Reviews for Epson Stylus R280 Inkjet Photo Printer

Color - 37 ppm Mono - 38 ppm Color - 11 Second Photo - 5760 x 1440 dpi - USB - PC, Mac - MPN: C11C691201

  • 4
  By member: thelastslayer - Nov 21, 2007

The Epson R280 Produces Rich, Vibrant Color at...

Strengths: Stunning prints, simply gorgeous color reproduction | FAST color printing!

Weakness: Expensive ink | Printer is pretty heavy considering the size | Surprisingly loud!

This printer is a rather low-cost solution to full color, accurate photo reproduction in your home, especially if you pick it up for a lower price after rebate. The prints so far have been virtually the same as a real photograph you’d get developed in-store. I’ve been very happy with this printer so far. The only real issue I have with it is the size of it, and oddly enough, the noise level though neither the size or noise really matter. It’s not like you will be moving the printer around a lot, and you won’t be printing non-stop either.. so they are very minor issues at best. Like with most photo printers, however, the Expensive Ink will always be a downer. I believe that the cost per 8x10 is about 35-40ish cents if my math is correct.

94% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: m_corbelli - Nov 14, 2007

Good Overall Printer

Strengths: Reliable, Great color

Weakness: Print head gets clogged if you don't print a lot

As for print quality, this printer is as good as any. One drawback I've found is that the printhead gets clogged if you don't use it for awhile. While it has a test/clean nozzle program in maintenance, I have found this to be lacking. I recommend printing a test page every day or two to keep the heads clear.

93% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: filmmaker42 - Dec 12, 2007

Epson Stylus Photo R 280 Printer

Strengths: Reliable - printes very well - inexpensive

Weakness: Plastic front door kinda cheap but, seems to work okay.

The Epson 280 printer is very reliable & was recognized by my Windows XP OS instantly. It not only prints documents well but, also does a wonderful job of printing photos and on DVD's & CD's. The quality is excellent. I like it much better than the HP printer I previously owned.

90% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: swinghard - Feb 11, 2008

Very nice printer

Strengths: Good print quality, nice resolution for photos, prints directly to CD/DVD's

Weakness: Ink is stupid expensive

I love using this printer. Print quality is very good and its prints directly to CD/DVD's. I got my printer free when I purchased a digital camera with it. I now know why Epson gives away the printer. Because they will make it up in ink. Ink prices are ridiculous. Unfortunately, I have not found any generics that perform as well as OEM. The search continues for a good ink alternative.

86% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: jonchoi - Nov 11, 2007

Pretty good printer

Strengths: Price, picture quality, quick setup, fast speed, and easy to use.

Weakness: Ink drainage.

Just a brief background, this is only the 3rd inkjet printer I have personally owned in the last 2 years and this printer blows the others I have owned in the past for much less of the cost. I was surprised on how many rebates epson offers so that these printers can be bought for free after rebate with the purchase of a camera or laptop, so that was a plus. I was able to setup the printer in less than 15 min and begin using it right away. I was amazed by the speed it prints out pictures at as my HP 8000 series printer could never go this fast. The quality is the best I've ever seen! The quality of the printer is much better than the prints I have gotten from Walmart, Longs, or Walgreens. The only downside is how much ink this uses. I've already gone through my first set of inks in quite a short period of time, and that's with the 5 cartridges this thing carries. I don't know if it's because the starter inks that this printer comes with are small or this printer uses up ink fast, but the ink is the only possible concern I have with my purchase.

80% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: reuv - Dec 5, 2007

Excellent Value

Strengths: Fast color printing, excellent print quality

Weakness: Consumes ink quickly

Given that I bought this printer together with a camera (Epson was running a promotion), I'm surprised on quality of the printer; nothing you would expect from those cheap/free printers that are usually bundled in with a laptop or digital camera. The colors are vibrant, and prints look very good. The only gripe I have is like another Epson printer I have, it uses a large amount of ink, so I would only use this printer for photos.

75% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: imteddy - Nov 30, 2007

Fast printer, good results, expensive maintenance

Strengths: Fast printing, Epson brand, claria ink (high def), prints to CD

Weakness: Ink refills are expensive

I purchased this printer to print good quality photos which I was not getting from my other inkjet printers (also Epson but general purpose printers). This printer is amazingly good, very good picture printing results. Has high definition printing capability with the new claria ink technology. Uses 6 ink cartridges which causes ink refills to be expensive than 4 ink printers. It prints to CDs as well which is an additional advantage, however I have not yet tried it.

Printer is easy to setup and since individual cartridges can be replaced, it helps keep the cost lower than many other single ink cartridge printers. If ink were slightly less expensive, I would have given this a 5 star rating.

75% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 5
  By member: lynoio - Oct 24, 2007

Epson R280 printer

Strengths: beautiful photos, fast

Weakness: n/a

The Epson R280 photo printer is cheap and the printing speed is quite fast. It has built-in auto photo correction which corrects the lighting in poorly exposed photos. It also print images and text directly onto ink jet printable CDs and DVDs, a feature I am really fond of. It's a good printer though I am not sure how fast the ink will run out.

67% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 1
  By member: bdmsb - Jan 18, 2008

Problems with driver

Strengths: Good color, fast printing

Weakness: It won't print on CDs except with their program

I bought an R280 printer to replace my R200, which I use to print CD labels, because the R200 won't pull CDs in or eject them correctly and I have to baby it.
  
I installed the new drivers on my Macintosh but it wouldn't let me select CDs as the media type. It was grayed out. I called support (a toll call on my dime) and it took the Indian guy 25 minutes to tell me they do not support printing on CDs from any program except the one bundled with the printer. This is absurd and I still don't believe it's true. The included Epson program is severely limited. I want to use Adobe InDesign, like I do with the R200. But, since the R280 prints from the Epson program, he said that's the only program I can use.
 
I said I wanted my money back, because it's absurd to buy a computer printer that only works with the one limited program that comes with it. He connected me to another department. It took this woman another 20 minutes to tell me the printer would work with other programs, but I'd have to call Adobe because it must be their fault that they could not work with the new Epson printer. No matter that all Mac programs (except The Epson one) use the same Mac driver and I can't print on CDs from InDesign, PhotoShop, Word, TextEdit, or any other program on my Macintosh.
 
The printer cost and 45 minutes on long distance are pretty irritating, but the attitude of Epson in first saying it can't be done and then blaming Adobe is maddening.

64% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 5
  By member: MorgantownBank - Dec 10, 2007

Nice color printer

Strengths: Good price

Weakness: na

This is a very nice printer for a cheap price. The printing quality and speed is not to shaby for a $50 color printer, plus you can print directly to CD. Quite enought for my personal use.

50% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: screenname - Nov 14, 2007

Epson R280 Photo Printer

Strengths: Able to print directly to ink jet printable CD

Weakness: Similar to other ink jet printers, the consumables are expensive.

I got this as part of the "buy a digital camera, get a free printer" promotion.
Installed it under Windows Vista without any problem and was able to print right away. Beatiful pictures and sharp text. Have not tried to print directly to CD/DVD yet but don't see any issues since this printer has been on the market for a while. Overall, a very nice printer.

33% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: venu_cheryl - Dec 17, 2007

Very nice printer.

Strengths: Easy to use and good print.

Weakness: don't know yet.

I just bought this printer from staples and started using it without any problem..it is very easy to install..easy to use , so far..love it...will update my review after more usage.

0% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: spacecated - Jan 23, 2008

Nice bang for your buck!

Strengths: Cheap! Produces stunning prints! Faster than the R200 that I upgraded from.

Weakness: A bit on the loud side. Lots of whirrs and clicks before it starts printing.

A nice upgrade from my R200 (it died). I don't worry about the ink costs as I installed a CIS system (about $70) as soon as I got it.

0% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: ven_gopal - Dec 17, 2007

Best printer for a best price.

Strengths: Nice prints and easy installation.

Weakness: Little heavy.

I love this printer ..bought it from staples for free after rebate with camera purchase....easy to use and the installation was very easy...don't know yet about the cartridge price etc...so far doing good with the one received with the printer.

0% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: huipengsc - Dec 12, 2007

good entry level printer

Strengths: compact

Weakness: expensive inks

the printer itself is cheap with $75 mail in rebate when you purchase a digital camera. but remember you will need to pay a lot if you want to buy genuine inks later. I like the look of this printer a lot, it matchs my black monitor and laser printer very well. The image quality is resonable nice.

0% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: wxlf - Dec 1, 2007

Great Printer

Strengths: CD/DVD direct printing

Weakness: none

Inexpensive printer that can get the job done relatively cheap. High quality photo prints. Direct printing to CD and DVD does help a lot in easily creating beautiful CD covers.

0% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: trackrebate - Dec 1, 2007

Stylus Photo R280 InkJet Printer

Strengths: Fast printing, good photo quality.

Weakness: Consuming ink which is expensive. Heavy

The printer prints pretty fast, even for color printing. The quality is good. For photo printing, the printer can even automatically correct some effects. It can also print directly to CDs. When it runs out of certain color ink, just that color needs to be replaced. However, it consumes a lot of ink which is a little expensive.

0% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
Reply by member: dsatria
Mar 3, 2008

Please do not purchase this product since the technical support is terrible. I purchased this product for the sole purpose of printing to CD. I have not been able to get this product up and running. The lights are flashing. This is a brand new printer, but it says the ink is empty. The technical support is terrible. I can't get info from their web site. Calling the tech supp is no use. The tech supp person told me to set the printer as the default printer, duh? in spite of my telling her that I just want to use this printer for printing CD. Since I refused to do that, she put me on hold. It has been 30 minutes since she put me on hold, so I write this review.

Do not buy. Terrible technical support.

  • 5
  By member: djcwoodchuck - Nov 29, 2008

Stylus Photo R280 InkJet Printer

Strengths: Print quality for both CD's and prints is outstanding. Excellent color reproduction!

Weakness: I found the CD tray was difficult to seat properly, it will not print unless it is seated correctly.

