Home > Consumer Reviews > Epson Stylus Photo SP1400 A3+ Printer , Borderless Printing, Individual Ink Cartridges

I'm currently using one at home and one at school. I can't sing its praises high enough...excellent colour quality prints to A3+, and just as good at printing 4"*6"! The CD printing is also good.
The inks do NOT fade in sunlight - I've exposed two to sunlight for 2 months with half of the print covered. There is no difference between either side.
Only quibble is the size and cost of the cartridges - they are far too small for an A3+ printer. Of course you can always get a CIS system (Fotospeed) for it and that's amazingly good value for money...

Hi
I ordered this printer from Amazon with next day delivery and it arrived at 9am in perfect condition..great service.

The printer was sparkling out of the box but it does'nt come with a 4-pin USB connecter cable, but this is easy to get.

I did some test prints and the quality of the prints is very high, I used the Epson 1290 alot and that was a good printer but this is much better as you can see in the printing speed (which is fast) and the detail quality in the prints.
The type of dye ink the printer use's feels high quality also but (this is the strong bad point) the printer has these tiny cartridges you have to change after doing acouple of A3 prints..you do have the option of just replacing a certain color which is good, but if you want to use it alot I think the inks runs out to quick.
I then bought a good quality colorghost cis system for the printer which use's continous ink from tanks, this has made it so I can print non-stop n there is still tons of ink.
I really recommend this printer but only with a CIS system unless you don't mind paying for cartridges.

Overall the printer is great and I love it, but only with the continious ink system.

I hope this helps
Thanks.

I have today taken delivery of this printer. My first impressions are that this printer itself produces amazing quality prints!! I really cant emphasize this enough!!

I do have a couple of snags though:
Mac OSX software - Well, the driver works, but the utility software is rotten, and cant even detect the printer!

Ink usage - while im aware that some printers may ship with 'not full' ink cartridges, im suprised that this epson either came with virtually no ink in the cardridges OR absolutely drinks it!!
Since installing the printer i've printed 2 A3 B&W prints, and when trying to print a 3rd (color A4) the printer ran out of ink, and churned out a dreadful stripy photo!
So, if its the case that the printer guzzles ink we're looking at approx 32.50 pounds per A3 print (based on 2 pictures from 60quids worth of ink, and 2 sheets of canon pro A3 paper - 25 pounds for 10 sheets), i have a nasty feeling i could have a reem of A3 prints from some stoopid snaps shop on the high street for this amount!!!

Oh, and one last thing - no USB cable supplied - not an issue for me, but i would have hated to have been eagerly anticipating delivery to find i'd have to go out to buy a cable!

I have used Epson printers for many years, mostly A3 starting with the 1160 (had two of those), then the 1290S (had two of those)and more recently this 1400. The 1160 & 1290S would not begin printing if an ink cartridge was too low to complete the sheet so knowing that a cartridge change usually meant a head clean, no print was spoiled - the 1400 stops in the middle of a sheet, and as 9 times out of 10 you have to do a head clean, the remainder of your printed sheet has lines across it. Question - why could the 1400 not have retained the 'don't print if not enough ink' feature from the 1160 & 1290S?
The 1400 is also has a poor sheet feeder and I am constantly having to restack paper, in particular photo quality paper. It is very annoying to set it to print say 20 sheets and go to make a cup of tea only to find it sitting there having printed 2 or 3 sheets with a message that 'paper is not loaded correctly'!
I had thought that having 6 separate inks would be a big saver financially as with tricolour cartridges you are thowing away two reservoirs of any remaining colours simply because one is empty. Joke! The 1400 is costing me 3 times as much in cartridges. I have also had a lot of trouble when replacing cartridges with a message saying that the printer cannot recognise them. I eventually purchased a chip resetter from Ebay which fortunately solved the problem.
Last but not least, I had purchased the 1400 when my 1290S was on its last legs, but as that seemed to get a new lease of life with a rival waiting to take over, I did not actually begin using the 1400 for some time. Six months usage and it stopped dead in the middle of a print with both red lights flashing, which I knew from previous experience with the other printers meant that the waste ink counter needed resetting. I contacted Epson and though I explained that the printer had only been in use for 6 months and certainly hadn't had enough use to merit needing a reset, they told me that as it was out of the 12 month warranty period I would have to return it for a service at a cost of £149.99!!!!!!!!!
I had sourced reset instructions for the 1160 & 1290S (forget what they tell you about the ink pad needing to be changed or you will be flooded with ink - in all the years I have been doing my own resets this has NEVER happened) so I eventually tracked down a manual for the 1400 and reset it myself.
I now no longer actually need an A3 printer for most of what I do so bought a new Epson Stylus S20 for £44.01 including VAT & delivery and for my old work horse computer which only has a parallel port, a reconditioned Epson Stylus C64 for £35.00 including VAT & delivery.
Both perform streets ahead of the 1400 for ink usage and sheet feeding, but the real star is the C64 - in two months of daily use and many, many cartridge changes, I have yet to need to do a head clean or had a sheet feeder problem. It just churns away happily if not very fast, but hey, you can't have everything!
Considering that I spent over £250.00 with delivery for the 1400 it simply is not value for money, and the only reason I have given it 1 star is for speed of printing - twice as fast as the 1160 & 1290S.
Just realised I haven't mentioned print quality which is excellent, but so were the 1160 & 1290S, and now the S20 & C64.
To the uninitiated, forget the dire warnings about using compatible cartridges damaging your printer - THEY DON'T!

I have owned the 1400 for twelve months now and use it in the main for A3+ photo prints. The print quality is excellent but and this is a BIG but,the tiny ink cartridge gives me in the region of nine A3+ prints which is totally unacceptable considering their price.

Enter Leo at [], His CIS system with its never ending (nearly) suply of ink makes it a pleasure to own and run the 1400.
I read all the reviews on CIS systems to use with this printer and decided to go with the inkjetfly system, fantastic results and so cheap compared to the Epson ink.

So if you want quality photo prints up to A3+ size the 1400 and inkjetfly CIS system gets my vote.

Happy printing.