On Fri, 24 Oct 2003, graywolf wrote: > But then you can find a bulk ink system for most Epson photo printers there is > even one available for the cheap Photo 820.
Yup. I had one of these systems for my Epson 870. The bulk ink is great if you are printing _a lot_. If you plan on printing 4oz of each color every 6 months they work wonderfully. If not the inks evaporate a little bit and start to thicken and things start to clog. With my 870 I was spending as much time trying to unclog the thing as I was using it. With my Canon S9000 I spent less on the refill setup. The ink is sealed in bottles and doesn't thicken very fast. It takes me about 10 minutes to top off all of the ink carts, and I end up doing that about once every other month. That is often enough that I come out way ahead by purchasing bulk ink, but not often enough to keep a bulk ink system running properly. My Epson 870 is now at a local high school where it gets plenty of use. Epson is also getting more devious in their ink cartridge designs and making it harder and harder for the bulk ink guys. Canon keeps it really simple. There are downsides to bulk ink besides the mess of refilling cartridges. The ink generally fades more quickly (one to two years on the papers that I use, instead of four to five with Canon ink). The color gamut is just as good though, and I'm willing to accept the faster fading time when I spending less than 10% on the ink. If I was selling prints I would use an archival printer like the Epson 2200 and pay for the manufacturers (overpriced) ink. alex
