Read my other reviews and you will see that Epson products figure large in my portfolio of study equipment. This is my eighth.!
I know their faults, but still love their good qualities.
I give them praise where its due, and call out the technicians when needed ! So you can be sure that this ... Read review
Advantages: Superb colour printing Disadvantages: Costly inks and bulky footprint
...and you will see that Epson products figure large in my portfolio of study equipment. This is my eighth.!
I know their faults, but still love their good qualities.
I give them praise where its due, and call out the technicians when needed ! So you can be sure that this is a balanced opinion.
Oliver-Twist-like, I have come back for more, bought the R265 last week and so present you with all your questions answered on the Epson ... ...myself the question, since the Epson C86 it is replacing is not even a year old yet.
And you may have noticed a review of an Epson Laser printer I own, and that machine is only just a year old this week.!
Well the story goes like this - ( well rehearsed to cope with family taunting ) - The laser printer is superb and really meets with most of my printing needs. However, it cannot print on photographic paper, and the ... more
Read my other reviews and you will see that Epson products figure large in my portfolio of study equipment. This is my eighth.! I know their faults, but still love their good qualities. I give them praise where its due, and call out the technicians when needed ! So you can be sure that this is a balanced opinion. Oliver-Twist-like, I have come back for more, bought the R265 last week and so present you with all your questions answered on the Epson Stylus Photo R265.
1 Why another new printer? ***********************
Yes you may well ask that question.! After all, my significant other asked that question the moment she spotted it on the desk !
I even asked myself the question, since the Epson C86 it is replacing is not even a year old yet.
And you may have noticed a review of an Epson Laser printer I own, and that machine is only just a year old this week.!
Well the story goes like this - ( well rehearsed to cope with family taunting ) - The laser printer is superb and really meets with most of my printing needs. However, it cannot print on photographic paper, and the family all want photos printed on photographic glossy paper. Plus the fact, that having a working printer, is so essential to me, that I simply must have a back-up machine to the laser.! There you have it ! I needed the R265.!
What was wrong with the C86, they all cry.??
Well, the yellow print head had clogged.! - is my calm answer.
Well it is still under warranty, so why not get the technician out ? - cries the unsympathetic family.
Well, he was here a fortnight ago to fix the laser printer - he made a comment about being here before, and I couldn't bring myself to call him out yet again !
AND, then there was Epson's special offer.! Trade in any inkjet printer that is still under warranty and you can save up to £100 on the cost of a new printer ! I had just a few days to clinch the deal before my warranty expired - who could resist.!?
So THAT is why I bought this one - and paid less for it than a complete set of cartridges for the C86. Even Gordon Brown would reckon that I was prudent, I suggest.
If you are determined to buy one yourself, you too can do an exchange at an Epson Express centre. If you do not have a printer to exchange, then you can buy one of these in a store like PCWorld, for about £70.
2 Why Is This A Good Choice ? ***************************
The specification of the R265 is impressive.
Print Speed :
Take print speed - an important indicator of how good a printer is. It is reckoned that this Epson can handle 33 sheets of A4 mono printing every minute. Can it do it, though? Yes it can, if you print in draft mode with very little text on the page. But throw a full page of text at it, and a more realistic figure is about 15 pages per minute.
Epson claim colour photos can be produced in 13 seconds. Again it is possible to produce a colour print in 7 seconds, but only in very poor draft mode. A mediocre print takes about 40 seconds and a full photo quality print takes me nearer to 2 minutes.
Print Quality :
If you are eager to have a photo quality printer, then it is quality more than speed that counts. The quality is stunning - it is why I keep returning to Epson. It uses 6 individual colour cartridges to print photos and does so at resolutions up to 5760 dpi x 1440 dpi, in both mono and colour. You can print borderless prints too, and they are frankly, better than what you would expect from a colour lab on the high street. Using their new generation, Claria ink technology, Epson reckon that these prints will hold their colour for 200 years.! I have not been able to prove that yet - but promise to update this review in 200 years time, if I can.!
CD Printing :
The other useful ability of this series of Epson printers is that they can print on CD/DVDs and so provide a nice photo image for you to identify the contents of all those anonymous discs that are floating around the house or office. So along with the software CD, a complete set of cartridges and a power cable, you get a CD holder that you line up with the appropriate markings on the printer tray, and you can decorate your discs.
