Epson All-in-One photo printer (€110)...

Wertz

Okay so I finally got round to going looking for a new printer in the sales, since my lexmark was costing too much to keep.
Did the usual checking prices and reviews online and stuff and decided on either an epson or a canon.

Now I've been known to give PC World a hard time on these forums, but they surprised me a lot with the Epson RX425 at this price (€109.99).
I wasn't expecting fantatsic things from it in the photo department tbh, but after getting the drivers installed I printed out some raw snaps and some photoshopped stuff and was just blown away by the clarity.
The scanner too is top notch. Even better in this price range is the ability to print directly from mem cards (loads of formats supported) and print offs from thumbnail sheets using OCR is also very impressive (no PC required)

It comes with 4 ink carts (full ones not trial packs) and 50 sheets of gloss photo paper too...the only thing that might catch people out is the lack of a USB-printer cable (which I was lucky enough to have already) and the staff in PC world don't see fit to tell you you might need one.
Seems ink too is cheap to replace, but some reviews reckon the unit is thirstier than other models...personally I can live with that since the carts are cheap enough to replace.

I assume this is in all their stores and prolly in dixon's/curry's too...only price comparison sites I can find are in £stg but seems to have a price range of £80-£110 online.
Ill let you look for your own reviews, but at this price this is one of the best buys I'll make this year, I reckon.

CuppaCocoa

Have to agree. Got one on saturday. Did spend a bit of time looking for the USB cable myself! You can get a set of cartridges (4) on ebay uk for £4.95 so not bothered about the consumption. Great to be able to reclaim a bit of space in the office!

WICKL0W

I'm in the market but a review on Amazon says colour cartridges reduce in line with black even if colour not used and therefore you have to replace all 4 of them !

Wertz

They just mean that if one cartridge runs out you can't print without it...but you'll only have to replace the empty cart not all of them at once.
Makes sense after reading the technical stuff as there's a danger of the print heads drying out if you remove a spent cart and leave it's slot empty.

Seems a lot of reviews on amazon (which are for a slightly earlier version) are slating it for using a lot of ink on a head cleaning process...since I've not used thta so far I can't comment, but I have ~20 4*6 photos in HQ mode done and some A4 texts and not even a dent in the ink wells

WICKL0W

Yeah you could be right. Any chance you'd scan and print something and copy also as I'm interested to know quality (and ink usage )

Wertz

I'm after scanning a painting from canvas to see what it's like at uncompressed scanning (tif)...the images are impressive but waaay to big to upload. When I put them in PS you could actually zoom into individual threads on the canvas

Photocopies are more than acceptable (only did text) but I'm a little short on plain old A4 to test out ink usage...this is going to be solely used for home/leisure stuff...I couldn't really comment on it's suitability for office/small business.

jimmycrackcorm

Great printer - I got it from pcworld a year ago for €109 in a spot sale. They were very crafty - they advertised it in the papers but had no in-store notices until I just happen to ask a staff member. I got caught out a week before when they had a special on half-price usb hard drives; again it wasn't advertised in-store so I didn't buy as I thought there were none left. they tried to sell the insurance/warranty and weren't impressed when I said at that price it would be cheaper to buy a new one if it broke down after a year.

Ink is cheap from the uk though I now print my photos online instead as it would appear to be cheaper that way.

However I'd warn anyone about the cleaning. I put a new set of ( fortunately cheap compatible ) cartridges in and ran through 4 cleaning cycles. That was the end of the cartridges - never got to print....!

Dades

Wertz wrote:

the only thing that might catch people out is the lack of a USB-printer cable (which I was lucky enough to have already) and the staff in PC world don't see fit to tell you you might need one.

Nice one Wertz.

Any idea how much the USB cable is?

JackieChan

Atheist,
I've seen USB cables in the Euro shop on Thomas St for 2Euro. Got them for my sisters printer and never caused any grief

stevejazzx

Wertz wrote:

Okay so I finally got round to going looking for a new printer in the sales, since my lexmark was costing too much to keep.
Did the usual checking prices and reviews online and stuff and decided on either an epson or a canon.

