Okie:
Well, I have a P2000. I do find that it prints much better on a matte surface than a glossy one. I do all my prints on watercolor paper, but have successfully used Epsons Archival Matte and Semi-gloss papers as well. The glossy I ran did not come out nearly as well so I switched to watercolor paper because it gave my work the best result - your results may vary.
I have never experienced problems with calibration or bronzing.
My P2000 comes with a single color cartridge and a single black cartridge. I get about 10-15 full sized (13x19) prints off a cartridge. I buy my replacements online and thus far have only bought OEM Epson cartridges. I do a google search and select the vendor with the lowest prices - same with my paper. There are continuous feed ink systems available now which are archival and appear to be much much less expensive. But I am leery of them at this point until I can read more about "how" archival their product is and how comparable to the output of OEM inks I would get.
Also, there are a number of other companies selling "compatible" cartridges. This is largely deceptive - most of these cartridges are NOT archival inks - Rhinotek for instance. I called them and they confirmed that their inks are not archival. They may produce an archival rated cartridge sometime in the future.
OK, prices.
I just did a web search and the best price I found for the Epson OEM color cartridge for my printer - T016201 was $28.55 from Buy.com.
The lowest price for the black cartridge is $24.75 from Buy.com.
The lowest price for my watercolor paper is $17.85 for 20 sheets - that's $.89 per 13x19 sheet.
You have to factor shipping costs in too. I have gotten free shipping on orders over $100 from time to time and that really helps the bottom line cost of your prints.
The cost of my prints range from $3 to $6 depending on what I am printing - how many images I get out of the cartridges.
I compare my prices at
http://zdnetshopper.cnet.com/
Hope that helps!
