Product Description

Epson Stylus Photo R1800 quickly creates large, archival quality glossy and matte photos worthy of display. Experience the rich, true-to-life colors and subtle detail that's evident in every image. It's all possible with Epson UltraChrome Hi-Gloss Inks, plus an industry leading resolution and ink droplet size - the same innovative features that made the Epson Stylus Photo R800 a resounding success. This printer's impressive 8-color individual ink system, which incorporates red and blue inks, means you get a wider color gamut for incredibly vivid photos. Its separate matte and photo black ink cartridges are integrated into the system as well, so you get the deepest, darkest blacks on matte paper, and brilliant results on glossy paper automatically. Finally, the unique gloss optimizer makes glossy prints look like they came from a traditional photo lab. And, since the inks are pigment-based, you can be confident the color and detail will remain true for up to 200 years. The Epson Stylus Photo R1800 delivers studio quality results on a wide variety of media and in eight popular borderless sizes - up to 13-inches wide, as well as panoramics up to 44-inches long. Best of all, the Epson Stylus Photo R1800 speeds through every project - so you can quickly print stacks of high-quality photos. And, its expertise goes well beyond the art of photographic prints. This photo printer makes it easy to add that special touch to your portfolio with professional quality printing on ink jet printable CDs and DVDs. Print directly on inkjet printable CDs/DVDs Accomodates 4, 8.3 and 13 roll papers Ink Shelf Life - 2 years from production date; 6 months from first use Input paper tray - 100 Sheets(plain paper)/ 20 sheets (photo paper)/ 1 printable CD/DVD Printer Dimensions & Weight (L x W x H) - 24.2 x 12.6 x 9.1 / Weight - 33 pounds Works with Windows PC and Macintosh

Product Details

• Color: Dark gray
• Brand: Epson
• Model: C11C589011
• Dimensions: 10.00" h x 25.00" w x 13.00" l, 33.07 pounds
• Memory: 0.064MB

Features

• Up to 5,760 x 1,440 optimized dpi resolution
• 4-by-6-inch photos as fast as 42 seconds, 11-by-14 as fast as 1 minute 51 seconds
• Prints directly onto inkjet-printable CDs and DVDs
• Supports poster prints up to 13 by 44 inches
• USB 2.0 and FireWire interfaces; PC and Mac compatible

From the Manufacturer
Note: If the Epson R1800 is not available in the timeframe you need, consider purchasing the R800 instead. The R800 often ships faster and has a lower price but does not support wide-format printing.

The Epson Stylus Photo R1800 is the photographer's choice for large archival photos. Taking Epson's award-winning technology one step further, the printer quickly creates large, archival quality glossy and matte photos worthy of display. Experience the rich, true-to- life colors and subtle detail that's evident in every image. It's all possible with Epson UltraChrome Hi-Gloss Inks, plus an industry leading resolution and ink droplet size--the same innovative features that made the Epson Stylus Photo R800 a resounding success.

Easy-to-use printer driver

This printer's impressive eight-color individual ink system, which incorporates red and blue inks, means you get a wider color gamut for incredibly vivid photos. Its separate matte and photo black ink cartridges are integrated into the system as well, so you get the deepest, darkest blacks on matte paper, and brilliant results on glossy paper automatically. Finally, the unique gloss optimizer makes glossy prints look like they came from a traditional photo lab. And, since the inks are pigment-based, you can be confident the color and detail will remain true for up to 200 years (see www.epson.com for details).

Print Directly onto CDs
The Epson Stylus Photo R1800 delivers studio quality results on a wide variety of media and in eight popular borderless sizes--up to 13-inches wide, as well as panoramics up to 44 inches long. Best of all, the Epson Stylus Photo R1800 speeds through every project, so you can quickly print stacks of high-quality photos.

The R1800's expertise goes well beyond the art of photographic prints. This photo printer makes it easy to add that special touch to your portfolio with professional quality printing on inkjet-printable CDs and DVDs.

What's in the Box
Printer, ink cartridges, small CD insert, printers software CD-ROM, CD position check paper, user's guide, matte sheet support, roll paper holders, single sheet guide, CD/DVD tray, FireWire IEEE1394 cable; USB cable not included

Customer Reviews

Beats any lab prints
The Epson R1800 is built like a tank. Upon first inspection out of the box, you will be suprised at it's size. Set-up out of the box was a breeze. About 10 minutes of unwrapping everything and software installation and I was ready to print.

