Hobbicolors cartridges and inks

[OraDBA]

Doug,

I've been using Hobbicolors for about 3 weeks now and I'm very pleased with the results. In fact, until I got the HC inks, I hadn't printed anything larger than 8.5x11 on my i9900. I've since printed several 13x19 and I don't care a wit about the cost of the ink because it's so d*mn cheap!

However, I would have never considered going to ANY non-OEM ink without Profile Prism software (or some other way to profile my inks & papers). I say this because I think it's nearly impossible to perfectly recreate OEM ink & paper combinations. Now I'm sure you could try to correct for any color casts in the driver to get it close, but whenever I've screwed around with that kind of stuff in the past, I've never been completely satisfied with my results.

So Michaels Arts & Crafts is having a 50% off of ALL their frames this week. I went in and picked up two really nice 16x20 wood frames that were regularly $40/each. I then bought two 16x20 precut mats with 11x14 openings. Printed some killer shots of my kids, put them in these frames, and for a TOTAL of maybe $50 (including tax, ink, and paper), I've got framed prints of my kids which I would have easily paid well over $100/each on my walls. Did I mention I didn't care a wit about the cost of the ink? =8^)

Good luck,
Dylan

 

[Correzpond]

To anyone like myself (based in Sydney Australia) looking to use Hobbicolor Inks, Dave from Hobbicolor very hospitably put up a product for me (8-colour refill kit for my ip8500) when I enquired about whether they shipped to Australia.

I don't think that Dave was aware that when you don't ship to Australia, that you don't even appear on searches conducted on eBay Australia ('Hobbicolors" = 0 matches), but perhaps if he sees there is some interest outside North America, they may be persuaded to offer international shipping (or at least shipping to Australia) routinely.

I've principally been attracted to trialling both Hobbicolor & Formulabs inks (for which I've found a local distributor) to compare with MIS refill kits (which I'm actually quite happy with, it's just the mess associated with using their 'virgin' carts which bothers me) based on the favourable reports both have been given in these forums.

 

[jackson]

Hobbicolors pops up if you checkoff the 'worldwide' box on the left of the screen.

 

[nelda]

I was very intrested in the reports here about HobbiColors cartridges. I went to ebay and ordered a set for the iP5000, and was pleased with the cartidges, so I ordered enough ink refill kits and a few extra cartidges so that I would have a complete set in each printer as well as a complete set (filled and ready to put in the printer).

I am not a gourmet on color - I just know that I like to colors vry well and to my untrained eye, I cannot tell the difference between prints printed with these inks and the original Canon inks (which I took out). The color conisuers out there wil no doubt have some tweaks and fixes, but I am happy to be printing with this ink.

Good points in my experience so far:
1) very reasonbly priced
2) very, very quick shipping!
3) Very easy-to-fill carts - I love them!
4) excellent service from Dave at HobbiColors
5) I like the color output

Con:
1) I wish they had available - even as an add-on - refill clips

Grandad uses these http://216.219.159.185/bci6clip.html and I will probaby be purchasing some in the near future. I am a little worried about storage (see my post earler, not sure how to link to it), and these clips look the the best way to go. They are .99 each, then shipping. I think I'll pobaby get at least 12 - one for each extra HobbiColors cartridge and one for each of the original Canon cartrides that I have.

Nelda

 

[Correzpond]

Hobbicolors pops up if you checkoff the 'worldwide' box on the left of the screen.

Yes it does now, but did not last week, because Hobbicolors have just introduced International Shipping:

Per email from Dave (from Hobbicolors) 12 Jan 2006:

" We will seriously consider to expand our eBay sales to worldwide destinations, including Australia naturally. Thank you"

Nelda - Thanks for the info on BCI6 Cart Clips. It also appears that this supplier ships internationally (for the other Aussies out there!)

 

[fotofreek]

Correzpond - I've used the MIS virgin carts and like them a lot. Look up the posting thread on this forum about sealing the fill hole, buy the stainless steel screws noted in some of the posts - #6 - 3/8 or 1/2 inch Phillips pan head sheet metal screws, buy tight fitting O-rings at a hardware or plumbing store, throw away the little plastic plugs that MIS has in the fill hole and screw in the above mentioned screws with the O-ring up against the screw head to effect a seal. Works great. The HobbiColor carts with the plastic screw and O-ring work well also. Nice feature of the MIS cart is the seal at the ink outlet that snaps onto the cart for storage. No need for a rubber band. The good news with the HC cart is that the carts and ink cost no more than the MIS carts alone!

