Canon IP5000 - best ink and paper

[Inky]

There is a lot of great info here and elsewhere to find the best ink/paper replacements for a Canon IP5000!

Various inks were tested for fading and the results posted in another forum. Results indicate Inktec and Formulabs are the most fade resistant, and also have high density blacks. On cardstock Inktec is clearly superior. On photo paper Forulabs is nearly equivalent to Inktec for 6 color, and completely equivalent for 4 color. ALL non-Canon black seems to be inferior for fade resistance compared with Canons, perhaps insignificantly on photo paper. Link: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1003&message=12198835

Inktec refill bottles of 20ml are $3/ea per color, which is 1/6 the price of Canon ink per ml, still requires refilling and is more expensive than other inks @ $0.15/ml. Cant find any Inktec filled carts. Inktec refill retail link: http://www.inkjetcartridge.com/bci6bundle.html

Formulabs inks are sold in carts for $4/ea or about 1/3 the Canon price. Refill kits are about $7.50/clr including 120ml of each color, or about $0.06/ml. Bulk is sold for $6/clr for each 120ml, or about $0.05/ml. Making this ink about 1/3 the cost of Inktec, and 1/18 the cost of Canon. Since alotofthings.com sells prefilled carts with Forulabs inks, I think this is a good way to start testing 3rd party inks.

Im trying the Formulabs CMYK carts prefilled from alotofthings.com and if they print well will buy replacement ink in bulk. Depending on black fade I may have to buy Canon blk. Hopefully this ink is as good as people say.

Ill try and post the results. Any recommendations for paper or other inks?

Inkgrabber & Bulkinkjetcarts wonder who makes them and how thier color/longevity is.

 

[fotofreek]

I'm happy with MIS ink, Costco Kirkland glossy photo paper or Epson glossy photo paper for photo printing and Epson double sided matte paper for greeting cards.

 

[Inky]

I ruled out MIS ink for several reasons:

relativly poor longevity according to a forum test. MIS inks may clog IP500 is 1pl heads. Otherwise Neil Slader rates MIS well.

 

[fotofreek]

A person named Taliesyn who posts on the printer newsgroup uses Formulabs in his IP5000 and has had no problems. I haven't had any problems with MIS in my I960 printer after about nine months of refilling. If you are in the US Formulabs bulk inks are quite inexpensive at the Alotofthings ebay store.

 

[BlasterQ]

I am using alotofthings inks and I am very satisfied with the results. I still have not experienced clogging, and yesterday I printed over a hundred colored documents without problems.
So I'm sticking with alotofthings, the colors are great, it doesn't clog my printer (yet), and it is very cheap.

 

[Inky]

I'll have to check out the color accuracy becasue I want them to be near perfect. Some people have posted shots with 3rd party inks (from various makers) that look awful, very blue or green.

 

[RC]

Inky:

In response to your Email.

I ran tests on Formulabs inks for the ip5000 and the i960. After running about 300 pages of test, I found out that the prinhead on the ip5000 had been clogged by ColorBat ink that I had tested previously.

Non OEM inks seem to have different results on different printers, even if they are from the same manufacturer.

I just started retesting. I started with the Costco IMS brand. I am getting very good results, the ink is not as bad as some people want you to believe.

The results depend a lot on what kind of paper, brand of paper and printer settings. One can get bad results from Canon ink, if the paper and settings are not good.

The price of the ink package from Costco is $18.00. For this price you get:
3-60 mil bottles of Photo Black ink
2-60 mil bottles of Yellow ink
1-60 mil bottle of Cyan ink
1-60 mil bottle of Photo Cyan ink
1-60 mil bottle of Magenta ink
1-60 mil bottle of Photo Magenta ink
1-very small bottle of printhead cleaner (I dont like it)
Some mixed size plugs (I am not to crazy about them)

The price is not bad for trying it.

By the way, I do not use Pigment Black in my printer, I use all Photo Black. If you are going to do the same, do not mix Photo and Pigment Black in the same cartridge, I have found that it clogs the head. Just buy a verging empty BCI-3 cartridge and use that.

