Opinions needed on refillable carts.

[PeterBJ]

When I got my new Windows 8 computer I was ready to reformat the HDD and install Windows 7 instead, as there seemed to be no drivers available for my old Canon printers, and I also encountered a strange colour problem with all printers using a certain test image. Luckily the freeware "Classic Shell" program brought back the start button and start menu, so the new Windows now was much more familiar. I found out that plug and play install worked well with old Canon printers not oficially supported, and the strange colours problem was solved by a file conversion of the test image. So Canon owners need not fear this new OS.

There has been several threads on the subject of refill problems with the newer PGI-x20/CLI-x21 and PGI-x25/CLI-x26 cartridges. I haven't done a search for links, but my experience is that these cartridges are possibly more fragile than the older transparent cartridges, for which the German refill method works very well. Probably some of the problems are caused by needle damage to the sponges, so I prefer top filling these cartridges, to avoid needle damage. They also seem to clog more easily in the sponges than the older cartridges so a flushing and reconditioning of the sponges with pharmacists conditioning fluid seems to help keeping them fit. A flushing and reconditioning for each 5 refills seems adequate. Weighing the cartridges after refill serves as a health check of the cartridge and a quality control of your refill. The weight is 35.3 grams for a properly refilled PGBK cartridge in good condition, and for the dye cartridges it is 20.3 grams. These weights apply to both the windowed and the opaque cartridges.

Good thing you figured out the error in the instruction for service mode operations and did not loose information, like I did

Edit: There is one thing I forgot to mention: The colour match for the CLI-8 inks from IS is really good, the ink set for the CLI-521 cartridges is a bit colder in colour, so I think that you will find that IS inks and Sihl paper is a really good combination for Pixma 5200.

 

[Photofan1986]

"The colour match for the CLI-8 inks from IS is really good, the ink set for the CLI-521 cartridges is a bit colder in colour, so I think that you will find that IS inks and Sihl paper is a really good combination for Pixma 5200."
That is strange, because I received my ink kit for the Cli-8 carts, and it seems that the ink has the same references, except for the cyan ink. (Well, except for the "D" reference on the Cli-521 ink. Does it make any difference?)
Pigment black is 1128pg, dye black is 1109, magenta is 6121, yellow is 797 and cyan is 2032 for the Cli-8 and 244d for the cli-521.
So the only difference in the batch is the cyan. Is this normal??

 

[PeterBJ]

Yes these are the inks recommended by the manufacturer "Image Specialists". You can check it here: http://www.image-specialists.com/catalog_desktop_step1.aspx . Enter "Canon" in the manufacturer search field and choose Pixma iP5200 or Pixma ip3600 in the model search field. The MP540 is not listed, but the print engine in an MP540 is the iP3600.

In my opinion the colour match is excellent for the CLI-8 ink set and good for the CLI-521 ink set. My Pixma 5200 is my default printer, I also have an MP540 as a spare printer that is rarely used, so I am satisfied with the ink sets.

A custom made ink set for the PGI-x20/CLI-x21 cartridges is available from Precision Colors: http://www.precisioncolors.com/C5C.html

Also see this post: http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/do-cli-521-and-cli-526-have-the-same-ink.8521/#post-67226

 

[Photofan1986]

Thank you again for the precious information. So here is what I get with my MP540 (by the way, the cleaning methods you and The Hat showed me worked a treat! It's not 100% perfect, but it's very usable for all but the smallest prints. I think the head is somewhat tired, but the results I get far exceed what I expected.)
The top picture comes from the Mp540 with Octoink inks, and the bottom one comes from my ip5200 with oem inks (as I haven't refilled yet). Paper is Sihl from Aldi.
The third one is the original jpeg file for reference.
I know the scan quality is not nice, but the idea is there. I'd say the Canon oem ink picture looks nice, even though it's not perfectly accurate (a bit too warm, but pleasant). On the other hand, I find the MP540 image far too green. What do you think, is that the colour accuracy I can expect from those inks?

 

[PeterBJ]

No, my results with Octoinkjets inks for MP540 are better than yours, I guess you have a problem with some of the magenta nozzles. Pictures printed a bit too warm using Canon OEM materials is typical of many (most?) Canon printers.

I will try to copy and print your original photo and print it with my MP540 and iP5200 both refilled with Octoinkjets inks and using Sihl paper, so we can compare the results.

 

[PeterBJ]

I have now printed your uploaded original photo twice on an A4 sheet using the iP5200 and the MP540. I have used the recommended settings from a an old Sihl package from Aldi. I used Photo Paper Plus Glossy for the iP5200 and Photo Paper Pro for the MP540. The media setting has a great impact on the results so you could try different media settings before starting to tweak the colours in the printer driver.

My results are that the iP5200 print is a bit too warm and the MP540 print is a bit too cold. It is best seen in the cobblestones in the foreground. I like the iP5200 print most, but both prints are good IMO. The warm tone in the iP5200 print is very close to that obtained with Canon OEM inks and paper.

I had a lot of difficulty in making a scanner reproduce the difference accurately and didn't succeed; the magenta cast on the white paper is a result of trying to compensate a much too greenish sky in the scan, but the scan at least shows a difference. In both prints the sky looked much more natural. but here is the scan, click to enlarge:

 

[The Hat]

I tried printing the original also on my i9950 (8 colour) and i865 (4 colour) and iX4000 (3colour) using the same I.S. inks, paper and settings and got 3 different results.

 

[Photofan1986]

Wow, that is interesting. Your i865 image looks quite close to my Mp540 results.
@PeterBJ: indeed, your picture looks much nicer. I wonder how that comes. From the extended nozzle check, it seems like my MP540 is in good shape...

 

[PeterBJ]

Well done with the extended nozzle check for the MP540, so I don't have to explain service mode and service tools for this printer

When printing photos, the printer, inks and paper work together as a system. Changing one or more of these thee items will change the printed image.

The choice of media has a great impact on colour balance, so have you set the printing media to "Photo Paper Pro II" ? You can also try the other paper settings and see if one of the other settings is better. Your colour balance problems are similar to those in this thread: http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/head-alignment-i9950.8567/ so the instructions in this post does also apply to your printer, the screen dumps are also very similar for the i965 used in that post and for the MP540. Link to post with instructions here: http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/head-alignment-i9950.8567/page-2#post-67995

Luckily the use of IS inks and Sihl paper makes test printing affordable. Imagine printing 10 or 20 A4 test images using Canon OEM materials...

You don't need to use an A4 sheet to print one test image. I used an image handling program to turn your MP540 image upside down, that way I could print two images on one A4 sheet using 2 printers and have the same up-down orientation on both images.

 

[Photofan1986]

Thanks for the link.
Yes, I use the right paper settings. Also, I played with the colours balance settings in the printer driver, and I get very decent results with some tweaking, but unfortunately, I cannot get those settings into the printer as "default settings", meaning I cannot print without the computer. It would be really nice to be able to "force" those settings into the printer.
What surprises me is the difference between your results and mine. The only other parameter I can see beeing different is that my ink is becoming somewhat old. It must be about two and a half year old. Don't know if the colour balance could change over time though.