I've made a proposition to the owner of swiftink

[jesoonster]

Hey Nifty and all, I've made a proposition to the owner of swiftink.com to send samples to you to test. I don't know how he'll reply, but it's probably in his best interests that he does.. He's gotten a lot of bad press on two of the biggest hot deals sites in the US and I'm guessing that he would want to clear up a lot of it up. If he does send the samples it'll benefit us all b/c he'll get a good reputation for selling good ink carts and we'll find out how good this stuff is. So nifty, I just wanted to give you a heads up in case you receive an email from him. His name is Azo. If he doesn't decide to send the samples I'm going to write up a post on the deals sites stating that he declined the tests. I don't see a reason why (unless his ink is inferior to formulab ink) he wouldn't considering that it'll only cost him 5-6$ for a few carts for a ton of free advertisement.

 

[Nifty]

jesoonster, that's a great idea.

If any cartridge reseller / manufacturer is willing to send some cartridges, I'd suggest they be sent to someone like Grandad, if he's willing to test them. I think we've all been very impressed with his thorough approach to inkjet cartridges and ability to look at things objectively.

 

[Grandad35]

Rob,

Thanks for the vote of confidence, but everything is working well on my i9900 with refilled carts and I rather enjoy being able to just load the printer with photo paper and let it print unattended. When testing new inks, there are often problems with light banding and color shifts caused by the (sometimes partial) loss of a color, and every photo must be carefully inspected before I can give it away. I have a reputation to uphold, and even free photos of a grandchild must be close to perfect.

There is also the issue of getting the color right, so this would also entail running a few profiles on each cart/ink sample. Through experience, I have found that I have to print at least 15-20 pages before I can make a reasonable assessment of how well the ink is printing before I even attempt to run a profile. If there is ANY problem with the printing, it is a complete waste of time to run a profile.

If I wanted to set up to run tests on various carts/bulk inks, I would buy a cheap used 6 color printer that uses the same BCI-6 carts as the i9900, and run tests on regular paper to further reduce costs. Color comparison/profile tests would have to be made on photo paper, of course. Nothing from this printer would be saved or given to anyone, so I also wouldn't have to worry about unexpectedly quick color fading problems a few months down the road. In this way, even "bad" carts/inks wouldn't ruin "important" photos.

Before you volunteer to send me a printer, I don't have the space (I already have 3 printers and my wife would cause me great bodily harm if I expanded the printer space any further).

 

[Nifty]

Grandad, thanks for the reply. I completely understand where you are coming from. Any other seasoned forum members want to test some cartridges?