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Rangefinder
Magazine I HAVE GOOD NEWS and better news! The good news is the Epson Stylus Photo 2200 is the answer to a photographer’s dream. The better news is that after a few months of backorders and slow deliveries, they’re finally now in stock.
A Light Black ink has been added to the now standard set of six color inks: Black, Cyan, Light Cyan, Magenta, Light Magenta and Yellow. The result is the industry’s first Seven-Color Archival desktop photo printer. The prints it can make have smoother tonal gradation and better sharpness than anything to date—in color and finally, black and white. The 2200 is not just an improved version of the two-year-old 2000P printer, it’s a new design. The 2000P was the first, and the 2200 is the second Epson 13-inch desktop printer to use pigment-based inks. Unlike the dye-based inks that are common in virtually every other printer, pigment-based inks (in combination with the right papers) have achieved a permanence level that’s considered archival. Although the 2000P can yield prints that will last for up to 200 years, the first generation inks have some serious color deficiencies for photographers. Fortunately, Epson was able to dramatically improve the color (at the sacrifice of a bit of permanence) when they introduced the UltraChromeTM] inks for the 2200. In addition, there are now six quality Epson-approved papers and two different black Inks for the 2200. The Premium Glossy, Premium Semigloss and Premium Luster Papers seem to work best with the Photo Black Ink and are rated to last up to 44 years. The Enhanced Matte, Watercolor and Fine Art Papers are ideally matched to the Matte Black Ink and are rated for up to 80 years. Papers come in a variety of sheet sizes and
rolls. There’s also a paper thickness adjustment
to allow materials up to 1.3mm thick
to feed straight through. Also, you can print
on plain paper and envelopes with so-so
If you’ve set-up any inkjet printer, then you’ll find the installation of the Stylus Photo 2200 quite easy. A simplified set of instructions gets you started and once you’ve installed the software you have access to EPIC. The Epson Printer Info Center consists of a 240-page operator’s manual that lives on your computer. It’s thoughtfully divided into a number of chapters and segments in case you want to print out anything for reference. It also includes five animated features which provide instructions for working with the included Roll Feed Attachment. The 2200 can connect to any Windows PC via High- Speed Parallel, USB and Firewire. Mac’s will only connect through USB or Firewire. Since USB and Firewire are faster (and hot swappable) that’s the better way to go. Printing speeds seemed to be about the same whether connected to USB 2 or Firewire (if you only have USB 1.1 it may be slower). A convenience for me was being able to connect one computer via USB and the other computer via Firewire. This saved me from having to switch cables (I just didn’t try to print from both computers simultaneously and neither should you). It’s a real pleasure to have separate cartridges for each ink color. When one goes, that’s all you have to replace. Installation is literally a snap and there are instructions, color-coded labels and indicator lights to guide you along (see photo at right). The ink cartridges feature Epson’s IntellidgeTM System, which means they’re smart. An internal sensor in each cartridge feeds back information to the printing computer and lets you know specifics about what inks are installed, how much ink is left and when to replace a cartridge. These details are visible along with a progress bar on-screen while you are printing. Like a gas gauge, you have a few prints left when it says a cartridge has run out of ink so there’s a bit of safety. However, at this point, just don’t commit to a huge print. I got about three more 8x10s at the end before I really ran out of ink and the printer insisted I change the cartridge—but this number does vary. As I said, the Stylus Photo 2200 includes a Roll Feed Attachment. You can be ready to print on roll paper in about a minute by simply unhinging the front door/tray, snapping in the attachment, unfolding the fabric Print Catcher (over the edge of the counter) and sliding in a roll of paper (4" to 13" wide). The Roll Feed Attachment really worked quite flawlessly, as it integrates very well with the printer. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any real reason to want to use it. Yes, the automatic cutter is slightly more convenient as it slices 4-inch paper a print at a time, but I can load a stack of twenty 8.5 x11s and cut them in quarters later (or print packages on sheets and let the customers cut them). Also, I could not get prints from a roll to lay flat and when I calculated the cost; they were 15–20% more expensive than sheets. Speaking of price, I was very skeptical of Epson’s estimate of $2 per 8.5x11, so I put it to the test. After burning through dozens of sheets of paper from the same image [see photo] and tracking ink usage, I figured out that each print cost $1.99. And, considering the price of cartridges just dropped slightly, that now works out to $1.86 per 8x10.
