Epson Stylus Photo 2200 Ink Jet Printer (C11C387011)

The versatile 2200 makes it easy to print on envelopes, roll paper, and many types and sizes of single-sheet paper.

The 2200 supports a wide variety of paper types, including glossy, semi-glossy, luster, matte, and Epson's velvet fine art paper, as well as large-format sizes up to 13 by 44 inches. With the included roll paper holder and built-in automatic cutter, you can print borderless images easily, while a photo catcher neatly stacks multiple prints as they are cut.

Compatible with both Mac and PC systems, the 2200 comes backed with a one-year Epson exchange warranty.

What's in the Box
Printer, AC power supply and cord, seven ink cartridges (cyan, light cyan, magenta, light magenta, yellow, light black, photo black), roll paper holder accessory, roll paper cutter and catcher; printer cable not included

Product Description
Epson Stylus Photo 2200 This phenomenal Micro Piezo inkjet printer is the first to employ seven pigment inks, and the result is color depth and fidelity beyond the capability of any inkjet machine to date. Epson UltraChrome Ink use a special technology that delivers the highest color gamut of any inkjet pigment ink. An innovative individual cartridge system makes for more efficient use of these durable, fade resistant archival color supplies. Requires Windows 98, 2000, ME, XP or Mac OS 8.6 to 9.x and OS X 10.1+. 500 MHz+ processor, 128MB+ RAM, 200MB+ hard disk space, CD-ROM Dimensions - 24.3 (l) x 34.1 (w) x 15.4 (h) Weight - 25.7 lbs. Actual print speed will vary according to use

I purchased the printer as a companion for my Nikon D100 digital SLR camera. The two features that were critical in my decision to go with this over other cameras on the market are the ability to print up to 2880x1440dpi and the max paper size of 13x19inches.

When the printer first arrived, I was a bit skeptical and dissappointed to find that the OSX support is quite basic. Now, it is important to note that all features are supported in Classic mode, but as many can understand, this is a bit of a hassle. That said, I have found in my experience so far that there isn't anything that I would like to do that I can't with OSX. Boarderless printing might be a concern to others, so I will point out that you cannot print Boarderless in OSX. That said, as a semi-professional photographer, I don't care for boarderless prints at all. You often loose some of the image because the size of the actual image seldom matches the size of the paper and cropping almost always happens. The paper-roll is another option that is not available through OSX, but quite frankly, I have very little use for it.

Despite these slight bad points, I was able to everything that I would ever want to do right out of the box. It took me a few test strips to get the first truly impressive print and from that moment on I've been getting fantastic picture one after another. I've tested a number of types of paper in a number of settings and have found the following: Colorsync (the setting in OSX that is supposed to match the image on the screen in terms of accuracy) was not really desireable. Colors were weak, blacks were not on target, overall lackluster. I found that photorealistic created fantastic output at 2880-1440dpi. Also, it is VERY important to note that the quality of prints jumps DRAMATICALLY between regular matte photopaper and actual glossy or semi-glossy photopaper.

A word to film photographers: terminology in digital, injet printing paper is slightly different from regular photographic media. What we know as "matte" paper is a lot more like regular printer paper. I would recommend Semi-glossy, or Pearl if you want heafty paper, but not "shiny." I have tested the Epson brand of semi-glossy and it is very nice. The only problem is that it is on the whole more expensive that third party paper. I've done some research and testing and found that Ilford inkjet printing paper is fantastic with used on the 2200. Ilford recommends that you set your printer to Premium Glossy, but I tried both Premium Glossy and Semi-glossy and got equal results as far as I could see with the naked eye.

I have also experimented with 13x19 prints and they are fantastic and gigantic. Printing times using a 600mhz iBook, 650mb ram, and firewire at max resolution are about 5 minutes for 8x10 and about 15 minutes for 13x19. Given the quality and the fact that the output looks as good as anything I've ever gotten from a professional developer, it is fine worth the wait. For the record, I am printing Tiffs recorded at the highest resolution that the D100 will handle. Each print is about 17.4MB in size. It may be that with prints of smaller file-size the printing times are reduced, but for archival purposes, I max out the file-sizes of my digital photography and I find it to be equal to that of film (at least as far as I've compared to my old film-based prints)

One last minor problem is the ink. The cartriges (seven total) are small and after printing about 15 prints, all at max resolution, I find that some of the colors (the light colors in particular) are about 1/4 of the way used. This leads me to two thoughts: 1. do not print max resolution until you are doing your final prints. 2. They could have made the cartriges bigger in order to make it a bit more cost effective.

That said, this is perhaps the best printer for digital photography that I have ever seen and I am more than willing to give it 5 stars despite some minor problems here and there.

N.


Epson 2200 V Canon S9000   November 6, 2002
51 out of 52 found this review helpful

If you are interested in an Epson 2200 then the chances are you want 13x19 output (or roll) and long lasting prints. Otherwise why read this review hey? If so then you possibly have also considered a Canon S9000.

Well my recommendation for you is to definitely stick to the Epson 2200. My experience with the Canon was not good. The Canon product seems to be developing a growing reputation for poor print life resulting from color shifts and bleaching of the pigments. I speak from experience for I used a printer with their BCI-6 inks and it was a disaster with prints on their paper only lasting a few weeks! From the word I got at Photokina this year, Canon is going to have printers with pigmented inks released next year (so hold your breath on that one). So I sold my Canon and now have used the Epson 2200 for about a month and I really am impressed. Get the paper ICC profiles (download Epson Aust) and you are in business with stunning prints! Rich blacks too...wow! These profiles btw are pretty dam good. I made some with Monaco ICC profile builder and they were not necessary. They did however benefit the Nikon Coolscan 4000 but that is another story.

Ok any negatives. Yes, Epson US does not issue the 2200 with the gray balancer software (so for improved monochrome print matching you may download this software from Epson elsewhere and pretend you have a Epson 2100), also if you are buying this remember a cable (IEEE-1394 is fastest). In terms of output speed, it is not as fast a Canon, but there it is more flexibility in my opinion with roll paper and paper cutters. The Epson media is also generally a bit cheaper than that of Canon so that is a bonus.

So in conclusion, the extra $$ outlaid for the Epson will be recovered in print longevity. I would say do your self a favor and indulge.