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I've had enough of Epson. What's my best option?

G

g.money

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 23, 2003
40
1
Toronto, Canada
No more chances for Epson. After years of devotion to the brand, Epson has let me down for the last time. After my C86 failed (apparently, lots of people online have experienced this as well), now my 1240U scanner just stopped working after I upgraded to Tiger (it technically works fine, just not with Tiger). In both cases, Epson support could be classified as crappy to say the least.

So where should I turn? I'm interested in either replacing both printer and scanner separately or picking up one of those multifunction printers if I find a deal.

Based on my experience, my first and foremost concern is not necessarily quality or price, but reliability and support. Specifically, mac support. (There is no reason, in my opinion, why Epson still hasn't released a Tiger driver for my scanner. I doubt it would take thousands of man hours to complete.)

So my question to you wise souls is this: In your experiences, what company is the best printer/scanner maker? And what company do you trust most to provide you with software updates as OS X progresses?

Cheers,

G
 
Have you tried VueScan for your scanner. I believe they have a trial download. You have to pay for the full version but it would be cheaper than a new scanner.

http://www.hamrick.com/
 
HP! they have the best printers period. Most of them work with bonjour etc. I have a Hp scanner that works well but the software sucks (well sort of). Nevertheless i have never seen a better build quality than HP atleast in printers.
 
My wife uses an HP OfficeJet 1610 which has been super reliable. I too had the problem with Epsons that quit working (usually from clogged printheads) and finally gave up on them altogether. Although the Epsons print quality was far above that of HP in general (when it worked), the HP has been more that good enough and far more reliable. After trying all of the others, I would vote for HP.
 
I love my HP printer (it's an HP 1020, which technically doesn't "work" with OS X, but it works perfectly with the HP 1022 driver!). Cheap, great quality, never fails.

It seems in HP's interest to support Mac OS over the long term, though one never knows who will join the market, leave the market, etc. ...
 
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jsfpa said:
Have you tried VueScan for your scanner. I believe they have a trial download. You have to pay for the full version but it would be cheaper than a new scanner.

http://www.hamrick.com/
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help, but I tried Vuescan and it didn't work. It didn't recognize my TWAIN device (Epson's driver seems to have failed the Tiger test again.)
 
budugu said:
HP! they have the best printers period. Most of them work with bonjour etc. I have a Hp scanner that works well but the software sucks (well sort of). Nevertheless i have never seen a better build quality than HP atleast in printers.
Click to expand...

Am I wrong, or do most printer/scanner companies seem to give a rat's ass about upgrading printer drivers after mac os upgrades? I just feel like they make sure that it works today, but they expect you to buy a new one tomorrow even though it shouldn't take too much work to fix old drivers (not to mention the fact that if Windows were updated as regularly as OS X, I doubt this would be a problem for PC users).
 
Sorry but I really can't agree about HP. Their printers are good value, and on Windows the software is top-notch. It's just a shame the same can't be said for their OS X effort.

At the moment in activity monitor there are 4 active programs related to my HP printer, however I've just restarted and it's not connected. One of them keeps taking 3% of the CPU every few minutes!

Also there is a daemon called 'HPtrapmonitor'. Basically previous versions of the software would lock up your machine if you disconnected the printer before turning it off. This stops that, but it obviously uses resources to 'keep checking'.

Their latest drivers, 7.7.2, crash all my programs when I try to print so I've had to revert to the previous ones.

AppleMatt
 
I got an Epson CX4600 All-in-One printer free when I bought my iMac a year ago. I had to download drivers for Jaguar but it worked in every way with Jaguar and works better with Tiger. Since there seems to be no agreement on the hardware mentioned, maybe people who are not having problems can tell you what works for them.
 
g.money said:
Am I wrong, or do most printer/scanner companies seem to give a rat's ass about upgrading printer drivers after mac os upgrades? I just feel like they make sure that it works today, but they expect you to buy a new one tomorrow even though it shouldn't take too much work to fix old drivers (not to mention the fact that if Windows were updated as regularly as OS X, I doubt this would be a problem for PC users).
Click to expand...

