46 16 May 2020 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
Technique
and grey. Overall, the Pro-10S has 10
inks (including a chroma optimiser),
but the Pro-1000 bumps up the ink count
to 12, including red and blue inks.
It’s natural to think that if a printer has
more cartridges under the bonnet, it’s
going to be more expensive to run, but
that’s often not the case. If you have more
ink colours in the mix, you’ll tend to use
less of each colour for any given print.
A bigger consideration is the capacity of
the ink cartridge and its selling price.
As an example, the Canon Pro-10S
uses 14ml ink cartridges and the price
per millilitre works out at 71p, making
it one of the cheapest printers on the
market in terms of running costs. The
Epson SureColor SC-P600 has much
larger capacity cartridges, at 25.9ml,
so you won’t have to change them as
often and the price per millilitre is still
around a reasonable 85p. In contrast, the
Epson XP-15000 has comparatively
low-capacity cartridges, with even the ‘XL’
option only containing about 10ml of ink,
and the price per millilitre is relatively
high – around £1.44. In eff ect, the ink
works out at more than twice the price as
that for the Canon Pro-10S.
It’s in the paper
With own-brand ink and papers generally
being expensive to purchase, it’s tempting
to go with cheaper alternatives, but it’s a
bad idea. This is especially the case when
printing photographs, where you demand
accuracy in the rendition of colour and
tone, as well as sharpness, without inks
of diff erent colours bleeding into each
other on the page. Cheap, non-genuine
consumables can be a nightmare (see
‘Beware cheap imitations’ below).
The chemistry between ink and paper
is quite complex when it comes to photo
printing, and manufacturers formulateBeware cheap imitations
Over the years, a lot has been said in the press about the exorbitant
price of printer ink, and how it’s more expensive drop for drop than the
fi nest Champagne. Naturally, though, you need much less ink to create
an A4 or A3 print than even the tiniest sip of bubbly. It’s equally true that
it costs manufacturers a lot of time, effort and money to research and
formulate inks, and they need to recoup their cash further down the line.
If you buy non-genuine supplies, the real price of ‘cheap’ ink and
paper might be more than you think. Based on independent lab testing,
the anti-fade longevity of photo prints created with some cheap ink and
paper supplies has been rated in weeks or months rather than decades.
Another problem with cheap inks is that they might contain impurities
that can block up the nozzles of your print heads. These blockages can
be diffi cult or impossible to clear.the ink and paper together when
designing printer drivers, which allows
photographers to produce accurate and
consistent results. While sticking to
own-brand ink and paper generally
ensures the best print quality, some
printers have drivers that support
high-quality, independently manufactured
papers from reputable manufacturers such
as Hahnemühle and Canson. Even so,Having a greater number of ink cartridges doesn’t
necessarily make a printer more expensive to run
Check that the cartridges are genuine. We’ve had experience of an online
retailer removing genuine cartridges and replacing them with cheap copies© GETT Y IMAGES