Ink is it worth it anymore ?

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Lepus

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I have a perhaps dated now Canon MG5650 printer . I like printing now and again , but it`s not the main part of the hobby for me by any means . Thing is I was looking at replenishing my inks , and I only use Canon Ink as so many people slate the third party inks , The larger ink sets that hold more ink and last that much longer , are now £87 a set on Amazon . If there is a cheaper supplier I have yet to find them . You have to keep in mind that Amazon have free shipping . The thing is yes , I can get prints done from so many sources , but though as mentioned , it`s not the main part of the hobby , but I do like having the control . I just can not help questioning if it`s worth it at those ink prices anymore .
 
It's a good question and there's no right answer. It entirely depends how much it means to you. I've been debating the whole printing thing for ages for the same reasons.
 
Lepus said:
I have a perhaps dated now Canon MG5650 printer . I like printing now and again , but it`s not the main part of the hobby for me by any means . Thing is I was looking at replenishing my inks , and I only use Canon Ink as so many people slate the third party inks , The larger ink sets that hold more ink and last that much longer , are now £87 a set on Amazon . If there is a cheaper supplier I have yet to find them . You have to keep in mind that Amazon have free shipping . The thing is yes , I can get prints done from so many sources , but though as mentioned , it`s not the main part of the hobby , but I do like having the control . I just can not help questioning if it`s worth it at those ink prices anymore .
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Lucky you , My last set was £500 for my Pro1000 :eek::oops: :$
 
Hi Mark, I use these guys, their showing £77.95 for set of 5. £2.49 P&P, not a massive saving but it's something, their own paper is great too.

I understand how you feel, I use a Canon IX printer, I only print an image if I really feel it's worth hanging.... it's not very often :LOL:

www.premier-ink.co.uk

Canon PGi-550XL BK / CLi-551XL BK/C/M/Y Set of 5 Original Canon Ink Cartridges

<h2>Canon PGi-550XLB, CLi-551XLB, CLi-551XLC, CLi-551XLM, CLi-551XLY Original Ink Cartridges</h2><p>Canon Genuine ORIGINAL Ink Cartridges - Full Set of 5. 1 x PGi550XL Black, 1 x CLi551XL Black, 1 x CLi551XL Cyan, 1 x CLi551XL Magenta, 1 x CLi551XL Yellow
www.premier-ink.co.uk www.premier-ink.co.uk
 
I use third party inks on my canon printer and have no problems
i am not a professional, I enjoy printing so it makes sense to me
i am not looking to sell any
they are ‘good enough’ for me
 
I see printing as part of the process of making a photograph. I have an Epson P-900 which takes 10 tanks at £35 each. Thing is they are 50ml tanks and last an age before needing replacing (apart from Light Grey damn you!). In my experience, cheaper printers = small tanks = greater £/ml costs. I bought mine back in Summer 2021 and have used between 8 & 12 carts since then. Big Prints Are Awesome.

Getting a lab to print is fine for large print runs on standard paper, but as soon as you want to print on decent paper (or large), it gets very expensive. For me, holding the print and feeling the quality of the paper is part of the process.

If you do think about getting another printer, check the tank size, or look at things like the Epson ET-2850 Eco Tank where ink costs are better. In my experience though, people who use a lab rarely print, and the hassle of getting the colours right can be a PITA.

Good luck with whatever you decide!
 
I feel your pain. I have a Canon Pro 1. It has 12 cartridges at almost £25 each... and it is thirsty.

Yesterday I printed an image onto some A4 Canson rag paper - from a sample pack. Oh my goodness I was impressed and it reminded me why I love printing my own. I looked into getting my image printed on that paper A3 size with an online lab. With postage it was going to be around £25. Admittedly I didn't shop around - perhaps it was cheaper elsewhere.

.... So, it is an expensive business, but it does give me great pleasure and I don't think I would have the courage to pay £25 for a print ordered elsewhere with the risk of it not being what I liked.... although I now know I very much like this paper... and an A3 pack arrived today :)
 
£275 to replace al my ink cartridges! It's an Epson so I can't even recycle the empty ones -- unless something has changed?
 
