Canon "Compatible" Ink Cartridges

[terrijo]

I do A LOT of my own printing of the portrait photos that I take. I'm trying to start my own business at this. Recently, I started trying some much cheaper "compatible" inks that are guaranteed to be as good as genuion Canon inks on my Canon S9000 printer, but I'm noticing that my black and white photos (which weren't great with geniune ink) are now more blue and white vs gray and white. I'm also having a hard time with colors matching on my monitor vs printed (much more so than before) so I chalk it up to the cheap ink. Is this the case? Anyone else try this? (Sorry if this is an old question--I'm new). Are there any cheap ink cartridges that really do measure up to genuine Canon ink cartridges? If I do have to stick with genuine Canon ink cartridges, are there good online places to buy them cheaper than canon.com? Any such thing as refills for the real ink? I also have only used Canon papers....is there a better combination of papers/inks on the Canon S9000?

[PhotosGuy]

I do most of my small prints at Walgreens, but just picked up a Canon printer for rush stuff, so I'm giving this a <bump> ;-)

[mwinog2777]

Yes, this has been hammered to death on this forum.

The final conclusion, if you use Canon paper, use only Canon ink. If you have Canon printer, use Canon inks.

[S45_fornow...]

Let me hammer this Q some more:

I was using generic ink with my S820 for awhile and I think it is the reason why the printhead is now bad (photo magenta nozzle is trashed and produces really bad micro-banding). The S820 has a bad rep for bad printheads anyway, so who really knows... Most Canon photo printers utilize 2-picoliter droplet technology, and I think that most generic inks either have enough impurities in them to eventually clog and/or damage the nozzles on the printhead, or the ink itself just coagulates and precipitates in the cartidge faster if the printer has not seen frequent use. The colors of the generic inks I used (box had a rainbow on the side) looked pretty decent, although I did notice some faster than usual fading. FYI, I always used Canon print paper.

I just bought a refurbished i960 printer and I've already decided to use only Canon brand ink carts from now on.

[terrijo]

Thank you. Sorry to bring it up again :-) I did look back through the forum and didn't see anything real recently.

[GPR1]

See the sticky in this forum about Canon inks. Longwatcher has done a great deal of personal testing. I use the Ilford Galerie Classic Gloss with good results.

Greg

[PhotosGuy]

See the sticky in this forum about Canon inks. D'oh! Missed that one!

[terrijo]

I missed it too the first time. But I read it and ran right out to get the suggested papers and genuine ink for my S9000 printer. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!! The genuine inks with the Kodak ultima High gloss paper (I've not tried the Satin yet), is awesome. So much better even than the genuine ink with Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy which was the best I'd seen until now. Thanks all!