Product Reviews

Epson's new Stylus Pro 3800 stands out from the crowd as a temptingly sized, desktop A2+ photo-printer for enthusiasts and imaging professionals. Sitting directly beneath the larger and pricier A2+ Stylus Pro 4800, the Pro 3800 is the company's entry-level, wide-format printer based on the maker's nine-colour UltraChrome K3 pigment-based ink set.

With matte and photo black inks, plus the usual CMY combo and four diluted inks, this provides the wider-than-average gamut essential for accurate colour and mono prints. Also handy is the compatibility with a wide range of Epson's media, from fine art, archival matte and watercolour, to premium lustre and heavyweight glossy finish papers.

All nine 80ml ink cartridges sit in the machine at any one time, which is a nice touch. The Pro 3800 has the added advantage of automated switching between matte and photo black inks, based on the selection of the appropriate media in the driver, similar to HP's A3+ Photosmart Pro B9180. Not only is this more convenient, but it avoids incorrect matching of inks and media, eliminating the possibility of waste, and prevents disappointing print quality from cross-contamination of inks. A small quantity of ink is flushed out into a user-interchangeable maintenance filter, so it's advisable not to switch haphazardly between various papers.

A comforting thought for anyone planning to sell prints is the claimed life expectancy of the K3 pigmented inks when combined with Epson's media. Resistance to fading from exposure to ozone and light-fastness is said to be up to 75 years for colour and in excess of 100 years for mono prints under dark storage conditions.

With a single print-head and Epson's variable-sized droplet technology - the smallest droplets ejected being a not-so-tiny 3.5 picolitre - print resolutions max out at just 2880 x 1440dpi. Although this is lower than the majority of

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consumer-orientated A3- and A4-format printers, it's practically irrelevant in real-world use.

There are some concessions to price, though - there's no separate paper tray and it lacks the option of a roll feeder. Media sizes range from just 10 x 15cm (6 x 4in) up to A2+ (17 x 22in) with borderless printing, using the now standard fold-out sheet feeder to the rear. Unusually, the Pro 3800 also has a single manual sheet feeder to the rear for heavier weight papers, plus there's a third path for rigid media located to the front, behind a flimsy cover that doubles as an output tray.

At a fraction over 68cm wide, it's considerably bigger and bulkier than an A3+ printer, though a good deal of the body is taken up with the large ink cartridges. These sit at the front under a lockable cover, but they're easy to replace. As well as USB 2, the Pro 3800 carries a 10/100Base-T network port, which, although expected at this level, is still a welcome sight.

A handy LCD readout provides info on ink levels and whether the cartridge cover is locked or not, but it's small for true at-a-glance convenience. Profiles for Epson media are buried in the installation, but were correctly located by Photoshop. Our only major concern was that the profiles are displayed as acronyms of the papers, so it's difficult to distinguish some of the more obscure media.

We weren't expecting the Pro 3800 to beat any speed records, but we were pleasantly surprised. With high-speed printing on, it took just over four minutes to print a full A3 image, dropping to two minutes and 26 seconds for our full-colour A4 test photo. Postcard prints were produced just as quick, at about 60 seconds per sheet. The results were quite extraordinary; both colour and mono prints were superb.

Although tardier by comparison, text printing was good, too. Best-quality prints were produced at the maximum resolution and with the high-speed option unchecked, though job times doubled. Colour reproduction was spot on, and blacks were deep and rich, especially on matte papers. Gradation and fine detail were impressive, and there were no signs of banding nor bronzing with gloss-finish prints.

Despite that, if you have the space and the need for a higher volume of prints, the Stylus Pro 4800 is still our printer of choice, especially as it's heavily discounted to within £200 of the Pro 3800. Nevertheless, if you value realistic output above all else, the Stylus Pro 3800 happily delivers.