Epson SC-P900 on new Inktec Powerchrome ink

[pharmacist]

Last week I finally received my Epson SC-P900 refillable cartridges from aliexpress.com. In the previous week I already received my bottles of Inktec Powerchrome from Ebay (printout24.de), but I had to wait until I received te cartridges.

I ordered extra LLK and VLM, because these colours are consumed at a much higher rate than other colours. Especially the LLK is used as a type of gloss optimizer in the P900 to even out gloss differential on glossy papers and also to increase blacks (black overcoat technology significantly improving blackness/black point compared to the older machines).

The refillable cartridges from Aliexpress:

During the refill process I discovered one of the cartridge (LC) did not have the necessary chip holder, forcing me to transfer the chipholder of the MB cartridge to be transferred on the LC cartridge. I had to use the existing modified and refilled and reset original Epson MB cartridge. I kept the original Epson MB cartridge and did not used the Inktec Powerchrome K3 PB ink, because I found the blackness not as good as original Epson PB (I am using original Epson PB from large format printer cartridge of 350 ml). The rest of the colours are Inktec Powerchrome K3 inks, including the violet ink.

The LC cartridge without the necessary chip holder (on the left) and on the right the VLM cartridge with the chip holder:

One thing to note: the Epson SC-P900 is warning at each startup that you are using non-genuine cartridges and that you should click on several buttons to accept before you can proceed. This is the price for resetting the original chips that made them non-genuine to the printer. And from time to time after executing a print job there will be a pop-up warning you there are non-genuine cartridges installed and you have to accept them before the printing proceeds (note: only for EU-printers. US-printers will say NOOO......)

The cartridge installed, the MB is original and modified because of the problem with the missing chip holder. All inks Inktec Powerchrome K3 except PB and MB (both genuine Epson).

After executing 4 deep cleanings I did a nozzle check to check the result:

Note the darker hue of the violet ink nozzle row. The scan does not show it clearly but it was significantly darker than on the scan. It is more towards bluish purple. All the other colours are very similar/identical to the original Epson Ultrachrome Pro-10 ink set. This gives me the feeling there will be differences in hue/gamut towards the blues/purples with this Inktec Powerchrome ink set, because their violet ink is not the same as the orginal Epson violet ink in terms of colour and hue.

I took the time to profile the new ink set in my printer by making dedicated profiles with my i1Profiler to see how the new ink behaves.

This is the result in profile viewer Inktec Powerchrome ink (with original Epson PB) for the Inktec Powerchrome ink: a nice and regular profile as expected:

The blackpoint of the profile: very good indeed (orginal Epson PB) combined with black overcoat enhancement checked:

Now with the profile I made with the orginal Epson Ultrachrome Pro-10 ink set for the same paper projected on top of the 3D-model (blue: Inktec Powerchrome, red: Epson Ultrachrome Pro-10):

This reveals the Inktec violet ink is not up to the standard of original Epson Ultrachrome Pro-10 ink: you can clearly see the effect of the original Epson violet ink in reproducing the blues/purples and significantly increased the reproduction of these colours in prints.

What about the blackpoint of the new ink combination. I am not sure if Inktec Powerchrome PB performs, since I am using original Epson PB harvested from large format printer and this si the comparison (black enhancement overcoat enabled):

You can see: the same black point as expected using original Epson PB ink.

 

[pharmacist]

What about real life prints: I did a test with a picture I previous printed using original Epson ink with a dedicated profile for this ink, but I use the same profile to print but now the printer loaded with the Inktec Powerchrome K3 to see how the Inktec ink performs with the same profile and also a new print, but now with a new profile to correct for the new ink set. Have a look at the left blue gradient of the baby face: you can clearly see the effect of the Ultrachrome Pro-10 violet ink does into reproducing these bright blues. In the middle I am using the same Ultrachrome Pro-10 profile to print with Inktec Powerchrome of the same picture and on the left I made a dedicated Inktec Powerchrome profile for the Inktec Powerchrome ink in my machine. You can see the blues has improved a bit (more blue and not a purplish blue in the middle), but the hue is not as good when the original Epson violet ink was loaded. But the overall print quality is identical giving you a clue how good the Inktec Powerchrome ink can print without any dedicated profile at all. The only thing is the low performing violet ink of Inktec.

Now also important to know is how good the ABW-mode works with the Inktec Powerchrome ink set: a lot of aftermarket inks that are K3 compatible have problems in reproducing neutral prints in the ABW-mode, often giving a sepia or greenish hue when the neutral setting in the ABW-mode is choosen. The reason is that not only the grey inks are used but also the LC, VLM and Y to neutralise the slightly warm glow fo the gray inks. This is the result of the Inktec Powerchrome ink set using the ABW-mode in neutral setting (setting: dark, no adjustment with the colour wheel), above the version made with original Epson Ultrachrome Pro-10 ink and below with Inktec Powerchrome ink:

The scan is not optimal, but the prints with Inktec Powerchrome are a tiny bit warmer compared to Epson Ultrachrome Pro-10 ink: on the Netbit Glossy paper, which I like better than the slight cooler ABW-mode with original Epson ink..

