Genuine R1800 ink - alternative (cheaper) sources?

[DVEous]

... Obsolete ...

[Murray Foote]

You should be able to find lots of cheaper sources through http://www.staticice.com.au and http://www.shopbot.com.au (just search on a specific ink serial number). Depending on the condition of the dollar, it may be cheaper to get a whole set from http://www.adorama.com or http://www.bhphotovideo.com in the US, especially say if you get some paper at the time and even after freight. You don't pay GST under $1,000 in any case.

[Matt. K]

Stick with the genuine inks for quality, trouble free output. Try Ebay or other web based sources and you will find better prices. If you want to save money then print smaller proofs and only print your very very very best work. Try printing images from friends cameras and charge them a fee to help you keep your ink and paper supply going.

[DaveB]

$142 for an 8-ink set from AusMedia in Box Hill.

[Murray Foote]

I don't think he was contemplating non-Epson inks and I'm not sure there was an inferred complaint about the overall costs of printing.

Actually there is a common furphy that printing is expensive. Digital printing is much cheaper than Cibachrome which was the only colour chemical printing process accessible to amateurs and the wasteage was also much higher.

An R1800 can produce good prints. With a colour managed system including good quality monitor, colorimeter and profiling software, you should be able to get pretty close first off with most colour prints. Mono can still be a little more exacting. There is expense then in the equipment but not necessarily that much in ink and paper.

I don't think the R1900 would be a huge upgrade on the R1800 (and it's misnamed - it really should be an R1880, not at all comparable with a 7900 for example) and the ink cartridges are smaller so it's likely to be more expensive to run.

Regards,
Murray