Can't decide what I want.. (Printers)

[coldpower27]

Here are the available options from the B&M Stores in my area of Toronto.

Canon PIXMA IP4200 82 CAN

Canon PIXMA IP4300 149 CAN

Canon PIXMA IP5200 129 CAN

Canon PIXMA MP510 129 CAN

Canon PIXMA MP530 179 CAN (Little Bit Expensive and Kinda Outside what I want)

HP Photosmart 8250 149 CAN

I like them to have intelligent Ink Tank Systems, and these seem to be the only ones in my price range. What do you guys think?

 

[Lemon law]

To coldpower27,

No where in that list is your printing needs---in terms of yearly printing volume---how often you print---what you need the printer to do---will you be doing much photoprinting?
Do you want just a printer---could you use a scanner---and if so what will you need it for---and what about a fax?

But short answer---and given the prices---the ip4200 is the best value---as its print quality will be on a par with the HP 8250---but its per page ink consumable costs with OEM cartridges will be half that of a HP8250. And the Canon ones on that list--even if chipped--can now take cloned third party cartridges---and also be refilled to really slash consumable costs. But if you use other than OEM cartridges in a Canon--you lose ink monitoring.

 

[coldpower27]

Originally posted by: Lemon law
To coldpower27,

No where in that list is your printing needs---in terms of yearly printing volume---how often you print---what you need the printer to do---will you be doing much photoprinting?
Do you want just a printer---could you use a scanner---and if so what will you need it for---and what about a fax?

But short answer---and given the prices---the ip4200 is the best value---as its print quality will be on a par with the HP 8250---but its per page ink consumable costs with OEM cartridges will be half that of a HP8250. And the Canon ones on that list--even if chipped--can now take cloned third party cartridges---and also be refilled to really slash consumable costs. But if you use other than OEM cartridges in a Canon--you lose ink monitoring.

Sorry about that, I guess I should provide some of the information you suggested. I will be printing from time to time, so my worry is that the ink will dry during the time it isn't active.

I would also like to be able to have a scanner, and having a fax would be nice, but I don't think I am in too great of a need for that.

When you say OEM cartridges do you mean ones made by Canon or ones made by third parties?

I dunno because from where I live each CLI-8 ink tank is 20 CND, ans the Pigment Black is 21, however the Photosmart's Vivera Ink tanks can be gotten in a Single Package of all 6 Ink tanks in one shot for 40 CND. So I am having a hard time chooisng. These are for official inks by both companies respectively. As well though it seems the Canon ink tanks are of larger capacity in comparison to HP so that skews things off a little as well.

So you believe a printer with the 1856 Nozzles is the way to go out of these listed prices?

 

[Lemon law]

To coldpower27,

OEM=original equipment manufactured--so we are talking actual Canon cartridges made by Canon---or HP cartridges made by HP. But if memory serves me correct---some of the cartridges that go into the HP 8250 are really tiny---as few as 3-5 ML of ink---whereas the large text black Canon CLI-5 is 26 ml and all of the CLI-8's are 14 ml--so they go a long time. But its easy to check--read the fine print on the sides of the replacement cartridges and it will give ink content. But all OEM ink vended in the form of cartridges is a giant rip off---ranging from a low of $2600/gal to well over $10,000 a gallon---and top quality refill ink can be had in any color for about $100/gal.---you can use any unit and compare prices---the gallon I choose is just an arbitrary large unit---and worse yet---of all that super expensive OEM ink---only about 75% is usable ink.

But its a common curse that no ink jet printer does well with no printing for months---when a HP cartridge dries out--you replace the cartridge and get fresh ink and a new cheap printhead. When a Canon printhead has too much dried ink inside--you can usually remove the printhead and clean it by soaking. And while the IP4300 has more nozzles--that impacts print speed far more than print quality. But if you print once a month---you should have no problems---usually a clean cycle will get things working without having to remove the printhead.

 

[coldpower27]

Originally posted by: Lemon law
To coldpower27,

OEM=original equipment manufactured--so we are talking actual Canon cartridges made by Canon---or HP cartridges made by HP. But if memory serves me correct---some of the cartridges that go into the HP 8250 are really tiny---as few as 3-5 ML of ink---whereas the large text black Canon CLI-5 is 26 ml and all of the CLI-8's are 14 ml--so they go a long time. But its easy to check--read the fine print on the sides of the replacement cartridges and it will give ink content. But all OEM ink vended in the form of cartridges is a giant rip off---ranging from a low of $2600/gal to well over $10,000 a gallon---and top quality refill ink can be had in any color for about $100/gal.---you can use any unit and compare prices---the gallon I choose is just an arbitrary large unit---and worse yet---of all that super expensive OEM ink---only about 75% is usable ink.