Again a proof the Inktec Powerchrome ink does a very nice job in colour rendition and also in printing neutral ABW-prints without the need of turning around in the colour wheel to compensate for hues/colour casts.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

That's a very comprehensive and interesting test indeed showing how good a 3rd party ink can be. It's as always a question for the user whether and how much he is ready to pay more for some gain in the gamut in a particular color range. The dark blue- violet range was always the range of concern in the past.
Since I'm starting up with the T2100 as an entry level - 4 color - printer I'm interested to compare it against the P900.
I assume that the profiling was done on the Aldi Netbit paper which I have available as well for a test; @pharmacist - which OBA measuring mode did you use - M0 , M1 or M2 so that I can use the same mode . I'm currently using a
pigment ink mix as a leftover from my old P7600 which was a mix of lots of inks which I used and tested over time - from China, InkTec, farbenwerk etc and a new set of cartridges from China for the T2100.
Please publish the .icm profiles you created with your inks, I'll create profiles of my inks on the Netbit paper as well to compare. I don't have any OEM CMY inks at this time but just some black is left. And I don't have the ABW mode available either in the driver. The T2100 color cartridges are just cartridges for startup - initialization as shown in the status monitor but nowhere mentioned otherwise.

 

[pharmacist]

The profile has been made with the double scan mode (M0, M1, M2 and OBC) method. I will send you the specific target I am using to you directly to your email.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

O.k. - fine - just send me your profile with the Inktec inks on Netbit paper, I'll like to compare to. Which mode do you use to calculate the profile ?

 

[pharmacist]

The dual scan mode >ambient light: standard illuminants/CIe Illuminant: D50 > profile settings: everything at standard settings, except the neutralize gray: set to +50

.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Thanks for the data, this is how my T2100 profile with the Netbit paper compares to your Epson Ultrachome and the InkTec Powerchrome inks

The smallest gamut body belongs to my ink collection with the T2100 on Netbit paper, It's actually not too bad for an arbitrary ink mix on a printer with just 4 inks and a printer Epson does not specify as a photo printer at all.
The middle gamut belongs to the InkTec Powerchrome inks - and improvement and the widest gamut belongs to the Epson Ultrachrome inks - all this in comparison with a P900 printer with quite some more inks. I probably could improve the gamut of the T2100 as well by using Epson OEM inks but I won't - I have too much ink left which I want to use up for prints where the widest gamut is not essential. The widest differences are always in the bottom right +a -b quadrant, and it shows directly that an additional violet ink in this area makes a difference.
The gamut differences are much smaller in the other areas and probably not even visible in printouts.

 

[pharmacist]

Actually I am really impressed by the latest Inktec Powerchrome K3: the gloss is even stronger on glossy papers compared to original Epson Ultrachrome Pro-10 inks, however there is a bit more bronzing on some type of paper compared to Epson Ultrachrome Pro-10: maybe I should try the option to neutralise gloss to see if this can help to diminish the bronzing. Very nice. One might think it is almost dye ink in terms of gloss. Note: I am using original Epson PB/MB to get the maximum black, but it could be the black enhanced overcoat setting also does a great job with the Inktec PB as well, but I had a lot of Epson PB in LFP-cartridges. The only "problem" is the violet: it might push the whole set towards Epson gamut if I would use original Epson Violet ink from LFP. However: on real life prints (I printed a few before and after the ink change): I can hardly see any difference, only the very bright blues/purples I can see some difference in hue/vividness, but not much and I think most people won't be able to tell the difference.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Your tests confirm may findings I made quite some time ago - before Corona - with the P400 printer. I tested a range of inks and papers, there is wide variability in the gloss and bronzing behaviour between all those. This was the time I tested as well a separate GO gloss optimizer overprint, I used the matte black channel of the P400 at that time for the GO, that allowed me to control the GO amount for such overprint. The effects with such separate and complete overprint are several - the gloss improves and is the same everywhere - there is a visible gamut gain including for the black ink - bronzing is gone - the look of such print+overprint is visibly at least as good or better than a dye print - differences between glossy papers disappear under such GO overprint. It's the additonal handling which I don't like, and I'm not a fan of larger glossy prints anyway; I like glossy paper for small prints - 10 x 15 cm up to A4, but there is for me too much distraction on larger prints - background reflections - lamps - illumination become visible .
You may give it a try with some hairspray - but even that varies between brands .