THX for yout input Peter.
any tricks/issues with the system from your long experience with it?
I can heartily recommend the ink and hardware from MIS Associates at
www.inksupply.com. I installed one of their systems and their K4 inkset in my 4800 in the summer of 08 and I now happily print with hardly a thought to the cost of ink. With all the CIS's I've used, the systems were easy to install and charge with ink and what little help I needed was readily available from the vendors. This applies to both Mediastreet and MIS Associates.
I had my favourite matte paper and the new inks profiled by Cathy's profiles and I'm delighted with the colour fidelity I'm now producing. Judging my the reactions of my (admittedly non-technical) audience, it's been a worthwhile conversion. With apologies to all who poo poo third party inks, I have to say this: The prints look
amazing, both colour and monochrome. I don't own, nor do I know how to use, an instrument to accurately measure the prints' colour or density, but I do know that they appear to my eyes every bit as good as those made with the OEM inks. Now retired, I was a professional photographer (cinematographer) for over 30 years.
As for longevity, I've written before that
any of the pigment ink prints I've made with
any of my CIS-equipped printers have so far visually outlasted several framed, professionally processed Cibachrome prints that hang in the same environment in my home. Arguing about whether third-party inks will last for 50 years or 100 or 200 years is simply playing in to the hands of the marketing droids - the same droids that claim 300X zoom lenses on camcorders.
Like many other 4800 owners, I found that my printer was prone to clogging. If I didn't use the printer for more than a week or so, I faced an endlessly frustrating session of nozzle cleanings, tests, more cleanings, more tests and more wasted time, ink and money. What finally made me commit to the CIS was the purchase of yet another $50 "maintenance tank", the printer's receptacle for all that nozzle-cleaning ink. I weighed a full and empty maintenance tank and was quite annoyed at how much expensive ink the printer had pumped overboard. Now, with ink costs a fraction of what they were, I print much more frequently, have a lot more fun and haven't had a nozzle clog in months.
As for Epson denying warranty claims for third party ink users, I doubt that they could make this stick unless they could point to the inks as the direct source of the problem. However, my printers were all out of warranty when I did the conversions. I did have a CIS-equipped 1160 die due to a clogged black channel. I hadn't used it frequently enough and I couldn't recover it by the usual techniques. I told the Epson repair facility what had happened, including the use of third party inks, and they attempted to clear the head for me to no avail. A new head cost more than the printer's purchase price, so I moved on.
In short, for those who simply pass ink costs on to their clients, there's no advantage to a CIS other than convenience. For those of us who print for our own pleasure, on our own dime, a CIS enables us to make big, luscious, prints at a cost that doesn't ruin all the fun. Much like image-stablized telephoto lenses, it's a truly liberating investment.