Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

I have been using my all time favorite Canon pro 100 printer for years. Dye ink printer making the most glorious prints that jump off the paper at you.
But the 17 dollar per ink cartridge of only 13 ml of ink was hurtful. I accepted that as the cost of the most beautiful prints ever.
Now there seems to be this new trend of bottled ink instead of cartridges. So I tried a Canon G620 printer (called a G650 in the UK).
This is dye ink with Black, Gray, Red, Magenta Cyan and Yellow. But ink is served from a 57 ml bottle for each color. Each bottle costs 15.00.  You do the math!!
Now to quality. I made numerous test prints from the Pro 100 to the G620. Since the G620 has a real RED ink and the pro 100 does not, hard scrutiny shows a truer red with the G620. The rest is identical.
Fantastic!  I have printed over 100 prints since I got it.  Only the gray bottle is down a half.The rest are still close to full.
The price is around 299.00 depending what store. I'll make that back in not having to buy 100 dollars worth of ink a month.
The DOWNSIDE    ...  The largest paper is 8.5 inches wide. The 11 x 14s and the 12 x 18s have to run through the Pro 100.
Oh as a bonus, it is a scanner and a copier machine too.
Just thought I'd pass this along to anyone that is interested.
I have currently pasted an 8 x 10 to the sunny window at my house from the G620, and another from the Pro 100 inks. Checking for fading. Let you know later.

Fred

So progress has deemed that I try the Epson ET 8550 printer as that one will print 13" wide and I can make my 12 x 18s and 11 x 14s. The ET stands for echo tank which sources the ink from bottles.
They KEY for me is DYE ink. (It does have a pigment black tank for printing documents) My prints jump off the page on this printer as well as the Canon G620.
I really wish you could see this baby print. 
As a bonus, it has a secret compartment that holds a pack of 8.5 x 11 plain copy paper.  This feature only comes alive if you selected plain paper, or as I did this morning, printed a receipt for my water bill from the water bill page. I was amazed when it used that paper.
That secret compartment is so secret that I had to ask our Mike how to access it. I knew he had a new 8550 too.
It has a halloween output tray too. What's that you ask? Usually on every printer I ever had (going back to dot matrix printers with a three color ribbon), you would pull out the tray as far as needed to accommodate the print paper coming out.
This guy sends its output tray out by magic. You stare at it the first time backing away from this "possessed" printer.
You don't need to do anything. Out slides the tray, and the printer is printing.
It put the fun back into printing for me and no more ink guzzling and high costs of replacement cartridges.
Fred

Did you paste a print in the window next to the other two?

I did with the Canon. Mike is checking the 8550  in his window. Probably cleaner than mine.
Fred

One more question - maybe you could do a test for me.  I print a lot of photo albums.  If you have a couple of spare prints, could you lay them face to face and put them under a book for a few days?  Would like to know if there is any problem with the pages sticking together.  I know this was a problem with some dye inks 20 years ago. They have resolved any major issues related to fading, so maybe this wont be an issue either.  Since I am contemplating that Epson bottle ink printer as my Epson stylus 3000 is threatening to go to that permanent nozzle clog in the sky.

Mel,
I now own 3 printers. I gave away the 17.00 per 13ml cartridge with auto cleaning cycles; my Canon Pro 100. A great printer but putting me in the poor house.

I got the G620 Canon first with bottled ink and worked it to death.  Finally, got an Epson 8550 after Mike put it through its paces.
The need for the Epson was not due to it  making better prints than the Canon, but because the Canon G620 had a max paper size of 8.5 x 11. We needed a 13 inch carriage. Hence Epson 8550.
The Epson has higher output rez, but it takes a Mike to see it.
On your sticking question, I am old and do not take anymore safaris. So I go through my thousands of images and print; print; print. I stack them on each other  until I empty a paper box. Then I put them in the box and give them away to retirement homes, churches,and Dr offices. Not a problem anywhere.
I have figured out that not needing to spend 90 dollars a month on cartridge ink,the savings will pay for my 8550
Mel, I too, have printed with every printer you can imagine. I even had a 3 color ribbon printer years ago.
Mel, you know me a long time. I wouldn't steer you wrong. Get an Epson 8550, and don't look back.

It even has a tray for plain paper which, It prints receipts or test prints, or whatever just by you selecting PLAIN PAPER in Qimage.
Stay well,
Fred

A quick second vote for the 8550.  I print everything on every type of paper including t-shirt transfers that go through the wash.  Never had a problem.  Dye inks today are competitive with pigment inks.  They've come a long way in the past 5 years.

Mike

I think I will be heading the Epson 8550 soon as well...Every time I replace an ink cartridge in my R2000 it takes 2-4 purge cycles for all colors to start working, even if I replace a cartridge before the warning.  The amount of money I've spent on ink the past couple years alone can justify me buying it!

Dave

Mike - curious - what Trimmer do you have / recommend?  Thanks!

He's probably busy this morning, but both Mike and I use Roto trimmers.
Don't get scared by the prices. There's one for us too.
Fred

Rotatrim Monorail is what I have: the smaller one.  Wish I had the bigger one so if you have the money, at least buy one big enough to cut a 13x19.

Mike