Photo printer - just getting confused

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jerry1111
  • Start date Start date
J

Jerry1111

Hi,

Currently I'm using HP C5180 AIO printer. Refills - dead easy with #02
(well, 363 cause I'm from UK) carts.
What I've noticed is several (not many) black nozzles clogged, but it's
really difficult to notice. Another thing - color balance is changing
with time (I did color profiles now and a year ago - big difference, it
shifted from red-tint into blue-tint).

What I'm looking for:
Good photo (mostly 10x15, sometimes A4) printer. Easy to refill/reset
chips. Could have (not a must) a scanner and/or card reader.
I've been looking at Canon Pixma (4500 model) but as I always was an HP
guy, I have no experience with Canon. How easy it is to refill
inks/change heads (never had a printer with removable head).

Or maybe some other recommendations?
I've had a look at ip4500 only because I found in other threads that
it's easy to refill - but REALLY there was no other factors behind this
choice, so I guess it's not a well-informed choice unfortunately.

Please help the confused! ;-)
 
Hi,

<snip>

What I'm looking for:
Good photo (mostly 10x15, sometimes A4) printer. Easy to refill/reset
chips. Could have (not a must) a scanner and/or card reader.
I've been looking at Canon Pixma (4500 model) <snip>How easy it is to refill
inks/change heads (never had a printer with removable head).
Click to expand...
Jerry,

I've been using a Pixma 4500 at work for a year. Have always refilled
the carts via web instructions: <http://www.alotofthings.com/viartshop/
article.php?category_id=8&article_id=288> from alotofthings.com <no
affiliation>, using their ink or MIS <no affiliation> ink. I refill
them on a schedule; plan on getting a chip resetter soon. Works good
enough for me. Mostly text mixed with small photos and small
portraits.

If I were doing mostly photos, I'd look for something with more carts
-- including photo magenta and photo cyan. Canon undoubtedly has a
few. Basically the same as the 4500, but with additional photo carts
for better color rendition.

best,
Larry

I
 
LF said:
Jerry,

I've been using a Pixma 4500 at work for a year. Have always refilled
the carts via web instructions: <http://www.alotofthings.com/viartshop/
article.php?category_id=8&article_id=288> from alotofthings.com <no
affiliation>, using their ink or MIS <no affiliation> ink. I refill
them on a schedule; plan on getting a chip resetter soon. Works good
enough for me. Mostly text mixed with small photos and small
portraits.

If I were doing mostly photos, I'd look for something with more carts
-- including photo magenta and photo cyan. Canon undoubtedly has a
few. Basically the same as the 4500, but with additional photo carts
for better color rendition.
Click to expand...

Trying to find something, but having never touched Canon it's really
difficult. Pain in the *** trying to find all the details and then the
printer is no longer sold.
Also I'm not 100% sure if more inks is giving better photo results than
more droplet sizes. I guess pretty similar ;-)
 
Jerry,

I've been using a Pixma 4500 at work for a year. Have always refilled
the carts via web instructions: <http://www.alotofthings.com/viartshop/
article.php?category_id=8&article_id=288> from alotofthings.com <no
affiliation>, using their ink or MIS <no affiliation> ink. I refill
them on a schedule; plan on getting a chip resetter soon. Works good
enough for me. Mostly text mixed with small photos and small
portraits.

If I were doing mostly photos, I'd look for something with more carts
-- including photo magenta and photo cyan. Canon undoubtedly has a
few. Basically the same as the 4500, but with additional photo carts
for better color rendition.

best,
Larry

I
Click to expand...

You must have very poor image quality when compared to OEM ink and it for
sure will fade faster. And you do not have any idea whose ink you are
using since your supplier will not tell you.
 
measekite said:
You must have very poor image quality when compared to OEM ink and it for
sure will fade faster. And you do not have any idea whose ink you are
using since your supplier will not tell you.
Click to expand...

The village idiot is still whoring himself out to Canon over OEM ink. I
would like to know who supplied your brain because they swapped out the
OEM unit for a bucket of shit.
 
What I'm looking for:
Good photo (mostly 10x15, sometimes A4) printer. Easy to refill/reset
chips. Could have (not a must) a scanner and/or card reader.
I've been looking at Canon Pixma (4500 model) but as I always was an HP
guy, I have no experience with Canon. How easy it is to refill
inks/change heads (never had a printer with removable head).
Click to expand...

The ip4500 is a good egg. The new ip4600 not so much. They
downgraded the head size, decreased the size of the cartridges, and
the noise level is like 10db higher.

You can't really find the ip4500, it was closed out in September.
You can find the all in one version, the mp610. It'll cost more than
the ip4600, like 100-120quid vs 70-90quid.
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/st...null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=841385&category_oid=

Head change, easy as pie
Inkrefill, easy as pie.

The new HPs look promising, but at present there is no documentation
on the chips.

http://www.druckerchannel.de/artikel.php?ID=2353&seite=6&t=test_hp_photosmart_d5460
 
The ip4500 is a good egg.  The new ip4600 not so much.  They
downgraded the head size, decreased the size of the cartridges, and
the noise level is like 10db higher.

You can't really find the ip4500, it was closed out in September.
You can find the all in one version, the mp610.  It'll cost more than
the ip4600, like 100-120quid vs 70-90quid.http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@...
Click to expand...

I've just realized that getting an ip4500 is going to be quite
expensive (~£70-80).
OTOH I could get ip4300 for ~£40. The only difference I was able to
find is fewer number of nozzles (but the same 1/2/5pl drop sizes).
I guess it only makes printing a bit slower (as long as the rendering
engine stays the same - probably not).

