Home Printing

I do a fair amount of printing for camera club competitions. As I often have to print more than once to get things as I want them ( despite a calibrated monitor and the use of ICC profiles), it can get very expensive with original inks so I have used various 3rd party ones. Initially I bought a fairly pricey (£500+) Epson printer and tried to economize by using a continuous ink system by a reputable manufacturer, whose inks, whilst not being cheap, promised to be cost effective. Whether it was the continuous ink system with all its tubing or the actual inks, the printer head clogged very seriously from time time and eventually terminally and despite going back to the dealer from whom I had purchased the CIS, the cost of repair and head replacement was in the region of £300, - so I sold the printer for spares on ebay! Following that I bought a Canon,(which unlike Epson printers, allows user replacement of printheads, should that be necessary). After the warranty period I moved on to Jet Tec cartridges which gave good colours but still clogged from time to time and there was also a problem that some of the cartridges did not seat properly. In discussion with Premier Inks of Leamington Spa about this , they suggested I tried their even cheaper Japanese compatibles which come in blue packaging, simply labelled 'Ink'. I have used them now for about two years and have had to clean the heads once. Even after the printer has not been used for a month, there does not seem to be a problem. I had these inks profiled so that I now have an ICC profile for them, but I do not find the result very different from using the Canon profile (appropriate to the type of paper) which was supplied with the printer. Anyway I am very happy as I can print as much as I want without counting the cost too much and without any worry that my printer will be harmed.

I've had nothing but trouble with Epson printers, using continuous and compatible inks. Is your Canon an A3 printer Miles? What model?

Yes it prints to A3+ and is a Canon Pro 9000 Mk II . I think it has now been superseded by a later model but I have had it for more than 4 years and have had no trouble at all. It was one down from the top model at the time as I was feeling distinctly unhappy about the money which I lost on the Epson ( also A3) not too speak of the cost of the continuous system inks. My understanding is that Canon has a service network of nominated repairers which is easily accessible but Epson deals with things centrally and very expensively. Although nearly all my colleagues use Epson, I have always found Epson to be fairly prone to clogging. Certainly the combination of this printer and the inexpensive compatibles (described above) seems to work. My only reservation would be the longevity of the prints and I suspect that they would fade if exposed to direct bright sunlight for any time, but they seem to be fine in other daylight. In any case I do not kid myself that anything I produce is worth keeping in perpetuity!!

As a long time user of home inkjets i have to say that Canon some time ago cracked the issue of ink drying on heads. You do have to use them though, Canon recommend at least once a month. The option to leave on standby seems to waste a lot of ink with the auto cleaning cycles.

I get that Photographers earning a living by it buy expensive original cartridges. I use pattern chipped cartridges at about £1 each from Amazon retailers such as Go Inks. looking just now for my M6250 six ink printer/scanner. Lead to deal: two sets of six for £4.76 plus postage (varies so play with order to gwet best value) at moment. Must order some.

I by the way keep mine in one of those click top seal storage plastic boxes in their sealed bags. Nuisance keeping the card boxes.

mmmm

I've just unblocked my Epson yet again. When it finally dies, I'll maybe look at a Canon that does decent B&W

The inks I use, are not anywhere as cheap as these - I think I am paying £2.99 each from 7 Day shop. One nice thing about them is that they light up just like the Canon originals and unlike the JetTec ones.

One drawback of mine is that it it has only one black cartridge, but with that limitation it does extremely well, but you might best look at a superior model which has more than one grey/black cartridge.

The Go inks cartridges light up, flash slowly when low and rapidly when close to empty. (Postage is in £3.99 to £5.99 range so play with orders). i've used MoreInks as well off there but like this firm. 7Day Shop are good when sale on but product varies

Have to add, that most of my printing (16x12) is done by DSCL, including B&W. I may be better off getting better quality B&W somewhere else and just getting a cheap printer for the bairn's school homework