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September 27, 2006
[ BEWARE the bargain that's too good to be true ] ]
INKJET PRINTERS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING EXCELLENT PHOTO PRINTS ARE CHEAP. Unfortunately the materials needed to make them work are ruinously expensive.
Canon, Epson, Hewlett Packard and Lexmark all make printers capable of producing excellent prints and the hardware is remarkably affordable. However buying the gadget is only the beginning of the shock to the credit card.
Imaging’s Canon i9950 printer is a wonderful machine but it uses 8 ink cartridges that cost $24 each. Genuine Canon paper is also expensive, particularly if you opt for the best Photo Paper Pro. And the story with Epson and Hewlett Packard is much the same.
It is understandable that the frugal photographer will be seduced by cheap third party ink cartridges and refills. We proceed on the cyncical assumption that the printer makers are giving away the hardware in order to get us addicted to their ink and papers, but we are not fooled. We’ll outsmart them by buying no-brand.
It’s an appealing logic but be warned. For a few years Epson ran a series of advertisements intended to scare their customers away from third party inks. With graphic photographic proof the company claimed that if any but their own genuine inks are used their printer heads will be ruined.
There was widespread hooting at the self-serving alarmist advertisements, but what if it is true?
Imaging can’t speak of Epson experience but we can report that third party inks wreaked havoc on the expensive print heads of a previous Canon printer we owned. The heads clogged up and nothing that we could do would clear them. When we checked with Canon they told us that use of third party inks does not void their warranty. They neither recommend nor warn. But our experience turned us off no-name inks forever.
Now comes another persuasive reason for not using third party inks. Prints made with them fade before your very eyes!
The Wilhelm Imaging Research Institute -- the de facto standard setter for inkjet print longevity -- has recently tested a range of alternative inks from the big office supply companies in the US. The house brand names are unfamiliar to us but presumably these inks come from the same source that supplies our third party market.
Wilhelm found that where, for instance, Hewlett Packard inks used with HP Premium Plus Photo Paper produce prints that last 73 years under standard illumination the cheap inks faded in 5 months or, at the most, 6 years. HP 95 and 99 photo cartridges produce prints with a life expectancy of 108 years. With the cheap inks the life of the print is 4.6 years at the best.
The disparities are just as startling for Canon and Epson printers. Wilhelm considers “the permanence of all the after-market products tested to be unsuitable for printing valued consumer photographs.”
Sadly, we get what we pay for. And what we pay for when we buy genuine inks and papers is a total system where the chemistry and physics of all the components have been optimised to work together to produce the best results and protect the microscopic ink jets from damage.
The Wilhelm Imaging Research Institute results can be downloaded from their website.
Posted by terry at September 27, 2006 08:51 AM
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