After reading Neil Slade's excellent information on inkjet printers, inks, and paper in mid 2004 I purchased an i960 printer and a Computer Friends refill kit (www.cfriends.com). Neil noted that the CF blue plugs in the CF kit for resealing the fill hole were worth buying the kit and the CF inks were excellent (probably IS inks like MIS is presumed to sell) but that the CF inks were much more expensive than MIS inks. I had previously used an Epson printer and tried MIS inks but was not satisfied with the result. After working with MIS tech support to try to get satisfactory results with the Epson, they graciously sent me, at no charge, Canon virgin carts and a set of inks to compensate for the problem I had with the Epson set I had purchased.
I left the CF inks unopened and started refilling with MIS inks. The results have been excellent and I forgot about the CF inks that were gathering dust in a drawer. When I purchased a Pixma ip5000 for my wife (closed out this January for $100 at Staples) I put the OEM carts away unused and decided to use up the CF inks in her printer. She doesn't print photos, so I wouldn't be involved in tweaking the new printer/ink combo.
This week my i960 started banding with the photo cyan jets and I couldn't get it cleared. With a big photo project due this week I traded printers with my wife and was really impressed with the ip5000/CF ink photo quality output. I have periodically gone onto their web site and noticed that some time ago they dropped the price of their bulk inks. They now charge $4.50 for 2.35 oz as compared to $5.00 for 2 oz of MIS inks. I am very happy with MIS inks and will continue to use them, but I wanted to let the participants on the forum know that CF inks produce excellent photos (very slightly toward the Magenta like the OEM inks) and the price has come down to a competative level as compared to their prices when Neil first wrote about the various ink products.
I purchased a new printhead for the i960 and will install it after the big project is complete. Before I do, however, I will try some more drastic measures to see if I can get the original printhead to function properly. I do have an additional ip5000 (new and still in a factory sealed box) in reserve when either of printers we are using dies. Doing everything I can to keep the BCI-6 cart printers alive as long as possible!
I left the CF inks unopened and started refilling with MIS inks. The results have been excellent and I forgot about the CF inks that were gathering dust in a drawer. When I purchased a Pixma ip5000 for my wife (closed out this January for $100 at Staples) I put the OEM carts away unused and decided to use up the CF inks in her printer. She doesn't print photos, so I wouldn't be involved in tweaking the new printer/ink combo.
This week my i960 started banding with the photo cyan jets and I couldn't get it cleared. With a big photo project due this week I traded printers with my wife and was really impressed with the ip5000/CF ink photo quality output. I have periodically gone onto their web site and noticed that some time ago they dropped the price of their bulk inks. They now charge $4.50 for 2.35 oz as compared to $5.00 for 2 oz of MIS inks. I am very happy with MIS inks and will continue to use them, but I wanted to let the participants on the forum know that CF inks produce excellent photos (very slightly toward the Magenta like the OEM inks) and the price has come down to a competative level as compared to their prices when Neil first wrote about the various ink products.
I purchased a new printhead for the i960 and will install it after the big project is complete. Before I do, however, I will try some more drastic measures to see if I can get the original printhead to function properly. I do have an additional ip5000 (new and still in a factory sealed box) in reserve when either of printers we are using dies. Doing everything I can to keep the BCI-6 cart printers alive as long as possible!
