Printer Inks

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darkroom12

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I have recently bought a new printer (although I have a darkroom as well) It is an Epson SC-P700 and apart from a few paper feed problems which have now largely been sorted it has printed almost perfectly straight out of the box with little adjustment needed. I have looked at the suppliers of replacement cartridges for this printer (it uses Pigment inks) and was wondering if anyone else has found a reasonable price for them instead of buying them at the Epson asking price.

I bought the printer from the Imaging Warehouse and a replacement full set of cartridges at the same time Their price is (from memory) about £26,99 per cartridge plus carriage. and a full set of 10 for £244.99 (Plus Carriage There is another company called the Cartridgepeople.co.uk who sell them at £26.33 each and carriage is free. A full set of cartridges is £240.99, is a lot cheaper saving about £22.31, again carriage is free, but still a lot of cash to fork out in one go.

It does not look as if the Imaging Warehouse will be making a CIS system for the P700/p900

I previously had a Canon Pro10s which was also very good (but a bit plasticky and very heavy}, but the inks worked out more expensive in the long run - they were less than 50% capacity of a Epson Cartridge and consequently about 20% more for the equivalent capacity. I started using compatibles and they in a very short time, wrecked the printer head! Be warned! I will never again use compatibles!

So has anyone found genuine Epson cartridges cheaper elsewhere?
 
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Inkcredible don't even sell original Epson ones, never mind compatibles for the P700 and it was their compatible cartridges that wrecked the printer head on the Canon Pro10s
 
Just stick with with originals.... everybody is roughly the same within a few pence but don’t buy full sets unless you do an awful lot of printing as they are best used fresh (within 6 /12 months or so of purchase) I’ve had the scp800 for a few years now and really pleased with it.
 
Just stick with with originals.... everybody is roughly the same within a few pence but don’t buy full sets unless you do an awful lot of printing as they are best used fresh (within 6 /12 months or so of purchase) I’ve had the scp800 for a few years now and really pleased with it.

I quite agree. The original cartridges that came with the printer - (not the additional set I bought at the same time) lasted very well, even though they are used to charge up the printer in the 1st place. I have just changed the matt black, but the two greys are not far off having to be changed. I have done an incredible amount of document printing in the time I have owned it (about 500 pages). So really I am not surprised. But saving a few bob here and there is no bad thing.
 
Inkcredible don't even sell original Epson ones, never mind compatibles for the P700 and it was their compatible cartridges that wrecked the printer head on the Canon Pro10s
They actually do but evidently your experience was different to mine of many years.
 
I've been buying compatibles that cost me less than a pound each. They work fine. I've got through hundreds.

But I don't do photo printing, because inkjets are crap.
 
Keep an eye (or register) on the Marrutt site. I've been using their inks in my P600 ever since I bought it and never had any issues. They don't currently have ink for the P700 but it's being developed and tested.


I can currently buy a full set of 9 inks (125ml) along with refillable cartridges for the P600 for £179
Original Epson in is approx £205 for a full set of 25ml each. That equates to £1025 for the same quantity of 125ml
 
I've been buying compatibles that cost me less than a pound each. They work fine. I've got through hundreds.

But I don't do photo printing, because inkjets are crap.

I used to think that when I print colour in my darkroom, but I am having 2nd thoughts now. There was no one more dedicated to the darkroom than myself but the two disciplines can run side by side.

When they first came out the digital printing side was errrrr - iffy! But 20 odd years on, a printer of the quality and potential of the P700 has made me sit up and think. I will still print colour in the darkroom when I want to escape from the madding crowd and feel truly creative.
 
Keep an eye (or register) on the Marrutt site. I've been using their inks in my P600 ever since I bought it and never had any issues. They don't currently have ink for the P700 but it's being developed and tested.

As I said before I am not buying after market inks, it is not worth it considering the price of the P700.
I have had experience with Marrutt own inks before when they brought out a specialised a three shades of grey B&W cartridge set ink for use on a Epson Stylus 1100 alongside the normal Epson black. They were dreadful! They had faded to shades of brown within 6 months - never again.
 
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I will 2nd that.

If I was going to use 3rd party inks I would have to go elsewhere than Inkcredible they do not sell the ones for the P700 either genuine or aftermarket 3rd party
 
For B&W have you looked at Eric Chan. He wrote this for the 3880. I contacted him a couple of years ago to find out if he was doing an update for the scp800 but he said just follow the details and profiles for the 3880 and the results would be the same. It really is capable of really great black and whites. http://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/dp/Epson3800/printworkflow.html#abw_no_gray_curve

I saw a Tom Hunter exhibition at the Tate several years ago and they were Epson large format and the colour was fantastic.
 
I don't need to look at anyone else, The question was about price of the inks, nothing else. The 3880 is two or 3 generations older than the P700 anyway and the inks are not compatible
 
Firstly you should know how many prints you produce per year. From that you should be able to calculate if it is worth having a CIS system. It was not economic to use a CIS system when I produced 70 near A3 print p.a. but I am down to less than 40 p.a. so definitely not worth it. I only buy the genuine Epson cartridges to get consistent quality and colour for my P600. If you are printing for competitions it is not worth using lower quality ink as your rivals will probably not. If you are printing to sell, then you can easily recover the cost in the price. However, if I was selling any significant quantity, I would use a commercial printer like SimLab as it would work out cheaper than home printing. Commercial printing is often limited to Gloss or Lustre but this would be fine for most of the public.

Dave
 
Sorry it was just idle talk I thought you might be interested in, I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again
 
The manufacturers if CIS systems for Epson printers are 'The Imaging Warehouse' and having spoken at some length to Steve the owner, they have no plans to adapt the current CIS system which was made for the P600 or the earlier versions for the 2880 and similar models to work with the P700. It apparently has to do with the formulation of the pigment inks. Then Epson have created another colour to add to the set - violet - which I don't think is used by anyone else. There may also be other issues as well such as patenting the colours used in the pigments, I simply don't know. Epson will have a keen vested interest in making people use their inks and not being undercut by others which could possibly be made to match the quality.


Sorry it was just idle talk I thought you might be interested in, I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again

I didn't mean to sound abrupt so I apologise, but the quality of B&W from the P700 almost straight out of the box is outstanding anyway. There was hardly any calibration to be made from my screen to printer image to get it absolutely spot on with either B&W or colour. In the printer control panel all that was required was to lighten the image by 5 units.
 
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