I wanted a printer for just photo prints. I have used Epson printers in the past and always felt they delivered good quality. The R280 delivers top grade photo reprints. My expectations have been met and the ability to print CD's is a bonus!

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: lencho47 - Apr 13, 2008

Epson R280

Strengths: Very fast and excellent quality prints.

Weakness: The price of ink as always.

I've owned the R280 for a few months now and it's worked very well. So far I'm satisfied with all the Epson printers I have bought. The speed and quality have definitely improved since I bought the last one in 1999! However the price of ink has gone up too. I think I'll go with the Continuous Ink System (CIS) to combat that weakness.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: blackjewel45 - Mar 5, 2008

Stylus photo R280 review

Strengths: good product.

Weakness: Ink cartridge is very small, doesn't hold a lot of ink and the ink is a little expensive.

It is a very good product I am pleased. The color is sharp it prints very sharp.some printers print very dull the words are running a little not this printer is was a good buy.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: pgbg - Jan 31, 2008

Great printer for the price

Strengths: Quality prints, works well on CD / DVD, fast printing, individual ink tank, cheap after the rebate.

Weakness: Paper jam, uses ink fast and expensive to replace all ink tanks.

This is a good entry level printer for photos and printing CDs / DVDs. Got it free after rebate with digital camera purchase. But it uses ink very fast. So long term ownership cost is higher than Canon one.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: vegaswalla - Jan 29, 2008

Epson R280 printer

Strengths: Unique CD/DVD printing, Excellent Photo Inks

Weakness: none

This is a unique photo printer from Epson that is capable of printing onto CD/DVDs directly (assuming the CD/DVD has a printable top). Photo printouts are excellent from this printer. it has individual ink tanks so you only need to change whichever tank is empty. unfortunately ink tanks dont last that long and are slightly expensive, but the photo prints are excellent.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 3
  By member: mountaineerkingkang - Nov 28, 2007

Good printing quality, print to CD

Strengths: Good printing quality, print to CD

Weakness: Expensive to refil

This is a thanks giving gift from my father. It's an OK printer for personal use. Good color printing quality. Can print directly to CD, that's what i'm like the most. Ink is rediculous expensive. When run out of ink, i will just through it away, not worth to refil it.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 3
  By member: comersha - Nov 26, 2007

review for epson r280 photo printer

Strengths: cheap, support dvd direct printing

Weakness: ink is too expensive

it is a fast printer. The quality is accepatble, although it is not as good as other photo printers such as Canon Mini260. The DVD supported printing is a nice feature. Althought the printer is cheap, the ink is not.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 5
  By member: zhengjie76 - Nov 26, 2007

comments for epson stylus photo R280

Strengths: CD/DVD direct printer

Weakness: ink cost

I like this printer very much. I used Epson Stylus Photo R260 before I used this one. I think R280 is much better than R260, since the printing speed is much faster and it can support DVD direct print.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: jiantao - Nov 13, 2007

A good inkjet at reasonable cost

Strengths: Good picture quality Fast speed Easy to use Print on CD/DVD

Weakness: Ink runs out quickly

I got this photo printer with with canon digital camera purchase. Setup was really easy and it prints good quality photo. I also like the feature to print on CD/DVD. I am happy with this printer so far.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 4
  By member: Bhagwan - Nov 8, 2007

R280 Epson

Strengths: Cheap and prints good

Weakness: No USB cable in box

Got it at a cheap price with digital camera purchase. Prints good quality photo. Easy to install but does not contain the USB cable to connect to the computer. I am happy with this printer.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Top
  • 3.8
  productwiki.com - Nov 4, 2011

Epson Stylus Photo R280

The Epson Stylus Photo R280 is a mid-range photo-centric inkjet printer. Print speeds are quick, ranging up to 38 pages per minute. 4x6" photos can be printed off as quickly as 11 seconds per print. Colour resolution is high, with a rated maximum of 5760x1440 dpi. The R280 features Epsons Auto Photo Correction ability, which includes advanced face detection. Direct printing to inkjet-printable CD...

Read Full Review

Top
  • 3.0
  reviewgist.com - Dec 14, 2009

ReviewGist for Epson Stylus Photo R280 InkJet Printer

Quality is Good according to 6 Printer experts. -- "Print brilliant"-tigerdirect.com -- "such remarkable quality and versatility"-tigerdirect.com -- "crisp and colorful"-prlog.org Read more to find expert opinions on more features like Speed, Refills, Interface, Usability, etc.

Read Full Review

Top
  • 4.2
  testseek.com - Nov 4, 2008

Epson Stylus Photo R280

Testseek.com has collected 1 expert review for Epson Stylus Photo R280 and the rating is 84 of 100. Click below and use Testseek.com to find all ratings, product awards and conclusions.

Read Full Review

Top
  • 0.9
  TopTenREVIEWS.com - Jul 16, 2008

epson stylus photo r280 printer

Epson Stylus Photo R280 Printer receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS score of 0.69 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #48 photo only printer of all time. The overall rating represents an intelligent balance of features, value as a function of price to features, and a summary of reviews from a variety of sources. The TopTen REVIEWS' formula gives a picture of important consumer features, market value, and...

Read Full Review

Top