- Joined
- May 29, 2007
- Messages
- 2,737
- Reaction score
- 1,542
- Points
- 313
- Location
- Ghent, Belgium
- Printer Model
- SC-900 ET-8550 WF-7840 TS705
After the german based company Octopus-office.de solved the wrong delivered LLB ink (they simply send me a completely new set of the K3: PK, LB and LLB) I finally gave it a test in my Epson Pro 3800. I want to say many thanks for the prints, one of our nifty-stuff member Wolfgang Exler sent to me, made with his Pro 4800 and this OCP ink, because I was impressed by the results this significantly cheaper ink can produce.
OCP is a german based manufacturer of high quality after market inks and according to those who tried their inks (Canon CLI-8) in printers like the Canon Pro 9000, the results are really good and fade resistance seems to be even better to the original Canon ink.
For the moment I will write a short review, as I will later post the images/scans of the prints I made compared with my previous IRK4-nano ink.
A good thing of the ink is the price difference between the more expensive primary colours: PK, Y, C, M and the significantly cheaper light colours: LB, LLB, LM and LC. Because the lighter colours are consumed at a much higher rate compared to the primary colours, this is a great advantage.
Since I almost run out of my current Inkrepublic's IRK4-nano pigment ink in my refillable cartridges, I decided to pull out the tiny amount of left over ink from the cartridges and discarded it and put this new OCP K3 pigment ink in the cartridges. For a good flush to remove the old ink from the lines of the Epson Pro 3800, one has to execute a minimum of 5 cleaning cycles to push out the old ink and to clean out the lines and have them totally filled with the new ink.
As the OCP pigment ink has a distinctive glycol scent compared to the almost neutral smelling IRK4-nano ink, I swapped out the paper towel ball of the maintenance cartridge after every cleaning cycle, until I could smell that distinctive glycol scent of the waste ink dropped in the maintenance cartridge and this was after 5 cleaning cycles. This way I was sure the print head was totally primed with the new OCP K3 pigment inkt. So emperically I discovered 5x executing a cleaning cycle should have pushed out the old ink from the Epson Pro 3800 and the 3880.
So I made some profiles with my Colormunki for this new OCP K3 ink in my Epson Pro 3800 for several papers: Tetenal semi matte 240 gsm, TPI Satin and Glossy 240 gsm, Moab Satin 240 gsm, Netbit Glossy 270 gsm, Sihl-X Glossy 280 gsm, Epson Premium semigloss 250 gsm and HP Glossy 260 gsm. After this I made some prints on glossy and satin papers and compared them with prints made with my previous IRK4-nano ink.
Gamut: according to the website www.iccview.de all the profiles made with this OCP K3 ink have a significantly lower gamut, but somehow the prints made with this new ink show me another picture. The reds/blue's are significantly more saturated and so is yellow (but only slighty more) compared to IRK4-nano. "fire exstinguiser" red is really popping to the eye: the IRK4-nano can only produce a more orangy red. Blue's are very saturated and less cyanish compared to the blue's produced by the IRK4-nano ink, Greens are a bit weaker to my eyes, but still very good (which is a bit strange, as it composed of cyan and yellow).
Black: very good/saturated and in pair with the already very dark IRK4-nano Photo Black. The great advantage of this ink is the significantly less gloss differential this black produces compared to the already very good IRK4-nano PK.
ABW-mode: Since my first experience with refill ink in my Epson Pro 3800 I was struggling to get a truely neutral ABW print. Epson's ABW-mode not only relies on the K3 inks (PK, LK and LLK), but also used the lighter LC and LM and Y inks to counter the rather warm tone of the K3 inks produce on paper. Till now neither my previous used Image Specialists IM-K4 inks (a strong magenta/sepia), nor the Inkrepublic IRK4-nano (a greenish tinge) or the Inkjetfly IMA24/36 V3 inks (very strong magenta cast) was able to produce the dead on neutral ABW-mode prints, you can produce with original Epson K3. How does the OCP K3 ink does its job in the ABW-mode: well, pretty good, in fact very good, but still not perfect. The ABW-mode prints came out pretty neutral, albeit with a warm tone. Personally I am charmed with the warmer toned black&white, this OCP K3 ink produces. The only set back is the rather strong metamerism the ABW-mode seems to produce on high glossy papers. The lighter area's produces a strange copper-like metallic shine when light hits the paper at certain angles.
Glossiness: excellent, even better compared to Inkjetfly's IMA 24/36 V3 and Inkrepublic's IRK4-nano pigment inks. Actually the gloss differential is superb on glossy papers and almost similar to original Epson K3 ink. It is so good, as it is sometimes difficult to see the prints were made with pigment ink. Whow: OCP has done an excellent job to achieve this. If there was no metamerism to be seen, I was not able to seen if the ink was pigment or dye.
I am wondering why iccview.de detects a lower gamut, but my eyes say: the reds/blues are more saturated and more vivid. Maybe somebody can explain this strange phenomenon: lower gamut, but significantly more saturated and popping colours. Only greens are bit less compared to IRK4-nano (which I cannot explain, because blues are very good).
