Epson Stylus Photo R2880 Wide-Format Color Inkjet Printer (C11CA16201)

Product Description

Produce exhibition quality prints with unprecedented control with the Epson R2880 photo printer, the choice for professional and fine art photographers. With its innovative ink set, Epson UltraChrome K3TM with Vivid Magenta, this powerful printer offers an astounding color gamut for brilliant blues, purples and reds. Designed to easily deliver large-format photos worthy of gallery display, the 13-inch R2880 includes RadianceTM technology, which ensures smooth color transitions, and improved highlight and shadow detail. Its three-level black technology offers a better gray balance and outstanding tonal range. And, Advanced Black-and-White Photo Mode ensures precision control for neutral or toned black-and-white prints. Take your creativity further with its versatile media handling capabilities. Print on roll paper, fine art paper or 1.3 mm thick art board. The R2880 always delivers professional performance with its one-inch wide, permanent print head. And, for more consistent printing, it includes Automatic Nozzle Check technology, plus Epson PreciseColor¿. Achieve professional results, with the quality, control and versatility of the Epson R2880 photo printer.

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Product Details

• Color: Silver
• Brand: Epson
• Model: C11CA16201
• Platform: Windows
• Format: CD-ROM
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 8.40" h x 24.30" w x 12.70" l, 26.89 pounds
• Native resolution: 5760 x 1440

Features

• Prints up to 13x19 Photos with Epson UltraChrome K3 with Vivid magenta ink
• Advanced Black and White Photo Mode
• Professional 8-Color, pigment ink set with 3-level Black technology
• Advanced magenta pigments - astounding blues, purples, and reds
• Print Permanence ratings of 200 years or more

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

128 of 132 people found the following review helpful.
Wow prints
By Busy Executive
I've been making due with an older Epson Photo EX...can't believe how much the technology has improved since then. The printer is easy to operate, and colors are nothing short of amazing...fine, detailed prints like nothing I've ever been able to produce.

Drawbacks are probably what others mention...the matte black/photo black swapping thing is just silly, the ink cartridges are too small, at highest quality settings the printer's a bit slow, no built-in network interface, and the printer's physically a little on the large size.

Still, for me it's all about the final image quality - and nothing I've seen tops the Epson in this regard.

UPDATE:

Okay, so I've been living with my R2880 for about sixteen months now, and I wanted to refute some of the claims other reviewers have made. Perhaps I'm just one of the lucky ones, but my experience with the R2880 has been nothing short of fantastic.

I've printed well over 2000 prints and gone through dozens of ink cartridges by now, and I'm happy to say that I haven't experienced EVEN A SINGLE JAM, MIS-FEED or other operational problem. I tend to use Epson's Ultra-Premium Luster for 8x10 size prints, Epson Velvet or Exhibition Fiber in 13x19 - and a few non-Epson brands including Museo, Ilford Silk and a few others. I've done a bit with canvas (both sheets and roll), though that's relatively rare for me. The short story is that everything I've tried has worked properly. Overall, I couldn't be happier with my printer.

I do use my printer fairly regularly - always at least once or twice a week, usually more. As of now, except for the cycle when I install a new ink cartridge or initially power it on, I've never seen it waste ink on a cleaning cycle, nor have I ever had to manually trigger cleaning. My volume is high enough that I deal with the ink-swapping sillyness by simply waiting until I have enough material that I can use an entire print cartridge (about 50 prints, generally). I make the switch, print till I run out of matte ink, and then I switch back. This works for me, and doesn't waste any ink.

My initial comment regarding the ink cartridges being too small is probably my number one gripe. Because the various color inks are used at different rates according to the tones in your photographs, it's not like you stop every so often and replace all the ink. You print, replace one color, print some more, replace the next one, and so on. I just find this slows me down unacceptably, and I'd like the option to have maybe 3-5 times more ink per cartridge.

