3rd party inks-cartridges

[[=brian=]]

Hi all, just wondering how you guys feel about 3rd party inks and cartridges. Do you use them? What kind of success have you had with them, if any.

Brian

[Ash]

I don't, mainly because of my job I was indoctrinated with 'don't put "low quality" inks in your printer'. The main reason is ink consistency and how the fluid is made.

I think on high-end epsons some people have better luck with 3rd party inks because they are still expensive. On anything A3 or smaller, the consumer level 3rd party inks usually bugger the print head.

I've had a number of customers moan their printer failed or produced blotchy results, and when queried they all used cheaper inks. I use branded inks and never had an issue with my printer 2 years on, with extensive use and with month-or-two gaps in printing (the two extremes where inks usually foul the head).

[coops]

My only expereience was with my Epson 2200. Third party inks came in 100cc bottles, worked great, looked identical to OEM and still look good several years later. However, the ink had to be loaded via a syringe and needle, into the cart, and then the chip had to be reset, which did not always go smoothly. I saved money but it was a hassle.

[Tom Monego]

I used 3rd party inks in the first LF printer I had, the Epson inks had poor longevity. After going to a paying job, I bought a 17 inch Canon iPF5000 and found OEM ink to be liberating, easy profiles to make or to find on line, printing became simple. With 3rd party inks and a RIP, I was doing linearization, and profiles to get a result, a lot of work. That said there are good 3rd party ink merchants and those who just put any ink in cartridge, and some in the middle. Cone inks (www.inkjetmall.com) and Lyson are two very good ink sellers. Both have been around a long time and have very good reports.
A friend had found an Epson 3000 printer for free and bought the cheapest inks he could find, about $9 for a 110ml cartridge. Half of them would come leaking, so every order was 2 orders, but they printed well with Epson profiles, he would laugh at me when i was doing the linearization and profiling on my 3rd party inks. His prints lasted fairly well too, one of those go figure situations.

Tom

[SKimber]

are you looking for pigment or dye inks? I've heard some real good test result that made by inkrepublic.com's CISS users
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKgp3lQ2Rcc
and

http://www.photo-i.co.uk/BB/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=6445&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

I am about to get one 1400 printer and perhaps to get the dye based or pigment based 1400 system from InkRepublic.com

[nelly2010]

Hey Brian, In fact i use 3rd party inks on all 3 of my printers!! I print so much posters that i needed this before going to bankruptcy! I have refillable cartridges and inks on my hp Z3100 - Compatible Canon ipf9000 and a CISS on my Brother MFC490 - , fortunately the ink i use is made in the US , the latest i got was the compatible cartridges they are new on the market and really high quality for the price they have . So far i haven't had any problems with it as far as color or printer issues. I can send you some pictures if you want showing you the type of printing i get with this inks. If you are interested i get mine at www.macroenter.com - they also have paper and other stuff .

Hope this works for you it will help you save a lot of money , but you have to be careful who you are dealing with.

Nelly

[Peter von Gaza]

I have been using MIS inks for 8 years. I've got "funnel carts" installed in 2 old Epson 4000s, a Epson 7600 and in our current workhorse the Epson 4880. We also have a bunch of Epson 1400s using dye inks (and external cheap CIS systems) for art cards. These inks, both pigments and dyes, have worked brilliantly for us and saved us THOUSANDS of dollars over the years. We primarily sell reproductions of my ladies paintings and small amount of my photography (sigh...). We have NEVER had a complaint about fading with our pigment prints (thousands of prints). Dye inks, however, are always a crap shoot depending on how or if the artwork is framed and whether it is in direct sunlight.

When we switched a lot of our production over to the 4880 this year I ran the Epson inks and then when they ran out I installed the funnel carts and the equivalent MIS inks (k4). MIS recommend that you do a power cleaning, but I didn't. Never missed a beat and I have seen no difference in color. I didn't need to reprofile for the inks.

I guess I am just a cheap dude, but I can't imagine using Epson inks at 4-5x the cost! For what? Don't get caught up in the archival debate, because IMHO it is just a lot of noise. More important to keep costs down and deliver a good product.

Peter

www.shadowlynx.com

[[=brian=]]

Thanks Peter, I actually ended up getting ink and cartridges at Macro from nelly's suggestion. I checked MIS out as well both had great prices, but Macro Enter was closer and a little less.

You are right about the color. I switched out all my OEM cartridges and have printed over 2 rolls of media and the color comes out amazing, just as good as the OEM. I am using pigmented inks luckily.

[SAShruby]

I'm currently switching to Cone inks and later to Piezo inks. As long as you have reflective densitometer, which should be essential if you do your own testing, wet or dry darkroom, (no need for spectrophotometer), you can create your own curves quite easily and take advantage of your printer you have.

[[=brian=]]

What are type of ink printing is cone. I've heard of thermal and peizo.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Yes, I use 3rd party inks with the Epson 4000 at the school that I teach at. It's for economical reasons. I get it from 123Inkcartridges in Quebec. Right now $20 per cartridge. I am planning to use the refillable cartridges, which should be a big saver on costs. I have never had a problem with these inks and the prints look great.

[SAShruby]

;610811']What are type of ink printing is cone. I've heard of thermal and peizo.

See Cone Color Inks (http://www.conecolor.com/)

[[=brian=]]

SAShruby,

Cone inks are just a brand I see. They are just typical piezo inks for epson printers. They are also MUCH more expensive than MIS or Macro Enter's inks. Both of those companies use specially formulated inks as well at almost half the price. I'd recommend giving either one of those companies a look.

[SKimber]

another good one - http://ufosystem.net