Since these 3 are the most affordable photo printer there is in the market...

What's your take between the two? R series and C series?

Base on their specs, I think R230 uses 6 inks system using dye inks and the C series uses 4 inks system using the pigment base inks.

C series boasts a 120 years life span photo quality prints....

So are dye based inks have less color fastness than pigment based inks?

Shed us some light....

I hope Heidi from Epson jumps on this one. But if I recall correctly, the C series only has four channels CMYK while the R series is six channels C,LC,M,LM,Y,K. You will notice the difference in the smoothness of the highlights and transitions since this is where the Light Cyan and Light Magenta come into play.

For more critical photo quality, I would go with the R series printers even if these are dye inks (more pop and saturation too). You can probably get 30 years with Epson paper under glass with their dyes which should be long enough for most.

The R-series is actually the photo series, using 6 colors and up (not to be confused with our large format printers though), although we do have one that is 4 colors as well.

the C-series utilizes 4 colors, usually the durabrite pigment based ones which are excellent water resistant and gas resistant inks. (not to be confused with the large format inks)

great also on plain paper as well and double sided printing.

those more meticulous about their photos would usually the opt for the R-series...

the C-series starts at a lower price for the C59 and C79..