I find the best and most durable empties are sold by Acujet at Acujetuse.com, the last very long and have a better quality sponge (made in the USA).

Also I keep extra empties and I fill one for each color with a 50/50 mix of Windex and Alcohol, I use these for flushing the printhead of old ink or if am going to use a different brand of ink. Sometimes mixing ink brand will cause clogs.

Now going back to the results for Costco ink. I find the results to be great.

I keep my printer Color Management set to: Manual, with the Default Color Profile set to: CNBJPN2

If you print on plain paper I would recommend using Epson Premium Bright White or HP Bright White Paper.
Set your Media Type to: Plain Paper
Print Quality to: Standard
Color Adjustment to: Auto
Image Optimizer to: Yes
Photo Noise Reduction to: Yes
Vivid Colors to: You can try with Yes or No and see which you prefer
Photo Optimizer Pro: You can try with Yes or No and see which you prefer


Another setting is:
Set your Media Type to: Plain Paper
Print Quality to: High
Color Adjustment to: Manual
Print Type to: Auto
Brightness to: Dark
Image Optimizer to: Yes
Photo Noise Reduction to: Yes
Vivid Colors to: You can try with Yes or No and see which you prefer
Photo Optimizer Pro: You can try with Yes or No and see which you prefer


If you are using Costco Kirkland Photo Paper:
Set your Media Type to: Photo Paper Plus Glossy
Print Quality to: High
Color Adjustment to: Manual
Print Type to: Auto
Brightness to: Dark
Image Optimizer to: Yes
Photo Noise Reduction to: Yes
Vivid Colors to: You can try with Yes or No and see which you prefer
Photo Optimizer Pro: You can try with Yes or No and see which you prefer

You will get good results.

Just remember you can always adjust the tint slightly by adding more magenta to make skin colors redder. You can make the picture darker or lighter by adding or subtracting density.

You can also experiment with other paper settings such as: Photo Paper Pro, Glossy Photo Paper etch..

If you set your Color Adjustment to Manual and your Print type to None, your results will be muddy.

I hope this helps

When I retest the Formulabs ink I will repost the results. As of right now I like the formulabs best for the i960.

Robert

 

[Manuchau]

Would anyone know of an inktec supplier in Canada? I haven't had much luck trying to find one.

Thx

 

[Inky]

RC-

Thanks for the resopnse. Yes, please post more Formulabs tests on your ip5000 when you can, and we'll compare notes. Thanks also for the reccomendation on the accujet carts, I'll try them when I need new empties.

What do you mean setting print type to "none" will be "muddy" ?

BTW: here's why I'm trying the Formulabs ink from alotofthings.com, if it performs as promised it does everything right. Also, I hear mixed things about the Costco ink.

In a fade test the Forulabs and Inktec inks fared far better than several other competitors, which matters somewhat IMO. The Inktec is difficult to get in any quantity, is expensive relativly for a bulk 3rd party ink, and I can't seem to find any prefilled BCI-6 carts meaning I'd have to start my testing buying bulk and refilling. By comparison Formulabs has prefilled carts from alotofthings.com = less hassle.

I've yet to read anything bad about Forulabs color accuracy, it gets consistantly high marks. I'll test this myself when I get it.

It's not the cheapest, but still very affordable, like 1/20 the Canon price.

So, unless it clogs or has fails in some way, sounds like the way to go for best price + least hassle for lots of printing.

 

[bmht]

Hi

Right now I'm using the Costco Kirkland paper and I bough a set of cartridges from www.inkgrabber.com.
I do not know which ink does the inkgrabber cartridges carry (does anyone know?), but my first test came out VERY good and using canon photo print software.

I have downloaded the Ilford SmoothHighGloss profile to test with it, since I have heard it gave good results but with the canon cartridges.

If anyone is interested on me doing tests with this combination please provide me a print target and I will print, scan and post here with different settings. The Ilford Profile, the canon easy print software, and any other program or tweak you can lead me to.