Epson R2880 Photo Printer
Epson R2880 Large Format Photo Printer (C11CA16201)
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 List Price: $899.99 Sale Price: Too low to display Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Eligible For Free Shipping 
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Product Description
Produce exhibition quality prints with unprecedented control with the Epson R2880 photo printer, the choice for professional and fine art photographers. With its innovative ink set, Epson UltraChrome K3 with vivid color, this powerful printer offers an astounding color gamut for brilliant reds, blues and purples. Designed to easily deliver large-format photos worthy of gallery display, the 13-inch R2880 includes Radiance technology, which ensures smooth color transitions, and improved highlight and shadow detail. Its three-level black technology offers exceptional gray balance and outstanding tonal range. And, advanced black-and-white photo mode ensures precision control for neutral or toned black-and-white prints. Take your creativity further with its versatile media handling capabilities. Print on roll paper, fine art paper or 1.3 mm thick art board. The R2880 always delivers professional performance with its one-inch wide, permanent print head. And, for more consistent printing, it includes Automatic Nozzle Check technology, plus Epson PreciseColor. Achieve professional results, with the quality, control and versatility of the Epson R2880 photo printer.
Details
- Prints up to 13x19 Photos with Epson UltraChrome K3 with Vivid magenta ink
- Advanced Black and White Photo Mode
- Professional 8-Color, pigment ink set with 3-level Black technology
- Advanced magenta pigments - astounding blues, purples, and reds
- Print Permanence ratings of 200 years or more
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Rating
I’ve been making due with an older Epson Photo EX…can’t believe how much the technology has improved since then. The printer is easy to operate, and colors are nothing short of amazing…fine, detailed prints like nothing I’ve ever been able to produce.
Drawbacks are probably what others mention…the matte black/photo black swapping thing is just silly, the ink cartridges are too small, at highest quality settings the printer’s a bit slow, no built-in network interface, and the printer’s physically a little on the large size.
Still, for me it’s all about the final image quality – and nothing I’ve seen tops the Epson in this regard.
UPDATE:
Okay, so I’ve been living with my R2880 for about sixteen months now, and I wanted to refute some of the claims other reviewers have made. Perhaps I’m just one of the lucky ones, but my experience with the R2880 has been nothing short of fantastic.
I’ve printed well over 2000 prints and gone through dozens of ink cartridges by now, and I’m happy to say that I haven’t experienced EVEN A SINGLE JAM, MIS-FEED or other operational problem. I tend to use Epson’s Ultra-Premium Luster for 8×10 size prints, Epson Velvet or Exhibition Fiber in 13×19 – and a few non-Epson brands including Museo, Ilford Silk and a few others. I’ve done a bit with canvas (both sheets and roll), though that’s relatively rare for me. The short story is that everything I’ve tried has worked properly. Overall, I couldn’t be happier with my printer.
I do use my printer fairly regularly – always at least once or twice a week, usually more. As of now, except for the cycle when I install a new ink cartridge or initially power it on, I’ve never seen it waste ink on a cleaning cycle, nor have I ever had to manually trigger cleaning. My volume is high enough that I deal with the ink-swapping sillyness by simply waiting until I have enough material that I can use an entire print cartridge (about 50 prints, generally). I make the switch, print till I run out of matte ink, and then I switch back. This works for me, and doesn’t waste any ink.
My initial comment regarding the ink cartridges being too small is probably my number one gripe. Because the various color inks are used at different rates according to the tones in your photographs, it’s not like you stop every so often and replace all the ink. You print, replace one color, print some more, replace the next one, and so on. I just find this slows me down unacceptably, and I’d like the option to have maybe 3-5 times more ink per cartridge.
Print quality continues to be amazing…the only other printer I’ve seen that beats it is Epson’s newer 7900 – a much larger printer that costs five times what the R2880 sells for. Yes, I’m a perfectionist with top quality gear, all the best software, calibration equipment, and I spend a lot of time fine tuning everything to get the best possible image quality. But I feel I’ve been rewarded for this work, and everyone who sees my prints comments as to the quality.
Rating
I have owned this printer for only a few days. In that time I have printed over 200 prints. I have printed both 8.5 by 11 and 13 by 19 inch prints without any difficulty. I have also replaced the ink cartridges without any problem. I have not had any contact with epson’s tech support because I have not had any problems.
Now for the printer itself. The build quality is solid. Setup was simple and I was printing prints within a few minutes of connecting the printer to my mac.
I am using this printer in conjunction with a macintosh computer and photoshop elements. I tried other programs (iphoto) but elements gave me the truest reproduction of what I saw on my screen. This printer prints color accurately but it prints slightly darker than what you see on your screen. In other words the printer provides an accurate but dark copy of what you see on your screen when you print. The difference is slight but noticeable. Black and White printing is accurate and there is no color cast.
The only caveat that I can offer is that the printer drinks ink. I have been printing a lot at best quality and I have gone through a number of ink cartridges. Vivid light magenta in particular disappears quickly. I am very happy with this printer after a few days of extensive use. If a problem crops up after a longer period of time I will amend my review. Otherwise I am marking this printer as a five star product and giving a wholehearted buy recommendation
Rating
I was eager to see how the Epson Stylus Photo R2880 compared to my trusty old Epson Stylus Photo R800 Inkjet Printer which is still a great printer and was Epson’s first true photo-quality printer. The first thing that I noticed was the R2880′s size and design. When the doors are opened up for printing, the printer takes up considerable real estate, but when closed up it really doesn’t seem that big. The build quality is top-notch and the styling is sleek and solid-looking.
There are 2 USB ports on the rear of the printer which allow the connection of 2 computers at the same time. Not exactly a network-ready solution, but it works well for me. There’s a PictBridge port on the front of the printer, but given the cost of the consumables for this type of printer, I can’t really see anyone printing their photos directly from their camera without at least previewing them.
Setup was very easy using the supplied software wizards. I took the time to allow the software to install the proper drivers, and the printer was ready to roll (after installing the ink cartridges too). I noticed that the size of the cartridges for the R2880 were actually a smaller capacity than my R800. This was a bit disappointing since the cartridges for the 2 printers are about the same price.
My first color prints were absolutely stunning, right out of the box. I printed on both glossy and matte paper and was totally impressed with the quality which easily surpassed that of the R800. It’s disappointing, however, that you have to swap out the Photo Black with the Matte Black cartridge when switching between Glossy and Matte paper. I printed B&W and Sepia photos using the Advanced BW printing mode and had great results each time.
Overall, the Epson Stylus Photo R2880 has all of the features I need in a color photo inkjet printer and I would recommend it to anyone desiring a quality printer. There are some reviewers who have complained about the amount of ink that this printer uses, but if you look at the reviews here on Amazon for comparable printers from HP and Canon, you’ll find that there are an equal amount of complaints about their ink usage too. The bottom line here is that you are paying for the ability to manipulate and control the output of your photos. There are many cheaper ways to have your photos printed, but always with a sacrifice in color quality.
Here’s a summary of my review. The cons are really pretty minor issues that are vastly overshadowed by the pros, so I gave this printer 5 stars. It really is that good.
PROS:
Stunning color print quality
B&W and sepia printing
Features/Design
CONS:
Small cartridge size
Photo/Matte Black cartridge swapping