I purchased this printer the day ofter my R220 gave up the ghost after 4 or 5 years of hard service. In between the time that I'd bought my R220 and the day it crapped out on me, I'd graduated from a professional photography school and and one of the things that I came away with from that place was...

The Stylus Photo R3000 is Epson's newest A3+ photo printer targeted at professionals and advanced enthusiasts. It accepts nine ink cartridges, has a 2-picoliter minimum ink droplet size, is able to do disc printing, and sports built-in Wi-Fi. Are you tempted?

Superb color; B&W print quality; Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity; CD/DVD printing; No manual swapping of black ink cartridges

Loss of ink during black inks switchover; Expensive

It could be a tad faster and I wish the higher-capacity cartridges had brought more of a saving on ink costs. Neverthless, this larger format printer produces really excellent results, delivering photos with rich contrasts, stunning detail levels and beautifully vibrant colours.

Excellent monochrome results; Vivid natural colours; Impressive detail levels; Quiet print engine

Larger capacity ink cartridges don't bring huge savings; Print speeds are a tad sluggish

Epson's high-end photo printers-the ones that are aimed at professional photographers and graphic artists as well as serious amateurs-are universally acknowledged as among the best, so it's no surprise that the Epson Stylus Photo R3000 is an impressive representative of the breed.

Fast; Impressively high-quality photos and graphics; Prints on cut sheets up to 13 by 19 inches; Fine art papers available

Lack of a rated duty cycle makes it unclear how much you can print per month without shortening the printers' useful life

We have the Epson Stylus Photo R3000 A3+ printer in for review, who better to review it than someone who sells prints?

This printer is capable of stunning output and on the B&W output alone I would be tempted to buy it as a replacement for my existing machine when it finally fails; Printing is very quiet and if using the normal photo-papers very fast; Gloss prints are very good for a pigment printer; excellent on...

Head strikes and tramlines when using Traditional Photo Paper with borderless prints are unacceptable; Ink consumption during black cartridge swap seems very high (but I believe in line with earlier Epson A3+ printers; so would probably not be a concern for existing Epson users); I have some...

The R3000 is the follow-up to Epson's highly-rated R2800 large-format printer. It can handle big sheets of up to A3+ in size and uses a total of nine ink cartridges to deliver more professional quality prints. All this technology doesn't come cheap.

Excellent monochrome results; Vivid natural colours; Impressive detail levels; Quiet print engine

Larger capacity ink cartridges don't bring huge savings; Print speeds are a tad sluggish

If you take photography seriously, either as an enthusiastic amateur or in a semi-professional or professional sense, you need a printer which can reproduce colour and greyscale images with high quality.

CD/DVD direct print; Front panel Pictbridge socket; Easy cartridge replacement

No memory card readers; Slow on plain paper; Multiple setups can be fiddly

For serious-hobbyist or semi-pro photographers on a budget, this wide-carriage printer offers superb image quality and value. If you do a lot of printing, though, note that the ink costs are a bit high.

Prints up to 13 inches wide; Excellent price; Superb image quality; Auto-switches black inks; Prints to roll paper; CDs/DVDs; Wi-Fi connectivity

Costlier ink than Stylus Pro 3880; Wastes ink when switching certain modes

Epson has had a long mainstay in the printer category and with more number of photographers and artists embracing digital photography, a professional photo printer definitely makes for a worthy investment, not only for budding enthusiasts, but also for pros.

The Epson Stylus Photo R3000 A3+ photo printer takes nine ink cartridges, including three different photographic inks which help to ensure optimal performance in black and white prints: photo black, light black and light light black.