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The Truth About ET-8550 Print Longevity & Fading

Keith Cooper

19,156 views

Are Epson et-8550 inkjet prints archival? How paper and display choice affects photo print lifetimes. Finding answers for your printer. When will Ecotank et-8550 prints fade? Are dye inks archival? Storage/display options.

Looking at what 'print lifetime' means for photo and art prints made withe the Claria inks of the ET-8550 and ET-8500 printers. Will they suffice for 'art prints?

The testing work is from Wilhelm Imaging Research at http://www.wilhelm-research.com

The 8550 print permanence report is available at: http://www.wilhelm-research.com/epson...
Full 8550 review: https://www.northlight-images.co.uk/e...
All my ICC printer profiles: https://www.northlight-images.co.uk/k...

00:00 Start
00:25 All prints wil fade
00:58 Old photo prints in comparison
02:25 Print permanence testing
03:40 Lustre and gloss colour 90 years?
05:20 Or is that 28 years?
05:54 What about other papers or inks
07:35 Black and white lasts longer
08:40 The pigment black and archival paper
10:55 Looking for info about other printers
11:22 Time for a digital archiving strategy?
11:41 How much does this matter?

For a full categorised index of all my videos, see:
https://www.northlight-images.co.uk/k...
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20 Comments

@marcusvaldes 1 month ago

I have prints from my Epson 2200 from the 2002 Tour de France which I printed 13x19. They look as good as the day I printed them to my eyes. Taken on a Nikon D100.

@fintux 2 years ago

I just bough the 8550, based a lot on your videos, Keith. I thought it is enough for my current needs, and I thought I can print cheaply and have maybe my favorites done in a print shop to have them last a bit longer time. But looks like framing under a glass will be meeting and exceeding what I thought I would like to have. Thank you for this information (and obviously the vast amount of other information you've shared in your other videos and web pages)!

@catredmondartandsoul 1 year ago

You always come through with the most useful information. I was searching for this everywhere!

@00Skyfox 4 days ago

When it comes to digital photos, if the prints are just being kept in our collections or put up on the wall, it seems the longevity is a little bit moot because in however many years or decades, as long as the files still exist somewhere they can be reprinted and probably on printers, papers, and inks that will be better than we have now.

@brightboxstudio 2 years ago

I started with some of the earliest Epson photo printers 25+ years ago (as I think you also did), when fading and metamerism were major problems. We are at a wonderful point today, where we don’t even need to be too concerned about dye inks as long we display or store the prints in a protected way.

Home inkjet printing today is not only largely free of the problems that plagued early inkjets, but can also be more stable than affordable chemical prints as you showed with the faded snapshots. It’s a really great time to want to print your own photos. We can simply print, and enjoy.

@bodaciouschad 5 months ago

Sir, thank you for sharing your expertise.

@RAS-pz3st 2 years ago

Fantastic video, from an Epson 8550 owner aged 66!

@nimhla 2 years ago

Thanks for the information, Keith! I wish you a lovely day.

@AZJack 2 years ago

Thank you, Keith, for looking into this.

@tundrusphoto4312 2 years ago

Thank you for this.

@paulmaschak5267 2 years ago

Yes John - next lifetime… hahaha great view in life

@phildarcy7647 1 year ago

Very pleasing read. I feel confident I can use prints in my home 👍😊😊

@JesseBassPhotography 2 years ago

Thanks for doing this video. New to printing so to speak, but in photography for 20 years. I just bought the epson 8550 to print 13x19 mat those and sell them. Im only charging $50 for a print and the matting. Im 54 years old. I think I'll be dead and gone before the print fades. Everyone Ive sold them to so far has them under glass. This makes me happier to see now. Great printer and a cheaper route on the inks!!

@saskia6281 2 years ago

Thank you so much for your very insightful videos on the Epson ET printer! I spent many hours yesterday trawling forums and discord chats where people were discussing making art prints at home and whether selling them at cons/markets would be "wrong". Some people were saying home-printed things would always be worse/less cost effective than outsourcing to professional print shops, but how do we know the inks/materials those print shops are using will result in prints that will last many years?? I really like the idea of being able to experiment with printing and making sure they look exactly the way I want. I was getting a bit overwhelmed and disheartened by all the info out there, but after watching a couple of your videos I feel like this is something I could absolutely do! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and time with us!

@jamesmgreen15 2 years ago

Thanks, Keith. You are not much older than me, so some good advice for me. I was sorry to hear about your father in the last. It's tough to say bye even if it's the right way around (from experience). Hope that was OK to say. Thanks again for your valuable advice.

@paulmaschak5267 2 years ago

Thank you so so much Keith!! This has been a concern forefront in my mind considering whether to go for the 8550 as it is on a heavy sale discount right now here in USA. You have eased my mind with research.

@dougsphoto 1 year ago

Hi Keith thx for a GREAT video this one does answer my current questions as I'm also considering to sell prints from my 8550 at a market and no wasn't thinking to market them as archival as its not printed with pigment ink and although I probably should of bought the P900 I didn't but the 8550 is very cost effective for print sales for a market and 28-90 years is good enough I'd say. So thx for the info and the links as I will add some of that info with my print sales

@Argyll9846 11 months ago

I keep all my photographs wrapped inside inert oven bags and they are storedin a box is a cupboard. The colour prints that are 40+ years old have a very slight loss of colour while family black and whites that go back almost 90 years are still fresh and vibrant.

@friartist 2 years ago

Thank you for your review. On my shelf I have my wedding photo on Cibachrome from 1987, and as I gathered back then, made with superior dyes than what most photographers offered me back then. Shot on slide film with a Hasselblad and developed by the photographers brother in another part of Denmark, because he did Cibachrome. The photo looks pristine now, 37 years later. I tried Cibachrome myself, but it was too expensive for me, and too contrasty (my fault), but the images of my wife from 1986 have NOT changed, like the rest of us LOL

@EPeltzer 2 years ago

I recently bought an 8550 and am pretty thoroughly thrilled with it. But I did keep my old r2880 around, thinking I might use it for for pigment prints that I really wanted to last a long time. Based on these numbers there's no way I'm going to keep the r2880 with its tiny always empty ink cartridges and constant clogging problems. Also the 8550's black and whites on glossy anyway are quite wonderful. Keith I'm about your age, and I started printing large photos on Epson ink jets probably in the mid '90s. Those prints faded and yellowed and shifted in less than 10 years under glass. Bad old days, good riddance!