Epson Stylus Pro 3880 Inkjet Printer Review

The near-dedicated photo printers we have tested lately being able to deal with paper sizes as high as 13 by 19 ins, making all of them appropriate advanced level amateur photographers along with specialists on a budget. The Epson Stylus Pro 3880 ($1, 295 direct, 4 performers) goes even bigger than that, to 17-by 22-inch prints, putting it squarely inside expert camp. It is the most inexpensive design in Epson's Pro series of picture printers, and worth an Editor's Selection as a C-Size (17-inch) expert photo printer.

The 3880 actions 10 by 27 by 15 inches (HWD) and weighs in at 43 weight. Although large in absolute terms, it is just marginally bigger than the Editors' preference Epson Stylus Photo R3000 ($849 direct, 4.5 performers), which just prints to 13 ins large.

Although the 3880 does not have a roll feeder, it has three paper-feeding techniques: a principal top-loading feeder that supports to 50 sheets of image report around 17 by 22 ins, or 120 sheets of plain paper. A moment, single-sheet top feeder is optimized for fine-art paper, and a front, straight-through manual feeder that can manage thicker (up to 1.5 mm) paper to 16 by 20 ins. Minimal paper dimensions are 4-by-6.

The 3880 packs 9 ink tanks, all of 80ml capacity: picture black colored, matte black, light black, light light black, yellow, brilliant magenta, brilliant light magenta, cyan, and light cyan. It may just make use of 8 ink tanks at a time, switching between the image black and matte black colored depending on the paper kind. (you are doing expend some ink for making the switch, so you should transform report kinds sparingly.) There isn't any simple method determine the price per printed page for a printer like this, nevertheless ink cost—at 75c per ml—is significantly less than because of the smaller cartridges utilized by smaller-format Epson near-dedicated photo printers.

The 3880 provides Ethernet and USB connectivity. I tested it over an Ethernet reference to a PC running Microsoft windows Vista.

Print Speed and Production Quality
The 3880 averaged 1 moment 17 moments to print out a 4-by-6 photo at default configurations, never as quickly as R3000, which averaged 53 seconds but nevertheless a respectable rating. The Canon Pixma Pro9500 Mark II ($849.99 direct, 4 movie stars), which prints pictures to 13 by 19 inches, took about 2 minutes 35 seconds per 4-by-6 printing.

Utilizing the 3880 to print text would be like utilizing a Maserati to operate a vehicle to your mall, but its text high quality was very good for an inkjet, adequate for documents like resumes which are supposed to impress, at the very least with fairly standard typefaces. Illustrations had been additionally great; mild smudging within one picture and a small enrollment (alignment) concern in another were the 2 issues I noted, but they were just apparent on really close assessment.

Really the only flaw really worth mention that I noted within my photo examination had been a small trace of banding—in this situation a normal pattern of extremely good hatching—seen in solid black colored places in two prints on shiny paper. Prints on Epson's Velvet artwork Paper, a professional-grade matte report, revealed no banding at all. Thereon report, the 3880 produced many exquisite, gallery-worthy 13- by-19 prints in my tests. (sadly, i did not get to be able to test it on 17- by 24-inch paper.)

Wen't tested a printer inside 3880's course in a number of years, but its production high quality pegged it as worthy of an Editors' option as a C-size professional photo printer. The Epson Stylus Photo R3000 still reigns whilst the "prosumer" Editors' Choice for really serious amateurs and specialists on a tight budget, but those ready to move beyond that, artistically and/or skillfully, would excel to simply take a detailed look at the 3880. It is a good choice not just for specialists, but additionally as a bridge for serious beginners that considering making photography their life's work.

STANDARD TEST OUTCOMES

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Epson Stylus picture 3880 with many inkjet printers side by side.

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