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Canon BCI-6 Inks

Canon’s BCI-06 inkset, tested in the Canon S9000 and used by many others, has been around for a few years. That doesn’t mean that the inks haven’t been updated. I was told by a Canon rep at a trade show about two years ago that Canon were working to improve the fade resistance, particularly, the gas - fastness of the inks which had been rated poorly by one magazine test report. Canon claim a life of 25 years with Canon Photo Paper Pro for these inks. Modest by present standards.

All Tests - The bottom half is the fade test

Canon BCI-6
Canon Photo Paper Pro

Canon S9000_ Canon PR10103

Canon BCI-6
Fuji Multijet Premium Glossy

Canon S9000_ Fuji Multijet Premium Glossy

Canon BCI-6
Ilford Galerie Smooth Glossy

Canon S9000 _ Ilford Smooth Glossy

Conclusions

Not bad results from all three papers tested. Canon’s own paper comes last here, with very noticeable colour shifts, especially in the skin tones. Light magenta seems to be the problem - it’s disappeared leaving an unpleasant cyan cast in the highlights.

Ilford Galerie Smooth Glossy shows an  overall loss of density in the shadows and highlights are noticeably warmer. As most pictures include people this is much less obvious, or objectionable than the Canon paper’s cyan cast.


That leaves Fuji Multijet premium Glossy Photo Paper as the winner here with an overall slight loss of both highlight and shadow density but without the more noticeable colour changes of the other two.

© David Gold
All text and images copyright David Gold 2006 - 2011
and must not be reproduced in any way without permission.
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