Epson's new eight cartridge Stylus Photo R800 only uses seven colours with the eighth cartridge containing a gloss optimiser used to create a uniform gloss finish across the entire print surface on glossy paper. Printer manufacturers have steadily been increasing the number of ink cartridges in their top of the range photo printers on the basis that the more basic colours they have to work with the more precise the overall result.

Epson's new eight cartridge Stylus Photo R800 only uses seven colours with the eighth cartridge containing a gloss optimiser used to create a uniform gloss finish across the entire print surface on glossy paper. It basically seals in Epson's new Ultra Chrome Hi-Gloss pigment based inks and the company claims that when used with its photographic paper it helps give photos a life of up to 80 years - something we will just have to take their word for.

One thing is clear though, the combination of the standard cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) and with the new red, blue and matte black colours do produce an excellent result. The R800 handles subtle tones and brighter reflective colours such as gold and shocking pinks extremely well and produces surprisingly good results from low resolution images.

The R800 is quite versatile and capable of printing a range of media sizes from 6" x 4" to A4 sheets to continuous 210mm x 10m wide rolls of premium gloss photo paper, however, surprisingly it is neither PictBridge compatible nor does it have any memory card slots. Instead it offers both USB 2.0 and FireWire connectivity and support for Exif2.2 digital camera printing.

The one thing you won't find anywhere in the company literature about the R800 is mention of print speeds. That's not because it is a slouch but more because it's a Rolls Royce rather than a Lotus and quality is more important than speed.

Having said that it prints an A4 borderless print in about 4 minutes and a metre long full colour banner in about 10, and its image enhancement software does a great job stretching low resolution images into A4 prints without pixelation or excessive grain.
At $699 this is a printer for the enthusiastic amateur photographer who takes pride in their work and wants to frame them and put them on the wall. What you see on the screen is what you get on your print and there can be no better recommendation than that.