Epson Stylus Photo

by John - allprinterreview.com Expert Reviewer. .
(Michigan)

Epson Stylus Photo R380 printer is more than a snapshot printer for your personal use. You will be surprised at the added features that will allow you to print more than just snapshots. It can print still images from videos as well as allow you to print on compatible CD/DVD. All these capabilities can be matched with great quality outputs that come out fast in 4x6 photo prints.

This Epson Stylus Photo R380 printer comes on to the user looking a bit bulky, giving you the impression that you are about to buy an inkjet all-in-one device, considering it is only out to do one task at a time. A more exact measure places this silver and dark gray photo printer standing about 11.11 inches tall, 17.7 inches wide if all paper trays are out and about 21 inches deep and the whole machine weighs about a little under 16 pounds.

However, like all printers, we have to weigh which features can be provided with very little or no hassle at all in favor of the user.

Advantages of the Epson Stylus Photo R380

1. Easy to install with a ready USB port for connectivity.

2. Includes a PictBridge port and two-media slots for all types of memory cards for PC-less printing where you can find the slots concealed by a black plastic door.

3. Equipped with a cost efficient six-ink system with individual tanks that comes properly labeled and smartly concealed by a scanner-like lid along with the print head. This is just as well since each high quality tank costs around $20 each but if you prefer the regular, they are readily available at $16 for the black and $14.25 for the color tank.

4. If printing from a memory card, all you need to do is click through the 20 thumbnail pictures, decide on the number of copies you want, then make any adjustments you may think suitable. This feature comes in handy especially if your card contains a lot of pictures.

5. The printer allows different types of adjustments from cropping, changing from border to borderless, as well as change the output quality until you are satisfied; use a sepia or b&w filter, and affix a date on the print. You can decide the paper type and size and make some adjustments by adjusting settings for brightness or sharpness, contrast and saturation. Just access the control panel in the 3.5-inch color LCD for the appropriate menus and your set to go.

6. This Photo R380 printer by Epson enables you to print stills from digital videos, which you can do while watching the video, freeze the frame you want to print, then set your video cam to a high resolution in order to get high quality prints. Although you cannot expect too much because it still has that almost blurred quality of being printed from a video. It is easy to forward and back when choosing the stills to print since the printer will set chapters, which can be convenient if the video is quite long.

7. Ever tried printing labels on specially coated CDs and DVDs? Here is the printer that allows you to do just that. Companies like Memorex and Verbatim, make these CDs and DVDs as inkjet-compatible and they are easy to find in office supply outlets or even from online suppliers. The printer provides many options, which allow you to be more creative. You can set it so you can have output sheets that have hash marks to show you where to make the necessary creases in case you need to produce a sheet for the jewel case.

Disadvantages

1. Paper handling with this printer can be tedious especially if you are about to print a lot of photos. A single paper tray can only hold 20 sheets of photo paper, which keeps you standing by to make a refill. Even the plain paper has capacity of only 120 sheets. This puts Epson Stylus Photo R380 printer behind Canon Pixma iP6700D that has two input trays, letting you switch paper media conveniently.

2. The printer may be able to print fast but the output can be questionable if you are doing it as a professional job, you will be rated as amateurish in fact. Even the text quality exudes an impression of haziness right along the edges, which mars the well-formed characters.

3. You might want to make the quality of inputs to come out better by setting it at the Best Photo mode, but you will end using up the ink at a much faster rate just to get the efficiency you want.

4. The slots for memory cards may be designed to accommodate all types of memory cards but the printer itself cannot recognize all the standard memory cards. Try making prints with Macs iPhoto and do not be surprised if nothing comes out of it. Several users have sent feedbacks about the printer and its incompatibility with Macs iPhoto.

5. If you need technical support, it may be available everyday but the number is not toll free so you can be better off sending Epson an email and hope they will reply with the solution; because for them, the problem lies with you and not the printer.

Stylus Photo Printer Review Summary/Recommendation:

You cannot ignore that Epson Stylus Photo R380 has several features to offer which a non-pro will find appealing enough for his hobbies and occasional jobs for a not too discriminating customer. If one is to compare it with Canon Pixma iP6700D, the latter provides more image adjustments to choose from. Epson Stylus Photo R380 does not have the color balancing option to make the outputs more vivid and lifelike.

Printing may be faster at 2.97 pages per minute compared to 2.86 ppm by Canon but it cannot match HP Photosmart 8250 at its rate of 5.34ppm considering that HP Photosmart 8250 is less expensive at less than $200, although not necessarily with the same features.

The verdict? If you are really not that meticulous and you find Epson Stylus Photo R380 more appealing because of its other advantages such as CD/DVD printing, still video image printing, other printing features that are engaging enough for your hobby, then this printer can walk you through. With Epson Stylus Photo R380 you will be able to maximize different types of work output instead of just photo prints and explore all other possibilities on how you can use those different outputs for more creativity.

Back from Stylus Photo R380 to Printer Reviews