Photo Printing Costs.

Order our photo prints online, works out to around 10c a print from
BigW and the other mobs. More professional job then your desktop
printer.

At that price Oldbaz one has to think they are knockoffs but you may be lucky. Will be interested to see your report.

After reading many reviews/tests of compatible cartridge inks in the past I switched to G&G ink. Used to be made in USA, perhaps still is, but it usually scores much better than other compatibles in most test areas - colour, fading, clogging, no of prints etc. The photography websites are where you find the most comprehensive tests of printers inks by the way.

I've experienced the occasional printhead clogging problems often mentioned in reviews, and it's a big PITA and waste of ink (money) cleaning them. This is the big risk with non-genuine inks, altho with the cost of printers these days it is probably cheaper to use compatible inks and replace the printer when it 'dies' (not good for the environment mind you). I haven't bothered to test, but my gut feeling is that the genuine cartridges lasted significantly longer also.

Incredible the lengths the knockoff merchants will go to in China. Bought some Sanyo Eneloop batteries from Sth Korea about 12 months ago. They were genuine fortunately but shortly after I'd ordered them I came across a site which discussed 'replicas'. Almost impossible to pick the difference (which was primarily an ever so slightly different tip shape from memory), and being sold for the same premium that goes with Eneloops. Apparently some had made their way into bricks & mortar retail shops, so that was no guarantee either.

We have been using a continuous ink system via ebay with great results & huge savings. Get UV stabilised inks and you shouldn't have a fading issue.

Pat

Haha .. in Australia you get ripped off by most importers and again the retailers. In case of ink we get ripped off badly by the manufacturer also.

I have an Epson 9600 44" printer since years and use 220ml cartridges from ebay since I have it. One cartridge is $170 here in OZ and a set of 7 (7 colours) cost me US$185 on ebay ... Had no problems whatsoever and it has used a few liters of ink over the years.

It is not economical to print on a small desktop even with cheap ink. The good paper is too expensive in sheets and unless you colour calibrate your printer with a good profile for your paper and ink your colours are not going to be top notch.
But that also holds true for many commercial prints, since many do not work with profiles. 99% of consumers accept whats coming out of the lab because they don't know better and think it's their camera,computer, or lack of knowledge that colours are off.

If you want to do larger prints of your photos it is good practise to have a couple of labs print small(cheap) copies first and see what you get and then find a print shop with a calibrated workflow (you see on a monitor what you get on the printer).

You can also profile a lab machine and some labs even give you the profile of their machine(s) or at least tell you in which colour space to supply the photos, but that only makes sense when you have a calibrated monitor.

Have fun
gmd

I always used genuine inks in my topline Canon photo printer and still had troubles with blockages due to infrequent use. Plus the costs of ink and paper. So I dumped it in favour of a colour laser for the occasional colour job and use the discount print kiosks for the prints we want. Better quality, cheaper and they keep getting cheaper. Way to go.

OldBaz, try this company INK DEPOT po box 819 kenmore 4069 Queensland ph 07 33784627 fax 07 33787095 you can order online , we have used them many times and you can order genuine products as well as generics , price is real good ,hope this helps. cheers H & A.

I wouldnt bother with the inkjet photo's,finished doing that years ago..Unless you want to print off some naughty stuff for youreyes only ....lmao...

Go to BigW etc and get 10c per pic on Kodak paper...Easy.

Thank you ,folks, for your responses. I do indeed use the discount places for
the run of the mill photo printing jobs, but prefer to fiddle myself when trying
various camera settings & exposures. I have a couple of hundred B&W prints,
about 2" by 1 1/2" taken by my aunt in the early 30's, all of our family property,
& I am enjoying tricking them up to A4, making adjustments & fine tuning as I go.
Yes, of course I could take them to the pros, but what fun in that ? Yes, ink can
cost a bit, but maybe I have that under control now. Oh, & a little tip for you
experts....keep all your photos on the original SD cards..longest lasting, & safest
form...if kept secure.........oldbaz.

Hi Oldbaz, am watching this thread with interest. We have a 'supposedly' good cannon printer but I've always had problems getting the right colours to come out, never the same as on the computer. My biggest problem is printing on CD covers, I like to pick a picture that is in the theme of the songs on the CD but the colours never seem to be as bright or clear.

Thanks for the thread.

Cheers

D

Go back to the post from Pat Sproule. He's right. CISS is the answer. You can cut ink costs by over 95% (that is not a typo, 95%) and also get better quality shots. However, it is easier to fit a CISS to some printers than to others. Ink Jet City in Adelaide specialize in these systems and in matching CISS to particular printers. The Epson TX710W has an inkfeed system that works especially well with some CISS systems because of the way the heads on that machine are connected to the ink reservoirs. The other big advantage is that you can fill each ink reservoir independently and even with heavy use, you are unlikely to need to refill a tank more than once a year. I have never had a blockage with this system. Even if you leave the thing untouched for lengthy oeriods, it maintains itself.
If you contact InkJet City in Adelaide, I think they would be able to get a similar set up somewhere close to you. Contact me if you need more info. (Nope, I don't sell the things, but I have done a lot of printing.)