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Ink prices for the amateur:-
We have a Canon Pixma TS 6250 (A4 all in one) soon to be replaced by a Canon Pixma TS 9550 (A3 all in one)
They use the same cartridges.
Set of 5 Canon price £50 to £70......Compatible price £21.
There is no discernible difference in quality......to the amateur!
Have used them for many years.
I have experienced very different results from other manufacturers!

Canon TS9550 Ink - Compatible Canon TS9550 Ink Cartridges

Buy Cheap Genuine & Compatible Canon TS9550 Ink Cartridges for your Canon Pixma TS9550 inkjet printer at Prink with same day dispatch and free delivery.
www.prink.co.uk

These days I believe that All in one's are no longer cheap versions!
 
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Printer ink is now a mature product. The necessary dyes and pigments are all sourced from the same few manufactures who also supply the after market ink retailers.

Any special costs necessary to support research and development are very largely well into the past

However the financial model of supporting low cost printers by the sale of extortionately high price inks seems to be fully entrenched.

This policy is undoubtedly limiting the popularity of print making.

Bulk inks are available from a number of manufacturers of continuous ink systems. and at much more affordable prices. But still too expensive for the occasional user.

I have no problem using third party inks for my occasional needs. They do not dry up any quicker or cause blockages more often than OEM inks.

The main cause of printer and ink problems is lack of use, not the ink used.
 
I have an Epsom 2880 which when set up properly produces stunning prints. I have been universally dissatisfied with every lab print I’ve ever bought, the colours are always off in some way.
 
EJB said:
Ink prices for the amateur:-
We have a Canon Pixma TS 6250 (A4 all in one) soon to be replaced by a Canon Pixma TS 9550 (A3 all in one)
They use the same cartridges.
Set of 5 Canon price £50 to £70......Compatible price £21.
There is no discernible difference in quality......to the amateur!
Have used them for many years.
I have experienced very different results from other manufacturers!

Canon TS9550 Ink - Compatible Canon TS9550 Ink Cartridges

Buy Cheap Genuine & Compatible Canon TS9550 Ink Cartridges for your Canon Pixma TS9550 inkjet printer at Prink with same day dispatch and free delivery.
www.prink.co.uk

These days I believe that All in one's are no longer cheap versions!
Click to expand...

I have an
a4 Canon 5750 all in one. And like most Canon printers has an extremely easily removable, toolless, print head, that can be unlatched, removed and replaced for cleaning, out side the machine.
Not that I have needed to do so on this now four-year old machine. I have used compatible sets of five inks inks since I bought it.

If I have minor blockages due to lack of use. I do a single cleaning cycle. Then leave the machine for an hour for the dried ink to soften. Then try again. So far that is all that has been needed on this one. Just repeated cleaning cycles just wastes ink and achieves nothing. Dried ink needs time...to soften.
 
Brazo said:
I have an Epsom 2880 which when set up properly produces stunning prints. I have been universally dissatisfied with every lab print I’ve ever bought, the colours are always off in some way.
Click to expand...

Printing has always been as much an art as a science. Labs can only do the science bit. They don't see with your eyes.
However they often produce exceptional results.
 
steve_lyt said:
Try the Epson EcoTank , cheap to run
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That's a pretty annoying and cynical thing for Epson to come up with. What they are effectively saying is that all the time we have been buying new cartridges, with a little adaptation we could have refilled them with Epson's own ink from a large bottle. They are obviously running a little scared of people stopping printing altogether because of the price they've been screwing us for cartridges all these years.
 
I have two Epson printers, a P-1400 and an XP-900 - both with continuous ink systems so I just buy bulk ink. For the past year I have been buying Epson Eco-tank inks and filling the CSS from those. The results are excellent.

I've printed 6 off 8x10" prints on gloss (customer's choice) and 2 off A3 on satin pearl today.

I buy my papers from Marrutt and get free icc profiles each time I get a different type of paper.
 
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FWIW

I bought the Epson ET-8550 an EcoTank printer about this time last year.

It's print quality is very good but it's up front cost was/is considerable.

A couple of days ago I refilled the tanks with the remainder of the bottles from when I bought it. They current volumes will likely last me for another 6 months. NB the bottles contain 70ml each.

