Keep Epson 1290s or upgrade to Epson 1500W?

[henryrym]

Hi to all, my first post on this super forum!

Wondered if anyone still uses an old (ancient!!) Epson 1290s (known as 1280 across the Atlantic)?

I've dug mine out of the loft, where it hasn't been used for the last 2 years, popped in two new cartridges (genuine not compatibles), did 4 print head cleans and hey presto! it prints as good as ever. I've hardly used it, as only printed 500 or so pictures with it, always using genuine cartridges. So hoping that there might be a bit of life still left in it.

I need to start printing out our photos again, perhaps another 500 pictures or so up to A3+ size.

My question is should I upgrade from my 1290 to an Epson 1500W (Artisan 1430) which I can buy at a very special price. In view of the age of my printer and bargain price I'm tempted to do this. Can anybody comment on the difference in print quality between the two - I've always been very impressed by the output from the 1290, has there been a significant improvement as the 1500W is ten years newer.

The prints will be stored in folders, a few might end up on our walls displayed behind glass in subdued house lighting. Longevity of prints is a lowish priority - all pictures that I've printed previously seem to be as good as first printed. I've always used Epson paper and ink, may be that's helped with the lack of fading.

Your comments would be appreciated.

 

[pharmacist]

I don't understand: your printer model states Epson 1500W, so you already have one.

The problem of the 1290 is the combined cartridge for the colored inks. I sold my Epson R3000, because I already have a very good Epson Pro 3880 K3 Vivid printer, so I changed to an Epson 1500W printer, which is easier to experiment on using different inks. I am going to test different inks for their fade resistance the next week and report back after a few months of hopefully intensive solar radiation on the prints.

 

[henryrym]

Ahhh! Jumping the gun with the 1500W - I was going to buy it very shortly so prematurely put it in my profile.

I hadn't used the 1290 lately as I upgraded to a PC running 64bit Win 7, which wouldn't allow me to tweak the print settings in the way that XP allowed. I've recently changed to a Mac and wondered if the 1290s would work with Mac Mavericks, so before giving up on it, got it out of the loft this afternoon, downloaded drivers and was surprised to find it prints fine. It also allows me to change settings in a similar way to Win XP so will seriously consider keeping it, subject to forum advice.

Hence my question before spending on the 1500W - will I be buying a definite improvement in print quality, or will the 1500W just be a much newer and more expensive replacement with little print quality improvement over what I can get from the 1290.

As far as individual versus combined tanks is concerned, if buying genuine Epson inks, the T009 colour cartridge is so much cheaper than a set for the 1500, so will accept chucking out a bit of unused ink. If I go down the non Epson route, then I'll buy refillable cartridges for whichever printer I end up with and buy whichever ink the forum recommends - will ask this in a later posting.

Look forward to your results pharmacist as could be of great interest to me!

 

[websnail]

As @pharmacist said the ink tanks are combined for the colours but beyond that if it works, why spend the money on something else.

For my money the older printers are still good ones so I'd hang on to the 1290 myself unless you really need some new wow feature in the 1500W.

I think the expression is "If it aint broke, why fix it"

 

[henryrym]

As @pharmacist said the ink tanks are combined for the colours but beyond that if it works, why spend the money on something else.

For my money the older printers are still good ones so I'd hang on to the 1290 myself unless you really need some new wow feature in the 1500W.

I think the expression is "If it aint broke, why fix it"

Agreed, I printed a few prize winning A3s from the 1290 a while ago at my local photo club. Suspect that 1500 print quality won't be fantastically better, BUT build quality could be worse. Given how little use my 1290 has had, it could outlast many of the flimsy build printers available nowadays.

Probably wiser to spend the money on ink as the big difference between the two is the unnecessary for me wireless printing.

As an aside I was very surprised as to how little head cleaning my 1290 needed after a lengthy store in the attic, I was expecting it to be seized up solid and beyond resuscitation.

Now need to think about ink, whether to stick with Epson originals or go down the refilling cartridges route.

 

[pharmacist]

The only reason why you should change to the 1500W is the quality of the Claria dye ink, which is much more archival compared to the ink version used in the Epson 1270/1290 series. The first generation of Epson dye inks used in the Epson 1270/1290 is known to be rather fast fading, when used on microporous papers. But maybe the upcoming fade resistance test of several aftermarket inks will give some clue which version will be good.

 

[Lucas28]

I owned a 1290s until 2012 and it was a good printer. I sold it because I wanted to 'upgrade' to pigment inks, but the pigment inks appeared not to be better after all.

I runned it with all kinds of inks, also Lyson Quad Black. The printer was not clog proof and using OEM cart bought at tweedehands.be or another ebay like site is the best remedy.

Interesting about the 1290 that T008 carts also fit in the printer. I even didn't have to exchange the chip. The carts are fitted with Epson first generation chips which are easier to handle than the newer chips.

The printer is equipped with a combined color cartridge which I consider better. It's cheaper to buy only two cartridges instead of six.

I shouldn't have sold it!

 

[henryrym]

I owned a 1290s until 2012 and it was a good printer. I sold it because I wanted to 'upgrade' to pigment inks, but the pigment inks appeared not to be better after all.

I runned it with all kinds of inks, also Lyson Quad Black. The printer was not clog proof and using OEM cart bought at tweedehands.be or another ebay like site is the best remedy.

Interesting about the 1290 that T008 carts also fit in the printer. I even didn't have to exchange the chip. The carts are fitted with Epson first generation chips which are easier to handle than the newer chips.

The printer is equipped with a combined color cartridge which I consider better. It's cheaper to buy only two cartridges instead of six.

I shouldn't have sold it!

Thanks for that info! If I use a genuine Epson T008 cartridge, will I get a colour cast compared to the T009 - I'm asking if the ink composition is identical?

Doing a quick google, shows the genuine Epson T008 cartridges seem to be a bit cheaper than the T009s!

 

[Lucas28]

The same ink is in T008 and T009. But the T008 contains less ink, 46 ml instead of 66 ml in the T009. I think you should buy the OEM cartridges on eBay, the Epson store is way too expensive.
If you find a nice offer of T008 carts, they will fit. I noticed it with a Lyson cart.

 

[henryrym]

The same ink is in T008 and T009. But the T008 contains less ink, 46 ml instead of 66 ml in the T009. I think you should buy the OEM cartridges on eBay, the Epson store is way too expensive.
If you find a nice offer of T008 carts, they will fit. I noticed it with a Lyson cart.

Thanks, can see why there is a price difference, as the T008 volume is somewhat less. Will try and source some 'cheap' genuine Epson T009s on ebay to start with, then move on to a refillable cartridge system.

Had a quick look on the Willhelm Research print longevity website, very surprised to see that he quotes a 25 year non-fade time for the 1290 if printed using Epson inks on Epson Matt paper and displayed behind glass. This is exactly what I've used in the past and explains why I've had no fading with pictures that are at least 5 years old.

Means I don't think I need the longevity of Claria, 25 years of life is more than any of my pictures deserve! Means that I'll be keeping my 1290. Thanks for your comments which have helped in making my mind up.

Now need to source a cheap all-in-one combo with airprint to use as our general purpose printer/scanner which is cheap to run and easy to refill.