Epson Stylus C86 Inkjet Printer - Epson Printers

The Epson Stylus C86 Inkjet Printer is both for everyday text printing use as well as for photo printing. It uses Epson's exclusive DuraBrite® inks, which are resistant to water and fading. Ink cartridges are conveniently in individual cartridges so you replace only the colour you need. Photos (4x6 in. up to 8x10 in., and letter-size photos) can be printed edge-to-edge borderless.

Epson's DuraBrite® is a pigment-based ink technology that not only gives superior image quality, but provides water, smudge, and light resistance. Note that Epson guarantees only the ink to be resistant to water and fading, not the paper you use to print your pictures on. Epson does not guarantee the longevity of prints. Paper will naturally discolour over time.

The Stylus C86 boasts a printing speed of 22 ppm for black text and up to 12 ppm for colour prints. Note that the latter number refers to ordinary colour printing (e.g. printing this review page), not photo printing. I find that printing a 4x6 in. colour photograph using the Photo mode takes almost 1 min. 15 sec; using Best Photo mode, it takes about 2 mins. For my tests, I use Epson DuraBrite Glossy 4x6 Photo Paper, and the Epson supplied Film Factory 3.01 software. The Film Factory is not especially fast when it creates the thumbnails and does not automatically fill the frame (i.e. paper). I used images taken with the Sony DSC-V1 Cyber-shot and Fujifilm FinePix S7000 Zoom.

For my 8x10 in. print tests, I load my test images into PhotoShop Elements, resize the images to 8x10 in. at 200 pixels/inch resolution. Using Photo mode, it takes about 2 min. 15 sec. to print a 8x10 in. photo. Using Best Photo mode, it takes about 10 secs to prepare the image for printing, and 5 min. to actually print the photo. It's difficult to tell the difference between the two modes by looking at the prints.

The photo prints come out quite good using Epson's 4-color (CMYK) advanced Micro Piezo technology allowing a maximum resolution of 5760x1440 optimized dpi. I find that the prints appear matte even when printed on glossy paper. I also notice some very faint streaking in the black areas when viewing the prints very close up. At normal viewing distance, you won't notice it.

The Stylus C86 has a large-capacity (120-sheet) input tray, and shows you on screen how much ink is left in each ink cartridge. It warns you when it is time to replace an ink cartridge.

The Epson Stylus C86 is not PictBridge-compatible. It does however support PRINT Image Matching (P.I.M.) technology but you will need to verify that your digital camera supports P.I.M. technology. With PRINT Image Matching, the digital camera manufacturer can set specific printing options for each camera model. These options include: contrast, sharpness, and brightness; gamma level, color space, color saturation, and noise reduction; shadow point, highlight point, and color balance. The camera saves this information in each JPEG image file. Your printer -- along with the Epson Software Film Factory -- uses the information to ensure the most accurate image reproduction.

Here's the workflow I use to print a photo using Photoshop Elements 2 on the Epson Stylus C86 for this review:

In case you forget, printers do not usually come with a printer cable (to connect to your computer), so remember to order a USB printer cable with your printer.

The Epson Stylus C86 comes with a Photo Kit which includes: 20 sheets of photo paper, Epson Software Film Factory for easy photo storage, printing and organization, as well as free membership to Epson's exclusive photo craft and photo sharing Web sites.

I connected the Epson C86 to my home network (through a router) and was able to print from any computer. Epson also makes available an optional WI-FI wireless solution using an 802.11b Wireless Ethernet Print Server.

For the best photo prints, nothing replaces a good dedicated photo printer. However, if you print photos only occasionally, the Epson Stylus C86 Inkjet Printer is quite a good all-purpose printer and will print 4x6 in. photo prints (and even the occasional 8x10 in. photograph). If you are looking for a printer to use for both text and photo printing, check out the Stylus C86 for a very affordable alternative (CAD$139).

Product technical specifications (including MSRP and Included Accessories) are as represented by the manufacturer and subject to manufacturer's change without any notice or obligation on the part of the manufacturer. Product color availability and included accessories may also differ by country or area. Please verify the latest specs from the appropriate manufacturer's site.

Before you buy, do your homework and verify a seller's reputation. One source you may want to check with is Resellerratings.com. And remember, if a price seems to good to be true, it probably is.

DISCLAIMER:

Though we make every effort to strive for accuracy in reproducing these specs, we do occasionally make mistakes, so verify with the manufacturer's site for the latest specs. Also, in the early stages of a product introduction, you can almost guarantee there will be some errors from the manufacturers themselves as they update their sites. If you see any mistakes, please contact us. We do appreciate your writing in with the corrections and thank you in advance!