I am disappointed, to say the least, in your response to Bruce Fraser's open letter in MacWeek. It appears you are either badly out of touch with what is really happening, or are being disingenuous.
Let me address some of the key points in your letter:
You said:
> The Epson Stylus Photo 870, 875DC, and 1270 printers are in every way (emphasis mine, ed.)
> improvements over their award-winning predecessors, the Epson Stylus
> Photo 750 and 1200 printers.
Patently untrue. The 750 and 1200 prints don't change colors within days, or even weeks, of printing.
You also said:
> Unfortunately, following the introduction of these printers, Epson
> learned about a problem with the Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper that
> was introduced at the same time as these new photo printers.
> Output from the 870, 875DC, and 1270 has .... equal
> resistance to gas on Matte Paper Heavyweight and Glossy Photo Paper as
> the predecessor printers.
This is wrong on several counts. The orange shift affects every Epson paper (and most non-Epson papers). It is not a problem limited to the Premium Gloss. And the x70 inks do not offer gas resistance equal to other Epson printers. It's well documented that x70 prints shift on papers that are stable (at least in the short term) with the 750/1200. 1270 users have seen orange shift on the Heavyweight Matte, Glossy Photo Paper, Epson Glossy Film, and others. See my paper tests at http://home.cox.rr.com/meyerfamily/epson/epson.html for documentation. And, it appears the rest of your company DOES recognizes this is an ink problem. Please see the following article in PC World for confirmation: http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,18445,00.html
You continued:
> Our next step will be to release a reformulated Premium Glossy
> Photo Paper, which will be distributed in early October. This paper
> delays the effects of airborne contaminants, but it does not solve the
> problem.
At least this is an honest statement.
Furthermore, you said:
> The fact remains that the Epson Stylus Photo 870, 875DC, and 1270
> have equivalent resistance to airborne contaminants, [as] the Epson
> Stylus Photo 750 and 1200
Incredibly wrong. The fact is that the 750 and 1200 inks seem to have no equivalent gas-fastness problems. To say the the x70 printers have equivalent resistance to airborne contaminants is completely erroneous. x70 inks fade in contact with ozone, on every Epson paper. 750/1200 inks do not. Period.
Finally, you state:
> We know that there is still a lot to
> learn about gasfastness and the other factors that affect the color
> stability of ink jet photos. Rest assured Epson is doing everything we
> can to find solutions that give photographers the image quality they
> deserve and the print longevity they desire.
Everything, that is, except addressing the real problem, since it appears Epson has no intention of fixing the inks for the current printers (again, see the PC World article).
I can't tell you how disappointed I am in Epson. I've owned no injet printers but Epsons since buying an ESC II shortly after it's debut. But now I question the company's commitment to its customers. Your new paper is not going to solve the problem, and there are apparently no plans to fix the ink. Instead, Epson plans to continue to sell a known defective product, and leave its customers at risk. With all the recent bad publicity for Japanese companies (Bridgestone/ Firestone, Mitsubishi) I'm really surprised Seiko Epson is taking this risk.
A bad response is worse than none at all, and yours was, I'm afraid, a very inadequate response.
Yours truly,
Bob Meyer
Return to main page.