I recently added 2 third party reviews of the Epson L1300 & L1800 printers on my site, you can find them here https://aftermath-wordpress.jpxyza.easypanel.host/printer-reviews-l1300-l1800/ but as i myself have an L1300 i thought id add my own take on the unit. I have been in the printing industry for 30+ years, ive been doing dye sub work for around 4 – 5 years now, prior to that i owned a large screenprinting business in Brisbane for over 20 years. Ive owned numerous printers over the years, some good, some not so good. The L1300 4 colour and the L1800 6 colour were some of the first factory “inktank” models introduced into the market in June 2014. For reasons unknown to me these models are only available from Epson in selected regions of Asia, UK, Europe and Africa but are Not available through Epson in Australia, USA or South America for some reason ? Both the L1300 and the L1800 are capable of printing up to A3+ (329 x 483 mm) and in Banner mode can print up to 329 wide x 1.1 metre long. They are a stand alone model, meaning they have only one function, which is ” PRINT ” and this they perform superbly. Overall print quality is excellent, featuring an advanced Micro Piezo print head with its variable size droplet technology (VSDT) allows the print head to eject ink droplets in multiple sizes, with 360 Black nozzles and 59 nozzles per colour and print resolution of 5760 x 1440 dpi this ensures the greatest detail and extremely smooth colour and tone graduations in images or photographs. They are not a quick printer but quiet when printing and offer excellent ink yields and low cost per page. Its a solidly built and rugged printer, its not small either sitting at 705 mm wide x 330 mm deep. The rear feed tray accepts a variety of paper types and sizes from Gloss Photo paper and thicker card stock. Now for my own personal experience with the L1300. Ive owned mine for over 3 years now, ive printed over 3000+ A3 pages with it, i very rarely print A4. The inktank system is flawless, basically fill n go, there is NO cartridge issues, there is NO CISS problems and i can safely do any firmware updates without fear of it not recognizing a third party cartridge. Colour reproduction and matching is excellent and i have no problems with it. When coupled with a good quality branded ink running an icc profile, what i see on my monitor is what i get in my prints. I consistently match PMS colours to within a shade or two of the actual PMS swatch. My Blacks are a nice rich Black, and my Blues are Blue, and my photos skin tones are 95% of the time pretty spot on. (See pics below) My only complaint with the L1300 would be that sometimes the paper feed can be a bit temperamental in not grabbing the paper, but ive found it often depends on the paper itself and that rolling a bit of an upward curve in the paper helps feed it better. Other than this i have had NO other issues or problems with the printer. I have gone away for 3 – 4 weeks and on my return have switched it back on (No need to leave it on 24/7) done one head clean and its back printing perfectly. In conclusion, Its my opinion that the L1300/1800 is the best Desktop A3 Dye Sub printer in the market today. This is based on price, ease of use, trouble free printing, consistency and overall print quality. I will happily put my prints up against any other brand or model anytime. Now i know some of you may be thinking because i sell these printers my review may be a bit bias ? At the end of the day your choice of printer model or brand you go with is totally up to you. The above review is an honest and factual account of the features and my experiences with owning the L1300 and nothing more. Cheers 🙂
