Epson Stylus Photo R2000 Review
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Paper Options
The Epson Stylus Photo R2000 will print on almost any material available. There are three feed paths depending on the weight of your media - the standard feed that will hold multiple sheets, a rear manual feed for heavier media like Epson's Hot Press or Cold Press papers, and a straight path for even heavier media or the CD print tray. Along with this, you also have the roll feed adapter that uses the rear manual feed slot. As with the other printers in this size range, there is no paper cutter, so you'll be trimming your roll media manually.
Print sizes can be as small as 4x6, or borderless to 13x19. Roll media has a maximum size of 13x44. Along with the typical luster and gloss media, the R2000 supports Epson's Signature Worthy fine art papers, canvas, and printable CD/DVD's.
Driver
If you've used an Epson printer in the past, you'll feel right at home. The driver options are essentially the same as previous models. With Printer Color Management enabled, the AccuColor HG option is active, which uses an advanced screening algorithm.
Epson R2000 Print Settings
Epson R2000 Driver Controls
Depending on what you're printing, you may find yourself needing to tweak the settings in the driver just a bit. As an example, with my first test prints on Cold Press Natural, I felt the prints were slightly muddy with too much ink being laid on the paper. A quick adjustment in the driver corrected this and gave me a very accurate print.
Print Quality
It seems that every new printer has a wow factor that makes one wonder how they can improve on this. Yet, they manage to do it every time. Granted, the changes are smaller and harder to see with the Epson Stylus Photo R2000, but they are still noticeable. Color prints with the AccuPhoto HG (High Gloss) setting pop off the page with excellent color rendition. This setting is only available when the printer is managing color, so it's only appropriate with Epson media.
Much of this improvement in print quality is due to a new MicroPiezo AMC print head that is similar to the one found in Epson's professional wide format printers. All eight inks are installed, with the printer switching between matte and photo black without the need to replace cartridges.
Epson R2000 Ink Levelsf
When printing on gloss or luster media, the Gloss Optimizer is used to virtually eliminates any gloss differential, resulting in prints that look good regardless of the viewing angle.
While color is very good, with the orange and red inks particularly helping when printing skin tones, I was surprised at how well the R2000 did with black and white prints. Given that there are no gray inks, and the driver does not include the Advanced Black & White mode found in the more expensive printers, the R2000 held its own against the R3000, and gave slightly better results than what I could get with the Canon Pixma Pro 9500 II.
Speed is reasonably good. It's not as fast as the R3000, but I don't expect it to be as quick as a printer costing nearly twice as much.
Conclusion
So, who is the target audience for the Epson Stylus Photo R2000? At this price, it's clearly the entry step into the higher quality and larger size market for the serious photographer. At $499, it's a very affordable option for someone looking to get into pigment quality prints, particularly if the bulk of your work is color, and you prefer gloss or luster papers. To be sure, the R2000 does beautiful prints on fine art media as well, but that isn't its strong point.
If you're into black and white printing, the R2880 or R3000 are better options, giving the additional gray inks, as well as the Advanced Black & White modes, with the R3000 being the better choice for higher volume printing thanks to it's larger capacity inks.
For the intended market, the Epson Stylus Photo R2000 is the clear leader in quality and value. This is a printer that will give you years of quality output, even if you do eventually grow into a larger printer.
| Ratings (out of 5) | |
|---|---|
| Design | 4.5 |
| Features | 4.5 |
| Ease-of-use | 4.5 |
| Value for money | 5 |
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Entry Tags
review, photos, photo, test, professional, printer, a3, a3+, 13 inch, UltraChrome K3, stylus photo, pigment, r2000.epson, Epson Stylus Photo R2000
#1 Martin Kay
Quote: This is a printer that will give you years of quality output :End Quote
I’d like a good printer that would give weeks of trouble free output… Lol! It seems that now printers are printing so fine a dot they seem more prone to heads blocking up which, to me, seem not as reliable as printers from years gone by.
I used a Epson R800 (I think it was) which gave really good A4 prints which I could sell to customers- however that petered out after the usual two year span or so. After that I never bothered with a quality printer, but got a cheap ‘office’ stlye Canon 2700 (£25 or so) which printed low quality photos (no decent blacks) and the usual letters etc. This printer would reliably print even if it had stood for a few months without blocking up. I though, hmm, I’ll get a slightly better Canon (about £70) and see how that goes… result after one letter and about four days the heads are blocked and still after three attempts to clean. Printer into the skip and back to a cheap office style Canon, which again prints reliably. Having worked in darkrooms for years I would like to print my own stuff but I’m seriously thinking of using one of the better online printing companies. The perception is that inkjets are expensive to produce because of ink cost- actually compared to professional hand printing costs (£15.00 for an A4) inkjets are cheap. The expense is when you are constantly trying to unblock heads- I’m not going to be printing every day or even every week so I don’t know if one of these printers is a practical proposition.
