For those with CLI-8's, how many of each color should I have?

[Jarrod S.]

Just curious as to how many of each color you have on hand or complete sets. I've been looking on EBay along with a couple of other sites for virgin cartridges and I'm not having any luck thus far. Most of the EBay sellers I've seen are located in the U.S. and don't state whether or not they'll ship to Canada. I found one seller located in Toronto and I'll be contacting them over the weekend.

With shipping and taxes included, a full set of replacement cartridges cost $207.75 CDN. :O I can obtain a new factory sealed printer for another $142. That'll leave me with 2 sets of cartridges and a backup printer. I've read somewhere recently that you can get cartridges specifically for printing b&w with the Canon Pro 9000 MK-ii. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.


Jarrod

 

[websnail]

If it's of any help I have CLI-8 empties for the common types ie: yellow, cyan, magenta and a smaller set of the photo blacks.

There's a small charge for each + postage but it's an option.

 

[fotofreek]

Grandad kept track of ink usage in an eight color canon printer - perhaps you can find the post. As I recall, the printer used very little red and green. The next least used was black. The most used colors were photo cyan and photo magenta, followed by yellow. I have a six color printer that uses at least double the photo cyan and photo magenta as the cyan and magenta, and yellow is a close second in usage to the photo (diluted) colors.

For moderate photo printing and fairly short runs, a single backup may do if you don't mind refilling when you stop printing for any particular print session. If you plan to do lots of photos at a time you will need more backup carts of the colors that are used faster. I found that my volume of printing declined for a few years and I had several backups of each color prefilled. A few carts went bad as the ink in some of them was from an old batch. I don't keep as many backups now as I used to.

I've also started labeling each cart when I purge and do the first refill. I then note the date of subsequent refill so I can be sure to rotate them. When I see that some may have residual ink that is more than a few years old I'll probably purge them again and start over. It will waste some ink, but it will be safer for the printer. Before labeling them I had no idea if some of the carts had been in the rotation for three, four, or five years.

 

[marceltho]

Grandad kept track of ink usage in an eight color canon printer - perhaps you can find the post. As I recall, the printer used very little red and green. The next least used was black. The most used colors were photo cyan and photo magenta, followed by yellow. I have a six color printer that uses at least double the photo cyan and photo magenta as the cyan and magenta, and yellow is a close second in usage to the photo (diluted) colors.

Yes, I have the same experience with my Pro 9000 Mark II
I bought a box full of vergins on Ebay, purged them, and sold what I did not need on Ebay.
I have kept 2 spare sets, but when it comes to it, I always refill immidiately when the printer warns me. I refill with the German methode, it goes soo fast, that I don't even think about taking a spare one.

I probably have the rest for you, that is missing with websnail's offer, just email me when you are done with him
Oh, and I am in Canada, cheap shipping.

 

[Grandad35]

Grandad kept track of ink usage in an eight color canon printer - perhaps you can find the post.

When I quit keeping track, my usage was:
PM - 110
PC - 80
Y - 70
M - 38
K - 29
C - 25
R - 22
G - 18

Of course, your mix can vary widely depending on what type of images you print and how dark you print them. If you print lots of landscapes with "big sky", expect to use a lot more C and PC.