Epson R300 problems

[tevya88]

I do some professional photography. 2004 was my first year printing ink jet prints. All I used was our Epson Stylus 880 and I got beautiful prints. I got about 40 8X10's per color cartridge. Now the printer appears to be dying and I've been reading reviews on the R300. Some people complain about how outrageously fast the ink is used up, one claiming that it is using ink even when not being used.
Question 1: Is the ink consumption any worse than the 880?
Question 2: A. Is there a way to get around the other reported problem--that it won't use any of the six color ink cartridges if even one is sensed to be low? and B. Some people report that the "Low" signal comes on way too soon. Can it be over-ridden?
Question 3: I don't need to plug in a digital camera or a camera memory chip because I'm still printing from files from scanned film. So I don't really need much of what the R300 has. Any recommendations? I don't think I can afford one yet that prints 13X19.

 

[chiefl]

I have a R300 and it is the worst printer I have ever owned. It eats ink, photos are ok at best and it is slow. It's only marginal mark is it's ability to print on CD/DVD's and even that is only OK and very slow. Go elswhere for a printer.
Chief L

PS: sorry about the late response but I heve been out of sync for a while.

Cheif L

 

[spencus]

Ive used the R300 for 14 months without any problems,A red warning light comes on when ink is getting low(still 20% left in carts) I simply ignore the warning and print until the monitor shows almost empty.

The R200, is cheaper,same output, but must be connected to a pc. But if you can recover some of the running costs,the R800 is what you should be looking at