Printers are the most frustrating tech that I use as a photographer. This is the printer that I finally fell in love with – and the price has never been lower

(Image credit: Matthew Richards/Digital Camera World)

Paper jams, weird colors, wonky connectivity – if there’s a piece of tech that’s highest on my Most Frustrating list, it’s printers. That’s exaggerated by the fact that, as a professional photographer, I need something that prints high-quality images with accurate colors. My search for a high-quality printer that doesn’t take up too much office space, however, ended when I found the Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 – and it’s currently at its lowest ever price on Amazon.

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What first caught my eye about the Epson EcoTank ET-8550, besides the fact that it’s a printer that’s meant for artists and photographers, is the EcoTank capacity. Ink isn’t cheap, but the ET-8550 uses refillable ink cartridges, and the bottles that are included with the printer actually last quite a while. Picking up refills will cost around $125, but those bottles will fill the tanks multiple times.

While ink is why I wanted to try the ET-8550, print quality is why it has remained in my office for years. Paired with pro-quality printer paper, I get lab-quality results in sizes up to 13x19 inches. I’m a color snob, and I’m always pleased at how closely the colors on the prints match my edits on the screen.

During Amazon Prime Day (which is beginning to feel like Prime Week since it lasts through the end of Friday, July 11), the Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 is 25 percent off in the US, dropping the price down to $599. According to price tracker camelcamelcamel.com, that’s the lowest price yet for this printer.

The printer is also discounted in the UK, where the price has dropped by 19 percent and now sits at £627.

But the memes are on to something – printers are often frustrating. Between the paper jams and connectivity issues, printers can be a persnickety bunch. I’ve had relatively few issues with the ET-8550, however. If I haven’t printed in a while, I’ll get some lines on my prints – but all I have to do is run a cleaning cycle (or two) using the troubleshooting on the touchscreen, and then I’m back in business.

Speaking of business, the ET-8550 has a scanner too, so I can scan old photos or make copies. It’s also more than capable of doubling as my office printer for printing out documents, like shipping labels and contracts.

If that price is a bit too steep, the ET-8550 also has a little sister: The Ecotank Photo ET-8500. The ET-8500 has a similar refillable six-color design and up to 5,760x1400 dpi resolution, so the print quality on those images should be nearly identical. The key difference in the lower-priced printer is that the ET-8500 can only handle paper up to the standard 8.5x11 inches, where the pricier version prints up to 13x19 inches.

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