Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

I ordered the Epson 4900 after researching both the Canon Pro Series AND the Epson. I have owned an Epson 1200, 2200 and the 2400.
The Epson documentation and set up were by far the easiest I have ever had. I really was expecting a massive job for this "Gorilla" but I was printing in less than an hour.
The prints are absolutely brialliant.
My only complaint (and it's a small one) is that the right side ink door does not close very solidly. Epson could have made this a bit more solid.
Beyond that, this is an awesome 115 pound gorilla that prints every bit as good as Epson claims.

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

This thing is massive. Over 100 pounds right out of the box.

So far I haven't had any issues except I destroyed a few sheets of paper trying to figure out how do the manual paper load. The instruction manual isn't much help.

It's pretty slow hand feeding it one sheet at a time as I can only print via manual feed with the Museo fine art paper that I use. I wish it was a bit easier.

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

I purchased for my design department and the user love it.

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

I've used a lot of small home printers and online print services. I have never gotten a print to look as good from any of them as they do from this printer.

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

had this printer for a couple of days. easy set up, networked, good colors

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

I upgraded from the 4880 which I thought was a wonderful printer. However, the 4900 HDR ink set can yield prints with a greater visual impact. Also, the management of nozzle testing and cleaning is much improved. Switching MK and PK inks works well. Paper loading and handling improvements are great.

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

I am a serious hobbyist photographer, ie. I work every day on it for several hours. I do landscapes, portraits, architectural abstracts, and lots of travel work. I bought this printer based on reviews (luminouslandscape.com is a great source for these) and because I've owned an Epson 2200 for years and wanted to upgrade but still be in the Epson family I know and appreciate.The printer is fast and the output is gorgeous! I've been using Velvet FA paper so far. I like that I can easily switch between matte and photo blacks. Midtone separation and color gamut are excellent, as is rendition of blacks. I love this printer and would purchase again.The only beefs I have are that centering one's photo on the paper is not easy. Also, they call this a desktop printer but it is a monster, thus its similarity to a VW bug sitting in my studio. I am petite, so need a step stool to load thick papers from the top. I purchased two used, 5-drawer architectural plan cabinets and placed this 115 lb printer on top of them with a solid board underneath it. The printer does not come with a stand and I found this solution, while a bit pricey, serves two purposes -- a good, solid stand for the Beast and great storage for large prints.

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

This is a fantastic printer, the quality of the prints are amazing. The printer is huge, be sure to have enough space (and prepare your partner for the surprise, my wife almost threw it out, luckily, the beast was too heavy – the printer, not my wife!).

The only problem is the paper which is very difficult to load sometime (rear feed); additionally, I would have appreciated fully loaded cartridges considering the price of the machine.

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

Moving from R1800 to a more versatile printer was easy with rapid setup and well thought out start up documents. A commercial style chassis needing a wide open bench to set up. Printing went well from the first image even without calibrating the system. Downloading and installing additional profiles was rapid and simple.

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

I use this printer almost exclusively for canvas prints on Breathing Color's media, primarily in B&W. I have experimented with the printer's B&W mode and compared it to the full color mode on the same image - there is a slight color cast in some areas, but I was able to correct it by regenerating the .icc profile with a Color Munki.

Regardless, the printer's range of blacks is incredible. There are four black cartridges in the printer, but only three are used for any one print - the matte black and photo black switch depending on the media (and therein lies another story).

Besides B&W, the color gamut is impressive - color prints have real presence and 'pop.' Note that I use a Color Munki to calibrate my workflow - an essential step, IMHO.

The roll and cassette media handling features are excellent, but I find the rear load slot a bit finicky and have not succeeded in getting the front manual feed to work at all. These have always been weak areas in Epson wide format printers, IMHO.

It is very nice to load proof paper in the cassette and production media in the roll (and, BTW, I recommend a second roll - it makes media changes much simpler). I don't have to do anything but change the paper type to go from proof to a production print - but here's the rub - if I'm using a glossy/semi gloss proofing media and a canvas production media this requires a switch from matte black to photo black - and subsequent loss of a few ml of black (matte or photo) ink. The printer has ten ink cartridges but the print head has only nine nozzles, with one shared by photo black and matte black, so the ink system must be purged.

The purge cycle aside, this printer is extremely economical on ink. I have owned this printer since March of 2011 and my ink costs are about half that of my previous R2400 and 2880 units. However, a full set of cartridges runs close to $1,000 and they have a six month service life, so this is not a printer for the casual user (unless you want to do a little electronic cheating [and probably void your warranty, BTW]).

I have had some problems with the cyan nozzle clogging and, after a heavy cleaning cycle to fix it, have found ink staining on the edge of media left in the printer during cleaning. BTW, use the control panel to clean nozzles - you can clean them in pairs and save a lot of ink.

Some reviewers commented on the size - yes it's big and heavy and you need a commercial-grade service cart to support it.

I like this printer a lot - and respect it, as well - it's a professional tool and must be approached with care and knowledge. If you want to print a few snaps for the kids, get something else. If you are serious about your work, this is a good way to go.

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

Prints are great BUT I am not a high volume printer, so the 6 month after opening will be up on the 80 mil cart that comes with the printer before i use some of them. Some of the 200mil cart may not run out for years. They need to offer the 80mil cart to. 2: every time i go to the web site for ink they ask me what printer and the 4900 is not there, so i have not been able to replace the cart i need. There must be a way i just havent found it. I would recomend the printer if you are high volume. For low volume printers like me-don't buy it

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

It is silent, fast and of the highest quality.

