Canon Pro9500 and Pro10 ink alternatives (for continental Europe)

[palombian]

I've spent some time to evaluate the impact of the switch to inks available in Europe (in casu octoinkjet.co.uk) and the eventual switch from PRO 9500II to PRO-10.
I will compare profiles for the Ilford Smooth Gloss paper found on the Ilford site and OctoInkjet with the ones I made myself on this paper with a ColorMunki Photo with i1Studio software.

My actual inkset is the new Precision Colors formulation for 9500.

First the impact of changing the (STS) yellow C7062P by (octo)LXP72Y (last one in plain):

I loose a bit yellow, although there is some dilution from the cartridge flush.
Anyway the C7062P is still available at octo.
This is a very strong yellow as can be seen compared to 9500 OEM ink (in grey):

This shows the PC inkset is not bad at all.

Same situation (my actual inkset in plain) versus a PRO-10 with the octoInkjet V2 inkset:

I win in orange but loose a bit green and purple.
The yellow is at the same level (confirming my doubt about dilution ?).

At last my 9500 with PC ink versus a PRO-10 with OEM ink:

Again, as with the 9500 OEM, there is some loss with 3th party ink (costs €123.50/l versus 821,50 for OEM).

IMO the PRO 9500(II) is not far behind the PRO-10 and I see no urgent reason to replace it.
I can live with the gloss differences, my daily paper ALDI glossy 300g (€5.99 for 50 A4, sadly enough no A3) has exactly the same color width as the Ilford Smooth Gloss tested above.

As good as the Precision Colors PRO-10 inkset can be, I can't buy it.
OctoInkjet.co.uk's suggestion to replace most of the 9500 inks by the PRO-10 version (except R,M and PM where they have a separate V2 ink) seems reasonable and the day my last 9500 breaks I can continue to use the inks.

 

[mikling]

The tale of shipping to international is fraught with issues and if I can say so not in my control.
The best and only way to ship internationally is to use forwarding services from the USA which are now very popular. One very popular one is with MYUS
https://www.myus.com/ It actually is less expensive that what I would have to charge for international shipping so why not?
With these forwarding services, you deal one to one with your shipments and know exactly where it is and since it is a one to one, they have your particulars of addresses on file and will seek out to get the package to the destination. Normal postal services simply don't care and will return stuff and deem undeliverable when they so please.
Then it is also the customers themselves filling in incorrect addresses. In North America addresses are vetted through a database so the likelihood of a bad address getting out is small. Not so with international addresses.
Also the disappearance of packages even with tracking is also an issue.

So the answer is that internationally the Pro-10 kit is available but join a forwarding service as suggested on my site.

The Pro-9500 colorwise is not bad but truth be told my revision of the Pro-9500 could be better since I have learned much since the revision, It was done to FIX a situation. Could I do a better one today. Most likely YES, if I spent more time on it and bring it up to the Signature Edition Standard....not likely worth the time because there are so few 9500s still being used.

My business has grown and I have plans to eventually reach into Europe with convenience but in order to do so I need to free up my resources to make the necessary preparations for the next step both in North America and next Europe.

For example, just recently I shipped something to Europe a while back and then the purchaser wants to know where the item is etc etc etc. It just happened that it had arrived in his country when the enquiry was sent. I just don't have the time to chase down orders and continually email folks the particulars of progress on packages. When I ship something out I need to be pretty much sure that 99.999% of the time it will arrive. Watch the 9s.
Shipping internationally cannot match those numbers. When something occurs.....it takes so much time....that I have not got and when you become a senior, you know time is precious.

 

[palombian]

I do not expect someone still investing in the Pro9500.
Maybe I had to switch earlier but I got some machines for nearly nothing and there is the stock of ink to empty.

No experience yet with MYUS, there are low tarifs indeed.

Reliability of post services in Belgium (and some other countries) is descending due to competition and high pressure on personnel. Tracking becomes a necessity.

 

[palombian]

Profiled for a noname luster paper.
The octo 72Y is only slightly less than the original STS formula.

So far my small "tour d'horizon".

I only wanted to express the fear we depend on a very limited number of suppliers, it was by no means my intention to harm anyones business.

 

[Artur5]

@palombian :
Which is the software that you use to make these profile evaluations ?.. It seems very useful for testing the performances of inks/papers.

 

[palombian]

@palombian :
Which is the software that you use to make these profile evaluations ?.. It seems very useful for testing the performances of inks/papers.

PerfX Gamut Viewer.
Old stuff, but still available for free it seems.

I use it for a first idea, I am no expert at all.

 

[Artur5]

Thanks !