Epson Stylus Photo R3000 Inkjet Printer
4.6
5
217
217
Fast, quiet, beautiful prints.
I purchased this printer the day ofter my R220 gave up the ghost after 4 or 5 years of hard service. In between the time that I'd bought my R220 and the day it crapped out on me, I'd graduated from a professional photography school and and one of the things that I came away with from that place was the love of printing all of my own photos. I was resolved to have a printer that could:
A. I could afford
B. Could make decent black and white/sepia prints
C. Could print on Hahnemuhle fine art papers
D. Could handle 13" wide papers.
E. Wasn't running out of ink every other day.
The R2880 met the first four criteria but not the fifth while the R3880 met the last four but not the first. Then along came the R3000. After reading some reviews, I decided that this was the printer to buy when the time came to get a new one. It came rather unexpectedly!
One warning! The box for this printer is huge. and heavy. Make sure you clear your trunk or the back of your car before going to purchase one. Don't even think of going to the photo store without a vehicle, even if its only a few blocks.
The installation is pretty straightforward and easy though it takes approximately 10 minutes for the printer to pump the ink into the ink lines once the cartridges are installed. The cartridges themselves contain 25ml of ink each, twice what my R220 held, and cost exactly twice as much also. One feature is that both the Photo Black and Mat Black are installed at the same time, obviating the need to switch them when switching papers. This is not so useful a feature as it seems. In the first place, I generally never use mat papers. Second, both cartridges use the same ink lines, and switching from one to the other, which is done with the push of a button, flushes about 3 ml of whichever ink was previously being used out of the ink line. This is stupid. How difficult would it have been to put separate lines for each ink?
That being said, the whole set up process and operation of the printer are very intuitive. ICC profiles for my favorite Hahnemuhle and Ilford papers were downloaded and installed and away I went to printing.
I found the printer to be quiet in operation, and probably because of its weight, vibrates a whole lot less than the R220 it replaced. Every print I've made has been perfect. The black and whites are beautiful and the prints made on fine art papers just rock. Printing is quite fast also. I haven't timed it or anything, but making large prints on this printer, even at the maximum quality, seems to take less time than with the 4800's I used to use in photography school.
I feel that overall, this was a good investment and a sensible alternative to buying a 3880 which was really beyond my budget for now.
July 1, 2011
Second time around
I am a professional photographer selling my original outdoor art/photography at 16 or so shows a year. I also print for 60 other artists and photographers. Printing small work is painful on my bigger (44") Epson printer.
The 3000 is perfect for all the smaller work including cards, magnets, etc. The colors are an excellent match for those in the big printer and the settings are similar, so that it makes a good test bed even when I am intending on a much larger print.
The larger ink supplies and the lower amount of fuss switching between matte and photo black make this machine far superior in cost and time to Epson's lower-level machines. The lower cost and ease with small material make it superior to the mid-range (17 inch) machines.
I chew these babies up every 2-3 years, working them to death. So I have pronounced my satisfaction by buying another one of the exact same kind (repair guy is coming to revive the first one tomorrow).
PS--stay away from the manufacturers who would sell you a dye-based product or something failing to absolutely be able to match your camera's color profiles--I won't mention any names. We match Epson printers, inks, and papers/canvases and get a guaranteed fine result.
June 15, 2013
Bad Product
After 18 months of use This printer drops large blobs of ink on my photos. The repair shop says that it will cost $800 to fix the problem. This printer is now useless.
June 14, 2013
Simple to install and a beauty to operate
After several years owning the Stylus Photo R300, it finally started to fall apart and my research led me away from the R2000 to the R3000 mostly because of the issue of ink usage. I really was concerned about the (wireless) set up and there was a slight hiccup in the process. A quick phone call to support, however, and it was straightened out. If this is anything close to the satisfaction that I had from the 300 I will be totally delighted.
June 8, 2013
living up to expectations
Haven't encountered any issues to date. Of course, it helps when you read the directons before attempting to use a device with an extended range off capabilities.
Having read other user's stories and questions on various forums, I came to the realization that the issues discussed were operator related and not device defects and made the decision to upgrade to this device and I am very pleased with the capabilities and results.
June 2, 2013
Epson Stylus Photo R3000 Inkjet Printer
Prior to this R3000 I owned (and loved) the Epson R2880 printer for about 2 years. It was flawless in its end results, but the limitations of its ink cartridge size and the need to manually exchange black inks based on the paper type to be printed on wore thin over time. The R3000 includes all of the 2880's quality attributes (if not better!) with the added convenience of double-sized ink reservoirs and automatic ink swapping when going to/from matte paper.
Although I didn't think much about it at the time of purchase, the wireless capability of the R3000 has made using and storing it a pleasure. No longer to I have to swamp my computer area with a tethered printer. I can place the printer on the other side of the room near a power supply and my paper stash freeing my computer area for other chores.
I love this printer!!
June 1, 2013
R3000
Compared to the R2400 the R3000 is a downgrade, imo. Working from Mac OS Mountain Lion its necessary to download printer drivers rather than insert a cd. Down load took over 2.5 hrs. - an unacceptably long time.
Paper size selection, for sizes not listed, is not intuitive and not described in the Basics h/b that comes with the machine. Attempting matte paper printing takes for ever - an 11x14 Matte HW paper took over 1.25 hrs of 'printing sending data to printer' - this with an PK to MK switch - I gave up and abandoned the attempt. ICI Profiles for Epson's newer papers are not loaded and need to be downloaded. After printing 4 off 11x14 and 2 off 8x10 glossy prints the PK ink showed as near empty. Not a good performance! Based on this it does seem that the R3000 drinks PK ink.
May 19, 2013
Expected better
I put my first R3000 in service 10/2011. Epson swapped that one out while under warranty during 10/2012. The replacement had similar problems. The print head leaks black ink on my prints and ruins them at unpredictable times. My warranty is over and my R3000 is now a fixture in my storage closet as I have moved on to a competitive printer that has put a smile on my face.
April 22, 2013
Beware limitations on paper types
I purchased this printer to augment my Stylus Pro 7900 -- so I could print smaller sizes, greeting cards etc. I spent hours trying to get the printer to feed the Inkpress 7x10 greeting cards -- sometimes it would load and print, but mostly it just spit out the paper. Now, after 30 min. on the phone with tech support, I have learned that the main top feeder can't take paper stock over 10mil. What?! Most quality photo stock is >10 mil.
If all you want to do is print 8.5 x 11" or larger paper, this printer is great -- when the paper does feed, the print quality is exceptional.
February 27, 2013
Epson Stylus Photo R3000
My friend recommended this printer to me and it clearly surpassed my expectations. His printer is an earlier version of mine. Epson really stepped up the options on this model by adding more ink colors/blacks, larger variety of paper/media to print on including - Canvas, CD/DVD, etc. The colors in photos really pop out. Also this model includes the newer options like a mode for Black and White photos and Roll Paper up to 44 inches!
When I purchased this Printer I was able to get a $150 rebate too! You can't go wrong with this Model!
February 14, 2013