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

Design appears way too large for its output. 1 size up is 6-8x larger.

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

There is only one reason for me to give this printer 2 stars. Bordeless printing is next to impossible. If you use a sheet of paper from tray or manuel feed, example, 8.5 x 11 or 17 x 22, the printer will only print 2 edges borderless the other 2 edges will need to be trimmed in a secondary opperation and you end up with 8.5 x 10.25. No sheet paper can be ptinted true 4 side borderless. Roll paper can be printed borderless if you set the printer to double cut and paper roll is the correct width. However, Epson dose not make roll widths to print the major size I use reguarly. Which are 11x17, 8.5x11, 5x7 or 4x6. The first print job I had for this printer was a 325 piece job which took over 2 hours of secondary trimming. This is something with my older HP printer I didn't have to do. It was true 4 side borderless. On the Epson, for me to print true 8.5 X 11 I use 17" paper roll. I must secondary cut and throw paper away. A huge waste of paper and my time.
Now on a positive, print quality is great, sharp, crisp, and color is outstanding. Best we have ever experenced and faster than any of our other printers. Very quiet, easy to set up and put on our network .Print drivers work great with Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Photoshop plenty of setup confrigations. Cost of operation we have not yet determined however, we feel this to be very economical. When we called Epson for tech support about our bordless print issues it was easy and quick to reach customer support and they were above average and knowledgeable. Product Manuals are easy to understand and printer is very user friendly. IF only it would print Bordeless 8.5x11 prints. In conclusion, if you are looking to print large prints and don't mind the secondary opperation of trimming, I feel for the money there is no better printer. We are keeping this printer for larger printing but will replace our older HP with a newer HP for smaller print sizes. Think about trimming out a few hundred 5x7s every other week is not something I look forward to. When all Epson needs to do is produce roll paper in enough sizes to accomadate our needs.And have printer support drivers for borderless printing to these sizes. Hope this helps in your decision.

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

I needed to upgrade from my Epson 2200 for the larger 17" output. I printed the same tif file in both printers; same settings, paper,etc. The 4900 output was clearer and sharper, very noticeable in shadowed areas. The colors were brilliant. I was going to retire the 2200 for B&W only , but the 4900 is great there,too.

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

Does what it suppose to do. And , does it very well.

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

This is my first truly professional photographic printer. I'm comparing against old HP Photosmarts, Lexmarks, Canons, etc that I've used in the past. I thought it was cool to see an inkjet printer spit out a photograph. At least I thought they were photographs. Now that I've seen what the Epson can do, the best I can call all previous printings would be crude representations of what a photo should look like.

In a word, the Epson Stylus Pro 4900 is AMAZING. There was a slight learning curve to it for me as I wasn't used to setting up Photoshop with the printer's profile information, the paper's profile information, etc. Once I figured the settings out, I was blown away by the quality of the prints. The color gamut is amazing, as is its ability to handle subtle shading and detail in B&W.

This printer is a hefty beast as all the reviews say. Heavy and bulky. But very quiet, beautiful and efficient. I honestly have found nothing negative about the printer to this point. I guess you could say ink prices--11 cartridges at $100 each is kind of daunting...but then again, I do mostly B&W so I'll be changing only a few of those cartridges on any regular basis. That being said, you get what you pay for, and if you're paying for this printer you'll want to pony up for the correct ink. It would be like owning a Porsche but insisting on using Kia parts.

All-in-all, a great printer and one I'm hoping will help me launch my photographic hobby into a career!

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

I print a great deal for photography and need borderless printing paper, heavier shock. But this border doesn't not print do that. It's heavy, big, and take a great deal of space. Ink is expensive and not worth getting. It is a lemon.

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

I have only had the printer a week or so, so these are preliminary thoughts. But, man, the colors are wonderful. Very rich, a lot of pop-- but not overkill. Construction seems very solid. Prints very quietly. So far, very satisfied.

Comments about Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Inkjet Printer:

A lot has changed in 15yr...
I once owned an Epson Stylus 1200 color inkjet that I used for printing photos. It was ok but had low resolution and poor color fidelity.
Fast forward to the 4900 and WOW, this printer blows my socks off.
I am a hobbyist, not a pro, but have been taking photos for about 40yr and making larger format (8x10 or larger) prints for about 25yr. I currently shoot mainly landscape, architecture and nature but am working on my people/street images more and more, using a Nikon D700 with either the AF-S 24-70mm f2.8G ED or the AF-S 70-200mm f2.8GII ED VRII lens to shoot RAW, 14bit depth, lossless compressed files.
Pros: Fabulous image quality/color reproduction; easy to set up out of the box; ICC profiles provided w the product work great for softproofing in and printing from Aperture3; has given my work a whole new dimension and obviated the need to go back and forth to the retail photo lab to make test prints. Accessible, responsive and well-informed telephone tech support from Epson. Great media choice features.
Cons: Big footprint (they warn you) and massive (again, they warn you!). Rear Manual feed has been a little fussy using 17x22in paper (repeated misfeed errors but I am getting better at loading it the way it wants). Otherwise I have had no problems. Biggest challenge will be to restrain myself from going on a mounting and framing binge.