Photo paper at Aldi DK

I don’t want to move these posts to the thread mentioned, if not requested too...

 

I'm curious to see your results, Peter. What is more relevant for fading, ink or paper? Once I was really surprised by different fading of the same ink on diffferent paper:
http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/refilling-canon-with-oem-ink.10712/page-2#post-90875

Your prints with IS are looking a bit on the green side compared to the compatible ink. Possibly due to CLI-521 instead of CLI-8..? Colors will fade in a certain "direction", maybe also to the greenish side, maybe to another, so we have to take that into account when evaluating the results.
My test prints are also mostly not profiled, so you can only compare and estimate/evaluate the fading of one pair. Only if all starter prints of one test would be profiled the same, you would be able to directly compare all faded results across. Comparing and evaluating the fading of one pair, then the other, still is a way to get a rough rating of all samples, I think...

 

Not to mention the OP is actively participating in the "derailment"!

 

Good...

 

What made me test fading properties of Sihl vs Netbit paper was this remark in post #9 by palombian: "Aldi fades rather fast with dyes too." I admit I should have started a new thread instead of posting #11. But starting a new thread now would be inconvenient for the readers. So here are my test results for one week of fading. The fading lamp is the bug zapper lamp from this post. The scanner is the CCD scanner in a Canon MP800. Default settings were used both for the scan and in the printer drivers. In the printer driver Photo Paper Plus Glossy II was selected.

Here is the test for IS inks for PGI-x20/CLI-x21 cartridges. Top left is Sihl paper with no UV exposure and top right is Sihl paper with one week of UV exposure. Bottom left is Netbit paper without UV exposure and bottom right is Netbit paper with one week of UV exposure. It looks like fading is much more dependent on the ink than on the paper in this case. Click to enlarge:



Here are the test results for the No-Name cheap PGI-550/CLI-551 compatible cartridges. Surprisingly they show a much better fading resistance than the IS inks for PGI-x20/CLI-x21. Top left is Sihl paper without UV exposure and top right is Sihl paper after one week of UV exposure. Bottom Left is Netbit paper without UV exposure and bottom right is Netbit paper after one week of UV exposure. I think it is hard to tell which paper is most fade resistant with these inks as the no exposure prints are not identical. Click to enlarge:



See this post for a comparison between Canon OEM ink and paper and Sihl paper and IS inks. Notice that Canon OEM ink also performs very well on the Sihl paper. Sadly it is also very expensive.

 

PeterBJ,
You are probably following martin0reg's fade testing of various Canon inks including the Fotonic XG by Lyson
http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/refilling-canon-with-oem-ink.10712/page-5#post-93522

I was testing the SIhl and Netbit papers for fading with Epson like inks, the papers are not identical but their performance comes very close, so this would be in line with your findings. More expensive papers - HP and Tecco - perform significantly better in this respect, but you pay for it.

 

PeterBJ, now this is surprise!
Much better UV resistance of the cheap no-name-carts, and better color matching too!

(Question arise, Is refilling really worth the effort - if you get these carts for 1.75... But on the other hand: it is only one single test, and who knows what kind of ink these carts will contain in the future..)

Another surprise to me is the color of the fading: while my fading tests were mostly on the cold blue green side (fading of M and Y) the IS print seems to fade to the warm side (fading of C..?!)

If you can, please make further tests with your UV lamp, which seems to have a stronger fading effect than my UV bulb. Perhaps you have the chance to make a print with canon OEM for comparison ..?
(edit: just saw your link in the post above... you did that already)

Advice: don't use a bug zapper where prints are on the wall ... kill the bugs by hand...

 

@PeterBJ, I get much the same results as you do when using the Sihl glossy paper, it’s always the black that does west first in my tests, but I use FotoRite Photo Black and I.S., C, M and Y.

What has to be remembered here is that the black on most of the photo is made up of the C, M, Y and not the photo black itself, its only partially used fot some shaded areas.

 

When flushing photo black dye carts in an inox sink you can see the 3 colors.
Idem for grey, what makes the 6 colour printers even more sensitive to fading since the grey is used for toning the colours.

And even if black/gray is made by a mixture of CMY, why is it fading faster than the composing colours ?
Is there no black dye ?

 

That's just the problem. The PGI-550/CLI-551 compatible cartridges I bought looked like these, but of course for PGI-550/CLI-551 instead of PGI-570/CLI-571. Now they seem to be another brand, this is the new image. Notice that the PGI-570/CLI-571 cartridges are DKK 48 = € 6.45 a piece. The cartridges are the same and I'm sure the ink also is, so either the chips must be very expensive or we see the law of price, supply and demand in action.

I also bought a set of compatible PGI-520/CLI-521 cartridges from the same seller, just to test them. These cartridges gave a strong green cast, see this thread.