EPSON R800 printer

Page 3.

Updated 11/12/03

This page is just to whet your appetite, the pictures reproduced here are as close to the original prints as I can get, bearing in mind I am scanning the actual prints. I will look at the inks and printing options later in the review. The prints are the very first prints that I have produced with the R800 printer, no tweaks have been made. Many of the regular visitors will be familiar with our test picture. If you want to use it for testing your own printer then please feel free to do so, just click on the first picture and save it to your hard drive.

Original file	Epson R800	HP 7960

First impressions are that the R800 is producing a much warmer picture than other printers I have reviewed, including the Epson 2100, the warm look is quite flattering on the portrait. Although the new UltraChrome inks include a Red colour, the reds are leaning towards orange. As I get to grips with the printer I will no-doubt sort out any colour issues.

Epson R800	HP 7960

The print dot is almost invisible even under high magnification. If this were a 35mm film shot then the film grain would be larger than the print dot. The printer does not apply any sharpening to the image so what you see here is more or less what you get.

The cotton reels below offers far more information. I have included the Epson 2100, Canon i950 and HP 7960 shots for direct comparison, and just for good measure I have placed the original file in the centre (down sampled). Working from left to right; the black is dense but not lacking in detail, easily on par with the Canon i950 and far more dense than on the 2100. You may recall my comments on the lack of punch with the 2100, the new UltraChrome inks seem to have addressed this problem. The brown is very rich, almost identical to the original file. The white retains the subtlety of detail. The reds are a tad too warm on the print in hand, this can be seen on the orange next to the yellow, but the extra warmth is great for portraits. Yellows are very rich. The green has also picked up a warmish tone. Both blues are a good rendition.

Looking at the print in my hand, the R800 has produced a very pleasing combination of colours, I would be more than satisfied with the colours. However, I will improve on them before the review is complete. Please bear in mind that this printer is a pre-production sample, drivers and profiles may be altered by the time the printer is on sale.

Epson R800

Epson 2100

The original file

Canon i950

HP 7960

The test file took 4 minutes 15 seconds to print using the highest quality settings with Premium Semi-gloss paper. Timings were taken from the first uptake of the paper to final delivery. Spooling times added approximately 25 seconds to the time. Timings may vary depending on your own computer speed.