BIOS: Technology Means Business

Epson has once again changed the world of home photography with the Stylus Photo R2400. Replacing the Stylus Photo 2200, this A3 printer is one of the highest-quality consumer inkjet solutions to date - thanks largely to its innovative UltraChrom K3 pigment ink technology. With three levels of black and advanced driver controls, the Stylus Photo R2400 enables you to create professional-quality colour and black-and-white prints on a mind-boggling variety of media. Professional and fine art photographers should add the Stylus Photo R2400 to the top of their shopping list.

Pros: Droolworthy print quality; higher density inks; improved durability
Cons: Pricey; rubbish on regular paper; no memory card slots

Featuring Epson's new state-of-the-art 8-colour UltraChrome K3 ink technology, the Stylus Photo R2400 is an awesome inkjet solution for photographers looking for high-quality results from a desktop printer. Replacing the Stylus Photo 2200, the Stylus Photo R2400 (457x615x737mm, 11.7kg) prints up to A3+ size, handles edge-to-edge printing on photo or matte media up to 1.5mm thick, prints at resolutions up to 5760x1440dpi (optimised) using a 3pl Ultra Micro Dot, and supports Adobe's RGB color mode.

The Stylus Photo R2400's silver-and-smoked black exterior (identical to Stylus Photo R1800) is the latest in consumer design, but its plastic chassis and flimsy paper trays let it down. It comes with both USB 2.0 (Hi-Speed) and IEEE 1394 (FireWire) connections, but another disappointment is that there are no built-in memory card slots, no preview display, PictBridge compatibility or wireless print technologies. The main reason for these omissions is that the printer is designed for high-end photographers rather than casual snappers - i.e. those who like to tweak for hours in Photoshop.

The biggest technical innovation of the Stylus Photo R2400 is Epson's brand-new UltraChrome K3 ink technology. The breakthough uses higher density pigments to widen the colour gamut, dramatically improving both colour and black-and-white prints. In addition to cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan and light magenta, UltraChrome K3 features a special three-level black ink system that simultaneously uses black and light black to create professional neutral and toned black-and-white prints from a single ink set.

An added bonus is that its lightfast images should last up to 75 years in colour and over 100 years in black and white, making it an excellent choice for producing archival prints with amazing colour fidelity, gloss level, and scratch resistance.

UltraChrome K3 produces prints with an extremely wide colour gamut. Utilising a unique three level black ink technology, UltraChrome K3 inks really do improve overall grey balance while enhancing midtone and highlight detail, yielding a smoother tonal range. Epson also incorporates High-gloss Microcrystal Encapsulation Technology along with unique screening algorithms that help to reduce gloss differential, the benefit of which is improved longevity and durability.

With two different black ink modes - Photo Black and Matte Black - UltraChrome K3 provides a slightly different way to optimise the black ink density for various media types. For instance, Photo Black ink can be used for all media types, while the optional Matte Black ink helps to increase black optical density when printing on matte and fine art type papers. Irritatingly, you still have to physically swap the Photo Black and Matte Black cartridges.

Unlike the Stylus Photo R800 and Stylus Photo R1800, which apply a gloss overcoat for consistency, the Stylus Photo R2400's UltraChromeK3 droplets are encapsulated and a new improved resin smoothes the surface of the paper when ink is applied - improving the glossiness and creating prints with greater scratch and water resistance and reduced gloss differential. The new inks are also higher density than the old and achieve a maximum density (Dmax) of 2.4D compared to 2.2D for the old inks. Epson's proprietary screening technology produces truly wonderful black-and-white prints with no colour crossover or colour cast.

Paper handling is also impressive. There's an automatic sheet feeder, manual feed for rigid thick sheet media, and a roll paper path (rollers supplied). Standard paper sizes supported include A3+, A3, A4, A5, A6, Letter, Legal, B5, and Postcard (100x148mm), in addition to a raft of special Epson media: Premium Glossy Photo Paper, Premium Semigloss Photo Paper, Archival Matte Paper, Matte Paper, Double Sided Matte Paper, Velvet Fine Art Paper, Ultra Smooth Fine Art Paper, Watercolor Paper Radiant White, and Proofing Paper Semimatte.

Media weight supported ranges from 64 to 90gsm for plain paper and up to 255gsm for dedicated Epson photo paper. As this is a photo printer, you can forget about automatic duplexing.

As we've already mentioned, print quality from the Stylus Photo R2400 was droolworthy - as long as you use special Epson media. If you use regular paper, such as office photocopier paper, the results are actually quite shocking and can be beaten by printers costing a fraction of the price. The printer isn't designed for general printing duties either, which is why we didn't test it using our normal suite of printer tests - no-one will be using the Stylus Photo R2400 to print letters, PDFs or PowerPoint presentations.

Print speed was reasonable, with an A4 print taking around 2m 59s and an A3+ image taking around 7m 30s - using best quality settings. You can expect at least half this print time dropping the print settings down. Forget about time though, results from the Stylus Photo R2400 are worth every minute!