articles/Printers/epsonr3000-page1
by Mike McNamee Published
Introduction
The R3000 was one of the few truly new products on show at Focus on Imaging. As the only two machines currently available at the moment, they certainly caused something of a stir on the enthusiast/prosumer side of the Epson stand. We took the opportunity to run a couple of colour audit test sheets though during a quiet moment (thanks Dan!) and brought them home for analysis. The printer seems to be a good workhorse, it ran daily and almost continuously during the whole of Focus!
Specification
The R3000 is an A3+ size printer with gloss, fine art, board (1.3mm) and CD printing capabilities. It has both USB and WiFi capability along with an Ethernet port. It runs the UltraChrome Vivid Magenta ink set from 25.9ml cartridges and has both Matte Black and Photo Black inks on board. Change over is automatic on selection of the media. New on this machine is an eco-mode of ink change which saves ink at the expense of a bit of mixing of the ink types. Unlike the rival 3880 this printer will take a roll of paper (up to 329mm wide) and can also print out to a massive 129-inch of run length. The dot size has been refined to a maximum of 5760x1440dpi for the ultimate in fine detail printing although there is a time penalty when printing like this. Speed is up to the mark, a high quality A3+ may be printed in 195 seconds although use of the slower modes and higher dot densities slows this down (the slowest settings take 19min to create an A3+ borderless print).
A very fulsome specification then - the Stylus Pro 2880 must have been watching across the Epson stand at its new, rival cousin, with a terrified look!
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