I need a good printer and I was looking at the Epson 2000 with the archival inks -But the Epson 1280 is almost half the price and I've heard great things about it -but how long will prints last from that printer? Is it worth paying the extra money for the 2000? Does anyone here have either of those printers and if so how are they?

3 Epson Printers, each had the black print head last from 1-3 years. Excellent quality graphics. But we aregetting tired of replacing printers on such a regualar basis. Only one of the printers need the colour heads replaced and that was after 2 years. It's a great buy but only if you expect or intend to buy a new printer in 3 years.

There is a nasty ozone problem with the epson papers.

so what does that mean? do you have to use those papers for the prints to be long lasting?

I have had an Epson 1520 for 3 years and it still works just fine. Ink jet inks will fade in strong light. I did exposure experiments on regular and matte papers. Direct sunlight fades the pigments quickly as would long time exposure to ordinary lights. Exposure to just flourescent lights does not fade colors as fast. I would think and hope the higher quality Epson printers would be more robust than cheaper models.

Epson's new photo papers are treated to resist fading, regardless of the ink used, so even prints made with older models should last longer. Epson says that prints made with the new inks, and the new paper, should last 30 years. I've been using a photo stylus 700 for about 2 years and have had no trouble (other than that it runs out of ink rather quickly). Jim

Attached Link: http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/09/14/epson.image.fading.idg/index.html

Great- So what now? How can Epson advertise prints that last 200 years when it turns yellow?

Firstly, the fading prints are not the ones for which Epson advertised 200 year longevity. They are the ones from the 870/1270 models for which Epson claimed about 20 years under ideal conditions. This claim was based on tests performed by the highly respected Wilhelm labs. Wilhelm got it wrong... Epson has offered to buy back the 870/1270 printers from unhappy customers and that seems a rather honourable response to me. Not all users have experienced the fading or colour changes. I have a friend with the 1270 & he's quite pleased with it so far. The more recent 2000p uses a new encapsulation technology and no longer uses dye-based inks although the new Epson ink appears to have almost the same wide gamut as dye-based inks. This combination and numerous test reports suggest that the 200 year claim may actually be reasonable. I haven't heard that the Epsons are really that short lived. However even if they were, the 2000p & ink/paper combo is so (relatively)inexpensive that it would still be worth it even if it did die after 2 years. Apparently the result is close to that of an Iris print. If you've ever priced those you will understand why I say this. I expect to be buying one shortly.

I have experienced no problem with colour fading, or any thing else other than the Black Ink failing to work on three different printers, and all the coulor heads on one. In case your wondering it was the 400. 540 and 600 models that failed to live past three years. The quality of the graphics are superb the colour is well done. I had worked in the printing industry and the only other home based printer that could match would be a die sub, or colour laser like a xerox. (I still like epson better)