Canon has changed their inkjet cartridges.

[Macro2]

Canon is coming out with a new line of inkjet printers. The IP4200 is already in stores.
I managed to get a look at the cartridges in it and found them to be roughly the same physical size as the current BCI-3 and BCI-6 cartridges except that the ink reservoir appears to be smaller (holds less ink). There also appears to be a chip of some kind located on the lower front edge of the cartridge.
When the cartridge is in the printer it activates an LED light for some reason. Maybe to measure the ink... OTOH, will the printer run without the chip?

All this could be a major blow to the Canon generic market. Stay tooned...and if you needd a printer get one of the current older models asap.
I priced the IP4200 cartridges at about $16 a piece.
They are supposed to have 100 year ink in them, called chromalife.

 

[HDTVMan]

I read recently that HP now sells thier printers at or just below cost of manufacturing. They did this to try and gain market share in hopes of making money on INK and Toner. So I wouldnt put it past others to chip thier ink cartridges in order to drop printer prices and do the same.

 

[Algere]

I'm leaning towards it being a "use Canon inks only" chip & not one that just indicates ink tank supply. I'm no market expert but I can imagine that with the competiveness of today's market, perhaps Canon had to increase their profit & reduce cost by making sure the consumer can't use generics ergo in turn more money in their pockets when ppl buy their inks (Hey!) + lower RMA repairs/exchanges; an insurance per se against generics clogging the nozzles (nothing new here but for Canon...). In addition, with the increased amount of nozzles & performance on the newer models' print heads, one could assume it's more costlier to repair/replace them. More so the possible reason for Canon to implement this chip now.

$0.02 worth...

 

[Macro2]

No doubt they are tired of generics...but generics are what made them great for us. I'm sure they don't look at it that way.
I have seen the carts and the ink reservoir is smaller. Clearly for the sake of profit.
The carts did look refillable though. Dunno if you need to reset any chip though.
If the market is there, someone will reformulate the ink and duplicate any chip. OTOH, this will set back the whole generic cartridge market for a while. And then there may be patent violations.
Personally, I'm going to stockpile a couple older models.

Maybe Peter can weigh in on the cartridges after he sees them.

 

[Zepper]

Yeah, with the iP4000 going for around $80. AR it might be worth it to grab one for a spare...

.bh.

 

[Macro2]

If you have bought a computer since february you can get the IP4000 down to $50.

 

[eplebnista]

Originally posted by: Macro2
If you have bought a computer since february you can get the IP4000 down to $50.

 

[Budmantom]

I might have to buy another ip1500.



Tom

 

[Peter]

Canon clarifies (german):

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/63293

Roughly translated: The added logic inside the cartridge is for improved ink level detection, nothing else. Cartridges can be refilled, 3rd party ink making is not prohibited.

 

[Algere]

Originally posted by: Peter
Canon clarifies (german):

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/63293

Roughly translated: The added logic inside the cartridge is for improved ink level detection, nothing else. Cartridges can be refilled, 3rd party ink making is not prohibited.

Babel Fish translation...

"Re+fill further possible

Against the first appearance Canons will be nevertheless refillable next print head generation -- to admire also in new photo printers starting from 2 September on the international radio exhibition -- probably: Michael Lukschander, marketing leader for Austria, indicated Futurezone opposite the ORF news magazine the fact that owners of printer also in the future original cartridges by syringe to again-fill or can use reproduction cartridges.

Recently implantierte electronics serves only level control and is to increase so the comfort, means Lukschander. Likewise that is possible for far pressures as empty announced tank, in order to use also the last ink remainder. Printers of other manufacturers refuse then frequently the service and force their owner to premature change of the expensive cartouche. The decision might help Canon, which good place with the customer satisfaction to hold (ea/c't)"


Good news indeed , assuming it's true.

 

[imported_goku]

fvcking bastards, always moving to smaller and smaller ink cartridges! :| This is why I get piss off when family members try to print up hundreds of pages on their goddamn inkjet printers.

 

[Algere]

Originally posted by: goku
fvcking bastards, always moving to smaller and smaller ink cartridges! :| This is why I get piss off when family members try to print up hundreds of pages on their goddamn inkjet printers.

Relatively speaking

Old ink tanks: + more ink / - ink wasted due to lack of better detection (chip)
New ink tanks: + less ink wasted due to chip / - less ink in the tank than the former

Looks like it's pretty much even steven at this point, more or less.

