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Epson Stylus Photo R380 Inkjet Printer
Price Range
$125.99

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Reviewed by: BoraSport
Updated:06-13-07
Duration of ownership:1 Days
Strengths: Very quiet operation compared to my other printers. Fast output with basic settings. Easy to use on screen controls. Red eye reduction works perfectly.
Weaknesses: Print quality and reliablity
Overall Evaluation: I bought this printer for my wife to simplify her printing needs for scrapbook projects. My main reasons for selecting this printer over others was the HD reviews and the quality of the inks. This was the only ink jet printer I had found that would produce a print that lasts for 200 years in an album.The print, from a Panasonic FX3 6 megapixel camera, using an SD card directly inserted in the printer, and printing a 4x6 at high quality showed considerable grain. Skin tones were ok but any dark colored items were clearly degraded. The same image printed from our local mega warehouse club lab looked as good as any print from a film 35mm camera.Just to make sure it wasn't the 6MP camera I used another image taken from a Nikon D200 10.2MP camera. Again printing direct from the memory card the results were the same. I checked the manual and changed my output settings to use the camera's color values and there was no improvement. One of the prints from this series was also over saturated with ink so badly that there were pools of ink on the paper. The print directly after it was fine.We returned the printer and are looking for another option.
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Reviewed by: Medeiros
Updated:04-03-07
Duration of ownership:3 Months
Strengths: Prompts for a replacement ink cartridge before it runs dry during a print job. Able to print multiple DVDs from one print job.
Weaknesses: You may want to charge your clients a little more for each project to cover the ink costs.
Overall Evaluation: Aside from the excellent print quality, the Epson R380 has two features that has helped me waste less paper and save time while printing. First, like Epson of old, if it's out of ink, it's not going to print, but with this printer, it will force you to change an ink cartridge before it prints a page or pages with the characteristic low ink stripes. If you're printing out DVD inserts, it's nice to not waste some of them because of partial coverage. Also, the printer allowed me to change the ink cartridge in the middle of a print run and then continue on with the rest of the run without having to reset the print job from the computer (OS X at least). Second, like the ink cartridge change experience, I was able to select File/Print once, enter how many copies of a DVD I wanted to print and then I was able to print that many DVDs without having to reselect File/Print for each DVD. Not a big time saver unless you're up a against a deadline and every little moment counts. The printer's size seems a little bulky, but it also seems to be a better built printer than some of it's smaller counterparts.
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Reviewed by: chinnboy
Updated:03-12-07
Duration of ownership:5 Days
Strengths: CD/DVD Printing
Weaknesses: Expensive OEM ink
Overall Evaluation: I've been using an earlier iteration of this printer platform, the R200, for several years mainly to print CDs. Its been a delight albeit at times quirky and infuriating due to the chipped ink carts. In my limited usage of the 380, it seems like some of the rough edges of the CD printing function have been smoothed, and apparently OEM cartidges no longer show up as empty when they are not, a vast improvement. The 200 was easily the most fun printer I've ever had, and so far I expect the 380 will continue in its steps. And how often do you have a chance to have a printer that is fun?
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Reviewed by: Wildcard500
Updated:03-04-07
Duration of ownership:1 Days
Strengths: Prints on CD/DVD'S, good build
Weaknesses: ink cost
Overall Evaluation: The printer is nice if you use the printer for printing DVD or CD and photos but the ink cost a lot of money. if you plan on Saving money, you can buy something call continuous ink system it can be installed in less than 5 minutes and will save you a ton of money in the long run, just go to Google or what ever search engine you use and type {Epson Stylus Photo R380 continuous ink system} and find the one you wont How Expensive can ink be hear is a Example When using a standard print ink cartrages, and printing photos that are 4 x 6 in size, the ink will usally run out after about 30 photos, now lets you payed $80.00 to $50.00 for your ink cartrages, each photo will cost you $2.60 to $1.60 I must say No Thank you to this because I can go to the local Wal-mart or K-mart and get my Digital prints for as lows as .12 to .16 cents a photo so for 30 photo it will cost about $3.60 to $4.80 for all 30 prints compaired to $80.00 to $50.00 dollars the math is to simple. if you used a continuous ink system you save about 90% over the cost of what ink cartrage cost a lot cheaper. For me though i plain to return my printer, why because the way i use a printer i just print documents, floor plans, and a few photo now and then, so for me it is not worth it, but print straight to a dvd is nice though. I will Probably buy a HP Business inkjet 1200d instead because it has large Ink cartrages the Black ink cartage will hold 69ml of ink, and each color ink cartrage will hold 28ml of ink each.