The first prints came out amazing. I used to work in a one hour photo lab with a Noritsu QSS-3011, basically the Cadallic of mini-lab printers. The best of the best. I am college student majoring in photography so quality is #1 to me. I would always print my pictures at the lab and fine tune each print so I would get the best. With this printer, I get nearly the EXACT SAME QUALITY. Which is nothing short of amazing considering we are talking about a lab machine that is in the costs of tens of thousands of dollars. The prints that I have printed from the R1800 rival the quality of that from the Nortisu lab printer.

The 8 inks provide a cost effective method instead of replacing one expensive color tank when just one color runs out. You can just replace whatever color you run out of.

The R1800 prints bordless sizes up to 13" in width. It can print panoramics from 4" to 13" from rolls of paper. Imgaine having a 13" by 44" panoramic on your wall! With the R1800, it's just that easy.

The R1800 can also print on CD's, which is a neat feature, but one that I probably won't use too much until I get ready to graduate and create portfolio CD's with my work on them.

5,760 x 1,440 optimized dpi resolution is what makes these prints so amazingly crisp in quality.

The speed of the printer is pretty impressive too. 11x14's in under 3 minutes? 4x6's in under 45 seconds? Yes please!

I believe the best paper I've used with R1800 is Epson's Premium Luster paper. It's semi glossy with a sheer luster to it that makes the color and contrast hold of the paper look amazing.

If you are even an amatuer photographer and care about the quality of your printers and are in the market for an at home studio printer, you cannot go wrong with the R1800. I would reccommend nothing else.

Ink Use Explained
Everyone complains about the ink use and it drives me nuts. Epsons have the best quality and horrible ink use because for the same reason, piezoelectric technology.

Every other inkjet company uses thermal technology which basically heats a pocket of ink to the boiling point and pushes out the remaining ink. This leads to rogue ink vapor and a fixed droplet size. Look inside a HP that has been around a while and you will see that the whole machine is coated inside with condensed ink vapors. When HP (Canon, Lexmark etc) need a larger drop they just squirt out multiple drops, a less effective method of control.

Epson's piezoelectric technology uses crystals that have variable flex depending on the current applied. This allows for fine droplet size control. Epson is the only printer company that can produce variable droplet size. This impacts the quality of the print and leads to Epson's quality lead. This also gives Epson more flexibility in the inks they choose to use since they don't have to make ink that can boil. This is why they were the first to produce pigmented inks.

The down side to this technology is that the print head are expensive to make and hence Epson is also the only company to make a inkjet that doesn't have user replaceable print heads. Anyone who has set aside an HP or Lexmark for any period of time knows that the ink starts evaporating if a head isn't used and the head gets clogged permanently. Epson is not immune from this problem but since you can't replace it they have to prevent the head from clogging in the first place. Their solution is to occasionally flush the head to prevent build up of ink solids. This leads to the 'mysterious' ink use people complain about. Each cartridge has a separate head and each head must occasionally be either used or flushed. If you were to use an HP your unused colors eventually would become clogged and you would have to replace the head or cartridge with head to get it working. It is a trade off.

An excellent printer for pros and amateurs alike!
I sell prints in galleries both online as well as at a brick and mortar gallery, and before purchasing this printer, I was seriously considering the pro oriented Epson R2400 and the HP Designjet 30. I decided on the Epson R1800 because of its better glossy output and the Wilhelm Image Research predicted print longevity of up to 200 years without fading on some Epson papers. This same prediction applies to the Epson R2400 as well, however, from the sample prints that Epson sent me, I didn't like the glossy output of the new K3 inks that the R2400 uses -- the highlight areas where there is hardly any ink laid out on the paper show no gloss, and when viewed at an oblique angle, the latter are disturbingly dull. I must admit however that, were my work exclusively Black and White on matte paper, there would be no better printer for the purpose than the Epson R2400, or the 4800, and the 7800 pro series. My choice, was determined by my work, comprised of color in both glossy and matte, as well as B&W at which, with the proper profiles, the Epson R1800 is very capable. Many pros with the same needs as mine use the R1800 as their standard printer.

One problem with the printer is that it has somewhat of a drinking problem -- not so much while printing, but every time it is powered up after a period of non-use it goes automatically into a cleaning cycle, whether needed or not, and that consumes a lot of ink. To overcome this, I leave my printer on around the clock. It uses very little power when idle (2 Watts -- less than a night light). To prevent printhead clogging, I print at least a nozzle check printout (using very little ink) every day, and so far I have not had any problems with either clogging, or excessive ink consumption. To protect the printer from possible damage caused by power outages or surges, I have it connected to a UPS Battery backup surge protector.

Although I gave a 5 star rating to this printer, based on its superior output, the caveat still remains about its excessive ink consumption if turned off and on frequently. I do not hesitate to recommend this printer to any savvy photographer, though a beginner is likely to face a rather steep, but worthwhile and not impossible learning curve.