Product ReviewsEpson Stylus Photo R280 Color Inkjet Printer

Epson Stylus Photo R280 ROCKS!

I was looking for a printer that can print directly onto a DVD and also have great quality prints. I heard good things about the R280 from professionals and consumers alike. This printer uses a special inkjet, Epson Advanced Micro Piezo with DX5 technology. It uses 6 individual ink tanks, so if you buy them retail at Staples, they run $15 each. It can get expensive. I do a lot of printing, so I us a CIS (Continous Ink System) which I bought right here on ebay and that will save you a lot of money in the long run. Setup was fairly easy and straight forward. I've been using this printer for about 8 weeks now and I've had no complains. It is very reliable so far. Pictures turn out great and you can't tell it was printed from an inkjet. Photos comes out as clear as if developed at Walgreens. The resolution is an amazing 5760x1440 dpi! It also print pretty quick, up to 37 pages/min - Black draft - Letter A Size and up to 38 pages/min - Color draft. For the price (ave. $100 including shipping), the Epson Stylus Photo R280 can't be beat!Read full review...

Good quality for photo copying

Did not receive usb cable that the seller promised. This machine makes good photo prints if it's used frequently. Not a great printer for regular printing. I use it primarily to print directly onto CD's and DVD's.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: chapman.inc

Great for making DVD labels dirrect onto DVD. No stick on labels.

I had to replace my the DVD. The quality is excellent and I love this one. I have used this printer because it has great printing and it prints labels directly on your DVD. If I need regular printed papers , this printer has great clear printing. Printers now a days are very cheap but if you want a great printer, this should be your pick.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: andu_89

Excellent Printer for Photos and DVDs.

I bought this to replace an Epson R220 that finally went "south" on me. This is a FAR better printer than the R220! Better print quality for both photos, CDs and DVDs. In addition to regular text printing and a few photos, I was able to print 70 DVD case inserts and printable DVDs on one set of cartridges! This is way better than the R220's cartridges. Epson puts more ink in the R280 cartridges plus the smaller ink droplet sizes saves ink also.

You really cannot go wrong with purchasing this printer! With the old Epsons, when you wanted to print CDs or DVDs, you had to chose the options manually in the printer setup. Now with the R280 when you switch the printer tray into the slot for CD/DVD printing the printer automatically goes into CD/DVD print mode with options for standard surface or premium surface printing.

In addition, the "Claria" ink is much better than the old inks used in previous printers. Plus you have the option of purchasing a CISS system or refillable cartridges here on ebay.

One reviewer said this is a discontinued printer... they are wrong. It is still in production at Epson.

Buy one of these and you won't be sorry!Read full review...

Epson R280...Get one if you can.

First off...I have used this printer to print hundreds of 4x6 cards as well as hundreds of 8.5x11 photos. One of the best inkjet printers I have ever owned. The R380 is the other. All my HP, Canon and Kodak inkjet printers are nowhere near the quality of this printer. I have a CIS installed which has made the printer even better. Straight feed is a HUGE plus.Read full review...

Big Color in a small package

This Epson Stylus Photo R280 has surprisingly good quality in such a small package. In general it is easy to setup. However printing on DVD's is a little more difficult. What most people complain about is the noise. Yes it is a little bit noisy when printing. But it prints really good color. I think the color quality Vs. Price is a very good deal. What i like is that it is just a color printer. Not an all-in-one printer. Usually something suffers when you try to make it do too many different things. So this printer prints photos well, it doesn't scan or make copies, or fax, and that is ok with me.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: nygimleLS8W@Del...

Great printer for a great price.

I had purchased this printer for the sole purpose of finishing a project. I was looking for something on the inexpensive side that had a decent quality print. Since it was for a single project, I did not need the newly-released top of the line printers. The bulk of my project has been t-shirt transfers and let me say I have been blown away. Well worth the $50 I spent on it and look forward to using it for other things on a daily basis in the future. Having done printing on small and wide format printers before, I do not think that the inks are overly expensive. Considering that not all colors run out at the same time, buying them individually is a smarter plan than buying the tri-color ink cartridges that some other printers use. With the starter inks that were included with the printer, after about a dozen sheets printing at a higher-quality setting, it is still sitting at over 90%-98 capacity for the individual colors (which is to be expected based on my previous experiences). It is also very fast, I am amazed at how quickly the prints have been coming out at higher print settings. A tip from one printer to another: remember to turn your printer off after use, it will prevent excess drying of the cartridges and you will not need to do as many (if any) head cleanings/tests the next time you need to use it.Read full review...

Sweet Printer! Crystal Clear Print! Affordable!

2008/06/13 - I decided to buy this printer for the ability to print on CDs & DVDs. I also like that there are 6 ink cartridges and you only replace the ink that is out, unlike the HP printer that I have, where you replace a tri-color cartridge if any one of the three inks are empty or low! The separate color system makes so much more sense to me. I have my HP and my Epson on two Netgear print servers, as soon as I got the print servers up and running, the first printing project that I tried was printing on a printable CD. The quality of the print on the Epson R280 for that CD was "top of the line"! I used the "Epson Print CD" software that came bundled with the printer and used one of their templates, and the quality was superb! When I printed out a text page, it looked a bit blurry, so I cleaned the print heads and printed again -- and everything was fine! The Epson R280 was such a breeze to set up, such high quality at such an affordable cost and the replacement inks (I already have a spare replacement set of genuine Epson R280 inks) are reasonable as well. It's much too good a deal to pass up. If you've been looking for a printer like this, my advice to you is: "Don't put it off any longer! This is one awesome printer! Grab it while you can!"Read full review...

Best little DVD printer on the market even though it has been discontinued!

This model Epson R280 was discontinued a few years back. It had features that video professionals used on a daily basis like CD/DVD print capability.

Quality of prints were very high using quality gloss paper which I used for plastic DVD sleeve inserts. Also. direct printing on printable white matte or gloss DVD's themselves.

Sometimes their would be some smudging when printing on high gloss paper when the wrong choice of paper was selected via the Epson software. Overall everyday print quality was excellent. Only downside to this printer was the high cost of genuine Epson ink replacement cartridges. Many people got around this with aftermarket continuous ink reservoir.

I have been through three of these printers in the last 10 years and noticed that used ones are three times the price as when they first came out and sold at the retail stores. Definitely worth the price though as they are great little printers especially for the video professional.Read full review...

Worked Perfect

The primary reason that people buy the R280 is printing ID cards. Purchase the ID tray and inkjet ID cards. The color and resolution is far better than all but the most expensive regular ID Card Printers. I don't recommend if for printing 1,000 ID cards. It takes too much time. However, if you need a dozen to 100 per year, this printer is way to go.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: kozisvyat1