DSLRUsers.com

Hi Guys

Costing me a fortune to buy genuine Canon ink tanks for the Canon i9100 I have. Does anyone think buying non genuine ($7 vs $21) tanks would mean a lower quality print and a lesser print life?

Looking at something like this:

http://www.inkjetwholesale.com.au/bu...dex.php?key=40

The prints im making are a4 and a3, for my folio. If I want a wall hangable large print I get them done professionally, all my 6x4's are done using my i9100 along with all the other stuff for gift cards, folio prints yada yada...

Kris I have the i9950 so have a similar problem. The best I can buy tanks for is about $24 each so it gets expensive to print. However I have heard all sorts of horror stories about generic brands so I am unwilling to experiment. Let me know how you go.

Kris wrote:a lower quality print

Absolutely.

Don't do it.

what gary said.......

lower quality, can stuff up your print heads - $$$

its like sticking a $20 lense on your 5D.

have you looked at continuous bulk-feed systems?

My mate is going to get an Epson 11880 early next year... around $1000 to replace the ink for it.

what are the model #'s for the ink that it uses?

J

Kris,

You have PM

(and if I find you using non genuine inks I will come round there and confiscate your printer)

Gosh ok! You guys are going to send me broke

Looks like im best to buy in large lots through ebay, 4-5 cartridges of each and see if I can save there. I purchased 3 Photo magentas, $50 with shipping. Not too bad!

Thanks guys. Ill use gen, dont want my printer confiscated

Kris

USB Technology Pty Ltd
U8/ 22 Leighton Pl Hornsby 2077
(02) 9987 1591

...sell BCI-6 genuine Canon cartridges for $14.50 (as well tanks for other models and brands)

They are at North Rocks Computer Market (Muirfield High School) each Sunday or they sell direct

Ray

Thanks Jenno, might give em a buzz. Thats the cheapest ive seen so far..

Guys what do you think about these contuinious inking systems???

http://www.rihac.com.au/

Kris,

As you know, I print heaps of stuff, so a few of the suppliers that I was using were always offering me different product to try in the hope that I would start buying from them. ( I think I actually did a print to you ages ago as I needed to test some new paper and inks) ??

Anyway, I tried the continuous ink system with my old S9000 and besides the extra noise due to the cover needing to be open, the main issues I had were as follows..

1. The Printer head needed 'deep cleaning' before each run if I hadn't used the printer for a week or so or there would be ink delivery issues. ( streaking, colour failure etc)

2. There was a noticable difference in color / quality for the same prints when testing back to back.

3. I have since had a few customers complain / return prints due to fading (approx 18 mths old). So I refunded their money and replaced the print. Two of the the three that returned were mounted under glass and were located in bright sunny rooms. The other was too angry and argumentive to give me any details of how it was mounted.

I can not remember what brand it was, but I offered my feedback / sample prints and unused inks back to the company and they said they would get back to me but never did.

I work at a place that fixes printers damaged due to using non genuine ink...

Basically, for a printer like the Canon's with a non-integrated (i.e. separate to the cartridge) print head, just DON'T - you run the risk of lunching the entire printer.

Then there's leakage which we see quite a lot. Ink is hard to clean up, and highly corrosive, which can eat thru the traces in your ribbon cables and PCBs within your printer.

We also sell genuine Canon ink and I can tell you that $14.50 from USB tech is a bloody good price, we pay $15 ex GST for grey imports!

Also, the genuine ink can be pretty tricky stuff, a lot of the time it is designed to print in a certain way and work with the genuine paper to acheive excellent results, this is why some papers just won't work with some inks...

Ive spent years fixing printers etc, and I can offer this advice about using non-genuine ink.
Go and buy a S*$t box printer for less than $90 or spend upto an extra $30 and get one which has photocopier functions.
Use the non genuine ink in this printer for all non critical jobs and in a year when it F*$^s up go get another one.
Keep your good printer for the reasons you bought it, -good results. Dont stuff around with its quality and reliability.

I have a BJC4200 which is about 13 years old and still going strong, and Ive seen people kill them in 6 months with crap ink. I couldnt understand why people would buy crap ink and think that they save money when it took a Tech 2 1/2 hours to fix it. But aparently it was us Tech's fault coz the salesman said it wouldnt hurt anything.

i've got a rihac ciss hooked up to a canon pixma ip4000 and whilst its good for what I do, which is print bulk notes, and the occasional photo I experienced a similar problem as MSF with photo's fading unbelievably quickly.

one day it also emptied the entire contents of the bulk ink tanks into the bottom of the printer. the ciss system and the printer have never been quite the same since then.

