Epson Photo Printers For Professional Photographers – Review

Epson has been the preferred brand of photo printers for professional photographers. Today, many amateurs are discovering the great potential, stunning print quality and versatility of this brand.

I personally like Epson and Canon for photo printing. Both have great features that retained customer’s loyalty and attracted new ones.

This review focuses on Epson Surecolor and details the specifications of the printer models, printing cost, and pros and cons.

Products: Epson SureColor P400, P600, and P800

Price: from $600 – $1200

My rating: 8 out of 10

What they have in common

The 3 printer models all print on very diversified medias like paper roll, poster board and more. I cover this aspect later in this article.

Also, they’re all using pigment-based ink.

Epson has its own connectivity technology standards, Epson Connect™ and Epson iPrint™. It also supports well-established technologies like Wi-Fi and Ethernet network protocol.

I was surprised to see that some photo printers for professional photographers in the Canon Pixma Pro series don’t support these very popular communication standards.

So, it’s best to consider this aspect if you need to share your photo printer with other people in an office for example.

Epson SureColor printer specification chart

                                                              P400                         P600                     P800

Ink tanks units                                       8                               9                              9

Ink tank capacity                               14 ml                       25.9 ml                    80 ml

Max. resolution (dpi)                  5760 x 1440           5760 x 1440          2880 x 1440

Noise level                                        52.8 dB                      38 dB                     50 dB

Weight                                                  27.1 lb                        35 lb                      43 lb

Ethernet                                               Yes                              Yes                         Yes

Wi-Fi                                                 802.11n                    802.11n                 802.11n

AirPrint                                                   –                               Yes                          Yes

Avg. cost                                             $599                         $799                      $1195

Media handling and print size

⇒ SureColor P400 & P600

• Photographic paper with maximum cut-sheet size 13″ x 19″
• Fine art paper
• Canvas, 1.3 mm thick board
• Roll paper with maximum printable area 13″ x 129″
• Compatible CDs and DVDs

⇒ SureColor P800

• This printer offers the largest media printing size. It supports the same paper media mentioned above with a maximum printable cut-sheet size 17″ x 22″.
• *Roll-based media size 17″ x 129″ (10 feet long banner\panorama).

*Roll paper adapter has to be bought separately.

The Pros and Cons

Pros

– Provides excellent print quality and great color rendition,

… as all photo printers for professional photographers should! Reviewers of any of the 3 printers agree that Epson Surecolor prints are vivid and accurate.

– Great for archival print (also called giclee prints) and fine-art.

This is referring to high-resolution reproductions of museum masterpiece paintings.

Needless to say that the type of paper used is just as important as the printer and ink quality to obtain such top of the line results.

– Largest printing size available: cut-sheet size 17″ x 22″ for P800.

– Provides the widest variety of printing mediums (canvas, board, roll).

Cons

– If you’re new high-end photo printing, you may find it expensive to use

Photo printers for professional photographers provide outstanding results. Some people find the freedom of printing with the exact colors, nuances, and effects they envision worth the ink and quality paper expense. Such is the case for people who sell their art to customers with high expectations.

If you are buying a professional photo printer for the first time, as a hobby, you may be outraged by the cost of printing with these. Depending on the importance you attach to photo details and the number of prints you make, it may be cheaper to get your pictures from the photo lab.

– Slow printing compared to regular printers

Especially in large format. As they say, great quality comes at a high price… and slow printing in this case. If you’re used to printing text pages, you may find printing quality photos takes forever.

This is not an anomaly and is actually necessary to apply ink with the exact level of saturation and precisely match the color details on a given image.

Therefore you can expect to print a text page with a laser printer black toner in a few seconds but not your photo printer. Both printers have a different vocation and should be used accordingly.

– A significant learning curve for new users, patience is the key!

To really take advantage of the printer’s most genius features and enjoy printing the Eiffel tour pictures you took, you must be ready to do some reading. You will need to refer to the manual and perform some testing.

On this particular subject, the next sections (“Using the right tools”) details how you can make the learning process easier.

– Regular use and maintenance are required to prevent ink clogging.

Many reviewers complain about nozzles and head clogging. The possible reason for this is that ink dries when not used on a regular basis.

If you don’t print at least once a week, the small amount of ink that remains on the head nozzle will dry and clog it. This can lead to the replacement of ink heads which are really expensive.

Using the right tools

Epson Print Layout

It’s a free tool that provides the ability of quickly printing in different sizes on the same sheet.

This is particularly useful to determine at a glance what size is best for a set of photos or a specific one without having to print it in each specific size. This helps to save on paper consumption.

Monitor calibration and ICC profiles

To ensure colors are accurate you must calibrate your monitor and use Epson’s ICC profiles available for free on their website.

Print cost mystery partially revealed

Calculating print cost is not an easy experiment. In order to deduct the cost per print as thoroughly as possible, you must print in the same size, with the same quality mode configuration, using the same paper type and the same image.

You now see how absurd this exercise is. Unless you are only printing passport photos you will want to play with size, color, effects, etc.

Photo printers for professional photographers like these have impressive features you will want to use extensively. In real life, you don’t print the same picture and each photo uses colors and blacks at different saturation levels. It makes it almost impossible to say how much it costs to print high-quality color photos.

They’ve undertaken the daunting task of measuring print cost for various print size.

• P600 ink cost report
• P800 ink cost report

Note: Unfortunately, the P400 report was not available at the time of writing this post.

Printing cost results in brief

Red River Paper reports detail the evaluated costs for 4×6, 5×7, 8X10, 11×14 and 13×19 size print for various Epson and Canon printer models.

In short, Epson SureColor P600 print costs are estimated to be between $0,29 to $0,30 (4×6) and $2,94 to $3,14 (13×19).

The P800 are lower than the P600. The printing cost is between $0,20 to $0,21 for 4×6 size print and between $2,09 and $2,19 for 13×19 print.

Ensure your printer is under valid warranty

To avoid being scammed, make sure you buy your printer directly from Epson when buying on Amazon or other online retailers.

Some people with dishonest intents register as merchants to sell gray market printers at a ridiculously low price. As a result, your printer will not have a valid warranty.

Conclusion

To summarize, if you have never used a quality photo printer you will need to be curious and patient. I personally think it’s worth spending extra time learning the different ways to optimize such an expensive printer.

All Epson users will agree, these photo printers for professional photographers provide outstanding results if you follow basic rules, use quality papers, genuine Epson inks and follow usage guidelines.

Also, take advantage of online deals and rebates to save on your printer investment. These come and go through the year. Just make sure to check once in while to get the best price!

Epson photo printers for professional photographers

I hope you enjoyed your reading. If you are currently using an Epson printer and want to share your thoughts please leave a comment.

Also, if you have any questions I will gladly answer!

Cheers!

♥