Blown Away By New Printer!

Well, Howie got his fishing gear for his belated Christmas gifts and I got a printer. We bought an Epson Stylus Photo 820 today and it is amazing. And it has a $50 mail-in rebate, making it under $100 after rebate.

I am miss picky when it comes to printers, and this impressed even me! Printing even on plain paper, the clarity is amazing. Its speed mode produces better prints than our HP 855C does on its presentation mode. Printing on glossy photo paper, the Epson is unbelievable. The color cartridges have 6 colors, so the range of hues it can produce is impressive. The black and white photos I printed were nearly indistinguishable from the image I saw on the monitor. The inks dry very quickly and don't smudge. Yea!

You don't see the grainy little dots on these prints, either, even when you're eyeballing it from 3" away from your nose! I am just amazed. :o) It can print at 2880dpi, but the 1440dpi is more than adequate for just about anything we do and uses a lot less ink.

The only con? It is noisy. Don't print while someone's trying to sleep nearby. Our old HP is loud in a klunking way, but the Epson has a high-pitched whine and chatter as it prints, especially on the high-res photos. BUT...It was worth it just for the comedy of watching our dog Sarah worry and whine over the sound and wonder what on EARTH that thing was! ;o)

Here are some links about it if you're interested:

http://www.vistek.ca/digital/digreview.asp?SKU=204182 is an older review. The price has dropped to around $150 now, plus there is the $50 rebate.
http://www.steves-digicams.com/diginews_oct2001.html#820 is a very detailed review at one of my favorite digital photography sites, Steve's Digicams.