Paper Handling :
Most printers can do the same as Epson here. It can handle 120 sheets of paper in the tray and all kinds of paper weight, up to light card. Size wise you can feed in envelopes from C6 to B5, and paper just greater than A4 down to just less than A6. I have had no feed problems so far, and will leave an update if I do have jams, as this is an important issue.
3 Is It For You ? ************* There are a few things to take into consideration before you rush out and buy one.
Size : This is a bigger machine than those I have had previously and I fear that it could be a bit too big for some cluttered desks. Roughly speaking, it is 45 cms wide and deep and about 22cms high. However, pull out the paper tray at the front and the paper loader at the back, and you have a bigger footprint again.
Running Costs : Epson are making a big issue out of the fact that printers like this have 6 separate cartridges and you only need to replace each individual one as you need to. They also advertise the fact that individual cartridges are available fro £6.99. Just in case your maths are rusty, that makes a total of over £47 to replace the lot.! It is possible - and cheaper - to buy multipacks, and these can be bought from Amazon for about £31 and other places, a bit cheaper still. If you go heavy on enhanced, high quality photos, you will find yourself spending a lot of money in a short time.
Noise : The Epson figure is 49dbA and just looking at that figure on a box may not be too meaningful. It is loud enough to be heard from one room to another, and if that room happens to be baby's nursery, you should maybe think about the impact.!
USB cable : I mentioned this in other reviews, and it is worth repeating. I am happy not to get another USB cable as I cannot find room for all the spare cables I own of various sorts. But if you are a first-timer with a printer that uses USB2, it is very annoying to discover that you need to purchase a cable to link the printer to the PC.
Servicing : Epson do provide a year's warranty. You can phone for help, but like every other support service, it is unpredictable and slow. However, you can go online, and those clever Epson people can test your printer remotely for you, while you sit at your PC and follow their instructions. They do send out service engineers if their online help does not fix the problem, and I have nothing but praise for the guys who come out and their workmanship. But you need to be at home when they call, and they offer very broad timeslots - so you could be taking a whole afternoon off work to be there.
Breakdown can be best viewed as death and burial time for the printer if it is out of warranty. Printers are so cheap nowadays, that they have become disposable items. The fast rate of development of printers adds to this sad reality. The R265 cost me less than its predecessor - but works much, much better.
Advantages: Prints on printable CD's/DVD's Disadvantages: Haven't found any yet
I bought the Epson Stylus Photo R265 just over a couple of months ago because I liked the fact that it printed onto printable CD and DVD’s. I am a keen amateur photographer and videographer and being able to print information onto the DVD’s I store my work on makes my hobby that little bit more satisfying.
Printing on printable CD/DVD is made possible by setting the disc on a tray. Now the tray will accommodate full size discs and the smaller discs ... ...to worry about.
The Epson Stylus Photo R265 naturally comes with drivers and software but I found the only software on the disc compatible with Windows Vista is “Epson Print CD” so if you’re running Windows Vista, you need to download the drivers and software from Epson’s site. With the Epson Stylus Photo R265 we are given a sample pack of 5”x7” Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper and one piece of software I am finding really useful (that I didn’t ...
Snorelax63 20.04.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Epson Stylus Photo R265
Advantages: BETTER DESIGN, QUIETER, GOOD PHOTO AND DVD/CD PRINTING. Disadvantages: I HAVE FOUND NONE TO DATE.
THE EPSON STYLUS R265 CD/DVD & PHOTO PRINTER. I must say that since this one was chosen for me by Epson UK having had a somewhat disasterous time with the previous model of similar ilk, the (EPSON STYLUS R260). The R265 is so far doing well!
I have yet to give it the test of time since the R260 "croaked" after a somewhat short space of time in my estimation. 12 months almost to the day! I had an error messages up about non-replaceable parts wearing ... ...gaurantee too. I telephoned the Epson UK establishment and was told that it could be repaired but... costs would outweigh the value of the printer. They did suggest that I take up the offer of the Epson Stylus R265. Yes, an altogether better piece of gear in many ways - so far! I await at least another six months to see if I have a repeat performance of the "unworthy" R260.
I have owned the Epson Stylus R265 for about six months to date. I have ...
Hi-Spec-Tek 30.04.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Epson Stylus Photo R265
...thing you notice about the Epson Stylus Photo R265 is that it's pretty large. You'd almost think it was a multifunction device, especially given it's height. As such you'll need a fair chunk of desk space to take it. That said, it's attractive enough if a little utilitarian.
