Unfortunately I run into a problem when I am printing the pigmented black (BCI-3) right next to a dye based color… especially yellow.
The aftermarket ink I’ve tried so far works great in photos and with black prints, or color prints.
UPDATE 10/4/04: I’ve been refilling this printer a lot and here is what I’ve noticed: Make sure your supplier of ink and cartridges uses high quality inks so you don’t gum up your printer.īOTTOM LINE: The i560 / i860 are GREAT printers! They are fast, sharp, have individual ink tanks, cheap ink cartridges, and are easy to refill. I’ve heard horror stories of terrible inks. Be cautious, not all inks are made the same. One picture with the OEM inks (that came with the printer) and one from the off brand ink cartridges When we were done I couldn’t tell the difference between the two prints.
We took a very high resolution image from his company logo (Ug from ) and printed it on a glossy sheet of paper. My brother got some off brand ink tanks for his i860 and I went to his house to run some controlled experiments. For the non-refillers this is still a great printer! You can get off-brand non-OEM cartridges for way less than the Canon ones. I’m using sticky-tac right now, but am getting a new refill kit in a few days with better tools / seals. The only “problem” is sealing the hole after you’ve injected the ink. I actually took my print and another of the same picture printed at Sam’s club and showed them to people… they couldn’t tell which was which! Crazzy! I’ve refilled my cartridges a few times already and boy is it easy. (Click here for The Difference Between Canon BCI-3 and BCI-6) Well, I’m AMAZED at how well this printer prints! The pictures I printed on the Canon 4×6 paper came out just as good as the ones printed professionally. In the 560 the three colors mix to make black. The 860 has one extra ink color, the BCI-6bk which is a DYE based black for better image resolution since the pigment black BCI-3e doesn’t mix with the dye based inks in a photo. I discovered the i560 is the little brother of the i860 but pretty much the same. My next mission was to learn more of this printer. I scoured the web looking for recommendations, I didn’t find much, but what I did find were a couple very specific recommendations from refillers: the Canon i860. clear ink tanks (so I can see how much ink is really left).
Specifically I was told that the BCI-6 and BCI-3 cartridge series were best because: I figured they would know better than anyone. First I called about 5 of the retail inkjet refill franchises to ask them what cartridges they had the best success with. One that was durable with a very high success rate of refills. My goal: to find the easiest to refill inkjet printer. I dealt with these issues for about a year and then thought “There’s got to be a better way!?” There was nothing to do now but toss out the cartridge. The bigger problem was when all of a sudden the printer would stop and I’d get double blinking lights which turned out to mean that the copper contacts on the cartridge were bad. At first it was more clogged inkjet head nozzles than usual, but that was usually fixable. Everything seemed fine until I started to notice that the color cartridges kept on having problems. I refilled the cartridges, tested them and sold them on eBay. I actually ended up with a few of these printers and about 60 half empty cartridges (returns from a QVC printer sale & returns). I had to swap out the black cartridge if I wanted color, and.I had almost given up on refilling and had almost given myself to a life void of color until I got my Canon BJC-1000! Not only was it easy to refill, but I refilled my cartridges about 20 times each! Only problems were: My very first experience refilling was with the HP 500c and let’s just say it wasn’t my best experience ever. I’ve had years of experience refilling inkjet printers. ( NOTE: up-to-date info at bottom of page) Long story short: Get the Canon i560 or Canon i860 inkjet printer. In the market for an easy to refill inkjet printer? Here is my recommendation: