REVIEW: Epson SureColor P600 (Part II of II)–Excellent Value with Pro Results

Epson SureColor P600 Inkjet Printer

I like to use a printer for a while before rendering an opinion because most photo printers can shine with just basic testing, but it is the test of time that surfaces issues with print heads clogging and network communication problems. Fortunately this printer has passed with flying colors as I’ve never once had any networking problems nor have I had a single print head issue even after not using it for seven weeks in very dry weather.

In part one of my review I sang the praises of the ease of setup, but over time I really fell in love with it even more. I loved using the P600 as my everyday printer with plain paper jobs, as well as doing simple 4x6 prints for my wife. However, when I needed a high quality print I found myself not even bothering to fire up my 3880 and trusting the P600 for the job instead. What’s more, it handled roll prints very well, so I even found myself doing small Exhibition Canvas and banner jobs with it.

Not only did this printer work flawlessly the entire 8+ months that I’ve been testing it, but it kept itself up to date with the latest software via its handy Software Updater app:

Software Updater keeps you up to date with no hassle

My contact at Epson tells me this printer is very similar to the Epson Stylus® Pro 3880 replacement, the Epson SureColor P800, except it has 25.9ml cartridges instead of 80ml. Those are tall words as the P800 is replacing a legendary model, but everything I’ve seen from the P600 except for the quality of some of its ICC profiles (which is fixable) indicates that this printer is certainly in the same league. Yes, my 3880 had better ICC profiles which helped it to outperform the P600, but the prints I got were all excellent and very close. As a result, I didn’t bother to compare the prints to the R3000 and instead put it up against the 3880 instead. Read more to see how it did!

Printing via Epson iPrint 5.1.1 from Apple iPhone 6

Epson iPrint 5.1.1 on iOS 8.4

I did print a 22mb full-size JPEG taken from a Canon 5Ds from the app and it worked great. While the source image could have used a bit more sharpening for printing via this mechanism, the color and quality was great. I was also happy that the app offered a decent selection of Epson media types, paper sizes, and even maintenance settings:

Check remaining ink directly from your phone

Apple AirPrint on iOS 8.4 worked without any hassle but the results were unimpressive due to lack of options, and the color wasn’t as accurate and vibrant as the Epson iPrint app.

Apple AirPrint on iOS 8.4 works, but use the app for best results

You must preconfigure your printer via the touch LCD with the correct paper type and size but AirPrint loved to send print jobs as 4x6 on letter paper in my limited testing.

Fine Art Printing using Matte Black vs 3880

Lightroom 2015 Matte Black Ink Printing

When I printed on Velvet Fine Art matte paper, the printer driver forced me to use the manual front loading tray. Fortunately, printing via the front manual load tray was very easy and worked brilliantly. I did have to wait 1 minute, 34 seconds to change to matte black ink but that was over 30 seconds faster than the time it takes my 3880 so this wasn’t a problem either.

The print result was darker with less tonal range than the equivalent job sent to my 3880 and printed on the same paper. I suspect this is due to the 3880 having a more finely tuned ICC profile which mirrors results I’ve seen from other papers as well.

Advanced Black & White on Epson Metallic Photo Paper Glossy vs 3880

Lightroom 2015 with Advanced Black and White on Metallic

Advanced Black and White Mode

In the case of ABW the printer manages color instead of relying on an ICC Profile so the results that I got from the P600 seemed identical to what I got from the 3880. This was an absolutely stunning print with phenomenal tonal range and delicious blacks. In fact, its one of those prints that makes me wish there was a way I could show you but no electronic mechanism can do it justice compared to the results I got in real life. Simply put, if you do black and white printing, I can’t fathom how the results I got could disappoint even the most picky of print masters.

Conclusion

The Epson SureColor P600 takes everything I loved from the R3000 and makes it better. It’s a very reliable printer that makes excellent prints without any hassle – even when it sits idle for weeks on end. If you want a great photo printer for occasional fine art printing and daily print jobs, then the P600 will serve you well. If you want to do more fine art printing then it will be more cost effective to upgrade to the Epson SureColor P800 for its larger ink cartridge capacity.

Overall, I loved the Epson SureColor P600 and highly recommend it.

See part I of my review for more info.

Where to order

Click here to learn more, check for rebates/sales or order on the B&H web site. My friends at Amazon have it available here.

Due to minimum advertised pricing restrictions, it is best to add it to your cart to get the latest price and deduct any mail-in rebates on top of that.

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these:

• Printing Series
• Epson SureColor P600 Review
• Epson Stylus® Photo R3000 Review
• Epson Stylus® Pro 3880 Overview Review
• Epson 4900 Review
• Epson Ultra Premium Luster Review and How To Walkthrough Videos for Mac & Windows - Covers Lightroom & Photoshop for Mac and Windows for the R3000, 3800 & 4900
• Epson Exhibition Fiber Paper Review and How To Walkthrough
• Epson Exhibition Canvas Natural Gloss Review
• Epson Hot & Cold Press Papers
• How To: Using Epson’s Advanced B&W Photo (ABW) printing feature
• Understanding Epson’s Printable Area Feature to Avoid Uneven Margins on the 4900
• REVIEW: Epson Metallic Photo Paper Glossy & Luster

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

My Favorite Metallic Paper Just Got Better - 300gsm Polar Pearl Metallic Plus

Carrera 4s by Ron Martinsen - All Rights Reserved
This image looks great on Polar Pearl Metallic Plus

Red River Paper has introduced a new 300gsm Polar Pearl Metallic Plus that offers the proven benefits of the original 255gsm weight Polar Pearl Metallic with more weight and thickness. You’ll get amazing results from this truly unique inkjet paper that closely matches the look of photo lab metallic prints. Polar Pearl Metallic features the same aspects as its lab equivalent - a high gloss finish and a pearlescent base stock that yields an elegant iridescence in your images. Getting great prints from Polar Pearl Metallic is easy, and Red River Paper even offers free printer profiles to make color management a breeze. This paper is compatible with any inkjet printer and requires no special equipment, inks, or finishing techniques to achieve the metallic effect.
300gsm Polar Pearl Metallic Plus is part of Red River's Polar family of products which represent the absolute state-of-the-art in photo inkjet papers.

Color profiles are available for your printer in Red River's color profile library using the same Polar Pearl Metallic profile for both the original and new version.

Handling guide and FAQ click here

• The look of photo lab metallic prints
• Compatible with any inkjet printer
• Low OBA paper
• 11.8mil photo thickness (vs 10.4 for the 255gsm version)
• Warm tone for pleasing color reproduction
• Acid free base stock. Coating slightly acidic.

To see my review of the thinner predecessor to this paper, check out my article entitled Metallic Paper Comparison: Red River Polar Pearl vs LexJet Sunset Photo (Coupon Code Included). I’ve used this new paper and it’s everything the original is with more substance which helps reduce the chance of accident denting – woohoo!

Click here to order this cool new paper today!

Special Offer

Example for coupon entry only – the offer and code here have expired

Visit http://www.redrivercatalog.com/landing/ronmart/ to learn what the latest offer details to see how much you can save!

Offer subject to change. See my discount coupon code page for the latest terms, and the printing series page for more Red River Paper articles.

Disclaimer

I may get a commission if you make a purchase using links in this article. I also was provided with sample paper to test for this review.

Counterpoint: Extreme Profiling or ImagePrint?

Photo Courtesy of B&H Photo
ColorChecker Targets Sold Separately

If you read my review of the i1XTreme Color Management Solution then you know that while I loved the results from the product, I really wasn’t a happy camper three hours into scanning 32 rows of patches and only being on row 21. In fact, during that time I started thinking – why the hell am I doing this?

ImagePrint Profiles are easily accessed over the web via Profile Manager
and if they don’t have the profile you need they’ll make it for you!

Well the reason for creating your own profile is so you can have a more accurate profile than you are using today so that you can create a print that makes the most of what your printer is capable of doing. With this in mind, if ColorByte ImagePrint bypasses the driver and controls the printer directly using the profiles it created with a $10k spectrophotometer and thousands of patches, then that theoretically should be the best results you can get right? In my opinion, and many others, the answer is yes!

While ImagePrint user interface leaves a lot to be desired, you can’t argue with the print results I got on the LexJet Sunset Photo Metallic paper. I’ve been unable to generate my own profile that can surpass what ImagePrint can do, so that begs the question – why spend several thousand dollars getting a great calibration system and software and still have to spend days building the perfect profiles, when I can spend a fraction of that and get better results?

I’m as cheap as the next guy so $800+ and up for ImagePrint seemed outrageously expensive to me at first. Now that I can see how much a proper color management system and software costs, I’d say leave profile generation to those who really need it and get ImagePrint instead.

Conclusion

If you still need to calibrate your scanner or camera LCD, then i1Basic seems like a more cost effective option along with ImagePrint and you’ll still end up over a thousand ahead of the game!

Don’t get me wrong that the i1XTreme is the way to go if you are going to go nuts doing paper profiles, but I think it’s probably time to leave those tools to the experts who make or sell those profiles to us rather than being the person who tries to generate them in the first place.

