Day One: Epson 1280 + Mediastreet G6 ink + Blue Lable CISS

DAY ONE
EPSON 1280 + MediaStreet G6 ink + Blue Lable CISS

Blue Lable CISS will now be the official name of the product from Shenzhen NXY Technology Co. It's named after the misspelling on their cartridges for the Epson R200, and is very Googleable. It's pronounced Blue Lab-lay. Every no-name Product needs a name.

Printer - Epson 1280
CIS unit - Super Smart Electronics Blue Lable
Ink - G6 Generaltions UltraChrome w/ photo black
Test paper - Kirkland photo paper (made in Mexico)
Scanner - Canon mp830 Sheetfed.


Thus far I can't say it's been 100% trouble free.

[Black Banding]
There was a kink in the supply hose for the black which may have resulted in issues. It seems to have cleared it self up. It may be a different issue.

[Incomplete printing]
After a couple of cleaning cycles it may be the chips were reading as "empty". Powering down the printer seems to have resolved this.

[black glazing]
The G6 Generaltions UltraChrome has an option for two blacks, one glossy one not. I was shipped the glossy one and as such some shadows come out as sort of shinny.

[color rendering]

These inks are geared toward the Epson 2200, 7600, 9600, and as such they are not an exact match to OEM. As such an ICC profile is required to compensate. MediaStreet provides these upon request, they don't give them out to just everybody. Additionaly they will provide profiles if you send them samples. Thus far the best result has been from MIS (inksupply.com).

Source Image left
This is the OEM ink on Kirkland photopaper. The green-chartreuse of the grass has faded greatly and most everything has a cool shift. Still not an awful rendering.

The profile provided by MediaStreet was for Epson Premium Glossy paper. If I had some I'd test it, but I have to say it's yellow, really yellow.


Even though the blotch in the sky due due to over zealous x-raying of my camera bag comes across much more starkly than the others, This comes across as closer to the intended result. It's a tad cooler then I would have liked, the organic growth does not have that look of healthy mossy green that Mayan ruins should have.

These are first I'm printing with non-OEM non-color matched inks on this printer.

More to come.

Bulk pigment inks

My main printer is a Canon iP5200 and Canon MP830 with CD printing enabled. I made the switch to canon mainly because they offer a good general purpose printer. But last year I picked up an Epson 1280 13 inch wide printer. I've not done many 13x19 prints, but enough that it justified picking it up. Now it seems to be time to take the plunge with pigmented inks.

Canon offers a bubblejet printer, as in ink is heated until it boils which results in the ink being deposited on a page. Epsons use piezo electric printheads, as in they use crystals that expand when current is applied to them. One advantage is the ability to vary the drop size. Canon for example have 4 sets of nozzles on their printer, 30 picoliter for text, 5, 2, and 1 picoliter for colors. Something similar can be accomplished on Epson printers but with a single nozzle set. The other major advantage is you can put just about any type of liquid though them including pigment inks.

Due to Epson's deisgn they lend them selves rather well to external inktanks, or CISS (Continious Ink Supply Systems). To this end I purchaced what I term as the "Blue Lable CISS" as the first set of cartridges I purchaced said specifically "DO NOT REMOVE BLUE LABLE". They have since corrected the spelling error. I believe they are manufactured by the Shenzhen NXY Technology Co.,Ltd. I spent $40 on my set though www.supersmartelectronics.com. Huge profit margin as you can buy them in lots of 100 for $4.50 each. They are not expensive to produce.

In most cases, bulk aftermarket in is far less archival than OEM ink. However in this case
26 years under glass using swellable polymer paper is not all that stellar, and 9 years using the ordinary quick dry type paper is pretty awful. MediaStreet G-chrome is said to have been tested to be archival for 100+ years.

There are a few options for bulk pigment ink for the Epson. There's Lyson, Image-Specialists, and MediaStreet just to name a few. I selected MediaStreet mainly because they provide ICC profiles not only for their papers, but for papers you submit to them. According to MediaStreet their G-Chrome inks have been tested by Wilhelm Research at about 100 years before noticable faiding.

As seen above Epson wants about 78c/ml for their OEM ink on this printer. But aftermarket pigment ink which is more archival than this OEM dye ink is only 20c/ml. This works out to be about $13.80 the volume of ink in a set of cartridges vs $55.

