fast photo printing

First the PROS:
1) excellent print quality on both paper and CD/DVD media.
2) Has card readers built in and ability to capture directly from it's own USB port from devices such as a digital camera.
3) card port can be used in passthrough so it acts just like a normal card reader.
4) fairly quiet overall.
5) not a bad price for the printer itself and you can get the R200, same printer without card reader basically for about $100.

But the Cons:
1) Ink costs a fortune for it and I have yet to find a generic ink that will work all that well in it. Carts are very difficult to refill.
2) Sucks up ink like cheap wine. It prints light compared to some printers so you have to set it to darken the print, using more ink in the process, if you want a true to color picture and the ink drops rapidly.
3) When you replace a cart it drops the others by about 1/10 of the meter for no reason at all. Once more way for epson to milk more ink money out of you.
4) reports ink is out far before its really gone, forcing you to use a third party utility to trick it into letting you use all your ink, and that utility can damage the printer if you aren't careful with it.
5) I've noticed some streaking from the black head on almost every cover I've printed.
6) It likes to catch the front corners of the paper and ink them black by accident. I guess because it doesn't secure the front edge before printing. This may be why I'm getting streaking too. its possible the black head is screwed up from the corners of paper poking into it.
7) takes forever to power on when you want to use it.
8) Draft printing is horrible. It comes out very light, unlike the HPs which still look good in draft mode.

Overall it gives good prints but has too many drawbacks for me. I've gotten to just using it for DVD/CD and some photo work. I'll get an HP for text and other photo work and save the fortune I'm spending in overpriced short lived ink.

I knew there had to be something about this printer, considering every shop, both local and online, seemed to be out of stock. I started seeing them turning up on ebay at 20-30 dollars above retail. After I finally tracked one down and installed it, I can understand why. This is one beautiful machine. All of the pet peeves that I had from my older Epson (Stylus Photo 740) are gone. It doesn't take time to warm up, it has a small "footprint" on my desk, it is very quiet, it has 7 separate ink cartridges, you can click a box and print in black and white even when the color inks are dry, and the software is top-notch.

The CD/DVD printing works...well, MUCH MUCH better than I ever imagined. I couldn't believe I was holding a CD-R when I was done. The fleshtones on the photos that I printed were very realistic. I asked my wife to pick which was the photo and which was the printout and she couldn't tell. Used in tandem with my Perfection 2400 scanner, the R300 printer is a powerful tool.

Prints great and is quiet. Sucks ink like a hungry baby on a bottle.

20 8"x10" prints = $100+ in ink. Epson would give this printer away for free, but they're smart enough to know that buyers would suspect a catch. I know - charge the buyer for the printer AND continually drain there wallets in ink expenses.

Epson doesn't make money on printers- they make money on repeat sales of ink. To make more money on ink they make a printer that blows through it. A WIN-WIN for Epson! Hoo-ray Epson!

Oh....but like I said, it does print nice...but should't it anyway?