What annoyed you today?

[greypoint]

I can refill with compatibles for about £6 and when they eventually work they're fine for what I want - you don't need 200 year print life for notebooks and greetings cards. If I could get genuine for about £15 - £20 I might think about keeping a set by me but 5carts at around £8 -£9 each for a thimbleful of ink just makes everything I produce too expensive when you add on the other costs. I've just bought a cheapie Canon - wonder if that will be as bad??

[Hinfrance]

If you want cheap original ink, then Kodak is your brand.

Having just had to replace the cartridges, yet again, in our quotidian Canon MP250 at a cost of nearly €40 for the small capacity ones, I am minded to buy a Kodak before this lot run out.

Trouble is, no one in France, at first glance, seems to sell Kodak.*

*Andy, tell me it ain't so . .

Just seen there is a Kodak.fr site, so someone must have them.

[Beaux Reflets]

I have not seen Kodak inks in the shops but they have an online shop @ www.kodak.fr Howard - Hope your back is better soon  .

[Matthew]

Dont get me started on ink....It costs me the best part 0f 50 quid to replace all 6 of the cartridges in my HP Photosmart C5180...

[Graham]

     I had an Epson R800 and it got to the point where I just refused to buy the carts.
     I came to the conclusion that it was just taking up desk space which would be better devoted to other clutter.
     I have to say, the Epson R800 does make a most satisfying noise when thrown from a first floor window!
     Anyone want an unopened red cart T0547?
                         Graham.

[greypoint]

Well.....I left said printer sans carts and switched off for 5 hours while I was away at the kennels [this is supposed to allow the memory to clear]. Re-inserted...red light....remove,switch off/on.....re-insert ...red light....lose temper....throw empty carts very hard at printer...try once more ...success...the beating worked...set up printer to do the outside of newsletter...everything a nice shade of green...re-clean head and adjust settings....success, print initial 20 copies....re-insert paper to print inside of newsletter...paper jams after 5 sheets and I notice the prints it has just done have lots of lines down them....control temper...re-clean head....continue.....have a number of none too brilliant but acceptable newsletters so go on to print the rest.......and if I ever suggest buying another Epson printer must remember to ask comeone to shoot me 

[Beaux Reflets]

Seems we all suffer from the greed cycle these printer companies are on with their insistance towards creating a monopoly to only use their ink. One day someone will wake up and respond when customers say enough is enough and start selling a machine that meets the need without such an awful waste in half empty ink pots of overpriced ink, while many babies and young children are starving or just thriving with the assistance of Aid programs! - Shame upon the greedy bug-ers   

Then I guess such companies, have still not yet cottoned on to the simple fact, that given a decent quality of life these less well off folk become their new customers

[Hinfrance]

I have owned two Epsons. One I sold to someone who was desperate for a printer - any printer - I had run through all of the ink in the starter cartridges trying to get a decent print without getting anything even close to acceptable.

Some considerable time later I bought a cheap as chips all-in-one for our day to day printer - it was hideous - slow, very noisy and appalling quality. At least the Canon we replaced it with works as well as can be expected for the money, which was less than we had paid for the Epson. As an aside the salesman tried to sell us a €45 cartridge refill with the Epson thing on the basis that the printer was sold without any ink at all. That should have the clue to walk away, but I can be a bit slow sometimes.

[greypoint]

When it's working OK it gives pretty good results when set to 'best photo' using quality gloss paper but it does seem to go through an inordinate amount of cleaning procedures every time you switch on.I'm hoping to keep it going for leaflets and odds and ends and switch to the Canon for the photo stuff.

[Beaux Reflets]

Yup my two Eps seem to drink ink in cleaning and I tend to use the canon one far more frequently. That said the quality of colour varies a lot depending on the mediums and settings 

[Matthew]

When it's working OK it gives pretty good results when set to 'best photo' using quality gloss paper but it does seem to go through an inordinate amount of cleaning procedures every time you switch on.I'm hoping to keep it going for leaflets and odds and ends and switch to the Canon for the photo stuff.

My HP does the same.....anything up to 60 seconds of wierd whirring and grinding noises with "printer preparation, do not interupt" on the screen....infact it does one noise tha sounds like 2 balloons being rubbed together....the mind boggles

[Oldboy]

My HP does the same.....anything up to 60 seconds of wierd whirring and grinding noises with "printer preparation, do not interupt" on the screen....infact it does one noise tha sounds like 2 balloons being rubbed together....the mind boggles

It doesn't clean the head, rather it just pumps ink out and the noises are from a sound chip, so it sounds like it's doing something when it's only wasting ink so, you have to buy more! 

[skellum]

I think the biggest problems occur with the lower end of the market products including Epson & Canon especially the ones that take one colour cartridge or just four individual cartridges. I was told to stay clear of Lexmark printers as they are ok for general office use but not fine print photography.

The Kodak system seems to good to be true but may seem fantastic for the general public to use. I have said before that I use Epson A3+ printers ( first R1800 and now R2400 )
These printers use eight individual cartridges ( I now use Phoenix compatible cartridges ) and they produce great prints good enough to get me through my LRPS and the RPS really do look at print quality.

While I still have the occasional already mentioned problems, they are in daily use which may help.  I recently bought a Epson P50 printer which is supposed to be specifically for photography. I use the P50 for Wedding album prints up to A4.  Then again this may become redundant soon as more couples are opting for Digital Albums, but a great printer even with compatibles. It takes the same cartridges as Grahams R800 but I assume it has a improved print head.

In conclusion, no matter which printer you use it may be advisable to print something even in draft once or twice a week just to keep it in use.

[michaelb104]

WAMT – the fact that it's a bank holiday Monday and I have the opportunity to sleep in late but here I am posting on the forum at 6am 

[Graham]

WAMT – the fact that it's a bank holiday Monday and I have the opportunity to sleep in late but here I am posting on the forum at 6am 

Yes, and it's pi raining quite heavily!