Thanks guys, im going with USB Technology and ill just order a stack of genuine canon inks, seems theres no easy or cheap way to get quality prints using the printer!

Or else, if printing "bulk notes" just buy a cheap laser.... I get a few thousand pages out of a $90 toner cartridge from a Canon LBP1120.

And save the Canon MFC for the faxes, colour prints and dodgy photo prints (it is a MFC not a photo printer)

all depends on what you are printing i guess, i use non-genuine for my home printing and day to day stuff, i can get 5 times the cartridges for the same price as canon genuine and i cannot tell the difference, but if you are printing photos as others have said genuine is it.

I was more concerned about stuffing my printer... Ill keep being ripped off and stick to genuine

Just ordered a full set ( eight cartridges) from USB Technology for $139 delivered

Not bad.. saw a full set on ebay for $119 though..

Kris wrote:Hi Guys

Costing me a fortune to buy genuine Canon ink tanks for the Canon i9100 I have. Does anyone think buying non genuine ($7 vs $21) tanks would mean a lower quality print and a lesser print life?

Looking at something like this:

http://www.inkjetwholesale.com.au/bu...dex.php?key=40

I just killed my Epson printer a few months ago with no genuine inks from inkjetwholesale.

Buy genuine.

I once spoke to the head tech support guru from Canon at a trade do and he said that over 60% of the repairs to printers came from cheap non genuine inks. This holds for Epson too I am afraid. I don't risk it.
If you want an independent viewpoint on the longevity sode of the cheaper inks go to http://www.wilhelm-research.com/ they are the recognised archival gurus.
Col

The order that I placed yesterday with USB Technology in Sydney arrived this morning!! That is despite the fact that I doubt they would have received the funds transfer until today, my first order as well! Great service.

i think this is the right place for USB technology ?

http://www.usbtech.com.au

I agree with the comment by Biggzie on this issue. I have a Canon IP4200 for 6x4's and maybe A4 images and I use non genuine inks as these prints are for review or just handouts to friends. I also have a HP Officejet that does the standard letters, fax etc for work. When I want to get a quality print done I take it work where the $15-20K machines are and a specialist in colour repro is there to give advice, and I can print to A0 if I want on a range of papers. Home printing is an expensive business if you want top quality output. The entry price for the printer is over a thousand dollars and the inks and papers add many more hundreds, and you really need a colorimeter and spectrophotometer to regularly profile your printer and paper, additionally you a have depreciating assets and often a variable output while facing a very steep learning curve. The cheap printer I use a Canon 4200 with inks (CLI8's) was only $125 ...about the cost of cartridge replacements, and it produces exceptionally good price to quality output in my view. I am sure there is an Epson equivalent. If you do want to go down this route I think you need to do so with a good understanding of the costs involved, which was the point of the original query on after market inks.

Yup Shane that is them.

Thanks heaps for the link to USB Tech..

I will be buying all mine from there from now on -

I can save about 50c a cartridge on my current buy price thru work on the CLI-8's and about $2.50 a cartridge on the BCI-6's.

So Jenno, I owe you a beer or two... :p

I curently spend about $500 - $600 a quarter on inks, so I think USB Tech will owe you a beer TOO once they start getting my money !!!

...it's a pleasure

Ray

MSF wrote:Thanks heaps for the link to USB Tech..

I curently spend about $500 - $600 a quarter on inks, so I think USB Tech will owe you a beer TOO once they start getting my money !!!

In that case, you should hit them for even more bulk discount

Yes, I will be trying to get a better deal..

My current deal is good in that i get the same (pretty good) price if I buy one or 101 .. but I have rarely bought less than about 16-18 tanks at a time anyway...

Which brings me to my next point, if anyone is interested - I am selling my BCI-6 inks now as they are of no use to me.. - of anyone wants them - check out the for sale section...

Just an update,

Ordered from USB tech and they gave me an even better deal based on my bulk ordering - saving about $3.00 per tank now over my previous great price ... WOO HOO

Very easy to deal with too...



Jenno, where do I sent that beer too