Opinions needed on refillable carts.

[Photofan1986]

Dang! You know what? I cannot guarantee that the magenta is the proper type! It should be, but I'm not sure. Here is why: when I got my second bottle of magenta, I realized that the bottle neck was different and that ink was dropping, because the first sets didn't come with a sealing gasket. So I poured the new ink into the old bottle. But now I don't have the references of the ink any more, and I don't remember checking the reference at the time! But as I did not purge the carts at the time, I haven't notice the colour cast because the change was progressive.
That might well be the explanation! I will order a small set of new inks and we'll see!

 

[PeterBJ]

I hope that solves the problem. Please report your results.

 

[PeterBJ]

Tomorrow, I think I will try refilling my cli-8 carts. I didn't want to rush, because there is still more than half OEM ink in the original untouched carts, but I have a spare set waiting for refill. And I'm beginning to be very curious about the colour I will get from this kit on the IP5200.

I suggest you make a test print with the OEM inks and keep that for comparison with the IS inks and future reference. If possible make test prints on both Canon OEM paper and Sihl paper.

Ok, I just tried that, replacing the cli-521 cyan ink with the cli-8 ink, and the results are not good. The W2032 is darker, and resulting pictures have a very pronounced blue colour cast, and at the same time the green colour cast remains. What would be interesting in my case, is to try replacing the cli-521 magenta with something slightly darker. Any idea if there is a Canon kit with darker magenta, @ websnail ?

For the tagging function to work there should be no space between "@" and "username".

 

[websnail]

I'm a bit sleep deprived this morning and catching up, but from all the potential mixing/matching I'm a mite confused about what ink went where to who and which way is up but the bit where swapping the Cyan still retained the green cast indicates the problem isn't Cyan related but more likely magenta.

.. and one of the reasons we don't play with ink set mix n' match is mainly time related but also because there are other issues that can occur, because after all, these are chemicals you're playing with and while you're unlikely to trigger a thermo-nuke style reaction the result might be less than pleasant. Not to mention the way different papers interact with the output... It's like trying to understand a room full of women (or men if you're chromosomally challenged - that was a joke by the way!)... Time intensive and quite frustrating.

One of the frustrations of dealing with clogs however is frequently that nozzle checks can appear fine when an extended print does not. Lack of a proper colour comparison chart does frustrate that sanity check considerably as a result.

 

[Photofan1986]

So I'm back after some hectic testings!
First, what I did is to fill a cli-521 cart with the new ink from my cli-8 kit, so supposedly the same ink. What I noticed immediately is that the new magenta is much more opaque, so I expected it would solve my problem. Well, first test shows results are better, but not perfect. My picture looks very much like PeterBJ's. But with some tweaking, I get reasonably good results. I would probably get even better from a completely new set of inks. But with the tweaking, I get results that are quite similar to the IP5200 with oem inks. So I'd say I'm happy.

So I started refilling the IP5200...mmhh... to be continued

 

[Photofan1986]

So I refilled a freshly cleaned and dry set of Canon carts, and refilled them properly using top filling method and the new ink.
The colour results are not very good on Pro photo paper setting, with a complex yellow-greenish cast, but on glossy photo paper setting, results are much better, actually quite close to the Canon oem inks. Much better than with the MP540. A shame that I can't use the Pro photo paper settings, as this is the only paper setting where I can choose "number 1" quality, i.e. the highest resolution.
Nevertheless, I noticed a new problem right away: I am getting banding as if some nozzles were clogged. So I performed a couple of cleaning cycles, and even a deep cleaning cycle. No change. Mmmmhh... Fortunately, I still have a set of Canon OEM carts, so I put them back into the printer to check, and results were clear: the Canon ink doesn't show the problem. You can see the image attached showing the problem. Please zoom into the picture to see the issue.

Anyone has an idea where the problem may come from? Ink starvation? Bad ink (really doubt this, as I don't have the problem on my MP540) ?
I thought I refilled the carts properly, as I followed the instructions.
Also note the hue difference.

hébergeur image gratuit

 

[PeterBJ]

It looks to me like the old magenta ink could be photo magenta. It clearly looks to be much weaker than the new magenta. I don't know if oxidation, strong sunlight or high temperature in storage could cause such a fading. It seems the IS CLI-521 PM number is 6120, I couldn't find it separately on the octoinkjet site, only as a part of an ink set for MP950. But without the original bottle and label it is impossible to tell, if it is actually photo magenta. If the old ink is the proper type, it is probably too old. The other inks may be too old as well.

AFAIK photo magenta and photo cyan are made from the same dyes as the regular magenta and cyan, but in lower concentrations.

You could try also refilling the C, Y and BK with the new inks for the iP5200. I didn't notice a big difference using the proper cyan and the cyan for iP5200, when used in my MP540. The magenta, yellow and photo black are identical for the two printers.

 

[The Hat]

I have looked at both prints and they have the same problem of banding in them, so it’s not the ink or the cartridges, I would run a manual head alignment and try the same photo again.

The Octoinkjet photo has more cyan in it but a little less magenta resulting in it looking slightly cool and greenish, the OEM is a bit more natural but also seems to have a warmer look to it..
Edit Peter you posted while I was typing…

 

[PeterBJ]

You could test your CLI-8 cartridges by holding the cartridge over a sink or holding a piece of kitchen paper under the ink outlet and blow gently into the vent. It should be easy to cause a few drops of ink to leave the ink outlet. Compare how hard you have to blow to expel a drop of ink from both the OEM and the refilled cartridge. If the flushed and dried cartridge was too dry, the lower sponge might not be saturated properly.

Could you upload the original photo of the sheep? I will then print it on my iP5200 with IS inks and Sihl paper and various setting for comparison.

 

[Photofan1986]

@The Hat , I'm afraid that I already tried manual alignment tool, with no success. Also, just going back to the original carts solved the problem mostly.

@PeterBJ Here is the original crop of the picture.