How well do they work? Well we'll see. At present your only options for a consumer pigment ink based printer are

Epson 13 inch models - R1900 R2800
Epson Durabrite document printers - C120 C88+
Kodak all in one Printers
Canon 13 inch models - Pixma Pro 9500
Canon Document Printer - Pixma MX7600

Kodak is your ONLY option for a letter sized pigment inkjet photo printer. An Epson pigment photoprinter will run you about $500 even though their $100 models can use pigmented ink.

Other details on the iP4600 CD-printing

As indicated in the prior post, I'm not very impressed with the cost per page nor the advertised longevity of the new canon Chromalife100+ inks over the old Chromalife100 used in their iP4200, 5200, 4300, and 4300 printers. Most notable is a reduction of head size (see image left), decreased volume of ink and in page yields.

The other issue is that of CD printing.

Canon yet again changed their trays.

• Tray A - i865 / i965
• Tray B - early iP series mp750/760/780
  
• Tray C - iP4200/5200/iP6600D/iP6700D
• Tray D - mp500/800/830/950/960
• Tray E - Their prosumer models pro9000/9500
• Tray F - later iP models iP4300/5300 mp600/610/810/960¹
  

In figure left we see clearly

• Tray G² - iP4600

What joy it is to come out with a different piece of plastic every year with only minor changes. It's hard to say whether Phillips took exception to Canon supplying the trays to resellers overseas or if there is someone at their Japanese HQ that specifically wants to annoy us.

The difference between the lesser iP3600 and the iP4600 is a lack of dual paper feeds and they ditched CD printing support in the model.

Canon IP3600/IP4600 Released - Cartridges Shrunk

The latest and greatest Canon printers have been released. I've not seen their output, but I have seen Druckerchannel's test of the page yield.

---

Printing cost comparison Pixma iP4500 and iP4600 using to ISO 24711
	iP4500 (CLI-8/ PGI-5)	NEW: iP4600 (CLI-521/ PGI-520)
Text Black	525 Pages (16 Euro)	350 Pages (12 Euro)
Photo Black	*5,475 * 1 page (14 Euro)	*1,875* * 1 page (11 Euro)
Cyan	935 Pages (14 Euro)	505 Pages (11 Euro)
Magenta	715 Pages (14 Euro)	471 Pages (11 Euro)
Yellow	750 Pages (14 Euro)	505 Pages (11 Euro)
Cost per page	8,6 Cents = 100%	10,7 Cent = 124%
© Druckerchannel.de
* Photo black was not used in this test. Consumption represents that of the cleaning cycles.

So in terms of Euros the new iP4600 costs about 3.3c/page where the older generation of Pixmas cost only 3.0cents'page That's an 11cent increase. Holistically speaking we're talking a 24% increase.

The main reported improvement is with album life. Using the new PR-201 paper and the new ChromaLife 100+ inks they claim 300+ years of stability in an album in their Aug 26, 2008 press release¹. This sounds impressive, but they also claim only 30 years if exposed to a bare bulb 10 hours/day under glass². This happens to be the exact same amount as the ChromaLife 100 inks on the older generation using the PR-101 paper³. They also claim gasfastness has increased to 20 years⁴ using their Photo Paper Plus Glossy II PP-201, Photo Paper Pro II PR-201, or Photo Paper Pro Platinum PT-101. They are unclear whether or not there is any improvement using the new inks on their older generation of paper.

Canon was never the choice for archival prints. Epson pigment ink and HP on swellable polymer paper take the cake, possibly the new Canon Easyshare series of printers with pigmented ink.

So the cartridges are smaller and the ink costs more per ml, and per page. Perhaps there was an improvement to the printer over prior generations.

Comparison of Canon models
	iP4300	iP4500	iP4600
Number of Nozzles	Black: 512	Black: 512	Black: 320
	Color: 1,024 x 2 colors (C, M), 512 x 2 colors (C, M), 512 x 2 colors (Y, BK)	Color: 512 x 3 (C/M), 512 x 1 (Y/BK)	Color:4,096
	Total: 3,584	Total: 4,608	Total: 4,416
Print Speed letter	Black: Up to 30 ppm	Black: 31 ppm 1.9sec/page	Black: 26 ppm 2.3sec/page
	Color: Up to 24 ppm	Color: 24 ppm 2.5sec/page	Color: 21 ppm 2.9sec/page
4x6 borderless	36 seconds	21seconds	20 seconds
Noise	34 dB(A)	34.5 dB(A) 5	45.5 dB(A)
	-URL-	-URL-	-URL-
All Data from www.usa.canon.com

So according to Canon's number, they made a noisier model which is actually slower on everything except 4x6 paper, and this is with the weight reduction of about 20ml or so.