I found the printer settings right out of the box made very acceptable prints. Personally I wanted to fine tune things just a bit, but most people would be satisfied with the color profiles supplied on the installation disk running on Automatic or using ICM with Windows and ColorSync® for Mac. The system also supports Print Image Matching or PIM. I don’t have one of the more than 40 digital cameras, which send special color matching instructions to the printer but if you do, this might be an attractive feature. For optimum results, I recommend using WinXP if you have a PC or OS9 if you have a Mac. Although there are a wide variety of user settings available for paper size, handling and print quality, other versions of these operating systems don’t give you access to all of them. It’s also worth mentioning that like many other vendors, Epson has not fully embraced Mac OSX. Even now with System 10.2, there are many features lacking and printing speeds are much longer than in OS9. Please note: printer drivers for 10.2 are only available from Apple on the Mac OS10.2 Install Disc 2. Overall, you can expect to pump out 8x10 prints at Photo Quality (1440x1440) in about 4 minutes regardless of operating system. If you need the little extra that Super Photo Quality (1440x2880) gives you, then you’ll be waiting about 9 minutes for Windows or OS9 and about 15 minutes for OSX. Although a very experienced viewer can see the subtle tonal variance between Photo and Super Photo Quality, it probably won’t make a difference to many of your customers. Save the time and ink, and reserve Super Photo Quality for your own personal work. Another way to save time is working with smaller files. From experience I know that there’s no point in trying to feed the printer a full resolution file. For a 1440x1440dpi image on an 8x10 print, you would have to supply an RGB TIF that’s almost 475Mb! And, at that point, the printer is still converting it to CMYK; producing more than 632Mb of data. With the printer doing so much work for you, it’s best to stick to files about the size of the final output. In fact when I showed prints to customers, they couldn’t tell the difference between an 8x10 from a file scaled to a 180dpi original and one at 360dpi. Your computer will thank you because this means you can keep your print image files down around a 2Mb JPG. However, always keep your original image at full resolution for archive purposes! My recommendation for production work is Luster Photo Paper (it resists fingerprints) with Photo Black Ink. When you have a little bit of extra time that’s required to handle the Matte papers, try the combination of Velvet Fine Art Paper and Matte Black Ink. Also, stock up on extra quantities of the light colored inks and yellow as they get used the fastest. If you currently own an Epson 2000P and you want more Photorealistic colors, now you have a new choice. If you own an Epson 1280 (the dye-based ink equivalent) and want more archival results you’ve got the same choice. Either way you get better quality output with 2–3 times faster printing speeds. If you’re in the market for a new printer,
capable of making the finest archival photographic
quality black-and-white and The Epson Stylus Photo 2200 has a MSRP of $699. For more information, visit http:// www.epson.com. Bob Rose started in professional photography in 1964 and started in the photo industry in 1978 after graduating from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). He taught at Parsons School of Design (Photo Dept.) until 1982 and started working with digital products in 1990. He formed his own company, VMI, in 1999. Rose has been a contributor to the Focal Press Encyclopedia of Photography. He is a former Advisory Council Member at Parsons and a current External Faculty Advisor to RIT. He has initiated and/or supported design and development of new products from more than a dozen companies in the photographic and computer industry. Further Information
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About
seven years ago, Epson discovered the photographic marketplace and introduced
the first of their “Photorealistic” printers. Since that time
Epson has been carefully listening to the needs and wants of photographers.
The Stylus Photo 2200 is the culmination of most of these desires.
