Canon 6 and Canon 3e Color Carts, what's the diff?

[turbguy]

I have a Canon i960 (which uses BCI-6) and my wife has a mulifunction Canon machine (which uses 3e carts).

I can't see a phyical difference in the color carts. Is there any, and if so, what is it??

 

[ltsang]

As far as bci3 and bci6 color cartridges are concern, I see no difference, I used them in both machines and I think they both use the same color inks. For curiosity sake, you can just switch them around and you will see both printers will not see the difference. Its only the black that uses different inks, the thicker bci3e I think Canon put pigment ink inside and the bci6 black is dye for photo printing. However, I checked with the generic ink cartridge supplier they said nobody puts pigment ink into the bci3e nowadays because pigment ink is very expensive. I leave that for somebody else's judgment.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I have seen some bulk ink suppliers recommend different inks for the BCI-3e and the BCI-6 but the cartridges themselves are identical. I don't know if OEM cartridges have different ink in them.

I checked with the generic ink cartridge supplier they said nobody puts pigment ink into the bci3e nowadays because pigment ink is very expensive.

I also don't know if any compatible cartridges use pigment in their BCI-3e cartridges but I do know that Inktec ink for that cartridge is 100% pigment.

See this link for some discussion about this topic:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1630

 

[pharmacist]

One minute please:

Please mind: BCI-3/BCI-6 are the thinner photo ink cartridges, whether the BCI-3eBK is the thick pigment based black ink. So you can have BCI-3eBK pigment black + BCI-3 photo ink cartridges in your printer OR BCI-3eBK pigment black + BCI-6 photo ink cartridges in it. Photo printers are only using BCI-6 photo ink (6 or 8 cartridges) and never the BCI-3eBK pigment black (except one 7-ink model sold in Japan). So keep in mind to make a difference between BCI-3 dye carts (thin) and the BCI-3eBK pigment cart (thick).

Besides: you can use BCI-6 or even CLI-8 photo ink cartridges in your older BCI-3 machine without problems (maybe a colourshift), but I would no recommend to use BCI-3 carts in your BCI-6 machine.

 

[ghwellsjr]

The Canon BCI-3 carts (both narrow for dye and wide for pigment black) were the original design of these sponge+reservoir cartridges, but there was just one large sponge in them. Later, apparently when Canon discovered that the one-sponge design had feed problems, they changed the design to the BCI-3e with two sponges of different materials in them, but the plastic parts of the cartridges were identical. They then stopped supplying the BCI-3 line, at least here in the USA. The BCI-3e line for dye ink is still readily available. You can look on Canon's website or a store like OfficeMax and see them.

Eventually, they added the BCI-6 line which is identical to the narrow BCI-3e line. I believe that the dye inks are different in the BCI-6 and BCI-3e lines, based on the fact that some bulk ink suppliers specify different inks for them. But if a user cannot see any difference or doesn't mind the difference, there is no reason to avoid the BCI-3e dye ink carts.

I have purchased many of the narrow BCI-3e empty carts on eBay for refilling because they tend to be cheaper than the BCI-6 (because most people don't know they are the same) and they work just as well.

But, I would not ever buy a BCI-3 cartridge that has a single sponge piece in it, even if it was new from Canon. I also would not buy a compatible with a single sponge in it which I think is all compatibles. That is the reason I use only Canon cartridges.

 

[billcf]

Some Info on ink

http://underside.110mb.com/Ink/

Billcf@gmail.com

 

[Manuchau]

Some good ink info there...thanks