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Epson Stylus Photo R1800 Continued

All Tests - The bottom half is the fade test

Epson Stylus Photo R1800
Jettec Inks/ Ilford Classic Glossy

Epson R1800 - Ilford Classic Glossy web size

Epson Stylus Photo R1800
Jettec Inks/ Olmec Matt 170g

Epson R1800 - Olmec Matt 170g

All Tests - The bottom half is the fade test

Conclusions

This test was, for me, one of the most interesting I’ve made this year, as I really had no idea what the result would be. Previous tests with dye inks had shown that cheaper inks were often fine for short term use, but that there was a huge difference in performance when it came to image stability - they faded fast - Much faster than the printer manufacturers own inks.  Fade Tests - 2000  Things have moved on though and now independent manufacturers are starting to sell replacement ink cartridges for photo printers that use long life pigment inks. So the question here was - are all pigment based inks equally stable?

The answer, unfortunately, is no. Fade test results with Epson’s own pigment inks have been excellent, with only very, very small signs of fading, even after three months in the sun. Unfortunately, the same is not true for these Jettec pigment inks. Although the levels of fading are nothing like as bad as with independent dye inks, the prints do show noticeable signs of fading. What makes it very noticeable with most papers, is a strong colour shift - warm tones seem to have disappeared, leaving a cold and unattractive result. This is most obvious with skin tones which now have a strong magenta cast on some papers, and have faded to nothing on others. The tomatoes and oranges in the test composite have lost saturation even in the best results, but blue / green tones seem almost unaffected. This results in a strong, and very noticeable colour shift.

This is another demonstration that changes in colour are far more important than a slight loss in density. To my eyes, these results, although actual fading amounts aren’t large, now look very unattractive. Interestingly, the worst result is with Epson’s own Archival Matt paper, where skin tones have almost vanished. The best results here were with the Fuji Premium Glossy and the two Ilford Papers - Smooth Glossy and Classic Glossy. Unfortunately, there’s bad news here too - the Jettec Gloss Optimizer didn’t really provide much gloss, with chroming clearly visible - and it started to block the heads on my R1800. So if you do decide to give these inks a try, I’d stick with the Epson Gloss Optimizer cartridge at least. Metamerism - colour changes under different light sources - seemed just as much a problem with the Jettec inks as with Epson’s own inkset.

Unfortunately, once again I have to say that manufacturers inks are better. In this case Epson’s own inkset is very expensive, but anyone buying a pigment ink photo printer cares about how long their photos will last, and the simple truth here is that the Jettec ink prints, although made with pigment inks, haven’t resisted fading nearly as well. From my point of view, as a professional photographer, I have to use the Epson inks, if I want to sleep at night, Your choice may be different.

Epson Stylus Photo R1800 Printer Review

Note

These results and opinions are based purely on my own tests. I am in no way linked to, sponsored by or influenced by any printer manufacturer. I buy all my own ink cartridges, and, like everyone else, I think prices for manufacturers own ink cartridges are far too high. The EU has tried to legislate to stop us being ripped off, and is continuing to tackle the issue, but based on these results, the unfortunate truth is that, even with pigment inks, Epson’s own ink cartridges are better, if you want your pictures to last,

David Gold

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All text and photographs copyright David Gold 2006 and must not to be reproduced without permission.

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