Ink-set for Epson R2000 - recommendations

[SilviuV]

Can someone tell me what is the best inkset for the R2000 ? I don't really afford (time-wise) to test all the inks available on the market, so I will base my decision on group knowledge. I have read some people mix-and-match different bulk inks to get better results. Is there such an option in my case ?
I have the i1 Pro2 for profiling so the inks don't really need to be OEM-matched. Part of the reason for choosing the R2000 is it's gloss optimizer; for this reason I want the GO to be as good as possible.

This beeing my first post I will (kind-of) introduce myself. I'm from central Europe and I have some experience with printing and non-OEM inks. I have at the moment 3 Canon printers (IPF8300s, IPF815, IPF6100) all running InkJetCarts inks (with varying degrees of satisfaction). I owned a Canon IPF755, Epson B1100 and SP1500w. I sold the 1500W because I wasn't pleased with the results (slow, water resistance, small gamut etc.) and now I am getting the R2000.

I was wishing the Canon PRO-1 will have non-OEM inks, but I can't wait for that. Can anyone confirm the availability of OCP inks as shown on their site ?

Thank you all !
Silviu

 

[costadinos]

I have pretty much tried all the options on the market for the R2000, so I may be able to help.
For the last couple of years I've been using the OCP inkset for the R2000, but I replaced the Photo Black and Magenta with the K3 Photo Black and the K3 Vivid Magenta, respectively (to improve on the Dmax and the gamut).

InkRepublic is a nice inkset as well, and so is the one from Image Specialists, but the InkRepublic magenta is not that good, with an obvious lack of glossiness that leads to gloss differential in the red/magenta tones.
Image Specialists gives the largest gamut and deepest blacks, but at the cost of really low glossiness across the colours.

But, if you haven't bought the R2000 yet, and if your concern is the glossiness, I'd suggest going for a R2880 or a R3000 and using the "Powerchrome K3" inkset from Inktec. This is by far the glossiest ink available, on par with OEM. It's glossier and with less gloss differential, without the need for gloss optimizer, than the OCP is with the Glop.
If you want to use the R2000, the ideal would be to use the Gloss Optimizer, Red and Orange from the OCP inkset and the Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow from the Inktec K3 inkset.

 

[jtoolman]

There are also plenty of real OEM Cart sets on Ebay for $25 a set.
I've also used IS - OCP and Inkjetfly and have come back to OEM inks.
The results are night and day compared to any of the aforementioned.
I was lucky enough to snatch 15 sets of OEM carts at $14 a piece. They've since gone up.
It's not just the GLOP but the other colors as well. The OEM inks are simply a glossy as they get.
Now if you only print Matte then the other inks are great in every respect.
Joe

 

[SilviuV]

I think I will go for the OPC Red, Orange and GLOP + Inktec black, cyan, magenta and yellow. I will tell you my results in a week (or two).
For my use OEM inks will be too expensive, even at Ebay prices.

Is non-OEM GLOP that useless ? (I'm having doubts about R2000 vs R3000)

 

[costadinos]

There are also plenty of real OEM Cart sets on Ebay for $25 a set.
I've also used IS - OCP and Inkjetfly and have come back to OEM inks.
The results are night and day compared to any of the aforementioned.
I was lucky enough to snatch 15 sets of OEM carts at $14 a piece. They've since gone up.
It's not just the GLOP but the other colors as well. The OEM inks are simply a glossy as they get.
Now if you only print Matte then the other inks are great in every respect.
Joe

IS is terrible, glossiness-wise, I agree, but OCP is more than acceptable on luster media, and Inktec is as good as the OEM on glossy media.
What you suggest with those ebay carts is ideal, but it would depend on the volume of printing you do. For a heavy user such as me (going through ten or so liters of ink per month), it's simply not worth the effort trying to find that from expired carts. And even then, the best you can do is roughly $200 for the 700ml carts, which is pretty much what Cone inks cost, and it's still 4-5x as expensive as Inktec and OCP. For that amount of ink the savings are still huge.

I think I will go for the OPC Red, Orange and GLOP + Inktec black, cyan, magenta and yellow. I will tell you my results in a week (or two).

Is non-OEM GLOP that useless ? (I'm having doubts about R2000 vs R3000)

No, it's not, and OCP is the best between them. But there's only that much GLop can do, especially if the ink is not glossy to begin with, like with IS.
As for the R2000 vs R3000, have a look on the review below, the R3000 running an all-Inktec inks (without Glop), gives glossier prints than the R2000 running on all-OCP with Glop:

http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/inktec-vs-ocp-vs-epson-vs-nanodigital-pigment-inks.8638/

 

[SilviuV]

@costadinos : what kind of paper do you use ? who supplies it ?
I also need a reliable source for low price quality paper.

The R3000 seems to be the better choice and I'll go for that. I saw some speed test for the R3000 and the Pro3880, and from the numbers it looked like the R3000 is faster.

 

[The Hat]

There is no such thing as low priced quality paper; you can get either quality paper or low cost paper but never both, unless it has fallen off the back of a truck, but that's not a good long time reliable source.

You can however good quality paper at a discount prices if your prepared to purchase in large amounts at one time, rolls of photo paper are much cheaper than large photo sheets, so long as you don’t mind the curl..

 

[costadinos]

I don't know where you live, so can't really advise on where to buy paper.

I run a print shop and go through a lot of paper every month, so I am forced to buy locally.
Epson Premium Luster/Glossy and HP Premium Satin are the two best branded papers, at a relatively low price. Permajet also makes some really good papers at affordable prices.

I'll have to disagree with The Hat though, there are very cheap, very high quality papers out there, just like there are excellent inks at a fraction of the cost of the OEM.
I'm buying pearl, satin and glossy paper from a distributor of a Chinese paper manufacturing company (which probably has distributors in most countries), and it is excellent in all aspects, at half the cost of the OEM. Their pearl 260g, specifically, is my paper of choice for printing digital albums and it's also what I use to deliver my own work (weddings, portraits, etc), 90% of the times.
Photomart distributes it in the UK, under the name ImageColour, so if you live in the continental Europe you should be able to get it easily:

http://www.photomart.co.uk/Catalogu...Paper-Substrates/Roll-Photo-Paper/ImageColour

 

[ioprappas]

Where can I buy INKTEC inks for my Epson R1900 printer? I live in Europe...

 

[costadinos]

Where can I buy INKTEC inks for my Epson R1900 printer? I live in Europe...

They don't make ink for the r1900 (you could get the black, cyan, magenta and yellow from their K3 inkset but you'd also need red and orange and glop).