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#1
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New Printers And Ink Cost Questions ?
Hello,
I have a many years old Canon i 960 color printer that we haven't used for the past few years at all since the ink ran out in a few cartridges. I gave up on it due to the price of the replacement cartridges, which is totally rediculous, IMHO. Have my color pix made at the local CVS, and although the quality isn't perhaps as good, and it is a bit inconvenient, the cost which is cheap has dictated this approach. But, would like to get back to using my own printer again. Are there new printers from anybody that offer "good" quality, but the ink is a Lot less expensive than that for the i 960 ? I remember a year or so back that HP came out with what they claimed were much lower cartridge costs, and were taken over the coals by the reviewers saying that it wasn't cheaper on a per pix basis; it was just theatr their cartridges were much smaller, and hence the lower price. So, do I just bite the bullet and buy some more cartridges for the i960, assuming they are even available anymore ? Or, does it make more sense to get a new printer that uses substantially lower ink cartridge costs ? If so, which please ? If you folks could bring me up to date on the state of the art in printers, and ink costs these days, would be appreciative. Thanks, Bob |
#2
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New Printers And Ink Cost Questions ?
On Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:44:51 -0400, Robert11 wrote:
Hello, I have a many years old Canon i 960 color printer that we haven't used for the past few years at all since the ink ran out in a few cartridges. I gave up on it due to the price of the replacement cartridges, which is totally rediculous, IMHO. Have my color pix made at the local CVS, and although the quality isn't perhaps as good, and it is a bit inconvenient, the cost which is cheap has dictated this approach. But, would like to get back to using my own printer again. Are there new printers from anybody that offer "good" quality, but the ink is a Lot less expensive than that for the i 960 ? None I remember a year or so back that HP came out with what they claimed were much lower cartridge costs, and were taken over the coals by the reviewers saying that it wasn't cheaper on a per pix basis; it was just theatr their cartridges were much smaller, and hence the lower price. So, do I just bite the bullet and buy some more cartridges for the i960, assuming they are even available anymore ? No, I would get the latest technology with duplex printing and higher quality ink. Look at the Canon Ip4600. It is less than $99.00 Or, does it make more sense to get a new printer that uses substantially lower ink cartridge costs ? If so, which please ? If you folks could bring me up to date on the state of the art in printers, and ink costs these days, would be appreciative. Thanks, Bob |
#3
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New Printers And Ink Cost Questions ?
Robert11 wrote:
Hello, I have a many years old Canon i 960 color printer that we haven't used for the past few years at all since the ink ran out in a few cartridges. I gave up on it due to the price of the replacement cartridges, which is totally rediculous, IMHO. Have my color pix made at the local CVS, and although the quality isn't perhaps as good, and it is a bit inconvenient, the cost which is cheap has dictated this approach. But, would like to get back to using my own printer again. Are there new printers from anybody that offer "good" quality, but the ink is a Lot less expensive than that for the i 960 ? Nope. The i560, i860, and i960 series printers from Canon are probably your cheapest for ink in an inkjet. Those used the 3 + 6 series cartridges. Among the current generation printers, the Canon Pixma series is probably cheapest, but they'll be quite a bit more expensive than the older generation printers like yours. The reason is that the newer Pixma printers use the 5 + 8 series cartridges. Construction is very similar, but they've added an ink sensor chip. I haven't looked closely, but I suspect the cartridge capacity might be a little lower too, as the 5 + 8 series cartridges have a small "dent" added to the ink tank area to accomodate the chip holder. So, where the old 3 + 6 series cartridges typically cost between $10-14 each, the equivalent cartridges for the newer Canons will cost $16-$20. That said, they're still among the cheapest for the current gen printers. If you intend to bring your old i960 back into service, the 3+6 series cartridges are still available. You may find that the printhead needs to be replaced. That will probably cost you about $40-$90 on Ebay. You can still have the local shop order one from Canon, but it'll cost you a lot more. If you balk at the $10-$14 price of those Canon OEM 3+6 series cartridges, you could always refill or buy compatibles. Compatibles vary in price, but locally, they typically run $2-$6 each. $2 being for the no-name Chinese imports, and $6 being for the name brand ones like Print-Rite or the big box store brand ones. The initial print quality is typically comparable to the OEM ones, but they seem to fade sooner. You might be able to shave a little more off if you buy ink in bulk and refill the cartridges 2 or 3 times before pitching them. I really doubt you're going to get any cheaper than that for inkjet printing. |
#4
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New Printers And Ink Cost Questions ?
