Plan9 said:
My Canon i560 that up until now has been my photo printer is now a
workhorse
color brochure printer. Refilling the cartridges is a snap and it works
well. But now I need a good photo printer that I can use only (mostly)
for
photos and one that I can continue to refill the cartridges.
This week Staples has the following on sale or clearance:
Epson R380 $110 after rebate
Canon ip4300 $90 clearance
Canon ip 6700D 90 after rebate
Any clear winner here? At this point I'm about ready to make a decision
by
coin toss. I've read several reviews and looked at ink refill sites, but
still don't have a good feel for one is better than the others.
I don't know anything about the Epson printer. I have not used the two
Canon printers as my previous generation Canon printers are still going
strong - just like your i560. The Canon ip4300 has four photo ink carts,
CMYK, and a larger pigment-based black ink cart used only when plain paper
is selected and designed for text printing. The Canon ip6700 is a six
color printer - CMYK plus a photo magenta and photo cyan which are lower
dye-load inks. I use a Canon i960 which uses the same six photo color inks
(previous generation inks for the bci-6 carts), and my wife has a Canon
ip5000, with bci-6 CMYK carts plus lthe larger black pigment-based bci-3ebk
cart. The ip5000 has one picoliter nozzles for the dye-based bci-6 carts
and would be close to the ip4300 in function. The i960 was rated, in its
day, as the best photo printer in the Canon line. I must say, that color
photo prints from the ip5000 are also beautiful. I use MIS inks to refill
carts for both of these printers and have great results.
The Canon printers you noted both use carts with "chips" on them which
register empty when the inks are used up. They can be refilled exactly the
same way as your printer carts, but the chip can not be reset to read full
for the printer. Canon has done this, I am sure, to thwart refilling or the
use of aftermarket prefilled carts. If you refill and insert a cart that
has been emptied you get a "nag" message that tells you that you will void
your warranty if you continue. People who refill their carts know that they
save so much using aftermarket inks that the warranty loss is less a problem
than having to pay for OEM carts.
There are now inks that are formulated for these printers by a few of the
online vendors. I have read that the Magenta ink is a slightly different
color and the others are essentially the same. Canon touts the newly
formulated inks as being substantially more resistant to fading over time.
If that is not a major issue for you, both of these printers would be a good
choice, and the prices are reasonable. The ip6700D is very well priced. I
would read the reviews on photo quality and make my choice between the
ip4300 and the ip6700D based on which would do the best photo prints since
that is why you are buying your next printer.
Pay no attention to Measekite, our very own troll, who puts down anyone who
posts messages about aftermarket inks. He has no experience with these
inks, nor does he have hands-on experience with these two printers
sufficient to give you advice. Your experience of refilling carts for your
i560 is testimony to refute anything Measekite would say about good quality
aftermarket refill inks. Quite obviously, it hasn't destroyed your printer,
and this printer is an older generation from the ip4000 that Measekite has
been using for four years. Thankfully, he and many others continue to use
OEM Canon inks so Canon will maintain its business model of pricing their
printers low and selling their inks at excessive prices.
