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Epson SP 2200. What have I been missing ?

BarryJ

BarryJ

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 8, 2007
787
0
Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Some years back I purchased an Epson Stylus Photo 2200. For me and my budget, it was a costly purchase.

I've heard and read about many many people who swear this printer makes their photos worth all the effort it took to capture them.

I am not one of those people. No freakin' way.

For the absolute life of me I cannot get that machine to print a SINGLE photo that makes me sit back and say "wow, so that's what they were all speaking about."

I use an iMac... fairly new. A 24 inch screen. It runs at 2.66 GhZ, an Intel Core 2 Duo. I run 10.6.2 OS.

I know, I know, many folks say the 2200 drivers don't work with SL. That's not true, and it is beside the point. For the years I have had this machine, I've always kept it up to date with all the proper drivers and ICC profiles from Epson.ca

I've printed with colour management turned off in the print dialogue box. I've printed with it on... with Epson's colour photo settings... with all the combinations I have read of over the years.. I use the proper icc profiles for the paper. The proper inks. I've printed from Aperture 2, Photo elements 6 AND 8 and still no joy. I just bought a HUEY from Pantone to calibrate the monitor. Not the best calibrator I know, but it works!

Now I have not purchased a RIP for this machine because they are expensive and I'm not spending another cent on this thing.

Am I alone here ? Are there others out there in forum land that share my frustration.

Does anyone hold the key to Epson 2200 happiness.. or a least a recommendation as to what printer to buy after I BURN this one ?

Thanks

Barry
 
I haven't printed in a while (at least not in SL), but when I did, I got beautiful output. I've sold many prints from it.

My "method" was to print from Photoshop, using Epson color management - no specific Colorsync profile. The only mods I did specifically for output were to darken slightly, and increase sat slightly. Screen calibration was default LCD.

In my case, every time I tried using an Epson colorsync profile and/or a different/custom screen calibration , the output would go "wild". (I never could get good results using the built-in calibrator, and since I was getting good output using the above method, never thought it worth getting a physical screen calibrator.)
 
Haven't tried

My "method" was to print from Photoshop, using Epson color management - no specific Colorsync profile. The only mods I did specifically for output were to darken slightly, and increase sat slightly. Screen calibration was default LCD.


You know, as silly as it may sound, Ive never really tried this "method". I've been so focused o what other users have posted with regards to the importance of icc profiles and so on, that I've never given the Epson colour management a try. I've e bunch of fresh cartridges installed... so I'll do some experimenting over the next couple of days.

Thanks for taking the time to write a reply.

Barry
 
BarryJ said:
My "method" was to print from Photoshop, using Epson color management - no specific Colorsync profile. The only mods I did specifically for output were to darken slightly, and increase sat slightly. Screen calibration was default LCD.


You know, as silly as it may sound, Ive never really tried this "method". I've been so focused o what other users have posted with regards to the importance of icc profiles and so on, that I've never given the Epson colour management a try. I've e bunch of fresh cartridges installed... so I'll do some experimenting over the next couple of days.

Thanks for taking the time to write a reply.

Barry
Click to expand...

No problem. Hope it helps. It's not much of a "method", but it worked for me. I had output which was hard to tell from traditional prints (Kodacolor or whatever), especially on the Premium Luster and Glossy papers.
 
Have you read any of the articles on printing over at luminous-landcape? There was a recent one on color management problems with epson printers on snow leopard. If you had trouble before snow leopard it might not help, but it couldn't hurt to read.

LL also has a series of video guides that you can buy. I purchased the guide to LR2 and found it to be fantastic. They have a guide to fine art printing that you might want to consider.
 
Thanks!

panoz7 said:
Have you read any of the articles on printing over at luminous-landcape? There was a recent one on color management problems with epson printers on snow leopard. If you had trouble before snow leopard it might not help, but it couldn't hurt to read.

LL also has a series of video guides that you can buy. I purchased the guide to LR2 and found it to be fantastic. They have a guide to fine art printing that you might want to consider.
Click to expand...

Thanks... I was not aware of this and it DOES look recent. I'll read it over again and report back. A quick scn makes some familiar points.

Barry
 
So here is what I've discovered

I've read the link provided to luminous landscapes. It was an interesting read and I'm sure the lad who wrote it is a pro when it comes to the science and black art of colour management.

I don't use any of the adobe photo products he mentions. Currently I use Photo Elements 8, which I have never printed from. ( But I will give that a whirl ) I use Apple's Aperture 2 because I like the way it allows me to manage my library.

I've been printing a bunch of "test" prints (from Aperture ) over the last few days and the most success comes from simply telling the SP2200 to use Epson's colour management settings.

Like gr8tfly suggests, some tweaking of the brightness and saturation settings, and I should be able to get somewhere in the "wow" ballpark.

Here are the shots I used to do the test prints:

4101712910_62f629a684_b.jpg
[/IMG]

And

4100961861_8641a87eb6_b.jpg


I just though anyone reading this may like to see.

Thanks for your replies and I guess I'll just keep on with this 2200 for awhile...

BJ
 
Good to hear it's working the same on SL. Guess I'll have to work on getting the heads clean (again) and try some printing. I have some reprinting to do for some I have hung around the house, which were printed on an older, non-"archive" model. They're showing some age, so I thought it would be nice to bring them back to life.
 
joaoferro99 said:
I think epson 3800 is a very good printer and very cost effective.
Click to expand...

I'm considering a 'good' photo printer. many have great results with the Epson R2400 (although reports of concerns about service required when 'waste pad' gets full or too many cycles). and many rave about the R3880. I almost bought a R3880 (I would love to have 17" wide capability) for $400, but then I realized I'd need to buy $500+ ink and that was beyond my budget

I expect to print a relatively low volumes, not making lots of prints for shows etc.

What should I consider (new or used, min 13" wide) under $500 with ink ? Is the Canon PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II worth considering for occasional but high quality printing ?
 
Last edited:
qveda said:
I'm considering a 'good' photo printer. many have great results with the Epson R2400 (although reports of concerns about service required when 'waste pad' gets full or too many cycles). and many rave about the R3880. I almost bought a R3880 (I would love to have 17" wide capability) for $400, but then I realized I'd need to buy $500+ ink and that was beyond my budget

I expect to print a relatively low volumes, not making lots of prints for shows etc.

What should I consider (new or used, min 13" wide) under $500 with ink ? Is the Canon PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II worth considering for occasional but high quality printing ?
Click to expand...



dont give up on your R2400 yet, there is still a way to re-activate it

check this out-
http://www.inkrepublic.com/KnowledgeBase/ResetCounter.asp

"...... Please note that even you reset the counter, the problem is still there since the waste ink pads would eventually overflow if you do not replace them. This may damage your printer. So they must be replaced.

To get rid of "waste ink pad" problem completely, you can install an external bottle and direct all waste ink to there. Please refer Install Waste Ink Tube/Bottle to Protect Waste Ink Pad........."

also, you should get a waste ink kit from
http://www.inkrepublic.com/WasteInkKit.asp
and follow the steps here
http://www.inkrepublic.com/KnowledgeBase/R2400WasteInk.asp

I hope this helps. if not, you may want to consider an epson 3880 or a used 3800, the ink cost can be reduce a lot if you use a great refillable system with reputable 3rd party inks such as

http://www.pro3800.com/
or http://www.inkrepublic.com/3880-iRefill.asp
or http://www.ufosystem.net/products.asp

~J9
 
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