Canon photo tank system printers

[Ink stained Fingers]

I'm trying to trace down the type of ink used in these new G550/650 printers - the G-53 inks, the druckerchannel-article announcing these printer models states that Chromalife-inks are used whereas Canon on the resp. G550/650 product pages does not mention the ink type 'Chromalife' ink once, Canon only refers to 6 dye inks. I'm trying to resolve this conflict with druckerchannel.
It could very well be that Canon does not offer bottled Chromalife inks for these photoprinters and tries to protect the Chromalife inks in cartridges; Epson for its new ET8500/8550 models advertise their 'Claria' inks (in bottles) for these printers.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I got this feedback that the Chromalife inks are mentioned in the German press release of the G550/650 printers

https://www.canon.de/press-centre/p...gatank-printers-where-quality-meets-quantity/

There are probably similar press releases in other languages as well.

The German product spec does not make any reference to the Chromalife type inks but just calls the 60ml bottles 'high yield' bottles.....

An external test report is published here

https://canon.a.bigcontent.io/v1/static/canon_pixma_g550_g540_vs_device_a_anonymised_1

 

[PeterBJ]

I wonder if the bottled ink is really the Chroma 100 ink? This series was used with the PGI-5/CLI-8 cartridges. I have still got an iP4300 and MP800 in perfect working order so I would like to use this ink for refilling if it does not do any damage.

I tried refilling with the GI-490 inks for the first Megatank printers when they were introduced. That was disappointing, the quality was less than that of the "normal" Canon OEM ink used in the cartridges.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I remember testing the inks of the first Canon tank system printers - I think it was a G1500, and those inks did not perform very well; Epson was doing the same shipping a range of Ecotank models - e.g. ET-2600 - with the 664 inks which performed similarly bad.

https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/canon-g1400-some-tests.11817/#post-100487
Those GI-490 inks were not labelled with 'Chromalife'.

The German Canon press release for the G550/650 refers to Chromalife 100 inks for the G550/650, the Pro-200 is running with Chromalife 100+ inks but I'm not familiar with the Canon nomenclature and don't know whether the +-sign indicates a better ink or just more colors than the standard inkset, and the Canon spec's are not clear about this. So what does this mean - I think I'll need to run a test once the GI-54 inks for the G550 are becoming available. ...


I found some info about the Chromalife inks

https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/...4SfVKS8VhG8wFJdViIl_7qW3gJBW6w-wGR50/#profile

The Chromalife 100+ inks are apparently improved over the previous Chromalife 100 inks in regards to permanence

 

[stratman]

According to the Druckerchannel link...

The new G650 and G550 use the older Chromalife inks (no + on the end) and not the newer Chromalife+ inks. It is still a quality ink set compared to aftermarket Dye-based inks with hopefully very good archival properties. That's the big benefit.

The downside is the GI-53 inks are ALL Dye-based. No pigment ink for documents. The Maxify series is safe from extinction. Canon manages to squeeze out a new model that does not directly compete with anything else it has IF Photo Black, Chromalife inks and NO Pigment Black is what you want.

The article theorizes these 6 Dye-based ink models will compete with Epson's XP15000. If so, then aftermarket ink purveyors may be about to lose some business.

For instance, in order to refill the Epson XP15000, Mikling of Precision Colors recommends hacking the printer to run it "chipless". The byproduct of this is the loss of ink level monitoring. Unless Mikling is able to match the archival quality of OEM Dye-based Epson inks, you also get sub-optimal archival performance compared to the Epson Claria inks in exchange for cheaper aftermarket ink costs.

Soon, though, an archival quality Canon bulk refill ink will be widely available, one with a far better history of archival performance than any aftermarket ink used in a Dye-based Canon printer a refiller owns.

The question then becomes what is more important - lower cost or significant performance improvement?

Another concern is the risk of increased print head issues when using aftermarket inks vs OEM inks, though I do not know how this relates with Tank printers.

Lastly, who knows what Canon may be doing with the GI-53 Dye inks even if they are called Chromalife. Are they altered in some fashion? The Pro 100 CLI-42 Yellow seems to have been and caused Yello Gello for refillers. How would that play out in a Tank system.

Time will tell.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

@stratman, you are summarizing the complexity of the current situation very well, there are various options a potential buyer could put into consideration - if he would have a chance to get access to the information about all the different parameters - inks - printer configurations other than by digging through our postings how we uncover the details - Canon is not much of a help in this respect, and Epson's way of (not) releasing comparable information is not much different. Canon does not let anybody know about the differences of the Chromalife and Chromalife 100+ inks.
These are some small pieces of information - I'm reading a statement in the German press release

'Haltbare Ausdrucke mit ChromaLife 100 für bis zu 100 Jahre im Fotoalbum'

that prints will last for up to 100 years kept in an album

The Canon internet page describing the features of the Chromalife+ inks state this:

Album Storage Lifespan of up to 300 Years​

With ChromaLife 100+ technology, your prints maintain their exceptional color and quality for up to 300 years*.​

which makes quite a difference of 200 years between these two Canon ink types, and the Chromalife ink offers the user only 33% of the fading performance of the Chromalife+ ink ? I know it's most likely not possible to scale down the values that easily and linearly - but a difference ratio of 1 : 3 is very significant in my view.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I found some corresponding information about Epson inks, those inks in various Ecotank printers - type 102 - give you this performance

'vibrant photographic images that will last for generations.' This for the ET-2700 - Epson is not more specific

When it comes to the Epson Claria premium ink you can find this - after some searching

https://www.epson.co.uk/consumables/claria-ink

'Designed with longevity in mind, the high-quality ink can last for 300 years in a photo album*.'

Epson is apparently using the same album as Canon does.............

So much for that

 

[stratman]

Good points.

To top it off (refilling pun intended), whether it is 100 or 300 years, we will have long shuffled off this mortal coil. Who then will hold Canon's feet to the flame? The claims of archival life of the print will have long been forgotten by our descendants, the image eventually evaporating into the ether.

"there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know." - Donald Rumsfeld

And Canon likes it this way.


Look forward to your experiments with the GI-35 inks.

 

[stratman]

Epson is apparently using the same album as Canon does.............

There's only one, like a small town's sole prostitute.

 

[maximilian59]

To top it off (refilling pun intended), whether it is 100 or 300 years, we will have long shuffled off this mortal coil.

Old family photos of my grandparents already reached over 100 years and they are still good. But 50 years old pictures of my childhood are already vanishing. No negatives available, so I have to restore them. Even now with digital data it is not easy to read old tapes or CDROM, remember Kodak Picture CD, not speaking from discettes, it is not sure you or your children are able to read these data. With every print I give someone as a present, I hope it will really last long, as only I have the original data, maybe.
Maximilian