How good is Precision colors / IS pigment ink?

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nche11,

I'm the person that used the -18 and -15 with the Hobbicolors ink. Colors are visually okay with OEM, Inktec, and IS inks after switching back. I hate to tell you this, but it is not the printer. Printed photos with uncorrected Hobbicolors were overly saturated and unacceptable without correction. This was with Kirkland, Kodak, and Ilford papers. I don't think that I am alone with this opinion but to each his own. I don't know if my batch of Hobbicolors ink was from the same as yours or if there were any changes that Hobbicolors made in their colors over time. I have not purchased more of their inks to see if colors were the same as I am satisfied with IS inks.

 

[nche11]

I am really curious about what you are saying about Hobbicolors UW8 ink. I have used the same ink with the same Kirkland glossy photo paper for several years. I don't think I am the only individual who is very happy with this combination of ink and paper. Can you post a scan of your print with the ink without the said correction? I used IS ink before (not purchased from Precisioncolors) and I wasn't really impressed. I had problems with the blue (such as blue sky) always. Canon OEM ink was bluer period. If you prefer less saturated colors maybe this is why you do not have issues. I like very much the blue color of UW8 ink. Since you did -15 on yellow it will give you way too much blue as a result. This is contradictory to your report that UW8 is too saturated. By doing -15 on yellow you actually increase the saturation of blue.

I am a professional photographer. When I do portraits for clients I do not want colors too saturated so that the skin tone will be accurate and realistic. But when I shoot landscapes I actually want colors very saturated so that my pictures contain a lot of dynamics. These are two extreme requirement that are opposition to each other. I like the UW8 ink because it gives me the saturation when I need it in the pictures. I can reduce the saturation for my people shots easily with the UW8 ink too. Canon OEM ink is very saturated too. Too saturated in fact for portraiture photography. But that's never a problem because the saturation can be reduced without ill effects.

In the past most professional photographers shoot with Fuji Velvia-50 RVP slide film for landscapes because of its full range of color saturation. But when shooting wedding photos we used Kodak Portra 160 NC. This Kodak film is known to have subdued color saturation. It's the most widely used film for weddings. This really tells that more color saturation is in fact more desired. Most Fuji amateur films are more saturated than Kodak consumer films. They are very popular in the states.

Most digital cameras have two or more levels of color saturation for the photographer to choose. I believe higher color saturation is for landscapes and the lower one for people shots. Well, everyone is different. It is completely understandable that everyone has their own preference of ink with different level of color saturation. What I am curious about is why you need to make -18 and -15 adjustment on some colors. That is not a small adjustment to colors. Did you contact Hobbicolors to complain or to request for support? I have used UW8 ink for years and I never noticed any changes of colors.

 

[pharmacist]

I think the keyword for these types of problems is profiling for the specific printer/ink/paper combination and then you will encounter a hidden property of this "oversaturated" Hobbicolors UW-8 ink.

That is: you can produce colours with this inkset not seen with "lighter" inks when properly profiled. Especially very saturated deep red green and blues are very difficult to be printed exactly with the Inktec CLI-8 compatible ink I have experienced. Hobbicolors UW-8 gives to mininum amount of gamut warning when you softproof a particular picture with alot of oversaturated colours, thus this inkset has the widest gamut I've ever experienced (even wider than Canon's own CLI-8 ink).

Can Hobbicolors UW-8 print lighter and less saturated pictures ? Yes it does, but only if you have properly profiled the ink/printer/paper combination and then it should produce similar results on pair when printed with for example Canon CLI-8, Image Specialists or Inktec ink. But with very saturated colours you will see superior results with Hobbicolors UW-8, not seen with Inktec CLI-8 ink. Not sure how IM CLI-8 ink behaves, because I do not have this ink for comparison.

 

[fish]

nche11,

I have not reordered from Hobbicolors and have not complained, just switched inks. From other posts, I see that others are satisfied with Hobbicolors and also with Hobbicolors/Kirkland. I don't know if there are other environmental conditions (such as increased UV, etc.) where I am (Hawaii), but found that Kirkland paper, while printing very well, fades at an alarming rate. I tested printing the same photo on different papers (same ink) - colors appear very similar when printed but afer a few months the Kirkland print is very faded while the others are okay.

Regarding saturation, I believe that pharmacist is right but I have not tried profiling my ink/papers yet. I prefer natural colors and can tweak saturation in PS if needed.

pharmacist, if I remember correctly you also had a suggested correction for Hobbicolors (possibly prior to you profiling ink/paper), which is why I started "trial and error" color corrections.