Now I've been known to give PC World a hard time on these forums, but they surprised me a lot with the Epson RX425 at this price (€109.99).
I wasn't expecting fantatsic things from it in the photo department tbh, but after getting the drivers installed I printed out some raw snaps and some photoshopped stuff and was just blown away by the clarity.
The scanner too is top notch. Even better in this price range is the ability to print directly from mem cards (loads of formats supported) and print offs from thumbnail sheets using OCR is also very impressive (no PC required)

It comes with 4 ink carts (full ones not trial packs) and 50 sheets of gloss photo paper too...the only thing that might catch people out is the lack of a USB-printer cable (which I was lucky enough to have already) and the staff in PC world don't see fit to tell you you might need one.
Seems ink too is cheap to replace, but some reviews reckon the unit is thirstier than other models...personally I can live with that since the carts are cheap enough to replace.

I assume this is in all their stores and prolly in dixon's/curry's too...only price comparison sites I can find are in £stg but seems to have a price range of £80-£110 online.
Ill let you look for your own reviews, but at this price this is one of the best buys I'll make this year, I reckon.

yeah got myself thwon in free with a sony laptop that i got
got a couple hundred off the laptop(know a guy who works there as freind of a freind kinda) as well... did well
got all for a grand 1000
but actually couldnt believe waht a cool all in one it is and a tonne of software with it

Wertz

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

they tried to sell the insurance/warranty and weren't impressed when I said at that price it would be cheaper to buy a new one if it broke down after a year.

Aye gotta love telling them that...think the staff in those places are on commision for extended warranties, judging by the looks on their faces when you say no

Yeah the head cleaning thing is my only misgiving, but if you keep the printer running somewhat regualrly it's reckoned you shouldn't need to run the cleaning cycle too often (fingers crossed).

Dades

JackieChan wrote:

Atheist,
I've seen USB cables in the Euro shop on Thomas St for 2Euro. Got them for my sisters printer and never caused any grief

Cheers JC!

Barrie

I have the Rx420 and is basicly the same as the Rx25(bar the color as I can see but has the same shape and features).I order my ink on Svp and its very cheap(Ink for the Rx25 is the same as Rx20 too).It is an excellent printer and does print quality photos.Its dead handy with the memory card slots and scanner,I paid 200€ for mine not long ago so its well worth picking one up.

BumFluffy

does this print on cds?

Wertz

BumFluffy wrote:

does this print on cds?

Directly onto em? Not too sure but I doubt it. I'll look closer at the manual and see...

Sponge Bob

also download this fab utility for your epson which helps 'manage' ink .

http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml

LaPalla

Do you know which PCWorld outlet has this printer?
No sign of it on the pcworld.ie site.

CuppaCocoa

Bought mine in Liffey Valley. They had tons of them!

Plek Trum

Can you print direct from memory card / or via USB WITHOUT the need for a PC?

muffler

Plek Trum wrote:

Can you print direct from memory card / or via USB WITHOUT the need for a PC?

Good question that. I would be interested in finding out myself.

I would be tempted to buy one but the nearest outlet to me is about 26 miles away in Derry. I checked their online (UK site) prices and the Epson RX425 is £99.99 which is almost €150

A lot of these items are cheaper in the North so if anyone can get it for €110 in Liffey Valley, go for it. Its a bargain

Wertz

Plek Trum wrote:

Can you print direct from memory card / or via USB WITHOUT the need for a PC?

Yep. Very neat system...insert card, print a thumbnail index sheet, then tick the box under each thumbnail of the pic you want to print, place it face down in the scanner, change the paper-type and hey presto.
Via USB? Not with you there...I assume you mean connecting a camera containing a memory card directly, but since it's pretty tough to find a mini USB -> USB printer cable, I doubt it...
The memory card will also appear in My Computer when the USB cable is connected and the unit powered up...very handy if you don't have a card reader or couldn't be arsed connecting your camera.

Local PC world is Dundalk and they seemed to have plenty...I looked for this model in Curry's Newry and they didn't have it which I thought was strange...

Oh and to whoever asked, no joy on the CD thing.

bullpost

Will this printer work with cheap compatible cartridges. Reason I ask is that I have an older Epson printer which doesn't and it got too expensive to run in the end.

WICKL0W

So you've nearly had this a month - how is it on Ink consumption ? I presume this is the old model of RX 520 (which got a bad review on ComputerActive because of black print quality). I can't make my mind up with this or laser printer but then i haven't printed a lot up until now and could do with a scanner, an odd photo copy. Wertz - do you recommend this after using it for a month ?

Wertz

Definitely...done maybe 30 6X4 prints, good few a4's and ink is at about half level...done a lot of scans too and I like the bundled s/w (although I use PS since I'm used to it)...but like I said eralier this is for light home use...I have no idea how it'd suit an office or heavy loading.
On the black thing, I can't say I noticed...definitely not on photo prints at the high quality setting anyways...