Pictures faded horribly after 4 months with Hobbicolors ink ?

[pharmacist]

Tin Ho,

Thanks for joining me for the test. Actually I do have Canon ink, but only the BCI-6 type and this won't be a good comparison, since we are dealing with Hobbicolor UW-8 versus Canon CLI-8 Chromalife100 ink. Be careful with the increased humidity in your bathroom. Also, don't put them directly on the windows, otherwise there won't be any gas diffusion trough the printing layer to mimic ozone deterioraton (best to leave a small gap between paper and glas). I would be very upsetting if the UW8 ink is degraded very fast, since I love those vibrant and vivid colours very much (much better than Canon's own BCI-6/CLI-8 inks).

 

[on30trainman]

Tin Ho,
Thanks for the memory jog - I still have partially full Canon BCI-6 ink cartridges from my ip6000D. Put them aside for just such purposes, but it didn't hit me until your post. So I replaced the Hobbicolor inks in the ip6000D with the Canon OEM cartridges, did a deep head cleaning, a purge print and then printed out 2 prints each on the Kirkland Swiss and Kirkland US papers. Two of these (one each flavor) will join the two Hobbicolor prints in the sunny window after they fully dry. The other two will be stored away. I only have Kirkland paper anymore - might be a sheet or two of Epson or Canon somewhere but since I am using Kirkland paper now that is the results I am interested in. Look to others like you for differences in the papers.

pharmacist,
My test will be between the OEM Canon BCI-6 inks and the Hobbicolors UW-8 inks since both my printers use the BCI-6 inks, and I don't have any of the newer Canon inks. Dave of Hobbicolors suggested I switch to the UW-8 inks in my printers after I had some green tint problems with his BCI-6 inks. Fixed the tint problem with a custom profile, but never thought the colors were as vibrant as the Canon OEM and I did have some fade problems after a few months. But I really like the UW-8 print tones. My prints aren't taped tightly to the window - just one piece at the top - so air/ozone can still get to the print face. Will report my results in about two weeks.

Steve W.

 

[pharmacist]

Well after almost a month ago I come to the conclusion the prints with the Hobbicolor ink are still looking great without any noticable trace of fading or colour shift. However I have to say the pictures are facing the north side, so it's indirect sunlight shining on the paper surface.

I'm using cheap Aldi Netbit High Glossy paper (270 gsm) and this is microporous paper (paper surface is peeping when rub with your thumb over it) which is known to be very sensitive to ozone fading !!!

I'm waiting for your comments/experiences with the prints made with Hobbicolor ink and Canon's OEM ink.

 

[on30trainman]

Guess it is time to post the results of my fading tests. As stated earlier in this thread I printed CYAN, MAGENTA, YELLOW and BLACK bars using both Canon OEM BCI-6 inks and Hobbicolor UW-8 inks and both flavors of Kirkland Glossy Photo paper - US made and Swiss made. The prints were placed in a window that got full sun from about noon until dusk. The exposure time was four weeks. I don't know how many days the prints were exposed to full sun, since I was away for part of the test - but there were quite many full sun days.

The results:
Both inks faded on both types of paper - the MAGENTA was the worst for fading. The Canon inks as a whole held up slightly better than the Hobbicolors, mainly with the US made Kirkland paper. The Kirkland Swiss made paper performed quite a bit better than the US made version - that result was disappointing to me since the Swiss made type is not available any more.

Kirkland Swiss paper with Canon BCI-6 OEM inks - fading noticeable in M - little if any in C, Y or B.
Kirkland Swiss paper with Hobbicolor UW-8 inks - fading noticeable in M, slight in C and little if any in Y and B
Kirkland US paper with Canon BCI-6 OEM inks - fading noticeable in M, slight in C and little if any in Y and B
Kirkland US paper with Hobbicolor UW-8 inks - fading very noticeable in M and noticeable in C, Y and B

Conclusions:
Canon inks are more fade resistant - quite noticeable with the US made Kirkland paper. With the Swiss made paper the results were almost equal - Canon inks were slightly better. With the US made paper Canon inks performed better in my opinion.

Again these are the results of my unscientific tests, but it does point out that the Canon OEM inks are somewhat better. I don't have any of the newer Canon inks (chipped cartridges) to compare. Since I don't keep my prints out in full sun, I have no plans to switch back to OEM inks. The prints I get with the Hobbicolor UW-8 inks are bright and colorful. I have a box and a half of the Kirkland Swiss paper on hand - think I will keep it for the prints I really want to last.

Steve W.

 

[Tin Ho]

I just looked at my test print of Canon OEM ink (CLI-8) printing on Canon's Glossy Photo Papaer Plus and Kirkland's Made in USA 4x6 glossy photo paper. I can barely see fading on Black and Yellow but there is indeed a small amount of fading on Magenta and Cyan on both paper. The Kirkland paper is surprisingly good. Both paper show only a minimum fading on Magenta and Cyan. This is almost one month of exposing half of the print on the window facing north also. The other half is blocked by aluminum foil. The window of my bathroom is pretty much open during the day. So there is probably no way Ozon gas could attack the prints. I probably should have the window closed.

 

[jcdoss]

Thank you all for this thread. This information is fairly difficult to come by since I read mostly photography and digital camera forums.. it took me a while to find this board. I think I will try out Hobbicolors refillables for my Canon S9000 largely because of this website. Thanks!