Product Reviews

With photo printing a firm priority, the past few months have seen Epson pushing new print technologies closer towards the genuine article. The Stylus Photo 1270 (reviewed issue 70, p166) brought high-speed and high-quality A3+ sized photo printing, edge-to-edge prints and also boasted ten-year light-fastness using Epson's new print media. However, it now looks like the ultimate photo printer may be upon us, in the form of the very swish silver and black Stylus Photo 2000P.

This is Epson's first design to utilise six pigment-based colours, as opposed to previous dye-based inks. Pigmented inks differ from dye-based inks in that they don't dissolve completely in water, and once dry they stick to the paper's small fibres making them almost water resistant. Pigmented inks are also more resistant to fading over time since the molecules aren't as spread out as their dye-based counterparts, and so are more resistant to light. This is the main selling point of the 2000P, and Epson claims that photos printed on the new print media will remain light-fast for over 100 years.

Whether your photos will actually last this long remains to be seen, but the photo results I achieved with the 2000P were impressive. The most aesthetic part is the way in which the ink attaches itself to the paper, with no stickiness and a beautiful finish that makes it look like a genuine print - almost as though the photo was part of the paper. The prints also proved to be waterproof, and were dry within seconds of being printed. In comparison, the results from the 1270 had noticeable banding close-up, and the ink was still slightly tacky even after two months. That said, the colours produced by the 1270 were more vibrant, making those from the 2000P look slightly dull. The 1270 was also much sharper and smoother, with the 2000P looking a little grainy in comparison. The other thing to take into account is speed - the 1270 printed a high-quality A4 photo in just four minutes, 40 seconds, whereas the 2000P took 14 minutes, 40 seconds to complete the same task, and it takes 30 minutes, 40 seconds to produce an A3+ sized photo.

For the odd photo I can live with stunted print speeds, but on other tasks the 2000P fared less well. The slowest time came from

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the black text test on plain paper, taking 63 minutes to print just 25 pages in standard mode. This works out at a disappointing 0.4ppm, with results that are far from desirable, featuring wobbly and scratchy characters that also looked faded. The washed-out and faded appearance was followed through to all the plain paper tests. In addition to colours looking dull and faded, solid blocks looked grainy with white speckles. Ideally, you'd have to use Epson's own print media if you wanted reasonable results.

The new media comes in the form of Epson's new Premium Semigloss Photo Paper, Archival Matte Paper, and Glossy Paper - Photo Weight. These, along with plain paper, are the only four media options in the driver, with no options for previous Epson coated media. Given the poor plain paper results, this restricts the 2000P to photo printing alone, and you'll only get the 100-year light-fastness using the new media, although you can also use the Archival Matte Paper setting to print paintings on Epson's Watercolor Paper with some very attractive results.

As far as colour accuracy is concerned, the Pantone results were comparable to the balance of the 1270, which although not 100 per cent accurate is still impressive for an inkjet printer. The colour fades were slightly disappointing though, looking grainy and inconsistent in places.

The driver looks and behaves like other recent Epson drivers, with all of the expected cleaning and alignment options. The software bundle includes Adobe Photoshop 5 LE, giving you a professional photo-editing package. At a price of £680 this is to be expected, and with its market securely in the hands of the photographer this is a wise inclusion.

Ultimately, it's value for money that really lets the 2000P down. The new pigment-based technology is the main factor here, and if you're looking for that perfect and long-lasting photo finish at whatever cost, the 2000P will do it better than anything else on the market. There's no denying that the Semigloss A3+ photos are stunning.

However, at £680 it costs twice as much as the 1270, but the results are not as good. If you can forgive the slight banding and stickiness of the 1270's photo prints, the results are still impressive. At half the price, the 1270 will also print on a more diverse range of print media, and with an impressive ten-year light-fastness using Epson's media, it has a wider range of functionality including 1.75ppm black text printing and vastly superior plain paper results. The natural sheen and finish of the 2000P's photo prints were visually and physically stunning, showing the potential of pigment-based inks. It's definitely worth waiting for the technology to become cheaper and more flexible before making a purchase. In the meantime, however, the Stylus Photo 1270 is the better all-rounder.