photo - Ken Gilbert

thick, 13x19 cut sheets the Stylus
Photo R2880 limits you to.
There are three paper paths: a
standard feeder, a straighter rear
feed, and an absolutely straight
front feed. Strangely, though,
the 3880 doesn’t have a roll-feed
option—you’ll need the R2880 or
Stylus Pro 4880 for this.
Certain papers, such as
Epson’s new Hot Press and Cold
Press matte papers, require
you to choose the proper path
when you select the paper size
in the page-setup portion of the
driver. So, if the driver doesn’t
let you select your paper, check
that you’ve selected one of the
manual feed options.
You might balk at the fact that
each ink cartridge costs $50 (not
a typo!), but each cartridge holds
80 milliliters of ink compared
with 10 to 14 ml in similar-sized
cartridges from other makers.
The price per milliliter is on par
with what you’d pay using a
printer with smaller tanks.
The 3880 is built to stand up
to the needs of pros. It also has
an Ethernet port on back, so you
can set it up on a network. Plus,
it’s offered as a package with
ColorBurst RIP software ($200
extra), for a level of control that
most people don’t need.
Overall, the Stylus Pro 3880 is
a worthy follow-up to the 3800.
If you have the earlier model,
you probably don’t need to
upgrade, unless you feel the new
Vivid Magenta ink will make a
major difference to you.
But if you want to get serious
about printing photos at home or
need to replace another serious
photo printer, the 3880 is almost
a no-brainer. —Philip Ryan
Fisheye joins the Lensbaby Optic Swap System. And another door opens.
photo by chris hornbecker
Replacing
the Stylus
Pro 3880’s
inks gets
pricey at
$50 per
cartridge,
but they
hold about
six times
the normal
amount of
ink and
combine for
a very wide
range of
colors and
stunning
dynamic
range for
b&w prints.
www.storemags.com & www.fantamag.com