A3 printer for freelance graphic designer (Epson 1290 EOL). Epson Stylus Photo 1500W?

To Apostolos,

In that case maybe I should just go for dye based ink. It is cheaper anyway and less clogging in general from what I understand. The company I linked earlier have dye version too-
http://www.cityinkexpress.co.uk/ciss/epson/photo-1500w/photo-series/dye-ink

Any reason why you want to stick with pigment ink?

Can I I use the ink that comes with 1500w until it runs out before switching to the dye ink CISS or do I need to changeover when printer is brand new?

JackBean said:

To Apostolos,

Any reason why you want to stick with pigment ink?

Click to expand...

It's waterproof and has better fading resistance (or so i'm told).

JackBean said:

To Apostolos,


Can I I use the ink that comes with 1500w until it runs out before switching to the dye ink CISS or do I need to changeover when printer is brand new?

Click to expand...

I always use the OEM cartridges with my new printers and not sell them, for two reasons.

1) The OEM inks that come with most printers are not filled up to the top, but in most cases up to 50% of capacity or even less. To sell them for brand new inks wouldn't feel right, if after 200-300 prints the person who bought them as new, was out of ink. On the other hand to sell them for half the price, or less, of the original, isn't going to make me rich.

2) I've heard that some printers on installation need the OEM cartridges for settings. If during the installation and settings process the first inks are not OEM, the printer isn't set right. (Ok, perhaps this is an urban myth,i don't know. Someone who does, please enlighten us.)

A question just for statistical reasons.
How many A3 posters or Photos can a ciss with 100ml per color give, before it runs out of color? (photo quality printing)

A second question, for realistic reasons.
Haw many A3 pictures or posters can the 1500w print non stop with no problem? Should we allow it to get a rest or it can go non stop as long as we have ink?

On the latet batches of R3000s, the requirement for OEM carts upon setup is certainly there. Otherwise the printer will exhibit very strange behavior with freezing in the middle of functions. Installation of OEM carts subsequent to that will not undo the odd behavior. Firmware changes by OEMs can certainly create those situations. Just be aware.

(2) I imagine it will continue to print till it ran low on paper or ink, but saying that it would take the usual rest breaks and cleans when necessary every so often to maintain the quality of the output.

As to your (1) question that’s anybody’s guess “How long is a piece of string “

Apostolos said:

A question just for statistical reasons.
How many A3 posters or Photos can a ciss with 100ml per color give, before it runs out of color? (photo quality printing)

A second question, for realistic reasons.
Haw many A3 pictures or posters can the 1500w print non stop with no problem? Should we allow it to get a rest or it can go non stop as long as we have ink?

Click to expand...

One full-color A4 page takes on average 1ml of ink to print. So, 100ml x 6 would be enough to print 300 A3 photos, if all of the colors were consumed at the same rate. In practice, the 1500w will go through the light magenta and light cyan much faster than the rest of the colors.

There's no limit to how many pictures the 1500w can print in a row. It so happened that I printed 100 or more with my 1400 with no problem. Other times I print just the one before problems arise. This boils down to how good the CISS is, not the printer.
The printer can print hundreds in a row, but when using a CISS you are bound to face problems such as ink starvation, air in the tubes etc, eventually.

As for the comments above suggesting that bottom fed CISS are not any good for pigment inks, I will respectfully disagree. Perhaps this is the case for non-frequent use of the printer, but if you are going through large amounts of ink and thus refilling the reservoirs offen, there should be no sedimentation issues. I have three printers running on bottom feed CISS and pigment inks (R2000, P50, 1400), with no such issues to date. All three have produced tens of thousands of prints so far.

Even with Epson OEM inks, one needs to simply take an empty R2000, R1900, R2880 cartridge and shake it. Hear a knocking sound? Guess what that is???

There's only one thing loose inside these pigment cartridges. A ball bearing. What does that do to the ink inside when the printhead moves back and forth. Nothing???

Is it absolutely necessary? Maybe not in all cases. Is it good to have? Well, why would Epson put those things in if they did not think it was a good idea? What motivates the engineers to specify a ball bearing? Or with Canon, inertia paddles. These small things cost money and they are not in there unless it is necessary for proper functioning....Heck 99.9 % of purchasers of these carts do not even know they are inside.

Epson OEM inks also suffer from sedimentation. I got an empty R2880 VLM in my hands right now with that lovely knocking sound. Maybe I should take it back to the store and say there is something loose inside and they will give me a new one!!!!!!

The Hat said:

(
As to your (1) question that’s anybody’s guess “How long is a piece of string “

Click to expand...

I'm not asking for an exact number. More like "it's more than 30 A3 posters" or "it's less than 50 A3 photos".

Apostolos said:

I'm not asking for an exact number. More like "it's more than 30 A3 posters" or "it's less than 50 A3 photos".

Click to expand...

It would all depend on how much ink your CISS can hold and your colour consumption already stated by @costadinos, some prints use a lot more of one colour then the other.

As I said “How long is a piece of string “
Guess is all you can do..

>It's waterproof and has better fading resistance (or so i'm told).

Do you know what kind of ink 1290 used? I assume dye ink too?

Anyway just ordered the 1500w, will arrive on Monday. Need to use ASAP for a client meeting so will have to use the ink it comes with. Can't find dye ink sellers locally in Switzerland.

Will have to pick them up from England in a month or so. Customs will hit me hard if I order by post.

>As I said “How long is a piece of string “

I think 1m long string is around 1m long