72 ink cartridges

[ceb39usa]

I have a new Pro 10 printer.  It takes 72 style cartridges.  Eventually I will have to buy new cartridges.

On Amazon I see a set of ten cartridges for about $133.  Then I see some individual cartridges for $27 to $29 a piece.  Do the more expensive cartridges contain more ink?   Which is the best deal?

Thanks

ceb

[shadowsports]

This is an age old discussion, and a game consumers have been playing with printer manufacturers for decades.

Your Pro 10 uses pigmented based inks.  Many inkjets used dye based inks.  Whats the difference?

Dye-based inks are the standard ink type used in inkjet printers. They consist of colorant that is fully dissolved and suspended in liquid. Pigmented ink consists of a very fine powder of solid colorant particles suspended in a liquid carrier.

So if you are going to consider a 3rd party alternative over Canon, be aware the printer is designed to use pigmented based ink.

Next consideration.  Printer manufacturers can and sometimes do put chips inside their own cartridges so the types of cartridges you use could be tracked in the event of a warranty claim.  I'm sure they might be able to find a way to decline a claim if it could be proven you didn't use oem branded inks in your printer.  Note I said could, not will.

Manufacturers will also say best results can only be gauranteed or attained using their papers with ther ink.  You'll have to decide that for yourself. 

The biggest issue that people have is not using their printer on a regular basis.  The ink can dry up and clog the print heads.  Then you burn good ink performing cleaning cycles.  I just go to CVS or Walgreens if I need to print something.  I just don't print enough photos to make owning a photo printer cost effective. 

I'm not the right person to discuss Pro 10 perfrmance with.  Last photo printer I owned was a Epson R800 12 yrs ago.  Great photo printer.  I used it with PhotoShop 7, different papers and inks depending on what was good at the time. I'm a good decade out of touch. 

[TCampbell · Accepted solution]

If you check Canon's prices here:  https://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/catalog/ink-paper-toner/professional-ink

You'll notice that Canon charges $14.99 for any single tank of their PGI-72 ink (the pigment based ink designed for use in your printer).

The printer actually uses 10 cartridges.  $14.99 x 10 = $149.90.  But they sale the value packs for $135 (that's 10% off).  Usually they also throw in some paper.  When I bought mine, they sent me a pack of Pro Luster.  I see that they're currently throwing in a sample pack which is 5 sheets of Luster and 5 sheets of gloss.  Anyway... they usually toss in some paper.

So if anyone is charging MORE than $15 per cartridge... just know that you can order direct from Canon and get a better deal.

Canon also has some value packs that don't include the colors.  There's a value pack that has matte black (MBK), standard black (PBK), gray (GY) and chroma optimizer (CO) for $55 (normally it would be $60 to buy them separately) and they also sell just a pure chroma optimzer (CO) 4-pack for $45 (that's 25% off).  

This is handy since you can find yourself going through blacks & grays faster than anything else.

There's a YouTube channel by Jose Rodriguez.  You can find his YouTube page here: https://www.youtube.com/user/cheo1949

This guy knows more about printers than anyone I've come across.  He uses *some* third party inks... but he says there are some inks that he has never been able to find a good 3rd party ink that can correctly reproduce colors.... so for those he buys only the Canon genuine inks.

My way of looking at it is this:  I'm not in the business of printing  I don't sell my prints at art shows, etc.  I mostly just print for myself, or for friends.  I'm not going through a high volume of ink.

Given that... I'm only going to buy ink a maybe a couple of times per year.  I could use 3rd party ink and save a buck.  But my time is worth something to me.  So if I buy a 3rd party ink and now I'm having problems with the print profiles not producing the colors properly... I'm wasting time and ink that I wouldn't have wasted if I had just used the genuine inks.  

I'd probably only consider 3rd party ink (and then I'd be pretty fussy about *which* 3rd party ink -- are the colors as accurate, do they fade over time, will the ink or pigment having issues clogging nozzles in ways that genuine inks do not).  It's all a game of trade-offs... you're only "saving" money if the ink is as good, doesn't dry or clog, holds it's color, etc.  

For my low amount of use, I prefer to stick with the genuine inks.  I don't think Canon ink is particularly expensive.

[ceb39usa]

Tim

Thank you for the education on ink cartridges.  What you say makes sense, and it sounds like you and I use the printer about the same way.  I need color every now and then, but not every day.  Have an objective of making a couple of good prints of my car, to frame and put up on the wall, and maybe some good prints to give away for Christmas, but other than that it will be general use.

Will check out Jose's You Tube channel.

Thank you,

Chuck