Cost of ownership (Canon I9900)

[ordnance1]

I am wondering if anyone has calculated the cost of printing on the Canon I9900?

My local photoshop has an Agfa machine and charges about $2.50 a print for 8x10's. How does this compare to the cost of printing the same photo on the Canon I9900?

[Longwatcher]

Lets see: (all amounts in US dollars)
I get about 40 borderless 8x10 in exchange for 6 of my 8 cartridges
$25 retail (not on sale) for a box of 40 Kodak Ultima sheets (Ilford runs me $50 for 100)
retail the ink carts are $13 each times 6 equals $78
So if there are no sales and I can't find anywhere else it runs $103 per 40 borderless 8x10 or $2.58 per print.

On the real side, I tend to buy most of my paper when it is buy one get one free, and actual purchase of ink run me $10 per cart on average (sometimes less) so
Call it $75 per 40 borderless 8x10 or $1.875 per print (or a little under $2 per print, given it is not quite 40 prints per 6 cartridges.

If you add a border I will get about 50 8x10 prints.

Note in my experience you will burn through 2 photo Magenta, 1+2/3 photo Cyan, 1 black, 1 yellow , 2/3 cyan, 2/3 magenta for each set of 40 prints. My green and red inks seem to be lasting about 120 prints or more each. You burn rate may vary depending on what you shoot. I shoot models mostly.

Just my experience,

[kb244]

Basically yer looking at 32 to 36 cents per 4x6 print using the canon ink, and photo paper pro. And about 80 cents to a dollar for the 8.5x11.

They do have cost comparism here when they tested the iP4000 and iP5000 which are much lower models than the 9900.

http://www.tomshardware.com/consumer/20041025/printer-11.html

[terryt]

I'm buying Kodak Premium Picture Paper at Costco for $16.79 for 200 sheets, 8.5x11 is the same price for 100 sheets.

Costco's Kirtland brand paper is $18.95 for 125 sheets. A real bargan for all three papers.

With me refilling my cartridges it cost me very little to print anything. It might cost about $1.50 to 2.00 to refill my cartridges, so as you can see I can print a 4x6 for about .10 cents a print.

If I printed 3 4x6 prints on 8.5x11 paper cost would be about .07 cents a print.

I hope Costco doesn't realize what a bargan their Paper is and raise the price.

[Danny Boy]

I recently purchased the i9900 and have not yet had to replace any of the ink cartridges. I was unaware that you could refill them yourself and save money. Is there a place I can reference where there are instructions on how to refill the cartridges? Also, where do you purchase the ink in bulk so that you can refill them yourself?

Dan

[ejwebb]

I would go with Longwatcher's estimates of cost using quality inks and papers. They are more consistent with my experience with a i9100 and s820 which both use six of the inks used by the i9900, although I have never really done a detailed analysis.

I do not trust non-Canon inks for their color consistency, longetivity or potential negative impact on the print head - which cost $100 to replace. Also, many of the cheap papers are much more susceptible to gas fading - especially the "quick dry" variety. If you choose to use the third party inks and cheap paper based on your use of the prints, go for it - just be aware of the compromises you are making. Your prints may not look as good or last as long as those made with quality ingredients. Most of us do not print our own because it's cheaper but because we retain control of the output.

[Rob612]

I do not trust non-Canon inks for their color consistency, longetivity or potential negative impact on the print head - which cost $100 to replace.

I'll second that. I do not use (yet) a 9900 but an Epson and I never trusted the non original inks. I've heard stories on both sides of that practice, from the best to the worst. But I like to play it on the safer side, so I'll stick to the original tanks.