However there's still the $2-3 cost difference to contend with between the two. My guess is as good as anyone's so I surmise it's possible it could be due to the newness of the ink type/technology or perhaps the formula used to produce the results of their [Canon] "ChromaLife 100" cost a bit more to manufacture. Now if the new chip detects $2-3 worth of ink before signaling the low ink/empty tank warning compared to the older tanks in addition to making up for the lower ink supply, I have no problems with that :thumbsup:.

 

[LED]

If the ink is suppose to last 100 yrs on paper then that in itself is an improvement over the 20 yr life it had/has

 

[you2]

Does the ip4200 require the new cartridge or will it also work with the old ones (if you don't mind the fading prints

you2

 

[Peter]

Very probably won't.

 

[Zepper]

With the old tanks, you can hit the "continue/ignore" button and keep right on printing until the tank is dry - of course you have to take responsibility for watching out after that to avoid frying the print head. . Can you do that with the new tanks?

ed. Well, I think the answer to my question is embedded somewhere in the "translation" of the German story above... So maybe the increase in TCO over the current line won't be as bad as I imagined and the time to 3rd party knock-offs should be considerably lessened if there is no active chip in them.

. My guess would be that the shape of the new tanks is different enough that the old ones wont fit in the head. Not to mention the changes in drivers due to the new formulations of ink. Refilling the tanks with old-style ink would be problematic too for the same reason.

Next question: Did we finally get CD/DVD printing.?. Answer appears to be no...

.bh.

 

[morkus64]

honestly, i don't care whether they're refillable or not, if they would just keep them at the current price point... i love being able to get genuine cratriges for my mp760 from around 9 bucks a pop... muuuuch better thnan my old epson.

 

[Peter]

Zepper, yes, the German article quotes exactly that statement from Canon: You _can_ choose to continue printing even when the new, chip-assisted ink level detection reads empty.

You won't get CD printing in the US from anyone but Seiko/Epson, ever. Complain to your patent office.

 

[Zepper]

Well, at least some of the old Pixmas are convertable to CD printing if you want to go to the trouble. I doubt that any patent on CD printing could hold up to a concerted challenge.

.bh.

 

[Peter]

Patents protect companies from stealing an idea and making money with it. You can still DIY-build something patent protected for use in your own closet - just don't sell it, or publish instructions on how to build it.

In other words, there is no patent violation in making a cardboard copy of the missing CD tray and hacking the cover off the "forbidden path" on the printer.

Of course, the proper way of doing this would be to challenge the patent for being too trivial or too broad. The US patent office has a track record of allowing broad patents to the extent of patenting gloves with five sleeves for fingers. (I'm exaggerating, albeit only slightly.)

 

[13Gigatons]

Next question: Did we finally get CD/DVD printing.?. Answer appears to be no...

Not officially but it can be enabled on IP3000, IP4000, IP5000, IP6000 & MP750, MP760, MP780 : http://pixma.cjb.net

 

[Zepper]

13Gig...

Already noted in the second message back from yours...

.bh.

 

[you2]

So do you recommend getting the new 500 or the old 780 ?

 

[you2]

So do you recommend getting the new mp 500 or the old mp 780 ?

 

[wseyller]

The main reason for chips on all cartridges is to control the consumables and slow down remanufacturers. In the remanufacturing industy chips are known as ARD (anti-recycling-devices).

Some OEM's are worst than others though. HP isn't real bad. With their chipped toner cartridges when the chip is removed or not replaced they will still function. Only certain features are disabled such as toner low signals. Lexmark is the worst for trying to gain total market share with their consumables. Their chips provide total lockdown when a replacement chip is not used. They even try to change firmware to make existing replacement chips not work with printers with newer firmware to confuse the remanufacturing industy. Lexmark has been part of a lawsuit that has been going on for a few years now. They sued a company called Static Control a huge vendor of aftermarket imaging supplies. They reversed engineered lexmark chip and lexmark sued them claiming both copyright infringement and circumvention in violation of the DMCA. Lexmark tried to convince that their chip was a toner loading program when in fact it was a lockout chip. Static Control has been victorious so far in the rulings. Also Lexmark created a prebate program that provided cartridges at a lower value as long as the cartridge wasn't remanufacturer afterwards. They put fear, uncertaintity and doubt into remanufacters as they were worried that they would get sued for remanufacturing the prebate cartridges. Currently though Lexmarks prebate program is illegal in the state of north carolina since some court rulings.

I believe the OEM will eventually be stopped from trying to monopolize. Many remanufacturers and vendors are part of an organization that work together. It helps with developing new technology, keeping remanufacturers on a consistant quality level with standarized testing, and fighting the large giant companies the OEM's are.