Dare I buy a Canon IP3000? For photo printing, refilling cartridges

[justin]

Dare I buy a Canon IP3000? For photo printing, refilling cartridges with correct ink?


Just bought a hp deskjet 990cxi (with hp original cartridges)
Ink used universal refill kit.
Other printer hp deskjet 960c
Been refilling 12 years.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Since the iP3000 does not have a photo black ink cartridge, it's better suited for printing on plain paper. There is a noticeable difference in the printouts done on photo paper in the darkest regions. You'd be better off with an iP4000 in this regard.

If you do decide to buy, you should do an extended nozzle check to make sure all the nozzles are working and to see how full the waste ink tank is because the ink absorber pads are no longer available for either of these two models (they use the same pads). Another printer that uses the same print head and inks as the iP4000 is the i360. EDIT: I meant i860, not i360.

 

[fotofreek]

Ghwellsjr's advice is right on target. the IP3000 has only three dye-based cartridges (used for color printing of photos and graphics), yellow, cyan, and magenta, and a large black pigment-based cartridge that is used on plain paper for text printing. The IP4000 printer has FOUR dye-based cartridges, including black, and the large black pigment based cartridge for text. The IP4000 printer does remarkably good photo printing for a four dye-based cartridge unit, but I really don't see many of them on Criags list. You should stay with at least one of the five cart printers like the ip4000 unless you want to move up to a six or eight cart printer that is primarily for photos.

To stay with the BCI-6 cartridge you might see an ip5000 for sale occasionally. Very good for photos. I also see the occasional i960, an excellent photo printer, but it has two additional color dye-based cartridges, lighter colored cyan and magenta.

The next generation of Canon printers use cli-8 cartridges. They have a computer chip on them that must be reset after being empty and refilled. This is not a big problem as there are inexpensive resetters available. I found an ip4300 printer for $25 that was almost never used, and I gave it to my granddaughter. I also found an almost brand new ip4500 printer on craigs list that I have on a shelf as a spare when my current printers die. the ip4500 is reputed to be one of the best Canon printers of its generation of carts (cli-8) in the five cart catagory. For serious color printing in wide format there is occasionally a very good deal at craigs list on the Pixma Pro 9000 mk II. These printers were offered with the purchase of some high end Canon cameras, and they are being sold on Craigs list. The asking price varies from $135 to $250, but it is sometimes available at $100 brand new in a factory sealed box. This, however, is a BIG unit in terms of desk space and a BIG jump from an ip3000! It is an 8 cart printer.

The short story - try to find a five cart bci-6 printer as suggested by ghwellsjr. If you can't find one that works properly you might consider a later generation unit that uses the cli-8 cart like the ip4300 or preferably an ip4500.

 

[ghwellsjr]

If you're really serious, the i9100 is a six-color dye ink printer with wide format. I would like to find some good homes for the ones I have that I hardly ever use.

 

[justin]

Thank you ghwellsjr.

I am totally new to canon printers. Did not find any manual on the canon Ip3000 on canons web site in Sweden or UK.

Found a helpful link about fixing a full waste ink but can one check it visually? As I understand the counter can be reset with out replacing the ink absorber pads. I.e. changing the printers waste ink information without fixing the problem.

http://www.druckerchannel.de/artikel.php?ID=1831&seite=1&t=panic_waste_ink_tank_full

How does one do a extended nozzle test on the canon Ip3000?

The diagnostic test on a hp DeskJet 960c involves pressing buttons in a certain order.

 

[The Hat]

I will have to disagree with both of you on this notion that three cartridge printers
somehow produce a noticeable poorer photo than their larger cartridge packing cousins do.

For everyday use three colours are more than enough to produce the most stunning photos that anyone would be proud of
and the idea that photo black is somehow compulsory is just a myth.

C, Y, M inks alone can and do produce black and grey colours without the intervention or need
for a separate black cartridge being involved in the makeup of the colour photo at all.

Theres no denying that multiple cartridge printers can produce a much better colour gamut than their three cartridge cousins can
and youre also not alone in thinking that they do a far better job at it too.

However theres one other thing to note when using these multiple cartridge printers and that is the need to print on special papers
to bring out the notable differences in their quality otherwise theres no bang for the extra half dozen or so cartridges involved..

 

[ghwellsjr]

How does one do a extended nozzle test on the canon Ip3000?

You can find the instructions for the extended nozzle text here:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=929

Make sure when you get near the end to press the RESUME button once and then the power button. After it is all done, press the power button one more time to get the printer back to normal.

The number printed after the D in the first line is the percentage of ink tank used up.

 

[PeterBJ]

You find the service manual for the iP3000 here: http://soft-manufaktura.ru/manual/hp/iP3000sm.pdf

In the service manual you find more about service mode operations on pages 9-10 and how to interpret service test prints on pages 42-43.

I would recommend practising the button pushing sequence for service mode operations with power disconnected before using them for real. An error can change vital settings or delete important information. I have made such errors myself, therefore this warning.

The procedure in the link provided by ghwellsjr is OK, and maybe a bit clearer than the instructions in the service manual.

For HP Deskjet 900 series printers you find service manuals here: http://www.eserviceinfo.com/downloadsm/24508/hp_Deskjet 9xx.html .It is one zip archive, with four files after unzipping.

Edit: link for the HP manuals corrected.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I will have to disagree with both of you on this notion that three cartridge printers
somehow produce a noticeable poorer photo than their larger cartridge packing cousins do.

For everyday use three colours are more than enough to produce the most stunning photos that anyone would be proud of
and the idea that photo black is somehow compulsory is just a myth.

C, Y, M inks alone can and do produce black and grey colours without the intervention or need
for a separate black cartridge being involved in the makeup of the colour photo at all.

Theres no denying that multiple cartridge printers can produce a much better colour gamut than their three cartridge cousins can
and youre also not alone in thinking that they do a far better job at it too.

However theres one other thing to note when using these multiple cartridge printers and that is the need to print on special papers
to bring out the notable differences in their quality otherwise theres no bang for the extra half dozen or so cartridges involved..

It looks to me like you just disagreed with yourself and agreed with me.

I said that on plain paper there's no difference between the iP3000 and the iP4000 for printing photos, text, or anything. I said that on photo paper is where you can see a difference in the darkest regions. You said the same thing in your last sentence. An iP3000 cannot print black as dark as the iP4000 can on photo paper but the difference is probably only noticeable if the two print outs are side by side. A photo printed on photo paper on the ip3000 will look perfectly acceptable until you compare it with one printed from an iP4000.

It's true that the photo black ink lasts a very long time because it is only used in when printing the very darkest shades of grey or 100% black as I show in this link:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=8390#p8390

Although the printouts in the above link were done by specifying greyscale printing on photo paper, I believe the same thing applies for full color printing when printing shades of grey.

An iP3000 cannot print 100% black on photo paper, it can only get to maybe 80% or 90%.

But when you consider the quality of photos on photo paper with the number of dye inks in a printer, you get the biggest difference when going from 3 to 4 inks and very little difference when going from 4 to 6 or even higher. In my opinion, the best option is the 4 dye plus one pigment ink printers, unless you only print on plain paper.

 

[justin]

You find the service manual for the iP3000 here: http://soft-manufaktura.ru/manual/hp/iP3000sm.pdf


For HP Deskjet 900 series printers you find service manuals here: http://soft-manufaktura.ru/manual/hp/iP3000sm.pdf .It is one zip archive, with four files after unzipping.

thanks Peter BJ for the ip3000 link.
Do you have the correct link for the Hp deskjet 960c please?
justin