridge (x7 if you buy them all) and get free next day air saver shipping on orders over $75.

I also bought the Epson-recommended Monaco Optix calibration device and software. The software is unnecessary, though, as the Epson color profiles work fine with Epson papers. Other paper manufacturers, like Ilford, for example, have downloadable profiles for the Epson 2200.

I've recently been told that the Canon 9900 is worth a look too, as its printing speed is faster. The same guy told me that Epson customer support was not as good as Canon--although that seems impossible. To be worse than Canon, they'd have to not even answer the phone! Canon's dye based ink is less durable than the pigment inks used by Epson.

[Seb]

As to operating costs, you need to look up some professional reviews where there are people to calculate such things. My subjective observation is that this is a fairly expensive printer to operate. It "seems to me" that I go through a lot of ink cartridges. Light magenta and light cyan the most...maybe 3 to 2 to the others. I know there are bulk ink systems available for this printer, but I'm just not crazy about having all those jars of ink and tubes running into the printer. I've also never heard a positive report on such systems. I buy ink from itsupplies.com for $10 a cartridge (x7 if you buy them all) and get free next day air saver shipping on orders over $75.

I also bought the Epson-recommended Monaco Optix calibration device and software. The software is unnecessary, though, as the Epson color profiles work fine with Epson papers. Other paper manufacturers, like Ilford, for example, have downloadable profiles for the Epson 2200.

I've recently been told that the Canon 9900 is worth a look too, as its printing speed is faster. The same guy told me that Epson customer support was not as good as Canon--although that seems impossible. To be worse than Canon, they'd have to not even answer the phone! Canon's dye based ink is less durable than the pigment inks used by Epson.

Hello,

Thank you for your answer. I just have one more question (perhaps a stupid one but here I go...). You are saying that the calibration software in unnecessary as Epson color profiles match their papers but what about the potential difference in color rendering from my monitor to the printer? Basically, I expect that the final result is as close as possible to what I see on screen. Isn't the software/calibration tool mandatory to achieve that?

regards

Seb