I just bought a Canon MP780 printer. Can anyone recommend an ink
cartrdige refill system?
There are many different options including purchasing empty 3rd party
cartridges.
I would like to find the best option that considers cost, print
quality, minimal mess/time and reliability(no damage to the printer).
Thanks
Firstly, think ip4000, not mp780.
http://www.inksupply.com/cankits.cfm#ip4000
The blunt needles in this kit are a tad on the short side, but the
refillable cartridges are nice. I was 100% happy with the Pigment
black and the color dye was excelent. My experence base was about 1
year of operation on an ip3000, same thing without the dye black, and I
had no issues till I didn't use the printer for a month or so. My use
was well over 700 print directly to CD, covers, and misc others, in
other words in excess of the printer's offical life. While I did get
"slight" banding on the black eventually, this was a head issue and not
a clog issue.
So between 4oz and 6oz of ink passed through an ip3000 of MIS ink
before I got a free head from canon. $62 + shipping for the kit. On
the high side but I was so pleased with the product I'm going to
continue to buy the ink for my ip5200.
http://www.hobbicolors.com/
In terms of price, these guys can not be beet. For your $22 bucks plus
shipping you get 4oz of pigment black, 2oz of color and 5 blank
cartridges. This is about 1/3 the price of MIS, but you only get one
syrenge, and the caps on the cartridges you have to attach with tape or
a rubber band while you refill. I'm not "as" pleased with the pigment
black on my ip5200, and in fact will be switching back to MIS for that
reason and that reason alone. The color i'm 100% pleased with.
Buying both the hobbicolor kit and getting your pigment black from mis
is more tedius, but ends up being the most cost effective solution and
would give you excelent text printing and good color printing.
[note]
one user complained about the color from the printer using hobbicolors.
It's my belief this issue was them being sent ip4200/ip5200 ink rather
than ip4000/ip5000 ink. I was able to reproduce the effect by using
hobbicolor's ink for my ip5200 in the mp760, and resolve the issue by
switching the printer to japanese mode. I don't reccomend this as
japanese mode requries the japanese driver, and you can sort of bi-pass
this need by switching back to european mode, but the colors using
ip4200/ip5200 ink will only be true so long as you don't reset the
printer. Unless you like pressing buttons or learning Japanese... I
reccomend you use ip4000 ink on this printer. You get better skin
tones in Japanese mode using ip4200/ip5200 ink, but all the menus on
the printer and the driver are Japanese.
The aftermarket ink I spoke of does not compair to the lightfastness of
OEM.
Also see reccomendations for formulabs ink. I've not used this... but
others it's worth looking into.
[source image]
[MIS ink on HP premium glossy paper]
[Hobbicolors mp760 in japanese mode HP premium glossy paper
HP paper is not ideal, yellow tends to suffer.
