Having seen some negative reviews about this printer on amazon, yet still being desperate for a printer that prints on CD's as well as has CISS system available for it (CISS systems reduce printing costs by attatching an ink system onto the printer). I still bought it because it was the only one available for my needs.
Setting up the printer with the CISS system took me at least an hour, however once everything was set up, it was perfect for printing on CDs. The ink being not even geniune Epson Ink, was perfect and high quality.
The problems that i had was after i set everything up, and was about to test print my first few CDs, the printer said something was blocking the printer head. I had to restart the printer several times, and restart the computer2 times to get it back to working/printing condition.
What i learned was that when you want to print on CDs, you turn on the printer, and wait until it has fully turned on and done its normal head cleaning (this takes up to a minute). Only then, you prepare the printer in the CD print position before inserting the CD tray. The mistake i was making was i turned it on, and put the printer on CD printing position (but did not insert the CD tray of course) because i thought it made no difference, but if you do that the printer says there is a "general error" and to remove anything blocking the printer head! Therefore, turn on the printer etc, wait for it to load fully, then switch the lid to CD printering position (where THEN you can insert the CD tray).
The printer print quality is the best i have seen, very bright colours, no smudges even when straight out of the printer and rubbing ur fingers over the print out (unlike some printers!).
I would have given it 5 stars but the reason for 4 stars was because of the small errors i told you about in the CD printing.
This printer can work with genuine ink or the other inks you can find on ebay, and really it does not affect image quality as i have been using Epson for years and never bought genuine epson branded ink. Plus you can save a lot by buying Epson (in particular R285) because you can buy a CISS system for it reducing your printing costs significantly!!!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Price, Quality, ease of use, gives you more control over pictures Disadvantages: If just just want to print normal photos, still cheaper to use a photo shop
killerpete50 09.01.2008 (09.01.2008)
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Review of Epson Stylus Photo R285
Advantages: Price, Quality, ease of use, gives you more control over pictures Disadvantages: If just just want to print normal photos, still cheaper to use a photo shop
killerpete50 09.01.2008 (09.01.2008)
·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Epson Stylus Photo R285