Home > Consumer Reviews > Epson Stylus Photo R2880 A3 Photo Printer

I purchased Epson's R2880 to replace my trusty Epson 1270 photo printer which, after 9 years producing excellent prints finally gave up the ghost. I was keen to see what improvements had been made in 9 years of development.

The printer is quite large but easy to assemble, and the software installation proceeded with no problems. Reviews say that the new printer interface is an improvement on the old one. I dissagree with this. It's still good, but not an improvement.

So what were the first prints like ? A bit dissapointing - too washed out with weak colours. So I reduced the brightness and increased the contrast in the printer preferences and the results were then very good indeed. In fact the colours matched exactly those on the monitor screen, something I have never been able to achieve before.

Although the R2880 has higher resolution than the 1270, this did not show in the prints. What did show was the printing speed - just over 2 minutes to do an A4.

The pigment inks do not soak into the paper like dye inks do, but sit on the surface, so the resulting prints are not as glossy but still very good. An they should last a lifetime.

Would I reccommend this printer. You bet. The results really are very good indeed and the printer feels well made. I have printed many thousands of images over the years on several different printers, and the R2880 gives better results by far. Enough said.

I bought this to replace an R800 that was showing banding on photos and which the local Epson service agent was unable to fix.
It was easy enough to set up and the prints look great. I used genuine Epson ink and premium glossy photo paper with Photoshop colour management (the software installation automatically added the R2880 colour profiles to the Photoshop print menu). Blacks are particularly good - the R800 blacks had a warm colour cast. Bright colours are possibly slightly better in the R800 but there's not much in it. However, the R800 was very poor at printing dark greens.
Speed is very slow on max quality setting but on standard setting much faster and I couldn't see any difference in quality - even under a magnifying glass.
However, I was very disappointed when, after 3 days, I did a nozzle-check. The printer went into an extended cleaning cycle and then showed that one of the nozzles was blocked. I did another nozzle check and again it did a cleaning cycle before printing the nozzle check pattern. This appeared to use around £12 worth of ink, although it's difficult to tell as the ink-level window doesn't give a very accurate display - earlier versions of the printer status monitor at least had graduation marks against the displayed ink levels.
There is no printed manual supplied and the electronic manual doesn't mention this behaviour. I've now seen similar complaints in the US Amazon web site.
Next time I did some printing the problem didn't happen and the nozzle check was fine, so maybe this is just a teething problem.
So overall, I am happy with it but a bit nervous of the apparently random cleaning cycles and the amount of ink that gets used as a result - the R800 would check the nozzles and then give the option of nozzle-cleaning or not. Especially disappointing as Epson are supposed to have improved the nozzle and ink technology so why so many cleaning cycles? Then again, if it makes the printer last longer than my R800, perhaps it is worth it.
Summary:
Very good colours
Excellent blacks and greys
Good speed on standard quality setting
Max quality setting appears to be no better than standard setting
Worrying, unpredictable and expensive automatic nozzle cleaning (not described in the manual)
No printed manual.
Although I have not used Epson's support service for this printer, experience with previous printers have left me unsatisfied.

I ummed and aaahhhed about this for a long while; it is an expensive piece of equipment and I was very uncertain that my shots were going to merit such a supreme printer. However, if like me, you are not fully confident and competent in the printer settings, gamma alchemy and strange inner settings, then you will need to be prepared to spend a lot on lost prints, incorrect settings, disappointments and 'duffs'. The on-line user manual is aimed at those who know what they're doing - and I didn't. In my humble opinion, there's nothing like having a printed manual that you can flick through and read in depth, so you may be disappointed that this is not included. However, if you persevere, you will achieve some truly astonishing prints with fantastic colour depth and tonal range. I've printed successfully at A3+ from a 10MP D-SLR Olympus E-510 Digital SLR Camera (ED 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 & ED 40-150mm 1:4.0-5.6)and am delighted with the clear, pin-sharp and vibrant results. I've not attempted Black&White prints yet, but on its colour performance, I'm quite confident that the results will be stunning (if my shots are up to it.) I'm afraid I've no techno-babble to help inform your decision on this printer, just my opinion that it will delight you when you've gained the competence and knowledge to get the best out of it. I'm far from that stage, but I'm already thrilled with what it pushes out. There is nothing to touch the thrill of watching your print emerging from the printer looking so very much better than ever it did on the computer. I have no hesitation in highly recommending this printer. My choice of giving it 4 rather than 5 stars is purley that it is not idiot-proof, which would have been just perfect for me!

Good news: superb results; use Epson paper or Permajet with Permajet custom ICC profiles and you won't be disappointed. Bad news: the printer uses 9 ink cartridges and only has 8 slots so every time you swap between matt and gloss you have to manually change a cartridge, losing expensive ink in the process. Other Epson printers intelligently choose which permanently installed black cartridge to use, why not this one?

I purchased my R2880 printer in September 2008 and should have known better than to purchase another Epson printer. Everybody should take note that after you have had the printer for more than 30 days, if a fault develops, they will only replace it with a reconditioned substitute. I purchased an Epson A4 printer 2 years ago and didn't remove it from the box until 6 weeks after purchase. It was faulty from day one. An Epson engineer attended and wanted to replace my new printer with a substitute which looked as though it had been kicked up and down the street. After a long and frustrating battle and with the help of a Digital Camera magazine it was eventually replaced with a new one. My new R2880 developed a fault after just two weeks. It kept insisting on constantly recharging the ink cartridges until they were drained. This corrected itself after a couple of days, until in March 2009 the same problem arose, only much worse. I contacted Epson who agreed the printer was faulty. They arranged for an engineer to attend on a set date. My wife and I spent the full day at home and nobody appeared. I contacted Epson by e-mail and didn't even get any explanation or apology. They simply replied that due to a shortage of parts they would not replace my printer until one week later. They further said that it would be replaced with a quality assured reconditioned one. I have wasted 4 new cartridges (about £45 worth of ink), with no prints to show for it, because of a faulty product. Epson offer no compensation for this.

So what about the printer itself? If you want the best possible quality prints with true blacks and great colour then look no further than this printer. The down side as outlined by previous reviews is that if you want to use the matt black you need to change cartridges, and then all cartridges will be recharged, wasting very expensive ink. The lack of a printed manual is also irritating.

The bottom line is that if there is another printer out there which you think might be better than the R2880 then go for it. If I had a better choice I wouldn't touch any Epson printer with a barge-pole. I have been an Epson fan for many years but be warned, take the risk if you wish, but expect to be treated with contempt by customer services. How do they get away with their '30 day dead on arrival' policy which seems to fly in the face of the Sale of Goods Order? If I were to rate the product guarantee and customer services they wouldn't even get one star. Keep your fingers, legs and anything else crossed if you purchase any of their products!!