But its a common curse that no ink jet printer does well with no printing for months---when a HP cartridge dries out--you replace the cartridge and get fresh ink and a new cheap printhead. When a Canon printhead has too much dried ink inside--you can usually remove the printhead and clean it by soaking. And while the IP4300 has more nozzles--that impacts print speed far more than print quality. But if you print once a month---you should have no problems---usually a clean cycle will get things working without having to remove the printhead.

Ink Tanks for IP4200
http://www.tonik.co.uk/Inkjet-Cartridge...anon-Pixma-Series/Canon-iP4200/kz1837/

Ink Tanks for 8250
http://www.tonik.co.uk/Inkjet-Cartridge...mart-Series/HP-PhotoSmart-8250/kz1837/

Note I am only using above the ink tank sizes not the price.

The nice thing about the ink in the 8250 is that the package will all 6 is only 43 CND.

Yeah the color ones are pretty staggered, but if you average them out it works out to 4.9ml per tank across the 5 for color and 17ml for the big black one.

To get the entire set of ink for IP4200 I would need 4 CLI-8 cartridges with the PGI-5 so that would be 4x20 + 21 which is 101 CND dollars, but that is 4x13 + 26ml of ink so it's not apples to apples at all.

I dunno from the math I have it keeps working out the Canon inks come out to more expensive per mL then the HP Vivera inks. This is as long as that 6 Pack special is used, if I had to get the ink separately then they would sky rocket to 5x12 + 23 which is 83 CND dollars which is pretty expensive.

So for Canon separately 13x4 + 26ml = 78ml for 101 CND, 1.29 dollars per mL
So for HP together (4+3.5+6+5.5+5.5) + 17ml = 41.5ml for 43 CND 1.04 dollars per mL
So for HP separate (4+3.5+6+5.5+5.5) + 17ml = 41.5ml for 83 CND 2.00 dollars per mL (EEK!!)

So going back to your units 1.29 dollars per mL translates to 5863 dollars per Gallon since 1 Gallon = 4545 mL if my conversion rates are correct.

Though the downside is that I would be forced to buy HP Vivera ink always in the 6 Pack with 1 of each color and I can't control which ink I will run down on. So I will have some left over cartridges always.

Going with the Canon ink I can get only the color I need and still get a decent OEM price on the ink.

I kinda expect Canon/HP to rip me off, it's the same idea as Cell Phone plans giving us a phone for basically nothing and charging alot over time for the service itself.

Though I have considered the possibility of using third party inks, I am afraid it might damage my print head or output bad quality prints... What are your thoughts on the issue?

The model of 8250 though were looking at I thought has a reservoir system, so the print head is locked inside the printer I believe?

 

[Lemon law]

To coldpower27,

I am pretty sure the conversion rate between milliliters to a US gallons is 1 to 3785 and a tiny amount past the decimal--but prices are sure different in the US vs. Canada.

In terms of the refill ink Vs. OEM argument---very cheap and untested ink is never very safe---and likewise one should never trust a refill ink advertised to work in all printers.
But there are forums populated by photoprinters---who test and rate various inks---and some of the top rated ones---the so called big three with inks vended by hobbicolors,
MIS, or formula labs are found to be every bit as safe as OEM ink--with excellent color match as well---and those vendors will market different inks for different brands of printers. The one area where OEM inks seems to be superior is in the area of fade resistance. But no inkjet ink is all that good in that area---and the photopaper is of equal importance.

The forums I recommend are the nifty stuff forums and steves digicams---where you can get deep coverage of just these topics and also avoid having a potentially biased poster like myself.---and get a far greater diversity of opinion. But on those forums non chipped Canon users will be present---and in MHO--get a non-chipped Canon if possible---but that sadly is no longer an easy option as they have been out of production for a while now.

 

[xgsound]

The cartridges last about 6 months for me and have no troublesome chips. I have a IP5000 that uses the older CLI-3 and 6 ink. It and my previous Canons have gone weeks (never tried months) without printing with no problem. I use http://www.swiftink.com (I don't know if they ship to Canada) for $3.95 USD replacement cartridges. They have replacements for the newer carts (same price) that require that you reuse the chips.


Jim

 

[Zepper]

But you'll find that you don't run out of ink evenly so if you buy 6 at a time, you'll end up with a pile of cyan tanks you can't use (and probably some of the photo colors too). Generally not smart to buy in a bundle like that unless you buy a bundle and an extra yellow and magenta and black. At least those are the ones I run out of faster. That is the whole purpose of separate ink tanks. You don't have to buy all the colors to get the one you need...

.bh.