Beware Formulabs inks

  • Thread starter Thread starter GB
  • Start date Start date
G

GB

Just a heads up. I have been having a lot of problems with Formulabs
(Sensient) inks (sold by the likes of www.alotofthings.com). More
specifically:

With a Canon i865 and i9950 all black and white prints have a significant
green cast to them. On the i9950 colour prints lack a lot of the reds.

I have narrowed this down to the Formulabs Magenta inks for the BCI-6 series
cartridges. On the i865 which only uses a BCI-6M, colours prints look fine
but as stated above black and white still has a green cast. My conclusion
is their BCI-6M is close enough to hide its differences in most colour
prints, but not B/W. If I replace it with a Canon BCI-6M (even with
Formulabs inks in the other carts), the BW prints look great.

On the i9950 colour suffers because their BCI-6PM is really bad (visibly
less density of colour even in a cartridge) and not only does BW printing
have a strong green tint, but skin tones in colour often look pale and
sickly. The i9950 seems to use the 6PM quite heavily for reds (even though
it has a dedicated Red ink), it certainly chews through this cartridge. If
I replace with a Canon 6PM (still using a Formulabs 6M) then printing looks
a heap better.

They are fully aware of this problem but have no plans to correct their ink.
All they can say is 'sorry'.

PS: I can not fault their other colours, but their magentas are a joke.

Regards

Guy
 
I'm not sure why you say that. From what I see most of their business is
via their eBay store.
 
GB said:
I'm not sure why you say that. From what I see most of their business is
via their eBay store.
Click to expand...

A lot of the items on their web site are out-of-stock

I've been buying ink for my Canon i950 from inkgrabber.com
Great prices and they seem well stocked.
 
Guy,
Last October we corresponded about refilling and the availability of
Formulabs ink in Australia. At the time you had a problem even finding a
source for the ink and I suggested that you contact Joe at alotofthings to
see if he could help find a supplier in Australia. Alotofthings.com does not
ship outside the US so I'm curious as to why you want to cast aspersions
against a supplier who doesn't ship to Australia. I use Formulabs ink (from
alotofthings.com) in several different Canon printers without any problems.
Colors are true. Samples printed with both Canon and Formulabs ink are
identical.

Did you actually get Formulabs ink from alotofthings.com or was it from a
different supplier? Does this happen on all papers or just some? Did you
refill with bulk ink or use aftermarket cartridges? Who (alotofthings,
Formulabs, or a different vendor) told you they are aware of the problem but
have no plans to correct it? Have you experienced the magenta problem with
any other brands of ink or cartridges? Are you aware that b/w printing with
Canon's has been a problem regardless of the ink brand? Mostly the reports
are of a blue or slightly purple cast in addition to green and that the
paper type settings have a significant effect on how the colors appear. I
find the Glossy setting instead of Photo Paper Pro or Photo Paper Plus
settings work better for me on the papers I use.

Could you please clarify these points and add any other pertinent
information?
 
I have not had any problems with there bulk ink. Is that what you are
using? Or cartridges you bought that has formulab ink in them?
 
Crhoff said:
I have not had any problems with there bulk ink. Is that what you are
using? Or cartridges you bought that has formulab ink in them?
Click to expand...

I've been buying the filled cartridges from inkgrabber.com
I really don't know which brand of ink they're using in them.
 
First things first, I am not and have not cast any aspersions against
alotofthings.com at all, in fact if you read the whole thread I questioned
another poster who suggested that there was a problem with them. I'd buy
ink from them without a second thought, just know your ink to start with.
Their service was fine, they even shipped internationally to me. I still
have to get them the info about the printing from my contact with Sensient
so they obviously are very interested in the quality of the product they
sell. In this case it is their suppliers product that is letting them down.

I have prints where all I changed is the Photo Magenta from Forumlabs to
Canon and vice versa and you'd have to be blind to miss the difference.
Even Sensient did not deny the problem when I presented my evidence to them.
They sent me a new sample to test with to ensure it wasn't a batch problem,
but unfortunately once I confirmed there was also a problem with the test
sample they sent the support stopped and I only got an apology for the
problem. I photographed two carts, one with FL ink and another a new Canon
genuine cart next to each other, with light behind the cart the Canon's
colour intensity was about 30-50% darker than the FL.

I got my ink from alotofthings.com, and also a test sample directly from
Sensient.

I have printed on a wide range of papers, all genuine Canon, including
MP-101, GP-401, HR-101, PR-101 and SG-101. All show the same problem.

I have refilled genuine carts and used new generic empty carts, it makes no
difference once the forumlabs ink feeds through (printing a few pages
between samples to bleed the new ink through). In fact on one A4 from Canon
to Formulabs you could see the colour shift across the print as the
different ink kicked in.

I have not tried any other brand other than Formulabs and Canon.

I have printed B/W with genuine Canon carts and have had exceptional
results. Even my wife with no eye for printing and photography etc agreed
the BW with FL was very bad.

Also please note what I said in the first post, which is the ONLY problem I
have had is with Photo Magenta and Magenta for BCI-6. I can't fault the
other colours in any way. The Photo Magenta is clearly the worst match of
them all, though in the i865 which does not have the PM the Magenta only
lets printing down in BW prints, the difference is not enough to visually
effect typical colour photos.

PS: I never could find a reliable source of bulk Formulabs ink in
Australia, I think I only found one who sold carts and then still expensive
compared to bulk from alotofthings.com.

I hope this clears things up a bit for you.

Regards

Guy
 
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