Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500

Had numerous printers over the years, absolutely no problems at all with this printer, software is very easy to use, updates load all the time with no fuss.

A very good printer – I purchased the Epson ET 8500 printer as a replacement for my Stylus Photo 1410. I have been a keen amateur photographer. Although my interest has now waned, and I print very little, I was looking for a good photographic printer, and was attracted to the Epson Eco Tank version because of the considerably lower running cost, in comparison to cartridges, and the Epson seemed to be judged - by most reviewers - to be the best available. Although photographic results were deemed to be less than ideal to the photographic eye - but as I do very little of it these days - I decided to buy it. The colours include Black, Photo Black, Magenta, Cyan, Yellow, and Grey. It does not include Light Magenta and Light Cyan. The installation was very straightforward and the ink tanks easy to fill. Document prints are done in a flash (or seemed so - my other was very slow) Photographs directly printed, with no adjustment, were very contrasty. BTW - I have used people photos as the best gauge. After much testing, I now have prints which very closely match the prints from the previous computer. I found it necessary to lower the contrast, then increase brightness - plus a few other tweaks; then again, I have always fiddled with the basic image. You also need to remember to set the quality to HIGH - the default is STANDARD. I have not yet used the copy facility, as decent photos were my main concern. There is an A3 version available, but I do not have the room to accommodate it, as they are now somewhat deeper than the older printers. Also, I seldom print A3s these days - (but it's nice to have the option. :-)) I must stress that I connected to the computer via USB - not Wifi. As for the settings - as I have been accustomed to Epson printers (I've had 2), and as settings are very similar - I've had no problem with those; although, there are extra, with 2 separate printing trays - front and rear - plus setting the print quality, (standard or high). I have only had this printer for a couple of weeks,but so far, I am very happy with the purchase. It's also very much quieter than the old one. Oh, I should add that it does have the ability to print double-sided documents; I couldn't do with out that function. :-D

Edit: 19/11/21 - I have now had this printer for 1 month. I have printed, in total, approx. 15 x A5 colour images (those originally mentioned, plus a few extra) and a few documents. The last document I attempted to print, didn't - a completely blank page. All ink tanks were showing almost full. I performed a nozzle clean and resulting prints (I'm hoping you know, to what I'm referring here) showed 4 cartridges were perfect, black had a couple of pieces missing, but the photo black was completely blank. After another nozzle clean, the black was fine, but it took 4 cleans to get the photo-black nozzle clean, and all printers - especially colour printer - use a lot of ink in the cleaning process. I'm hoping this is a one-off glitch, but am disappointed at this sort of thing occurring in a new printer.