Print quality continues to be amazing...the only other printer I've seen that beats it is Epson's newer 7900 - a much larger printer that costs five times what the R2880 sells for. Yes, I'm a perfectionist with top quality gear, all the best software, calibration equipment, and I spend a lot of time fine tuning everything to get the best possible image quality. But I feel I've been rewarded for this work, and everyone who sees my prints comments as to the quality.

323 of 343 people found the following review helpful.
Reviewing the Epson R2880
By Tage W. Blytmann
I ordered my Epson R2880 about a month ago from Amazon, as a replacement for my trusty old Epson 2000P which was about seven years old. My new printer arrived very promptly a few days later. The Vista software installation went smoothly except for the fact that a couple of the amber "ink-empty" lights did not work properly, one never came on and one was flickering, like on and off. (These little lights are located in the ink well, they all (should) come "on" upon printer startup, then go "off", one by one, as each ink cartridge is inserted into the well.) The first couple of prints I made were not good, but I soon discovered that with this printer use only Epson paper and be sure to select the particular type of paper on the screen before commencing printing. I then printed several color and B/W sample prints, examined them under a loupe, and I must say they were great. I was impressed with the quality.

Everything seems to run smoothly for the first week or so, although I noticed that the printer had a tendency to perform prolonged nozzle cleaning sessions. One session lasted between 6 and 7 minutes. That's when I started to look at the ink levels charts. This printer is really using the ink I thought. I then noticed large random dots, about 3mm in diameter on some of my prints, sometimes only an hour after a new start-up nozzle cleaning session. My last printing endeavor on this printer - just following a nozzle cleaning session - were eight 4x4" images where these dots showed up on five prints, some were in the margins and some right on the image itself.

Calling Epson was quite an experience. The person told me to simply do a nozzle clean. I told him I had just done nozzle cleans, but he insisted and I did it. The first print out had the famous 3mm dots on the paper and the print. Do the nozzle clean again, he said. At this point I confronted him with the question of how much ink a nozzle clean required because my ink indicators showed a decrease in ink level of about 15% with each cleaning. He had no answer to that, or to any of my other questions, including the amber light question.

I was now out of ink and had a lot of unwanted dots on many of the prints I had made. At this point I knew I would never feel comfortable using a set of inks priced at about $125. and only wind up with a handful of usable images. I returned the printer as I was still within the 30 days grace period.

One last observation: It appears to me, after reading other reviews, that the ink/nozzle picotechnology is perhaps behind the curve of where it ought to be. In the quest for smaller and smaller picoliter dots, perhaps a different nozzle cleaning technology is required. At least, upscale future printers like this R2880 should have the ability to just clean one (1) color nozzle at a time, as user required, instead of necessarily cleaning all eight colors at a cost I figure to be about $18. to $20. per cleaning session.

Tage Blytmann

150 of 161 people found the following review helpful.
Buyer Beware!
By Average John
I am an artist who creates giclee prints of my paintings, and used an Epson Stylus Photo 2200 for six years. It was a reliable printer which gave me high quality prints. The Epson Stylus Photo 2200 worked great from day one, and I never had to speak with an Epson tech.

I purchased the Epson Stylus Photo R2880 as a replacement printer. It would not print 13" x 19" paper. I kept getting paper jams and error messages stating I was using the wrong media for the paper tray. I spent hours on the phone with Epson techs, who finally told me the printer had a defective paper sensor.

I returned the first Epson Stylus Photo R2880 and purchased a second printer. The second Epson Stylus Photo R2880 not only had the same problems, but it also gave me communication errors. I spent another hour on the phone with an Epson tech who refused to call me back as my calling card ran out of minutes.

In my opinion Epson has inadequate service techs, poor customer service, and a poor quality product in the Epson Stylus Photo R2880. I believe this printer was never tested in a rush to get it to market. The only reason it even deserves one star is because it prints 8.5" x 11" sheets. Because my need is for a printer that prints 13" x 19" sheets, I cannot recommend this printer.

PS. Does anybody know where I can get a refurbished Epson Stylus Photo 2200?

See all 110 customer reviews...