I suspect they're better at updating drivers for current models than keeping the old out of production scanners such as yours alive....I had the same problem with an older epson scanner years ago

currently I'm using a cannon scanner.......my 5 year old epson ink jet printer still works fine
 
emptyCup said:
I got an Epson CX4600 All-in-One printer free when I bought my iMac a year ago. I had to download drivers for Jaguar but it worked in every way with Jaguar and works better with Tiger. Since there seems to be no agreement on the hardware mentioned, maybe people who are not having problems can tell you what works for them.
Click to expand...
I had both a CX6400 and a CX4600. Both worked great on Windows (didn't have a Mac then) until they clogged up. I think that Epsons produce the best prints of any inkjet when they work, but I haven't had much luck keeping them working. If you don't need color, I highly recommend a cheap laser printer, such as the Samsung ML1430 that I have been using for years now. Lasers are far cheaper to run than inkjets, and far faster too.
 
I agree about HP... avoid them. For windows i'm a fan. For OS X... I'd stay away. Their drivers suck. I recently changed over to Canon. I have the iP4200 (a great choice for a plain printer). If you want an all in one, I'd go with the Canon MP500.
 
Printer: can't go wrong with an HP Laser Color (yes they're expensive, but much less than they used too - you'll save tons of money on prints too, ink is about 3-4 as expensive as laser). My LaserJet 2550L is great, aside from the fact that there's no built-in paper tray... Must manually feed it every time I print.

Scanner: IMO Canon makes pretty good hardware. I'm looking for a scanner myself, and so far only the Canon models seem to have OS X support (in the low-end range, anyway).
 
Epson 1240U Scanner

I've got an Epson 1240U scanner and it works just fine with Tiger. I use it with the Epson Scan application and have no problems.

I have the C84 printer and I hate it. The whole deal with it not letting me print because it claims I'm out of ink is such a scam.
 
I love my Epson CX6400 and my parents have my old CX5200 and both are working quite well. Sorry to hear that you've had problems with the C86 but then, I've heard lots about it. What's weird is that it's based on the SC900 and mine is still good. Of course, the C86 was $200 cheaper so maybe that's it.

I've got a Canon for high quality photo printing and it's great, but I've heard the all-in-ones aren't so good.
 
hcuar said:
I agree about HP... avoid them. For windows i'm a fan. For OS X... I'd stay away. Their drivers suck. I recently changed over to Canon. I have the iP4200 (a great choice for a plain printer). If you want an all in one, I'd go with the Canon MP500.
Click to expand...

Or even the MP780.

Yvan256 said:
Printer: can't go wrong with an HP Laser Color (yes they're expensive, but much less than they used too - you'll save tons of money on prints too, ink is about 3-4 as expensive as laser). My LaserJet 2550L is great, aside from the fact that there's no built-in paper tray... Must manually feed it every time I print.
Click to expand...

I always get a laugh when people say laser printers are expensive. When I bought my Apple LaserWriter 10+ years ago that thing was like $1,000. Now *that* was expensive.

A color laser printer now can be had for as little as $300. That is cheap. Even the slightly higher-end models (~$500) are considered cheap. If I was looking for a new laser, I wouldn't have a problem dropping $500 for a color laser.

Only drawback to a color laser is the print quality... Not going to do it for color photos. You'll still want an inkjet or even a dye sub printer. Or, better yet, take them to get printed at Costco, Wal greens, etc. Will cost less per print and will last longer too.
 
sw1tcher said:
Or even the MP780.
Click to expand...


The Canon MP780 is a great multifunction. I currently have the HP 7310 because Canon does not allow for printing over the network from a mac to the MP780 connected to a Windows PC.

Otherwise it was great.
 
I LOVE my HP 3650 - It isnt really a great photo printer but is brilliant for documents - ive had 4 Epson product and they all broke within a week (all printers)

I have heard this lots and lots.

The Epson pro printers are really great though
 
After several years of trying & testing 100's of inkjets & scanners, I feel comfortable in saying this:

A L L newer low-to-mid priced units S U C K!......
YOU ONLY GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR :)

The mfgr's dont give a rats a*s about the printer itself, they just want you to buy their cartridges and/or paper :D

Now if ya want way better quality, go buy a printer/scanner that was made 2-3 years ago, like the Epson "SC" & "SC-Photo"series, all of which work just fine with OS X, including my current SC-1280/Photo, and Perfection 1250, both running great under 10.4.5 :)

Same with most HP & Cannon too!

And BTW, the R E A L trick with Epson printers is to clean the nozzles/heads with denatured alcohol & cotton swabs EVERY time you change the carts.......time consuming, yes, but well worth it to keep your printer printing instead of hours of endless, paper & ink consuming troubleshooting with the s/w utility!
 
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