 

[Jovo]

I have been using Hobbicolors inks for around 5 months now with the Canon i990. During that period I have used around 4-6 oz (120-180mLs) of each colour and that equates to over 1500 A4 prints. I keep 2 sets of their cartridges (been using the same set all along) and swap them over when the chamber gets very low. Previously I was using Calidad cartridges but had constant problems with the PC and PM tanks.

Every so often I got magenta bands in blue skies and these disappeared with head cleaning but reappered on turning the printer back on. Last week I used the Windex trick of placing a folded paper towel and soaking it with Windex before pressing the head gently against it. When colour no longer appeared on the towel I replaced the head in the printer.

Since then I have printed around 30 A4s and they have never looked better. I don't blame the Hobbicolor inks for the problem as it first happened with the Calidad inks and never completely disappeared.

Besides profiling your monitor it is very important to profile your paper/ink combination. I use Profile Prism and printing the Getty Images Test or any other test images on Kodak Matt, Kodak Ultra Glossy, Kodak Professional, Calidad Glossy and Calidad Super Glossy are almost identical.

Even with freight to Australia, by buying 8 oz refills, the cost is about a third of local suppliers. I couldn't recommend the ink or service higher!

To anyone like myself (based in Sydney Australia) looking to use Hobbicolor Inks, Dave from Hobbicolor very hospitably put up a product for me (8-colour refill kit for my ip8500) when I enquired about whether they shipped to Australia.

I don't think that Dave was aware that when you don't ship to Australia, that you don't even appear on searches conducted on eBay Australia ('Hobbicolors" = 0 matches), but perhaps if he sees there is some interest outside North America, they may be persuaded to offer international shipping (or at least shipping to Australia) routinely.

I've principally been attracted to trialling both Hobbicolor & Formulabs inks (for which I've found a local distributor) to compare with MIS refill kits (which I'm actually quite happy with, it's just the mess associated with using their 'virgin' carts which bothers me) based on the favourable reports both have been given in these forums.

 

[Correzpond]

I also used the Windex & Paper Towell print head cleaning method last week due to some banding appearing in prints using MIS Inks (although mostly likely only due to the printer being off over Christmas for an extended period) with excellent results (...and all the time reminding myself "Gently, gently " you are mucking around with a $AUD200 part here).

My experience with Calidad inks (trialled when I first ran out of OEM inks around 6 months ago) was that the Calidad PM caused a pink cast to grey that no amount of tweaking would correct.

I have a number of unopened & unused Calidad cartridges put aside for a rainy day, but honestly I don't think that the weather here will ever get that bad (!)

 

[Jovo]

I did not have any colour problems as such when the Calidad worked, but keep in mind I did profile the paper/inks combination.

Having used around 120 Calidad cartridges for the Epson R210 I was very surprised at the problems with the Canon. Calidad were very supportive (they use a i990 temselves) and replaced every single cartridge, but the problems continued and after trying a local bulk ink supplier found Hobbicolors.

I also used the Windex & Paper Towell print head cleaning method last week due to some banding appearing in prints using MIS Inks (although mostly likely only due to the printer being off over Christmas for an extended period) with excellent results (...and all the time reminding myself "Gently, gently " you are mucking around with a $AUD200 part here).

My experience with Calidad inks (trialled when I first ran out of OEM inks around 6 months ago) was that the Calidad PM caused a pink cast to grey that no amount of tweaking would correct.

I have a number of unopened & unused Calidad cartridges put aside for a rainy day, but honestly I don't think that the weather here will ever get that bad (!)

 

[akon]

Doug,

I've been using Hobbicolors for about 3 weeks now and I'm very pleased with the results. In fact, until I got the HC inks, I hadn't printed anything larger than 8.5x11 on my i9900. I've since printed several 13x19 and I don't care a wit about the cost of the ink because it's so d*mn cheap!

However, I would have never considered going to ANY non-OEM ink without Profile Prism software (or some other way to profile my inks & papers). I say this because I think it's nearly impossible to perfectly recreate OEM ink & paper combinations. Now I'm sure you could try to correct for any color casts in the driver to get it close, but whenever I've screwed around with that kind of stuff in the past, I've never been completely satisfied with my results...

I have been reading the forums here for a while and decided to go with hobbicolors as my foray into refilling carts. I have a Pixma MP780 and I mostly use it for office work but I would like to start printing some 8 x 11s (am going to get Costco's Kirkland). I have already filled my HC carts (which were very easy and no resulting mess), but I am waiting to put them in the printer until my first set of oems run out.

Is it indeed necessary to profile the inks to get good results? I am hoping the results are good enough without as I know next to nothing about profiling, tweaking the colors etc. Great forums here, thanks