But as Epson have Spring discount of 10% I bought a full set of inks (6 bottles) cost was £86.34. I anticipate that I will likely not need to buy another set until Spring 2025 (edited from 2024 ;)

PS I only print a modest amount of photos but it gets regular use as a general printer.

Edit ~ there is the ET8500 A4 size printer that is identical apart from the max printing size of the ET-8550 @ A3+
 
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Thanks everyone for comments , I am glad and surprised it got so many of us chatting and sharing . I actually got a deal on my Canon ink pack from Canon U.K with a free set of paper , bit vague what the paper is but .... It was around £20 cheaper than Amazon though . I like the sound of the Epson ET-8550 , and the ink food system sounds good . Probably will be out of date by the time I decide on getting a new printer , but all made good reading .
 
I've had an Epson ET2756 since August 2021. The original colour tanks are about half full still, and the black tank (larger) is about three-quarters full. I regularly print letter-cards for my wife (which would cost an absolute fortune to be printed at a lab) as she is an avid letter writer, and the colour is fine for her purposes. Not lab quality, but even A4 prints are fine for home framing. Just had a look at the invoice and it cost £250 including the aforesaid ink bottles direct from Epson. Yes, it may be cynical for Epson, but the end result for me is economy.
 
I gave up - it is too expensive for me, especially when you factor in all the test prints etc.

I ended up sending the same file to multiple print labs, both to test the print quality and the overall experience. Now I just use my preferred labs after that experiment for the handful of prints I do a year.
 
Box Brownie said:
FWIW

I bought the Epson ET-8550 an EcoTank printer about this time last year.

It's print quality is very good but it's up front cost was/is considerable.

A couple of days ago I refilled the tanks with the remainder of the bottles from when I bought it. They current volumes will likely last me for another 6 months. NB the bottles contain 70ml each.

But as Epson have Spring discount of 10% I bought a full set of inks (6 bottles) cost was £86.34. I anticipate that I will likely not need to buy another set until Spring 2025 (edited from 2024 ;)

PS I only print a modest amount of photos but it gets regular use as a general printer.

Edit ~ there is the ET8500 A4 size printer that is identical apart from the max printing size of the ET-8550 @ A3+
Click to expand...
I too have the 8550, and have only used half of the first filling of the cartridges, ie a quarter of the supplied inks.
It is so nice to be able to print anything whenever I want and not have to think about the cost.
Yes, it was expensive to buy, but is a multi-purpose printer (ie it scans too) and the A4 version should be a fair bit cheaper too.
Allowing the kids to print stuff as and when without me feeling like a tight s*d is nice, and maintenance printing to keep the heads unclogged is also no longer a concern.
The best printer I've ever bought in terms of quality and running costs.
 
I've actually never used our printer for photos as I think it's more likely for me to mess it up rather than a lab.

But as for cost, I'm pretty sure that per ml printer ink is one of the most expensive liquids on the planet. Which seems ridiculous.

We tried third party inks, but it throws up constant warnings as it can detect that they're not genuine.

There is definitely some conspiracy going on with inks and printers. Friend of ours moved to NZ from the UK and when she plugged her printer in, it told her that it couldn't be used in that region. I cannot, for the life of me, work out why the printer needs to know where in the world it is and what issues being in New Zealand as opposed to the UK would cause.

Unless it kept trying to rotate everything by 180 degrees.
 
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stevewestern said:
I too have the 8550, and have only used half of the first filling of the cartridges, ie a quarter of the supplied inks.
It is so nice to be able to print anything whenever I want and not have to think about the cost.
Yes, it was expensive to buy, but is a multi-purpose printer (ie it scans too) and the A4 version should be a fair bit cheaper too.
Allowing the kids to print stuff as and when without me feeling like a tight s*d is nice, and maintenance printing to keep the heads unclogged is also no longer a concern.
The best printer I've ever bought in terms of quality and running costs.
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I love my 8550. They are best used with paper that suits them, because they can be temperamental, especially with some glossy papers. Also keep in mind that the ink is NOT archival, so if you intend to print professionally for sale, this will be a consideration. Only one is a pigment ink, one of the blacks, the others are dye based. The pigment ink can give rich, dark blacks and makes for great black and white printing, but is only used for specific papers, and the driver decides which paper based on the profile. You will likely have to experiment with papers to see whqt works best for you. I use this for printing 5x7 cards for sale at arts/crafts shows.
 