Conclusion: An excellent quality product "Made in Germany". If OCP can cope with that coppery metamerism in the ABW-mode, this is ink will become perfect. The only thing to be tested is fade resistance, but since it is pigment it should last for at least many years/decades.
OCP is a german based manufacturer of high quality after market inks and according to those who tried their inks (Canon CLI-8) in printers like the Canon Pro 9000, the results are really good and fade resistance seems to be even better to the original Canon ink.
For the moment I will write a short review, as I will later post the images/scans of the prints I made compared with my previous IRK4-nano ink.
A good thing of the ink is the price difference between the more expensive primary colours: PK, Y, C, M and the significantly cheaper light colours: LB, LLB, LM and LC. Because the lighter colours are consumed at a much higher rate compared to the primary colours, this is a great advantage.
Since I almost run out of my current Inkrepublic's IRK4-nano pigment ink in my refillable cartridges, I decided to pull out the tiny amount of left over ink from the cartridges and discarded it and put this new OCP K3 pigment ink in the cartridges. For a good flush to remove the old ink from the lines of the Epson Pro 3800, one has to execute a minimum of 5 cleaning cycles to push out the old ink and to clean out the lines and have them totally filled with the new ink.
As the OCP pigment ink has a distinctive glycol scent compared to the almost neutral smelling IRK4-nano ink, I swapped out the paper towel ball of the maintenance cartridge after every cleaning cycle, until I could smell that distinctive glycol scent of the waste ink dropped in the maintenance cartridge and this was after 5 cleaning cycles. This way I was sure the print head was totally primed with the new OCP K3 pigment inkt. So emperically I discovered 5x executing a cleaning cycle should have pushed out the old ink from the Epson Pro 3800 and the 3880.
So I made some profiles with my Colormunki for this new OCP K3 ink in my Epson Pro 3800 for several papers: Tetenal semi matte 240 gsm, TPI Satin and Glossy 240 gsm, Moab Satin 240 gsm, Netbit Glossy 270 gsm, Sihl-X Glossy 280 gsm, Epson Premium semigloss 250 gsm and HP Glossy 260 gsm. After this I made some prints on glossy and satin papers and compared them with prints made with my previous IRK4-nano ink.
Gamut: according to the website www.iccview.de all the profiles made with this OCP K3 ink have a significantly lower gamut, but somehow the prints made with this new ink show me another picture. The reds/blue's are significantly more saturated and so is yellow (but only slighty more) compared to IRK4-nano. "fire exstinguiser" red is really popping to the eye: the IRK4-nano can only produce a more orangy red. Blue's are very saturated and less cyanish compared to the blue's produced by the IRK4-nano ink, Greens are a bit weaker to my eyes, but still very good (which is a bit strange, as it composed of cyan and yellow).
Black: very good/saturated and in pair with the already very dark IRK4-nano Photo Black. The great advantage of this ink is the significantly less gloss differential this black produces compared to the already very good IRK4-nano PK.
ABW-mode: Since my first experience with refill ink in my Epson Pro 3800 I was struggling to get a truely neutral ABW print. Epson's ABW-mode not only relies on the K3 inks (PK, LK and LLK), but also used the lighter LC and LM and Y inks to counter the rather warm tone of the K3 inks produce on paper. Till now neither my previous used Image Specialists IM-K4 inks (a strong magenta/sepia), nor the Inkrepublic IRK4-nano (a greenish tinge) or the Inkjetfly IMA24/36 V3 inks (very strong magenta cast) was able to produce the dead on neutral ABW-mode prints, you can produce with original Epson K3. How does the OCP K3 ink does its job in the ABW-mode: well, pretty good, in fact very good, but still not perfect. The ABW-mode prints came out pretty neutral, albeit with a warm tone. Personally I am charmed with the warmer toned black&white, this OCP K3 ink produces. The only set back is the rather strong metamerism the ABW-mode seems to produce on high glossy papers. The lighter area's produces a strange copper-like metallic shine when light hits the paper at certain angles.
Glossiness: excellent, even better compared to Inkjetfly's IMA 24/36 V3 and Inkrepublic's IRK4-nano pigment inks. Actually the gloss differential is superb on glossy papers and almost similar to original Epson K3 ink. It is so good, as it is sometimes difficult to see the prints were made with pigment ink. Whow: OCP has done an excellent job to achieve this. If there was no metamerism to be seen, I was not able to seen if the ink was pigment or dye.
I am wondering why iccview.de detects a lower gamut, but my eyes say: the reds/blues are more saturated and more vivid. Maybe somebody can explain this strange phenomenon: lower gamut, but significantly more saturated and popping colours. Only greens are bit less compared to IRK4-nano (which I cannot explain, because blues are very good).
Conclusion: An excellent quality product "Made in Germany". If OCP can cope with that coppery metamerism in the ABW-mode, this is ink will become perfect. The only thing to be tested is fade resistance, but since it is pigment it should last for at least many years/decades.
? I am waiting for the vivid magenta version of this ink, but if this is non existing I might us this even in my Epson R3000. The price of this OCP ink is more than right. Maybe you should give it a try in your Epson R2880 and see how the prints are (especially the ABW-mode) with the normal strength OCK K3 ink.
