buy an EPSON printer = daylight robbery?

[Caitlin]

Mine are over 6 months old and just sitting on a desk. Pigmented inks do
not produce as vibrant a print. I can reprint when and if necessary and I
do not get *AS :-( *screwed :-( by the OEM.

Can you just accept that some people DON'T want to constantly be reprinting
their photos? And 6 months isn't much of a test... The latest Epson inks
have been rated very well for vibrancy & more importantly no colour shift
which the older pigment inks suffered from.

Disclosure: I own and like my Canon IP4000 - but will get an A3 pigment
printer one of these days....

 

[Hecate]

Can you just accept that some people DON'T want to constantly be reprinting
their photos? And 6 months isn't much of a test... The latest Epson inks
have been rated very well for vibrancy & more importantly no colour shift
which the older pigment inks suffered from.

Precisely. And a recent comparative test in PC Pro showed that the
Canon inks lasted less well than any others (including the newest
Lexmark inks - though you'd have to be braindead to buy one of their

Disclosure: I own and like my Canon IP4000 - but will get an A3 pigment
printer one of these days....

The Canons give a nice output and do so quickly, but they're no use
for any long-lasting print.

As for ink costs, that's why Lyson, Permajet and MSI produce
continuous ink systems.

 

[measekite]

Precisely. And a recent comparative test in PC Pro showed that the
Canon inks lasted less well than any others (including the newest
Lexmark inks - though you'd have to be braindead to buy one of their
printers <g>).

We can at least agree on that.

Is A3 wide carriage?

 

[Caitlin]

*snip*


Is A3 wide carriage?

It's double A4 size. So in US terms, yes you probably call that wide
carriage.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

I don't know why I'm even responding to this.

But the faulty logic is just to extreme to ignore. Many documents are
transferred to other people and need to have permanence. People share
photos and may not have access to the original or source file. Some
people have better things to do with life than reprint all their files
regularly.

Cost of ink may not be an issue for some people, Epson has many Nome
paper types available for fine art use.

Everyone has different criterion for determining what is the best inkjet
printer for their needs.


Art

 

[Arthur Entlich]

I don't know current pricing on the Canon OEM cartridges for the IP4000,
however, for most lower end Epson, Lexmark and HP printers the cost of
the replacement cartridges is within 20-30% of the cost of a new printer
with new cartridges included. I imagine Canon is similar.

Art

 

[Arthur Entlich]

You are correct that I misread the posting regarding the color
cartridges. However, it would still not be normal to get a yield of
only 40 pages unless the pages were very dense with black content.

Art

 

[Taliesyn]

I don't know current pricing on the Canon OEM cartridges for the IP4000,
however, for most lower end Epson, Lexmark and HP printers the cost of
the replacement cartridges is within 20-30% of the cost of a new printer
with new cartridges included. I imagine Canon is similar.

Art

I have an iP5000 and an i860 (predecessor to the iP4000). The cost of
OEM cartridges, bought at Staples in Canada, comes to $104 (with taxes).
The cost of the printer, the iP5000 was $274 (with taxes). The iP4000
sells for about $206 (in Canada) with taxes. As you can see, the OEM
cartridge to printer (iP5000) cost is between 37% and 50%, depending on
which model you bought. That's pretty disgusting, I'd say. Bring on the
3rd party cartridges, no questions asked.

-Taliesyn

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Canon probably has the most reasonable printer to ink cartridge ratios
of all the brands. However, it may also have the most fugitive inks in
the field, as well.

I read some months ago about a new ink set released in Japan by Canon.
Has anyone heard of it being exported yet?

Art

 

[retsoppot]

I am glad you got a cannon if that is what you want
I have been using epsons since the old ribbon type
Have has excellent luck with them
I use a 3rd party ink with NO problems
Its great that people can choose a ford or chevy...
Good luck

 

[peterp]

You are correct that I misread the posting regarding the color
cartridges. However, it would still not be normal to get a yield of
only 40 pages unless the pages were very dense with black content.

They were mostly no more than may be 30 or so lines per page. The
invoices were mostly white!

Anyway, I found 3rd party refillable cartridges which were just newly
developed for this model. Judging from the message displayed when I
tried the first print, the machine or software detected that the
cartridges weren't from Epson, but it works without a problem. The
best with the cartridges is that I can leave the refill opening
plugged if I don't want to use that specific color.

Peter

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Epson indicates that up to 1/5th of the ink may be used up on the first
cartridge installation process. That still doesn't explain the usage
numbers you got.

There are a few considerations in using third party inks. If you are
using a Durabrite ink printer you may find the new inks are not pigment
colorant (may tend to fade) and also may not be waterproof, or they may
tend to clog more easily.

I don't quite understand the part about keeping the color cartridges
plugged. If you have been using this printer with ink in it, leaving
the color heads without ink feeding in them may lead to some difficult
if not impossible clogs to resolve.

Further, do these cartridges have "permanently full" chips, or do you
need to reset them every so often, as they read empty?

Art

 

[peterp]

Epson indicates that up to 1/5th of the ink may be used up on the first

cartridge installation process. That still doesn't explain the usage
numbers you got.

Well, all I can say that after printing to black text copies the
software shows 1/5th less ink for black. Too much for my taste.

Further, do these cartridges have "permanently full" chips, or do you
need to reset them every so often, as they read empty?

I don't know yet, as I have been using only the black cartridge, until
now, but as far as I understood when I bought them, nothing needs to
be done at all.

Peter