What I wasn't able to find is if ip4600 (still deciding which printer
should I get) is able to work with refilled carts (probably by
disabling ink-monitor). F.e. my current C5180 doesn't allow to disable
ink-monitor (well, I haven't really tried - got a set of chips and a
resetter early on).
Another thing - I read somewhere that new carts (C52x) for ip4600 are
not transparent, which would make judging ink levels almost impossible
without ink monitor.
Head change, easy as pie
Inkrefill, easy as pie.
Click to expand...

And that's a very big argument for me!
The new HPs look promising, but at present there is no documentation
on the chips.
Click to expand...

I sort of regret my decision 2 years ago to get C5180 instead of
ip4300/ip4500. I thought that permanent head in HP is going to be
really good. In terms of refilling - dead easy, no problems at all.
What bothers me is that some black nozzles (not a lot, and not always
visible) are clogged. I guess it might be my fault - having printed
hundreds of photos but not a lot of b&w text lead to a clog. Soon as I
realized that I changed my habits and the head doesn't get worse (but
doesn't get better either). Another thing which I've just noticed is
problem with printing very ligh blue skies with white clouds - there
is a very sharp transition from light blue into white (no ink at all).
I haven't noticed it earlier but I wasn't really printing such photos
(haven't been in 'warm countries' for holidays for quite some time).
Also almost every photo has to be brightened before printing on this
printer - otherwise it gets really dark. Profiling helps a bit, but
then the problem with light skies is very visible - just don't like
the results.

New HP - no idea what to do. I took a gable last time, it worked
reasonably well, but I'd prefer to stick to a 'known devil' this
time ;-)

I guess I'm gonna spend a week trying to figure out which printer to
get (and if there's a chance to get ip4500 for a good price - I think
I'll just get it ;-) )
http://www.druckerchannel.de/artikel.php?ID=2353&seite=6&t=test_hp_ph...
Click to expand...

Also I don't understand why certain people are bothering to answer to
measekite - is it him with several accounts? Then it should be fairly
easy to killfile the whole lot ;-)

Best,

Jerry1111
 
I've just realized that getting an ip4500 is going to be quite
expensive (~£70-80).
OTOH I could get ip4300 for ~£40. The only difference I was able to
find is fewer number of nozzles (but the same 1/2/5pl drop sizes).
I guess it only makes printing a bit slower (as long as the rendering
engine stays the same - probably not).
Click to expand...

If you can get the ip4300 for ~£40, by all means do it.

I know very little about the ip4500 and it's 2pl drop size. I presume
that you have a choice between high resolution, medium, and low. Text
is like 30pl x 512 nozzles IIRC.

The ip4300 just has just the 5pl and 1pl nozzles, as well as the 512
30pl text nozzles.

Text should be about the same. Photos should be about the same,
though canon claims the ip4500 is faster for 4x6 prints, 21 seconds vs
36 seconds. It also claims the same speed for letter sized prints.

Presuming I'm correct, the only thing you don't get on the ip4300 is
the medium resolution, which might work better on some papers.

I own the ip5200 and mp830, which are basically the ip4300. I'm
perfectly pleased with it. I see no reason to upgrade.
 
I've just realized that getting an ip4500 is going to be quite
expensive (~£70-80).
OTOH I could get ip4300 for ~£40. The only difference I was able to
find is fewer number of nozzles (but the same 1/2/5pl drop sizes).
I guess it only makes printing a bit slower (as long as the rendering
engine stays the same - probably not).

What I wasn't able to find is if ip4600 (still deciding which printer
should I get) is able to work with refilled carts (probably by
disabling ink-monitor). F.e. my current C5180 doesn't allow to disable
ink-monitor (well, I haven't really tried - got a set of chips and a
resetter early on).
Another thing - I read somewhere that new carts (C52x) for ip4600 are
not transparent, which would make judging ink levels almost impossible
without ink monitor.


And that's a very big argument for me!


I sort of regret my decision 2 years ago to get C5180 instead of
ip4300/ip4500. I thought that permanent head in HP is going to be
really good. In terms of refilling - dead easy, no problems at all.
What bothers me is that some black nozzles (not a lot, and not always
visible) are clogged. I guess it might be my fault - having printed
hundreds of photos but not a lot of b&w text lead to a clog. Soon as I
realized that I changed my habits and the head doesn't get worse (but
doesn't get better either). Another thing which I've just noticed is
problem with printing very ligh blue skies with white clouds - there
is a very sharp transition from light blue into white (no ink at all).
I haven't noticed it earlier but I wasn't really printing such photos
(haven't been in 'warm countries' for holidays for quite some time).
Also almost every photo has to be brightened before printing on this
printer - otherwise it gets really dark. Profiling helps a bit, but
then the problem with light skies is very visible - just don't like
the results.

New HP - no idea what to do. I took a gable last time, it worked
reasonably well, but I'd prefer to stick to a 'known devil' this
time ;-)

I guess I'm gonna spend a week trying to figure out which printer to
get (and if there's a chance to get ip4500 for a good price - I think
I'll just get it ;-) )


Also I don't understand why certain people are bothering to answer to
measekite - is it him with several accounts? Then it should be fairly
easy to killfile the whole lot ;-)

Best,

Jerry1111
Click to expand...
Best to get an IP4600 and use Canon ink. Then you do not have to write
about your problems.
 
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