On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 1:13 PM, Joseph McAllister<[email protected]> wrote: > Knowing that the inks cost the consumer the aforementioned $5000 to $8000 > per gallon, and it costs the printer manufacturers probably less than $10 a > gallon to make, these printers are designed to use as much ink as possible > in as wasteful ways as possible. > > It would be very simple firmware-wise to clean the head only on the ink > cartridge(s) just replaced, but where would be the profit in that? > > If I printed more than a few prints per month, I'd have external tank system > on at least my R1800. And I'd get rid of my other three printers if that > were the case. I only keep them around (and have to print on each one at > least once a week to prevent clogging) because their inks are less expensive > than those of the R1800 (which I have to print on at least every week to > prevent IT from clogging). >
Ink costs get more reasonable the more you pay for the printer. R2400 carts cost a buck or two more than R3x0 carts yet contain about 5 times as much ink (~11ml vs ~2ml). The Stylus Pro printers take 110ml or 220 ml carts that cost around $80 and $100 respectively. One of the main reasons I grabbed my R2400 when I did was for more reasonable ink costs. CIS ink systems are a big win for ink costs, but can cause more clogging issues and require custom profiles on a per paper basis for accurate colour (you can use stock profiles with the Epson inks). I'd look strongly at a 4880 before I'd get a CIS ink system since the latter really requires a higher print volume than even the R2400 is really intended for. -- M. Adam Maas http://www.mawz.ca Explorations of the City Around Us. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