If all of this is too much for you, then you aren’t alone. I’d advise that you just check out my color management article and go with the ColorMunki until you are in a position to consider more advanced options. The ColorMunki is a great product with great simplicity, so I keep mine around so I can always do a quick and headache free calibration.

Special Offer – Save up to $300 with our 10% OFF discount!!!

I have worked with ColorByte to offer you the first ever discount that has been made available for a blog. ColorByte is offering a 10% off discount to readers of this article when you contact JVH Technical, LLC by phone or email. You can not get this discount through the web or ColorByte directly, so you must contact JVH and you MUST mention this blog in order to get the discount. If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact JVH, ColorByte or me directly about this discount program.

Disclosure

I may get a commission if you take advantage of the special offer or purchase products from select partner links in this article. Thanks for your support of this blog by returning here when making your purchases!

Save 30% on LexJet Sunset Photo Metallic Paper

This offer has been discontinued, but you can still save.

See my Metallic Paper Comparison: Red River Polar Pearl vs LexJet Sunset Photo (Coupon Code Included) article to learn more and save big!

MPix.com Framed Metallic Prints are Amazing!

15% Mpix.com Discount Available – See below for details…

If you’ve been following my Noise Reduction Roundup article, then you’ve probably seen my Chicago image (shot at ISO 3200). Well, I was recently lucky enough to be invited to submit my photo to a corporate art gallery, so I contacted Mpix.com about framing it. They were super helpful, and their web site was a breeze to use so I placed my order for the framed image that you see above. Here’s what was included in my order:

Feature	Price
16x20 Metallic Print	$19.99
Gold Ornate Frame	$70.00
Double Weight Matboard	$7.30
Clear Glass	$11.00
Fedex Overnight Shipping	$10.75
Total	$119.04

The results were awesome! I’ve used Museum Quality Framing, JoAnn, and other local shops for framing, and this is as every bit as good as the custom framing I’ve had done for $400 (without the print!). No regrets for sure, and for those of you who are still wondering if they are any good I recommend you order their Sample and Calibration kits. This will give you a chance to see the quality of their frames and prints, plus if you are hard core you can use the profiles to do your own color management. In my case, I let them auto calibrate the colors on my shot, and the results were spot on. The image in this article is a bit off on the color, but that was my fault for doing a quick job to get this to the web.

Preparing my print for ordering

A few of my friends who have seen this print asked me how I prepared my image to get such great results, so I thought I’d share my workflow for this one here:

1. I initially processed this photo in Lightroom 2.3, then exported it as a PSD to Photoshop CS4.
2. I used Alien Skin Software Blowup to enlarge this image to the recommended size of 4000x5000 pixels at 250 dpi.
3. I applied noise reduction using Nik Software Dfine so I could take advantage of the U-Point controls to leave detail where I wanted it, and remove it where I didn’t want it – very quickly. (NOTE: I was working on my Dfine review for my Noise Reduction Roundup when I ordered this print, so it was actually quite a coincidence that I chose it rather than the other participants.)
4. I sharpened the image using Nik Software’s Sharpener Pro 3.0.
5. I saved the file using the sRGB color profile as a JPEG 12 image and uploaded it to Mpix.com. I let them do the final color management and the results exceeded my expectations!

The Package

One of the things that I always worry about when ordering a print, and in this case – especially a frame, online is that it will arrived damaged by the goons who handle the package on the way to me. In this case, I figured that Mpix.com must have thought about this too because framed prints will only come via FedEx overnight. FedEx is the ONLY company I trust for important packages, so I felt re-assured that things would turn out okay.

Sure enough, when my package arrived it was encased in a thick cardboard box and super huge bubbles bubble wrap. It took me about 10 minutes to get to my print, but when I did all of the corners (which also had cardboard corner protectors) were in perfect shape and the image arrived without issue. This, despite the fact that it sat on my porch in the rain for 6 hours (I told FedEx to leave it on the porch – my bad) before my wife arrived home to bring it in. The light rain (from wind blowing spray onto the porch) hadn’t penetrated the wrapping, so the image was in perfect shape.

Discount

I can’t recommend Mpix.com enough after this fantastic experience. Unlike me, you can actually get a discount that I didn’t have available when I loaded my shopping cart!

For a limited time (expires 4/30/09), you can get 15% off your Mpix.com order when you enter the code ronmart09 when you place your order. Be sure to use this coupon code to take advantage of this great deal.

Enter the discount coupon code ronmart2 when you checkout from now until June 30th, 2009 and save 15% off your entire order!