Epson Stylus Photo R1800:
Retail – $399-$599
The Epson Stylus Photo 1800 (replaced with the R1900) is an 8-color printer – if you like to print big – your photos contain facial tones, or are of the outdoors, do you design? – if so this printer is for you. Similar in size to the Epson Stylus Photo 1400 inkjet printer, however the R1800 series adds two cartridge slots (total of 8 inkjet cartridges present), and it will also print to banner paper (user definable print size). Gone are the more photo friendly (photo cyan, and photo magenta) cartridges – to be replaced with the more tonal friendly “Blue” and “Red.” There are many excellent reviews on the web, so we re not trying to re-invent the wheel here. Best one we have seen is here:
Carts are a bummer:
We can address the cartridge issue right off – there are 8 cartridges in this printer – pigment ink is used by Epson. There is only one choice for ink cartridges for this printer. The T054 series comprise the eight cartridge part numbers, and they contain good amount of ink for an Epson printer (17ml). If you are counting, that converts to about $3500.00 per gallon. Consensus on the web seems to be about 80 large prints per set of ink (you can define large here), but if you are smart about ink usage, you could probably get closer to 120, or at the very least 110. Cartridge resetter, and good suppliers are important. When using Epson inks, this is not intended to be heavy in the printing – daily documents – type printer. The R1800 is a special use printer. You will need another printer to o your daily printing needs.
Cartridges Used ($15.19 each – $121.52 per set):
- T054120 – Photo Black (Ultra-Chrome Hi-Gloss)
- T054220 – Cyan
- T054320 – Magenta
- T054420 – Yellow
- T054720 – Red
- T054820 – Matte Black
- T054920 – Blue
- T054020 – Gloss Optimizer
If you can find a better price, buy. That is Epson direct, and they sell the majority of the cartridges for these higher end printers. Special prices are rare on these T054 series cartridges.
No clue on page estimates, but since they are the same size and shape of the Epson Stylus Photo 1400, I would estimate about the same. If you figure a buck ($1.00) for paper, that is ballpark $2.00 per print (large format), maybe $1.50 for letter paper size? That can get expensive quickly, when trying to proof color and other corrections. Why not get a proofing printer.