Well perhaps the end result would be cheaper.

	iP4500	iP4600		mP530	mP830
Amazon.com	$106.00*	$99.00		$94.00*	$153.99*
Buy.com	$144.96	$109.99		$101.99	$153.99
Newegg.com	$114.98			$129.98
Overstock.com	$137.99			R$109.99
* does not include shipping			R is a refurbished model
Prices quoted 2008 Sept 25th
The iP4600 will cost you $11.88 more per 1000 pages of black at 5% yield than any of these other models. Expect to save $21 for mixed printing per 1000 pages

So for a newly released model, the price is rather low. Going with the older iP4500 will cost a a little bit more, but not all that much considering the cost savings of ink.

This ignores the possibility of bulk ink. In 2006 Canon added chips to their cartridges, in part I'm sure to discourage refilling. You could refill cartridges, but when a cartridge is empty you could no longer add ink and have the printer see it as with even older models. Now there are chip resetters on the market, as well as aftermarket chips. Bulk ink will save you as much as 90%, not including investment in syringes and plugs for your cartridges. The older generation is a known quality, the iP4600 has yet to be released.

While I would have to see an iP4600 to make an informed judgment based on Canon's numbers and Druckerchannel's test, it's clear the cost to operate the newest generation Canon printer will be significantly higher, with no documented improvement in text rendering, and questionable improvement in ink longevity. For right now, if you're in the market for a Canon printer, buy the older model.

• Trusted Reviews - Their take on the new iP4600
  

Civilization and its Discothèques: The Atheist Torn

Civilization and its Discothèques: The Atheist Torn

Nattyadams offers a neutral take as a NYCA member.

Blogs regarding NYC Atheists & Rook Hawkins

Excommunicated by the Atheists! - Rationallyspeaking.org {Phil Pollock & Massimo Pigliucci}
More Drama in the World of Organized Atheism - The Friendly Atheist
Atheism, Youth, and One Unicorn Drawing - Skepchick
The Young and the Godless - Natty Adams
The Atheist Torn - Natty Adams
NYCA MONTHLY MEETUP TOMORROW NIGHT! - Michael Dorian

[forums & ED]
ATHEIST ATTACKED AT HUMANIST CONFERENCE - Jane Everhart on Sapient being punched

Reviews of my Lecture at NYC - Rook Hawkins
Rook's lecture slides

Dawkins - What Rook is not
Rants n Raves - Continuing the "Dialogue" Rook Hawkins

Encyclopedia Dramatica - Rook Hawkins speaks to NYC Atheists - described as "scholarly"

Brian 'Sapient' Cutler on self publishing

This post is located -here-. It's trimmed for brevity sake, but you get the point. Any claim that Rook was invited to write for an academic series is simply not accurate.

Aug 2007

Dear Tim O’Neill,

Thank you very much for your letter. I appreciate very much your taking the trouble to write to ask about this book. I knew nothing of these announcements. No, I have not accepted this book for publication in our series. I have asked to read it, but I have made no judgment concerning its suitability for our series. As far as I am informed, it is not yet finished. Without referring to your letter or to you, I have written Mr. Hawkins and asked him to remove this advertisement. I am most grateful for your help in this regard and for your very quick reply.

Thomas

Thomas L. Thompson
University of Copenhagen

So, not only do we have evidence that Rook was incorrect about being accepted to publish in the Copenhagen seminar, we have Brian 'Sapient' Cutler's own words. "I personally have spoken to at least 5 people with the power to publish Rooks book and would be interested in doing so." This is hardly the same thing as being invited to write for an academic series, in fact at the time of this writing it's not even been accepted for publication. It may yet be accepted by someone, or Rook might self publish, but Rook shouldn't be presenting him self as already being invited to write a book as part of a series when he, to be fair, is at present unpublished without any academic accomplishments.