On Jun 1, 10:44*am, "Robert11" wrote:
So, do I just bite the bullet and buy some more cartridges for the i960, assuming they are even available anymore ? The i960 is actually a very spiffy printer worth keeping in service. Canon has since abandoned the whole light cyan/magenta in favor of a light black. You can check yourself www.trymyphoto.com/ They ditched free photos from the Pixma 9000/9500 series. Newer models listed here are going to be smaller and with the same ml/ page ratio, thus costing more. The older pixmas (ip6600d/mp960/mp970] which would be a step up from your printer take the same sized cartridges with chips thus costing more. Or, does it make more sense to get a new printer that uses substantially lower ink cartridge costs ? If so, which please ? There isn't one really. There is Kodak. I've not crunched the numbers for color nor have I seen the output, but I'd wager the i960 is a better printer. BCI-6 tanks were 13ml with an estimated yield of 280p @ 5% coverage. There is a ton of aftermarket cartridges and ink for the i960. You have the HP business Jets which might count, but I'd have to crunch the numbers again. |
#5
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New Printers And Ink Cost Questions ?
"MCheu" wrote in message ... Robert11 wrote: Hello, I have a many years old Canon i 960 color printer that we haven't used for the past few years at all since the ink ran out in a few cartridges. I gave up on it due to the price of the replacement cartridges, which is totally rediculous, IMHO. Have my color pix made at the local CVS, and although the quality isn't perhaps as good, and it is a bit inconvenient, the cost which is cheap has dictated this approach. But, would like to get back to using my own printer again. Are there new printers from anybody that offer "good" quality, but the ink is a Lot less expensive than that for the i 960 ? Nope. The i560, i860, and i960 series printers from Canon are probably your cheapest for ink in an inkjet. Those used the 3 + 6 series cartridges. Among the current generation printers, the Canon Pixma series is probably cheapest, but they'll be quite a bit more expensive than the older generation printers like yours. The reason is that the newer Pixma printers use the 5 + 8 series cartridges. Construction is very similar, but they've added an ink sensor chip. I haven't looked closely, but I suspect the cartridge capacity might be a little lower too, as the 5 + 8 series cartridges have a small "dent" added to the ink tank area to accomodate the chip holder. So, where the old 3 + 6 series cartridges typically cost between $10-14 each, the equivalent cartridges for the newer Canons will cost $16-$20. That said, they're still among the cheapest for the current gen printers. If you intend to bring your old i960 back into service, the 3+6 series cartridges are still available. You may find that the printhead needs to be replaced. That will probably cost you about $40-$90 on Ebay. You can still have the local shop order one from Canon, but it'll cost you a lot more. If you balk at the $10-$14 price of those Canon OEM 3+6 series cartridges, you could always refill or buy compatibles. Compatibles vary in price, but locally, they typically run $2-$6 each. $2 being for the no-name Chinese imports, and $6 being for the name brand ones like Print-Rite or the big box store brand ones. The initial print quality is typically comparable to the OEM ones, but they seem to fade sooner. You might be able to shave a little more off if you buy ink in bulk and refill the cartridges 2 or 3 times before pitching them. I really doubt you're going to get any cheaper than that for inkjet printing. I'm still using an i960 that is about six years old. I've given it a lot of use and have replaced the printhead once. The only OEM ink I've run through this excellent printer was the set of carts that came with it. From then on I've refilled with very good ink that costs a bit more than $1 US per refill. The six color printers drink the photo magenta and photo cyan very quickly. The use of these light dye load inks is what creates the quality of photo prints you have enjoyed. Refilling carts is easy and minimally messy once you get the hang of it. The inks I've been using were from MIS and were probably Imaging Specialists inks, although they don't identify it as such. They are listed as the US distributer on the IS web site. I now buy from Precision Colors, located in Canada, http://home.eol.ca/~mikling/ , which sells IS inks and, becuase that is the only ink manufacturer whose goods they sell, can positively identify them as IS inks. They do ship to the US very reasonably and are less expensive than MIS. IS is a very solid US company that makes many types of inks. My experience is that their product has been very stable and reliable for the six years I've used it. Some people also use Hobbicolors inks, available on eBay, and report very good results. Instead of using syringes I purchased 2 oz. squeeze bottles with luer lock needles from Howard Electronics online. No need to open containers, fill syringes, clean syringes, etc - much faster and neater. The aftermarket prefilled carts can be a problem. The one issue that I agree with our resident troll on is that the prefilled carts that may initially have good color response may have the manufacturer change to inks that are inferior. In addition, the aftermarket carts are generally not engineered or constructed as well as Canon OEM carts and may not feed well, appear to create clogs as a result of poor ink feeding, and eventually cause damage to the printhead. Here is the issue that Measekite is dead wrong on - there are good refill inks out there - but you should only consider using inks that have been recommended by others who report good results. The troll accuses everyone who advocates refilling of being shills for the aftermarket vendors. There can be some of those, but the majority of people who report good results are just happy consumers who have found the way to beat the high price of inkjet inks by refilling. I would suggest, if you might be interested in refilling, that you go onto http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/ , sign in, read through several threads about refilling and ask questions of the participants. That site has attracted so many participants that the moderator asked several people, myself included, to also participate as moderators. This assures you that you will not encounter trolls, flaming or other unpleasant interaction, and will find knowledgable people who are very helpful. |
#6
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New Printers And Ink Cost Questions ?
