Forget You, Epson!

I've had the Epson Stylus Photo 1280 printer for I guess near five years now, or close to it. I haven't really printed my images too often but it's something I've been getting more and more into...

So a few weeks ago I drop in two new carts and run off a bunch of 4x6" prints. Not even that many... I go to print an 8x10" this past weekend and the damned things are empty again!

It costs around $50 for genuine Epson carts at your local store. Though I've found (in my limited experience with them) that third-party carts work also. But ENOUGH ALREADY!

I picked up a CIS system from Print On a Dime via eBay. It came with six 8oz. bottles of ink! I went with this system over some of the other, more expensive ones available. I just didn't see enough of a difference, if any, to justify the additional cost. Time will tell on the ink though. Same concept and execution on all of them pretty much.

After the initial "fun" of priming the system and getting everything filled up, etc. it has so far worked well. I had to run a few nozzle/head cleanings and printed a few pages of the famous "purge6.tif" file to get the ink moving. Cool. Printed a few 4x6" images. Cool.

So far, so good! A few minor issues that I need to resolve though. The tubing snags on the printer innards and no amount of support or tubing adjustment has thus far resolved this. I'm sure I'll find a happy medium (or some sort of solution) with additional fiddling. The support also doesn't seem to work well with the printer cover down while printing (so far) but I don't find this a great loss.

The image quality seems to be on par with Epson paper and ink but I've done very, very limited testing so far. More due this weekend when I have time to play and have worked out the remaining issues.

I'll post up some detailed pictures of the set up, more info on it, etc.

To celebrate, I bought a box of 150 Kodak Ultra Premium Glossy Paper, 4x6" size for the quick handout photos that I seem to be doing more and more of. Given the amount of paper and ink I now have on-hand, I could pass for a 30 minute photo joint.

Once all the issues are resolved, I'll get to business and print some of my favorite photos 11x17" or maybe 13x19" and mat/frame them.

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I'm thinking of picking up one of these things for my R200. It seems messy though, I don't want to mess up then get ink everywhere!

I use refillable cartridges and bulk ink from MIS with my
Epson 1290. Easy to do for anyone with minimal manual ability (even a clumsy klutz like me) and I'm very pleased with the quality.
I can't say anything about longevity yet, but Epson's inks for the 1290 are not archival quality anyway and MIS does have a set of pigment based archival inks that are suitable for the 1290, which will be my next purchase after I've finished the current lot.
Elie

You may be sacrificing archival quality of your prints. Most prints always look good right out of the printer, but the test will be just a year or 2 down the road and see how the color looks. I don't waste my time and money printing 4x6 at home in large amounts. I take it to walmart for 19 cents each.

Hellashot wrote in post #2022068
You may be sacrificing archival quality of your prints. Most prints always look good right out of the printer, but the test will be just a year or 2 down the road and see how the color looks. I don't waste my time and money printing 4x6 at home in large amounts. I take it to walmart for 19 cents each.

exactly, you're in for a world of hurt to save a few cents. archivalness, color gamut, color profiles, clogged heads etc

I'd upgrade to a 4000 or 4800 to save on ink if its that big of a deal

i had an A3 size print printed on a printer as a test and 6 months down the line its faded to a horrible pale yellow when once it was a lovely grainy sepia.

I solved the problem with the tubing interfering with the printhead. Now I just need to see if I can move the support arm in some way to allow the cover to fully close.

But otherwise, the ink is flowing and I've made several 4x6 and an 8x10 print - and the colors are spot-on and the detail sharp and lovely. No clogs or leaks. Indeed, time will tell on the longevity of the print(s) but if it's not that great, I can bet better inks - including pigment-based. So I'm not terribly worried about that just yet.

I've printed some stuff on Epson paper using their ink that's been sitting in a frame in varrying degrees of light (admittedly though not direct sunshine) and it's going strong after two years or so.

If I'm that worried about true archival then yes, I can send out for prints. But for informal stuff and for proofing - this is a great setup if nothing else.

So does the CIS system work? Absolutely. The setup, especially the initial priming part is a bit weird... But it should work out reasonably well long-term.