It is great value for money at less than 1/2 the price of the next A3+ Epson (the R1800). Of course, you don't get a lot of the features of the R1800 like high speed document printing and CD printing etc, but I have a Canon i865 to take care of these mundane tasks, the Epson is just for photos. It is also six colour compared to the R1800's eight colours, but I'd be really suprised if you could pick the difference by looking at sample images from both. The colour cartridge is an all-in-one rather than individual units which means that when one colour runs out you have to replace the lot... Not real happy about that but looking at the "fuel gauge" so far they are draining fairly equally (as you expect with 0 to 255 colour photos), so maybe the wastage won't be too painful.
This thing is sloooowww for both plain paper and photos. I guess this is to be expected from a 5 year old design. Don't buy this if you want an all-in-one solution. Compared to the Canon it prints colour documents at about 1/2 the speed (at default standard settings), this is not a SOHO printer. As far as photos go, although I didn't time it, at the highest settings it takes several minutes to print out an A4 pic (compared to maybe 90 seconds for the Canon). However, it is worth the wait!!! The colour depth and quality is just outstanding. I was always happy with what my Canon gave me at A4, but it looked washed out and faded compared to the Epson. Both printers were set at maximum resolution using comparable paper and applicable ICC profiles.
The printer properties interface is somewhat basic and confusing if you are not used to Epson printers, but I did manage to figure out the settings how I wanted them after a few test prints. It pays to search the net as well as these forums for tips.
All in all I'm happy I didn't go with the R1800 as the 1290 will give me years of photo printing pleasure. If I didn't already have a workhorse printer then maybe I would be disappointed. BTW, It is one BIG mutha, so clear some desk space. Also I think printing high quality A3+ will be a case of:
1. Press Print
2. Go to bed
3. See how it turned out in the morning...