On Jun 1, 4:07*pm, "Burt" wrote:
*The inks I've been using were from MIS and were probably Imaging Specialists inks, although they don't identify it as such. *They are listed as the US distributer on the IS web site. *I now buy from Precision Colors, located in Canada,http://home.eol.ca/~mikling/, which sells IS inks and, becuase that is the only ink manufacturer whose goods they sell, can positively identify them as IS inks. *They do ship to the US very reasonably and are less expensive than MIS. * http://www.inksupply.com/image_inks.cfm?action=find You "can" buy Image Specialist branded inks from inksupply so long as you buy by the pound (pint). . Since MIS switched to free shipping it's difficult to say who's cheaper. |
#7
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New Printers And Ink Cost Questions ?
"IntergalacticExpandingPanda" wrote in message ... On Jun 1, 4:07 pm, "Burt" wrote: The inks I've been using were from MIS and were probably Imaging Specialists inks, although they don't identify it as such. They are listed as the US distributer on the IS web site. I now buy from Precision Colors, located in Canada,http://home.eol.ca/~mikling/, which sells IS inks and, becuase that is the only ink manufacturer whose goods they sell, can positively identify them as IS inks. They do ship to the US very reasonably and are less expensive than MIS. http://www.inksupply.com/image_inks.cfm?action=find You "can" buy Image Specialist branded inks from inksupply so long as you buy by the pound (pint). . Since MIS switched to free shipping it's difficult to say who's cheaper. for my six color Canon i960 printer, two and four ounce sets of the six colors are about half the price from Precision Colors than from MIS. Add about $8 shipping and it is still considerably cheaper. I don't print enough to buy pints of each color as the ink would go past the two year shelf life before being used up. I would rarely buy full sets of the same ink volume as the six color printers use more than twice the amount of photo cyan and photo magenta as magenta and cyan, yellow is used a bit more than M and C, and black is used the least. This is when printing most photos. MIS does free shipping for orders over $50. Both are very good vendors. Precision is a smaller operation, and occasionally the owner is away for a week or more and doesn't fill orders til he returns. Before Precision was in business I bought exclusively from MIS (inksupply) and would use them again if Precision were not selling IS inks. Although you note that you can buy IS inks by the pint from MIS I see no reference to that information on the MIS web site. MIS is listed as a vendor of IS inks on the IS web site. Precision positively identifies their inks on the web site as IS inks. |
#8
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New Printers And Ink Cost Questions ?
On Jun 1, 10:24*pm, "Burt" wrote:
for my six color Canon i960 printer, two and four ounce sets of the six colors are about half the price from Precision Colors than from MIS. *Add about $8 shipping and it is still considerably cheaper. * Well MIS it's $2.50/oz if you buy 4oz at a time. $60 for a i960 set http://cgi.ebay.ca/24oz-Refill-Kit-for-Canon-BCI-6-Photoprinters_W0QQitemZ140229600134QQcmdZViewItemQ QptZPrinter_Accessories?hash=item20a655e386&_trksi d=p4634.c0.m14.l1262&_trkparms=|301%3A1|293%3A3|29 4%3A30 Presuming $8.00 shipping & $32ish that's $40, so it looks like you're right, a good deal cheaper, $1.66 an oz rather than MIS $2.50. *Although you note that you can buy IS inks by the pint from MIS I see no reference to that information on the MIS web site. *MIS is listed as a vendor of IS inks on the IS web site. Precision positively identifies their inks on the web site as IS inks. http://www.inksupply.com/imagespec.cfm You are correct, there is no link from the main page but they do have a website for Image Specialists inks. You have to buy by the pound, literally they sell by weight not volume for IS. It's $1.00 a oz for dye, $3.00/oz for pigment on canon. The price is better, but like you I'm not likely to use ink that quickly. 4oz does me for 6months. |
#9
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New Printers And Ink Cost Questions ?
On Jun 1, 6:03*pm, IntergalacticExpandingPanda
wrote: On Jun 1, 10:44*am, "Robert11" wrote: So, do I just bite the bullet and buy some more cartridges for the i960, assuming they are even available anymore ? The i960 is actually a very spiffy printer worth keeping in service. IGP, Exactly. I've been running an i960 and an i860 on MIS inks for several years. Best, Larry |
#10
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New Printers And Ink Cost Questions ?
"LF" wrote in message ... On Jun 1, 6:03 pm, IntergalacticExpandingPanda wrote: On Jun 1, 10:44 am, "Robert11" wrote: So, do I just bite the bullet and buy some more cartridges for the i960, assuming they are even available anymore ? The i960 is actually a very spiffy printer worth keeping in service. IGP, Exactly. I've been running an i960 and an i860 on MIS inks for several years. Best, Larry Same with me. i960 and refilling initially with MIS inks and now Precision Colors (Image Specialist) inks. You might bite another bullet and learn to refill your OEM carts. Assured quality of ink and carts that work extremely well for at least 5-6 refills after which you can purge the carts and start over. Not much work, minimal mess if any once you gain a little experience, and absolutely the cheapest way to go with very good results. |
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