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Epson printers and spurious ink
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Hi all,
Just getting an Epson R1800.Inks range around ?17 each for 5 or 6 cartridges.
non-epson versions are as little as ?5 each. Some of these even say they are compatible with the R1800.I heard of some issues with non-brand inks – does anyone have hands-on experience with these and have you seen any pros/cons.
Thanks
Alan
yea dont use them, they fade like crazy
I have some prints that are less than 6 months old that have no colour in them
40% + of all Epson failures under warranty are caused by the wrong ink………………..
Epson ink does not appear to mix well with other inks and coagulates when mixed, thus blocking the heads.
We are biased as we are an Epson Express Centre….
Thanks Steve & Sheldon.
Sheldon – Are you in the same price ballpark as above for the genuine articles?
Don’t go near these inks if you want to print photographs (duh! silly statement from Wonkafan!). I thought the same with a lowly R300. I put the ?5 a go tanks in and then wondered why all my photographs were printing pre-faded. You won’t get a good image from them, you won’t get a profile to suit and they won’t last as long. Printing graphics for presentations – yeah fine, but not photographs. It’s a false economy as I found out 1 weekend spending almost ?50 on inks and paper trying to create a profile with them.
Alan.
Other inks are a total disaster – as I have found out years back. Not only do they fade – they also shift (black beside white will can give a pink fringe after a few months as the black shifts into the white. I have several examples here in the studio to show that and its only now – 4 years down the road – that the manufacturers admit it was a problem in the past !!!!
Along with that, Epson will not stand over a printer that has the wrong inks installed. For the difference in price its not worth the effort.
I’ve read about expensive printing all the time and I had to buy a printer to find out that compared to the quality you get, the costs are really reasonable. I happily invest in the finest papers and the Epson inks, because I know that people (and myself) will appreciate the outstanding results. I’m not spending thousands on gear just to get an average print in the end. The other thing, if printing feels too expensive, you will start better selecting the photos and work more on them before you would send them on the printer… that’s all good.
setantabiker wrote:
Sheldon – Are you in the same price ballpark as above for the genuine articles?
Our ink prices are dictated to us by our buying price and our 21% VAT rate. Our prices are much the same as already mentioned and our margins are tiny. You can exploit the crazy situation where they can be bought VAT free online but if everybody buys this way you will have no support for great websites like this, trade shows and demonstrations. Not to mention free advice.
FREE ADVICE: “THE EPSON 1800 IS NOW REPLACED WITH THE EPSON 1900”
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0710/07100401epsonr1900.asp
I think with ink you get what you pay for. It’ll be your photographs that will suffer.
When you think about the amount of money we all spend on cameras, lenses etc…to ensure
we get quality (thats the plan :) ) photographs, to not get good ink defeats the purpose of the up front expense.Just my 2 cents…
Mark wrote:
I think with ink you get what you pay for. It’ll be your photographs that will suffer.
When you think about the amount of money we all spend on cameras, lenses etc…to ensure
we get quality (thats the plan :) ) photographs, to not get good ink defeats the purpose of the up front expense.Just my 2 cents…
I agree with Mark here. I just payed nearly 200 quid for inks for the 2400.But worth every penny as the prints are top class compared to my old printer with cheap inks.
The only thing i would recommend is to keep spare inks of every colour.I ran out over christmas, I was very suprised how quick you go through the inks if you are printing alot.
I just want to endorse what Sheldon and some of the other users have said: To get quality prints, hassle free stick to Genuine Epson Inks!
We have had had dozens of customers over the years who have tried to save money by buying other ink systems wondering why they cannot get accurate colours! Back on Genuine inks they are now all singing the praises of their printers. Sheldon mentioned the New 1900 (A3+)printer from Epson which replaces the 1800, it’s worth looking at as it is up to 37% faster.even with the “high cost” of Epson Inks I still produce a 10×8 print or A4 for a little over one euro. Prior to 2002 when I was sending all printing & processing off to the lab the same print cost me ?4.97 IR. A 20×16 I am producing today costs around four euro while again prior to 2002 at the lab I was paying ?18.73. When I changed over I did get greedy and used the spurious inks and had nothing but trouble with colours, profiles, fading, ink shifting, bronzing, blacks showing a greenish tint (like copper corosion – the cure for that is immediately use a hot hair dryer on them as they came off the printer – must not be allowed to dry at room temp !!).
The whole thing broke my heart and I do believe I lost customers at that time as the prints were not as they should have been.Since I got the Epson 4000 I have never looked back and I now know that you cant take shortcuts with inks. Its being penny wise and pound foolish. Anyway, when I sell prints the “high cost” of proper epson inks is only in my head and I alway think back to when I was paying the lab. Never again will a non-specified ink be allowed inside the door of this studio in my lifetime.
if you have a choice dont buy the r1800, too many dodgy ones out there, the crappy dark print thing. i had one , couldnt sort it , got a warranty replacement, worked fine for 4 months, got a r2400, nowi’m happy. epson and others will tell you its your fault but it isnt, otherwise why replace it with virtually the same printer. i’ll go against the flow on the inks. genuine stuff can be had for 50 euro from the us or australia-bargain, and the generic stuff can be tat or almost as good, but its a lottery. but once you find good stuff keep buying it, i’ve got prints from 3 years ago with no casts fading or anything my untrained eye can see from non oem stuff. but as i also said some off it from the moment you print is faded and casted, and it feks up the print heads really quickly
I use a R1800 with an Infospeed continious ink system. Never had so much as a smudge or a streek and the results are identical to Epson Inks.
1 set of Epson cartridges £90 plus, 100ml Infospeed Crystal Dye Ink £64, equivalant to about 7 sets of cartridges. I can only say that it works for ME.
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