Photographers and creative home users who want big, gallery-style prints without constantly buying pricey cartridges may want to take a closer look at the Epson EcoTank ET-8550. The six-color inkjet photo printer is currently discounted by 33% off its $749.99 MSRP on Amazon, making it a standout option for anyone planning to print a lot of photos.
One of the ET-8550’s biggest selling points is print size. It can produce photos up to 13 x 19 inches, which is ideal for portfolios, wall art, posters, and wide-format creative projects. It also supports glossy and fine art papers, including thicker media up to 1.3 mm, giving photographers and artists more flexibility when choosing premium paper.
Instead of traditional ink cartridges, this printer uses Epson’s refillable EcoTank system. The concept is simple: you top up the tanks with bottled ink, which can significantly lower the cost per print over time—especially if you regularly produce high-resolution color images. The ET-8550 uses six-color Claria ET photographic dye inks: cyan, magenta, yellow, plus black, photo black, and gray. The extra inks are designed to help deliver smoother gradients and improved tonal transitions, whether you’re printing vibrant color scenes or black-and-white images. Epson lists print resolutions up to 5,760 x 1,440 dpi.
The ET-8550 isn’t just for printing, either. It includes an 8.5 x 14-inch flatbed scanner rated up to 4,800 dpi with 48-bit color scanning. That means you can digitize photos and documents in high detail, scan to a computer or SD card, and also use the unit for color or black-and-white copying.
There is one tradeoff worth knowing before buying. The ET-8550 uses dye-based inks, which are generally praised for rich photo output but typically don’t last as long as pigment-based inks used in some professional photo printers. In longevity testing under simulated light exposure, unframed dye ink prints from this model were reported to last roughly 26–28 years, while unframed pigment ink prints from a higher-end Epson model were reported to last over 62 years. If you’re selling prints, creating archival work, or displaying photos in challenging lighting conditions, print permanence may factor into your decision.
For many people, though, the value proposition is straightforward: a wide-format Epson photo printer with affordable bottled ink refills, strong photo features, and built-in scanning—now at a steep discount. If your priority is printing a high volume of photos at a lower running cost, the Epson EcoTank ET-8550 is a compelling choice at today’s reduced price.