10:25 am - Monday, June 4, 2012
#2 Dashi
Hello,
Can anybody tell me what details are changed or repaired by Refurbished printers in case by epson r 2000,
Dashi
7:28 am - Tuesday, October 16, 2012
#3 Wendy McDougall
hello,
I am having trouble getting my R2000 to print using thick paper in the rear loader. The instruction manual is not clear and I cant find any tutorials to show me.
I have the printer settings as the paper ICC profile says, choosing A4 manual rear, and velvet fine art paper selected.
I am wondering if there is a trick as to how to load the paper exactly? I found I had to push the paper down a lot into the printer but it then reads that it is jammed
I’m using Hahnemuehler Photo Rag 308gsm paper
Help!
Wendy
11:44 pm - Monday, November 5, 2012
#4 Ron Thomas
Hi Firstly the info on the R2000 has given me more confidence in going to purchase this A3 Printer.at present I have the Epson Stylus Photo RX 700 of which I have had for some years,what is so good about it that I can clean the inkjet heads,a good alround printer which I will stilluse after I have tha A3.
What your info does not say what means there is to clean the heads,to me this is very inportant,I am told the Canon Printers self clean after using the printer,which tend to use lots of ink,
my 700 is manual to this so saves ink,I only clean when required.
Hopefully the R2000 has a simular device, as this will convince me this is the right one to buy.
Also what about a manual is there one in the kit as lots of things you buy today dont seem to have.
Regards
Ron
6:43 pm - Tuesday, November 6, 2012
#5 Guy
I have recently bought a r2000 after the print heads blocked on my r1900 with the r1900 I had trouble printing onto (uncoated)watercolour paper( which I would later paint over). Can anyone advise what are the best settings for printing onto thick watercolour paper?
11:35 am - Friday, November 9, 2012
#6 Eric Burger
Epson Printers will not last more than about two years now. We spent top $$$ for a large format printer that is “no longer supported”, meaning “we don’t stand by any product that wasn’t purchased yesterday”. If you want a printer that lasts, do your research first, and stay away from epson. They are just cheap.
7:26 pm - Wednesday, January 2, 2013
#7 JJ
Have a HP Z3100 for most of my printing, and decided to buy the R2000 for smaller prints. All I can say is its not worth the cash, the inks run out so quickly not to mention the heads clog if you dont use printer ever few days. And quality wise is not much better then the Z3100. (and B&W suck big time on the R2000). Even with the R2000’s Gloss ink, the bronzing on prints is horrible. Now, I barely use it. And do to the ink cost I would rather waste the extra paper rolls on my Z3100 as its cheaper to toss paper then pay the price for the minuscule Epson inks. Now im going to look into using a CIS for the R2000 to keep the price down, if not ill toss it up on craigslist. :(
Ink Price:
*Epson inks: $22 for 17ml
*HP inks $60 for 130ml
4:06 pm - Wednesday, January 9, 2013
#8 JJ
“I have the printer settings as the paper ICC profile says, choosing A4 manual rear, and velvet fine art paper selected.
I am wondering if there is a trick as to how to load the paper exactly? I found I had to push the paper down a lot into the printer but it then reads that it is jammed
I’m using Hahnemuehler Photo Rag 308gsm paper”
Wendy, there really isnt a special way, you do have to “force” it a little bit, but to much and it will jam, to little and it wont load, you just have to find the sweet spot. If you are having to many problems with the rear feed, you should then try to use the front load as its what Epson recommends for fine art paper. :)
4:09 pm - Wednesday, January 9, 2013
#9 JeRust
I never knew that the chosen printer of the year would come from Epson. I mean honestly I’m not a huge fan of Epson printers especially their ink types, as I’ve got a lot of not so good experiences with those. After having two to three printers from Epson I decided to switch for an HP printer and so far there are less problems from which I had encountered with my latest printer buddy. But based from this review, well it kinda tells me that I should have given Epson another chance, probably for the nth time. Anyway I guess I’ll stick with this one that i have for now.
8:52 am - Thursday, January 10, 2013
#10 Maharg
How does the Epson R2000 printer compare with the R2880. I have had an R2880 14months and it is done for. The ribbons attached to the print head fractured and it was going to be very expensive to repair. I am an amateur Photographer and do a small amount of Photo printing. I don’t want a repeat performance with the new printer
5:23 pm - Friday, January 11, 2013
#11 Maharg
sorry typed in the wrong e-mail address
5:25 pm - Friday, January 11, 2013
#12 Epson R2000
Epson R2000 do excellent work,I really like it.I always use the compatible ink ,and save a lot of money.
5:35 am - Wednesday, March 20, 2013
#13 qqq
Here is a list of epson Stylus Photo Series Printers
http://www.britanniainks.co.uk/categories/Ink-Cartridges/Epson-Ink-Cartridges/Epson-Stylus-Photo-Series-Printers/
5:38 am - Wednesday, March 20, 2013
#14 anwar abdalla mohammed
iwant to ask if it print master log which we are use in oil field which the the paper length about 250inch’and the width about 9.5 inch
and also the print printing from infront and back
if like this where ican find it
sudan khartoum
thanks
7:51 am - Sunday, April 14, 2013