* The main features are:
* 6 ink carts
* CD/DVD Printing
* Direct photo printing via PictBridge/USB
* Claria Long life inks
* Borderless printing
* 5760x1440 dpi resolution
... ...it's a pretty vanilla device. No LCD screen and no slots for media cards so you can't do much without having your PC connected.
My first impressions when printing were good. I printed photos on A4 as single images and 4 to a page and found them bright, punchy and well balanced. The shadow detail seemed fine and skin tones looked good. However, on printing a few more, it became clear the colours were slightly oversaturated. This may be the driver, ...
ilaskey 08.12.2006 (21.03.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Epson Stylus Photo R265
Advantages: Superb print quality Disadvantages: Physically large
The Epson R265 is an excellent printer, which with 6 colours of ink, (black, yellow, cyan, light cyan, magenta and light magenta) produces superb photo quality with rich colours & flesh tones when a quality photo paper is used.
If used in either draft or text mode it is very economical and I find the best day to day prints are achieved in text mode, which I use as my default printer setting. The options are 'draft', 'text', 'text & image', 'photo' ... ...What I particularly like about Epson printers however, is the manner in which they feed the paper, which is from the back of the printer, through to the front with just a slight curve along the way. This allows for use of much heavier media, (220 gsm heavy paper/light card is no problem) where HP and similar stuggle with as the paper is fed at the front, turned completely round and returned at the front, so anything heavier than 160gsm can jam the ...
Lion-heart 03.11.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Epson Stylus Photo R265
Advantages: High quality, fast printing. Print to CD. 6 colour. Pictbridge from Digital camera Disadvantages: A little noisy initially when taking in the next sheet
...£49.99 from Currys, after my Epson 760 finally died. I am really impressed with this printer. There is a very detailed review of this printer already, but this is my experience so far. The rear paper feed is a little noisy when it takes the next sheet in. The printing on all types of paper is quick and very good quality. I have used the front tray for printing direct onto CDs, the included software for this is very good. Also the printing direct ... ...it. The first set of inks lasted a couple of weeks, true Epson although the first set doesn't last as long as it needs to charge the ink heads. I got a discount on the next set of Epson inks when I bought the printer, before buying the compatibles online. ...
vmrussell1 28.08.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Epson Stylus Photo R265
Envelopes, plain paper, photo paper, Plain paper, photo paper
Min Media Size (Custom)
90 mm
Max Media Size (Custom)
216 mm x 356 mm
Media Sizes
ANSI A (Letter) (216 x 279 mm), Legal (216 x 356 mm), A4 (210 x 297 mm), A5 (148 x 210 mm), B5 (176 x 250 mm), A6 (105 x 148 mm), 100 x 150 mm, 130 x 180 mm, 90 x 130 mm
Envelope Sizes
US No 10 (104.7 x 241.3 mm), International DL (110 x 220 mm), International C6 (114 x 162 mm), International B5 (176 x 250 mm)
Total Media Capacity
120 sheets
Media Feeder(s)
1 x autoload - 120 sheets
Expansion / connectivity
Connections
1 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 PIN USB Type B
1 x direct print port, 1 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 PIN USB Type B
Miscellaneous
Certified for Windows Vista
Certified for Windows Vista software and devices have undergone compatibility tests for ease-of-use, better performance and enhanced security.
Power
Power Device
Power supply - internal
Voltage Required
AC 120/230 V
Frequency Required
50/60 Hz
Power Consumption Operational
12 Watt
Power Consumption Stand by / Sleep
1.1 Watt
Software / system requirements
OS Required
Microsoft Windows 98SE/2000/ME/XP, Apple MacOS X 10.2.8 or later
Manufacturer warranty
Service & Support
1 year warranty
Service & Support Details
Limited warranty - 1 year, Limited warranty - parts and labour - 1 year - carry-in
Environmental parameters
Sound Emission (Operating)
49 dBA
Manufacturer's product description
It's time to discover the endless possibilities of digital photography. Just connect the Epson Stylus Photo R265 to your PC and get ready to print real, high quality photos at home. With the PhotoEnhance technology, you can print an even better photo too - it's like having an expert inside your printer, correcting colors and contrasts. And it's fast - a fantastic 10x15cm photo takes just 13 seconds to print out. Individual ink cartridges keep costs low because you only replace the ink that runs out. And the Claria photographic inks will keep your precious memories safe in the family album for up to 200 years!
