Poll

[CEVisker]

For those of you who use photo printers, I am curious as to how many of you use the genuine manufactures ink or if you use 3rd party compatible ink and from who?

Any other comments appreciated.

[barryfernelius]

I use high-end Epson photo printers. I print quite a few pictures, and I always use the manufacturer's inks.

I also seem to get consistently good results.

-Barry R. Fernelius

[DNHayashida]

I have a HP Photosmart 1000 printer, and I use refill kits to refill the cartridge. If you stick with the same company for refill ink the results will be consistant. The OEM HP cartridges do give slightly better results, but it's not worth the $50.00 for a cartridge as opposed to $25.00 for a kit that I can refill the cartridge 3 or 4 times. One refill kit saves me enough money to buy another printer if I wanted.

Darryl Hayashida

[Swat2]

I had a nice little Epson 800. I thought it would be safe to use a refill kit on the black cartridge because color match wouldn't be a problem. Wrong! The new ink clogged the printer head and no amount of cleaning would clear it.

Now I use only Canon inks in my new 820.

Don

[dn7elson]

Canon s9000.

I use the Canon inks and usually either Kodak or Canon papers.

[markshap99]

I have a Canon BJC-6000 with the photo head and an Epson Photo 785EPX. With the Canon I tried refill kits and several different "off brands" of cartriges with varying levels of disaster. I've had leaking cartriges, gummy heads that will not clean, streaks, puddles, etc. As long as I use OEM ink and Canon or Kodak paper my results are excellent. With the Epson the disasters are a little different. the Epson cartiges have a little chip attached that measures the amount of ink used. When it reports that the cartrige is empty no amount of refilling will help, you have to reset this chip somehow. Off brand cartriges gave inconsistent results even with Epson paper. Speaking of paper, the Epson inks are a bit different from other inks. and don't work with all papers. I tried some Jet Print Photo paper and the ink would not penetrate. When I contacted Jet Print they admitted that their paper would not accept the Epson glycol based inks, however, they did not seem willing to make good on my purchase. With Epson paper and inks my results are indistiguishable from a quality photo print.

In conclusion, I found the off brand materials and refill kits to be false economy. I shop on the web to find good prices for OEM materials and I can rely on consistent high quality results.

On last bit of advice if you insist on refilling your own cartriges, I found, through bitter experience, that Oxyclean will get your hands and fingers clean. Also your nose - I had an itch!

Mark