I have a Canon MG5250 and a Canon MG6350, which I always used to use with Canon inks. I tried Jettech inks on the 6350, but they never reported ink levels. Someone on here suggested Prink inks (costing about £7.50 and £9.50 respectively per SET last year), which work fantastically well on the 6350 (I replaced all the inks there).

On the 5250, I've been replacing the Canon inks as they've been used up. This has worked very well for general printing. However, I tried printing off some black and white images on a paper I've used for the past year or so (Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl... dirt cheap in a US letter size!). I accept with a low cost printer like this and no ability to proof that I'll get some minor colour casts, though with a bit of fiddling about I've been getting reasonable results. Now, unfortunately, there's a significant greenish cast that I can't get rid of.

At the moment I'm assuming that it could be caused by mixing ink from two different makers. so next time I want to print I'll try changing the remaining cartridges. (I haven't been able to try printing the b&w images on the 6350.) But it was disappointing!
 
Craikeybaby said:
I gave up - it is too expensive for me, especially when you factor in all the test prints etc.

I ended up sending the same file to multiple print labs, both to test the print quality and the overall experience. Now I just use my preferred labs after that experiment for the handful of prints I do a year.
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Using eco tanks or the other manufacturer equivalent models, is economical as the ink lasts a lot longer.
 
Steve_lyt is right. I used to spend about £90 per set of cartridges and buy 5 - 6 sets per year. I now buy ink tanks and fill my continuous ink systems and spend less than £90 per year.

I ran off 12 x A3 prints today and the cost didn't even cross my mind ... what I've sold them for did though :)
 
I think something that I really like is watching my prints come out of the printer. Kind of like watching the birth of something beautiful except for when I simply don't have it edited right. I absolutely stink with any computer and thos expensive do it all edit programs havee left me in the dark! I use a simple free one off the internet! I stick to pretty basic stuff. But I have a brother that is the go to guy for photoshop were he lives. Have a young nephew that is about in the same league as my brother. Not a clue how they figured out how to use that monster! I like to think I can edit my photo's with a free internet program because I take such good one's to start with! :)

Something about printing my own photo's for me is it's simply a part of making my own picture's. I don't use very expensive equipment as I don't get along with the computer world very well at all. Something else I really like is framing my own picture's. I make my frames from old wood I find laying around in old buildings and fence rails. I think if I simply went out to take a ton of photo's I'd soon grow tired of it. Flash over powered me but this is about what I end up with and I must like them as I've been doing my own for close to 30 yrs now!



When I get done I used to hang them on my wall at home but the wall has been full quite a while now so depending on who it is, I pull out a finished one to show off. Some of My better one's my son has made off with!
 
Let's see, the question was, Ink, is it worth it"? Well I like shooting rifles and reloading my own ammo. Got started to save money. But as time goes on I actually shot a lot more than normal and even though rounds were less expensive, I spent a lot more because I shoot a lot more. So the idea of saving money flew right out the window. Seem's about the same with my photography! When I did film I kept the cost down by not shooting as much then I got digital! Well had to have a computer and printer, in the end much less expensive than using a lab. Then it finally occured to me I couldn't actually afford any frames I actually wanted, so, went to a pile of old wood I had and dug out a crummy board. Took it in and epoxyed the breaks and splits back together them with the help of my table saw and power miter cut out a crude frame. Crude but inexpensive. Along the way to do better I had to get a new planer, new belt sander, couple new palm sander's, set of router bits ect. Know what I'm saying? The actual cost of framing really went up but it gave me another hobby I really like.

So the question, "Is it worth it"? I guess every one has to decide for themselves! Printing and framing my own stuff gave me a couple more hobby's I enoy so I have to say, yep, well worth it!

Pretty bad photo. I'm terrible indoors with a flash!

 
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Might be me but your photos can't be seen.
 
I got this: {"data":{"error":"Imgur is temporarily over capacity. Please try again later."},"success":false,"status":403}
 
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