[Alt-photo] Third party inks

[Sandy King]

Inkjet Mall sells several different black inks. First, they sell Piezography Neutral shade 1 for matte, and Piezography MPS shade 1 for glossy. I have used both of these inks  in several Epson printers (3800/3880/1800R/7600 and 7880,  and they were no more prone to clogging than the regular Epson MK and PK inks. These inks are used to make inkjet prints with seven shades of gray, no color involved other than tinting for the tones like selenium, carbon, warm neutral, etc.

Inkjet Mall also sells color inks that replace the Epson Ultrachrome K3 inks. I have not used the black inks that are included in this set so don't know if they are more prone to clogging than the regular Epson K3 inks.  

Having owned both the Epson 3800 and 3880 I did not find either more prone to clogging, except for the Magenta of the 3800. However, when printing negatives with a high density range, as we need for some of the alternative processes, both the 3800 and 3880 caused tiny prick marks one Pictorico from the tiny sharp wheels that guide the media. These were so annoying to my work that I eventually replaced the 3800/3880 printers with a larger carriage printer, the 7880, that uses suction rather than pizza wheel to guide the media through the printer. 

If you are using an Epson printer to make digital negatives I doubt that it makes much economic sense to buy third party inks to replace the OEM inks because your savings are not likely to be great. The exception would be if you are doing making negatives using only one of the colors and you quickly use it up. But Epson printers were not designed to print using just one of the inks so this practice may wind up causing more problems than it solves. I use QTR to make digital negatives and the K, Y and C inks, are the ones that carry the heavy lifting in terms of UV absorption, LK and M next, and LM and LLK almost none. But I make sure to set the limits of the other inks so that they are being used when I print digital negatives, even though a few of them contribute little or nothing to UV blocking.

Sandy 








On Sep 9, 2013, at 12:19 PM, Diana Bloomfield wrote:

> Yeah . . . that comment stopped me short, too.  Given that nozzle-clogging seems to be the main problem that the 3800 has (in my experience)-- I wouldn't like to encourage that.  And the cleaning just eats up so much ink.  I just got rid of my last 3800.  I've had two and really loved them, but the constant cleaning and clogging and replacement of inks (mainly because of all that clogging and cleaning) was enough to just say-- enough.  I recently bought a refurbished 3880, and so far that seems to be working great.  My main problem with Epson (all brands of printers?) is what I call their Polaroid business plan.  While the printers (in Polaroid's case, the cameras) are wonderful and relatively inexpensive, the cost of the inks (film) can put you in the poor house.
> 
> 
> On Sep 9, 2013, at 12:07 PM, Marek Matusz wrote:
> 
>> Sam
>> 
>> I am a little concerned about your nozzle cleaning comments. Do u use your printer on regular basis ?
>> 
>> Marek
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>> On Sep 8, 2013, at 8:36 PM, "sam wang" <samwang864 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> I have just started using the Inkjet Mall cartridges in my 3800 - just PK and LK so far. They seem to be very much like the Epson inks except that the PK blocks more UV light so you'd need to redo your curves. The PK also needs more nozzle cleaning, it seems. But the cost is definitely a big draw. Their video instruction is excellent.
>>> 
>>> Sam
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Alt-photo-process-list | altphotolist.org/listinfo