Epson Stylus Photo 1400 Photo Printer
See it at Amazon.com for $245.00Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(5 out of 5)Big win!
I've had this printer for just a week and I'm amazed at the results. It was easy to set up and is easy to use. I took a look at "Real World Color Management," by Fraser, Murphy, and Bunting, before I started using the printer. It's a helpful book, even if you just skim a few of the early chapters. It helped me to understand the printer's advanced options and to get the results I wanted. You could just use the printer with the out of the box settings, and I suppose it would produce really nice results. I'm an artist, though, and I want to be in control. That's why I bought this printer, I was frustrated with unpredictable results from labs.
A note on ink:
I have been printing on glossy paper. At $18.99 per cartridge for ink (Epson website price, with free overnight shipping if you order at least three cartridges at a time), so far,
- my 8.5" x 11" prints are roughly $1.20 - $1.80 for ink
- my 13" x 19" are about $3.50 - $5.50 for ink
(Printing in "Photo" mode puts your costs at the low end of the ranges. Printing in "Photo RPM" mode costs about 40% - 50% more and puts you at the high end of the price ranges. I usually cannot distinguish between "Photo" and "Photo RPM" modes, so I almost always print in "Photo" mode. Occasionally, I notice banding or tones which do not appear smooth on very close inspection, then I switch to "Photo RPM.")
Warning: I believe ink use varies considerably with paper type. less ink for glossy, more ink for semi-gloss, and still more ink for matte and art paper. I'm not sure though.
I am printing on Inkpress Glossy paper (equivalent in weight, sheen, and brightness to Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper) which I ordered from B&H Photo. It's less expensive than Epson paper and looks spectacular.
In fact, I recently gave two 8x10's to a friend as a gift. She thought they looked wonderful and was astonished to learn that they were inkjet prints. She thought they must have been "professionally" printed at a lab. I was pretty flattered (credit to the printer, too, of course...) She also happens to be an artist and professional web designer, so she's got a fine eye.
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Update:
I've used the printer some more. I'm still very pleased. However, I've looked closer at the Inkpress paper I mentioned above. From a distance, it looks great, but closer up, it has many problems. Almost every sheet is covered with fine scratches, and about half the sheets have at least one major defect (some as large as 1/8" in diameter) where the gloss coating did not cover the paper. The defects are like little potholes on the surface. At first, I thought I had caused these problems through poor handling. Epson Premium Photo Paper Glossy has an absolutely flawless surface, though, and I have handled the prints the same way. I don't recommend the Inkpress paper.
(5 out of 5)Great printer for everything
I've only had this printer for about a month, but so far it has lived up to my expectations with Epson. I've owned a half dozen Epson printers in the past and currently own 3. I was looking for a printer to make 11x14 to 12x18 prints and this one was priced right. So far the prints have been superior and the printer easy to set up and use. My only complaints are: 1) It uses a great deal of inks, especially the light cyan, light magenta, and yellow. The specs said it was easy on inks, but I'm not finding that true. 2) The inks are expensive (as usual) but I can only get them from Epson store. Epson does have specials and when I get 10% off and free shipping, I usually take advantage of it. All in all I would recomend this printer to anyone needing a larger format without the larger price tag. I've tried HP and Canon and find them good printers, but I have found the Epson line of printers superior.
(4 out of 5)Excellent printer
First of all, I rated this printer at four stars only because its an ink hog. To be fair, I print high resolution photos so I suppose thats to be expected. As for the quality of prints, my friends ooh and ahh over them. I like the way it handles high-key landscape photos. In all, an excellent printer. Now, if they just made bulk magazine cartridges...
(4 out of 5)Epson 1400
I really do love this printer. The quality of the prints are exceptional. I only find one flaw, and that is that it's hard to find ink for it! Most office supply stores do not carry the ink, nor do the online ink sites. You must buy it directly from Epson, or if you are lucky, Comp USA will have some in stock.
(5 out of 5)works fine on my iMac but has some Black & white-panoramic problems
I can highly recommend the Epson 1400 printer for its outstanding quality of prints with sizes up to 13 inches wide. It is the least costly of the 13 inch wide format printers especially with the rebate Epson offers. The inks are Claria high definition inks which work especially well on glossy paper with an estimated lifetime of up to 100 years. The Epson ink is very costly as usual, but some suppliers (e.g., Lyson, novachromeusa) are offering bulk ink cartridges one might try if you are willing to pay for the set-up cost.
There are several problems if you do panoramic prints or black and white prints. Panoramic prints are a bit tricky to print out since Epson only offers roll paper for panoramic prints, and there is no roller in which to place the roll paper. In additon, you will have to make a custom paper size for panoramics since Epson does not include this in the standard printer software. One can cut the Epson roll paper into individual sheets or purchase individual sheets of panoramic roll paper from other suppliers such as Red River Paper. You also could purchase instead the more expensive Epson R1800 printer which does have a place for the roll paper and the software includes a panoramic print mode. Also you may have trouble with black and white prints since the Epson 1400 leaves a color tinge in the prints unless you spend some time making some color adjustments to get neural black and white prints. Again the Epson R1800 made perfect black and white prints without such adjustments.