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Reviewed by: FortuneBee
Updated:03-02-07
Duration of ownership:14 Days
Strengths: Nice Color
Weaknesses: Expensive Ink
Overall Evaluation: The printer is nice for photo print. The print is precise and vivid color displayed.However, the ink is expensive which prevent you use it frequently otherwise the cost is too high.
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Reviewed by: jmmesch
Updated:02-06-07
Duration of ownership:1 Months
Strengths: Prints fast and beautifully
Weaknesses: Not for all uses. Photos and DVDs and CDs only
Overall Evaluation: This is a great photo printer, and I can tell because I use it with a 10.1 megapixel D-SLR, and host of lenses (10-22mm wide angle, 28-135mm, 105 macro, and a 100-400mm telephoto). Gorgous photos. Uses lots of ink, should not be used for anything but photos and inkable DVDs/CDs.
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Reviewed by: KellyGates
Updated:01-26-07
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Picture Quality is Superb
Weaknesses: Drinks Ink, Slow When Printing Text, Quite Large
Overall Evaluation: Let me start off by saying I almost sent this printer back. The size is huge for an inkjet, and the printer does not fit well on my desk. Because of this, I've decided to relocate the printer to another room in my home and network it. If size is a concern for you, this is NOT the printer you want. I previously had one of the better HP models. It is still my main printer for text and everyday use. This Epson uses lots of ink and Epson cartridges are pricey. Find an off-brand and stick to it. There is a nice front compartment for SD cards, etc. There is a door covering it, protecting it from dust, etc. Also, replacing ink cartridges is quite a pain. The top lifts back, but with its size, if it's in a small space, this is a problem. I kept this printer solely to print digital camera pictures, after all - that's what it is marketed as, really. I wouldn't consider it an everyday printer, but it's a top notch photo printer. The picture quality is better than my local lab. By the way, when sign companies print large colored banners, ads ,etc.... those machines are Epson or at least use Epson components. I didn't think a home printer, especially at this price, could put out the quality this machine achieves. It's a great photo printer, but not an all-around.
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Reviewed by: wills916
Updated:01-03-07
Duration of ownership:4 Days
Strengths: Direct to CD/DVD printing (to compatible media). 6 Seperate ink cartridges. nice asthetics. large LCD screen.
Weaknesses: its kind of bulky for only being an inkjet printer. Size is closer to many all-in-one units. If you havn't printed something for awhile (a day for example), the initialization is very slow.
Overall Evaluation: I purchased this printer a few days ago to replace my Epson R300 that I was quite happy with, but broke (after quite alot of usage). So far i've printed about 30 text & mixed text/graphic pages, and about 40 DVD's, and the printer has worked fantastically. My only real complaint is that the printer still has very long initialization times when its been idle for awhile. Out of all the DVD's I've printed, not one was mis-fed or rejected because the tray was mis-aligned or anything (my old R300 did this quite often). Print speed seems fairly fast, with somewhat of an improvement over the R300 speed wise. Image quality is excellent. It would also be nice if the ink cartridges were more reasonably priced. With the R300 and other printers, I still usaully have to resort to buying 3rd party ink cartridges as I just cant see spending over $60 for new Epson ones. But this is the case with all the printer manufactures. However with my R300, the generic inks provided excellent results, and its demise was due to mechanical problems with the paper feeding (so the generic ink cant be faulted as I'm sure Epson would like). overall, I'd give this an 8.5 out of 10 rating (but my 10's are almost non-existent).
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