I know that many Epson printers, and probably other brands as well, include "reduced capacity" cartridges in the retail box. These are labelled as "full capacity" in every way, except they only contain about 2/3 or 1/2 the ink. Plus, the first cartridge ever used on an Epson has to fill up all the gaps and whatnot between the cartridge and the print head.

So.. one should expect subsequent cartridges to print noticeably more stuff before needing replacement.

My Epson 1270 (which I LOVE, as opposed to my Epson 850, which I LOATH), only printed around 19 8.5x11" photographs with the factory colour cartridge. But subsequent cartridges have typically yielded around 40-50 8.5x11" photographs.

And the lousy thing about Epsons is, they pretty much rule the photographic inkjet industry. The new Canon S900 is the first/only competition they've had in a LONG while. HP's don't compare (for photographs, but much better for other purposes).

Knowing that the heads will clog over time with non-use, I make a point of cycling the power (and thus the cleaning cycle) once every couple of weeks, just to keep it alive.

Cheers